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I Present the IdiotBox Effects's Blower Box

#1,022
I thought we squashed this already. The BB is a little mid scoopy and can be a lot of mid scoopy whether anyone wants to admit it or not. To me that's why it sounds so awesome with my Rat King. Paired together they are like the ultimate balls out destroy everything distortion. To be honest I don't see me using the BB by itself to often unless there is like a bass heavy break in a song or something. These are both awesome pedals and they are both Rat pedals. They are gonna get compared a lot so people need to get over that real quick. Some will like the BB better and say it smokes the RK and there is nothing wrong with that. Others will say the BB is mid scooped and doesn't sound anything like a RK and that's fine too! They are both personal evaluations from people who actually know what the hell they are talking about.

My experience is they are both awesome and are definitely different animals. I have both and they are gonna be staying on my board for a long time. I would suggest to anyone who hasn't sold their RK/RT to put them back on their board right next to those glowing eyes and unleash mayhem. I can see if I didn't have my RK to side by side these pedals I could think man this blower box is just killing it. That however is not the case. I was trying to match tone with my BB so I myself could get rid of my RK as well. It just can't be done.

In summation...great pedals. They both deserve the attention they have received. The BB is just the new guy so it seems like it taking something away from the RK. Trust me it's not.
 
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#1,023
Finally ordered a new soldering iron (again since the last place where I ordered from never shipped it and I had to cancel). So, hopefully the JohnK mod will go in at the end of the week or early next week. I am also going to move it in the chain. I prefer it before the TAFM compared to after where it is now. I was trying to do TAFM>BB>OFD to get the best of both worlds, but I think it just works better after the TAFM.

Greg, have you tried it with the woodchipper? Do you like it before or after? I am trying to minimize movement on the board so depending on where I put the woodchipper, I may move it to a completely different spot on the board.
 
#1,026
Rat King sounded more like a Rat to me, but it was way too big. Blower Box sounds rad, but not really like a Rat. My solution, by a Pro Co and mod it for bass. Beats them both, for me. I can see both sides, though. It's hard to argue the Blower Box is as versatile as the Rat King. Conversely, it's hard to argue the Fuzzrorcious is as well suited to bass as the Blower Box. I think the real problem here is they are apples and oranges. 'Rat based" does not actually mean "Rat clone". Two different tools, IMO. Since this is a BB thread though, I will end with this: For the money, its a steal, and it does sound awesome, even if not patently rattish. And now, with the smaller enclosure and the volume knob moved from the top, I will get one, but not for Rat needs, as that's covered by an actual Rat for me. But its still a killer pedal to have around.
 
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#1,028
So my impressions after practice...The blower box is metal in a box! It reminds me of a Mesa triple rectifier on 11. Only for bass. To me it's not very rattish. Very heavy distortion. I tried it at lower gain too but I already have those grounds covered so it didn't seem to add anything for me. It is a little mid scoopy which didn't seem to keep it from blasting through a mix. I am not sure that I like that scooped tone too much though. Reminds me of heavy metal guitars that turn their mids way down to get a crunchy metallic tone. I may need to tweak it more. I still do like it a lot but to be honest it is not what I had hoped for. Also it didn't pair with my rat king as well in the band as I thought it would when I played it by myself. I found myself preferring the Rat King for most stuff. I also noticed the more I cranked the gain the more string noise I got. It was pretty annoying. I don't know if the JohnK mod has anything to do with it but at higher volumes with a lot of gain this thing screeches like a banshee and any movement on the strings is very loud and noticeable. Maybe it's something I am doing wrong. Maybe I need to adjust some things. I hope I can get it dialed in right. Any suggestions?
 
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#1,029
bassmusic17 said:
So my impressions after practice...The blower box is metal in a box! It reminds me of a Mesa triple rectifier on 11. Only for bass. To me it's not very rattish. Very heavy distortion. I tried it at lower gain too but I already have those grounds covered so it didn't seem to add anything for me. It is a little mid scoopy which didn't seem to keep it from blasting through a mix. I am not sure that I like that scooped tone too much though. Reminds me of heavy metal guitars that turn their mids way down to get a crunchy metallic tone. I may need to tweak it more. I still do like it a lot but to be honest it is not what I had hoped for. Also it didn't pair with my rat king as well in the band as I thought it would when I played it by myself. I found myself preferring the Rat King for most stuff. I also noticed the more I cranked the gain the more string noise I got. It was pretty annoying. I don't know if the JohnK mod has anything to do with it but at higher volumes with a lot of gain this thing screeches like a banshee and any movement on the strings is very loud and noticeable. Maybe it's something I am doing wrong. Maybe I need to adjust some things. I hope I can get it dialed in right. Any suggestions?
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I would defer to JohnK and gregmon on the string noise issue since they have tried both the normal and modded ones. I have yet to mod mine. I will not be able top compare it until at least next week. I want to do this well with the proper iron/temp/etc and the "deal" I found on a sweet soldering station comes with the caveat that it will take a while for it to get to my door.

As far as the mid scoop nature of it all, I will have to try a bit more with flat EQing through the PJB combo or on the headphones through the enabler. I never noticed a lot of it but I have a lot of EQing everywhere to make sure that I don't suffer too many big changes when I engage my many dirt pedals.

If you have access to a Rusty Box, you need to try it with the BlowerBox, it's like those two pedals were made for each other.
 
#1,031
nshuman said:
I would defer to JohnK and gregmon on the string noise issue since they have tried both the normal and modded ones. I have yet to mod mine. I will not be able top compare it until at least next week. I want to do this well with the proper iron/temp/etc and the "deal" I found on a sweet soldering station comes with the caveat that it will take a while for it to get to my door.

As far as the mid scoop nature of it all, I will have to try a bit more with flat EQing through the PJB combo or on the headphones through the enabler. I never noticed a lot of it but I have a lot of EQing everywhere to make sure that I don't suffer too many big changes when I engage my many dirt pedals.

If you have access to a Rusty Box, you need to try it with the BlowerBox, it's like those two pedals were made for each other.
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I run my BB through the RB and B7K if and when it's engaged. Those two are on at all times. I do know what you mean though about the string. Honestly I just think it's cause it's boosted so much. The FET boost that john K threw in it adds A TON of boost so when you crank it, and I think cranking it with that boost in it is probably around 9 or 10 o'clock, it really boosts everything. The bass, treble, the drive. It really works great for me because I was having trouble cutting through with it but I now believe it's because it's so mid scooped which is something I didn't think about until after I modded mine. But for me, the added boost/volume/headroom is welcome. I think it would be absolutely ideal if we could run this pedal at 18v. That would be totally killer.
 
#1,033
I just ran the BB through Voxengo Span (the only frequency analyzer plugin I have at the moment) and I don't see any mid scooping at pretty much any setting using my PBass. This is running it very flat and no EQing, just the BB activated. I made sure that I compared with an intentional mid scoop with some EQing on the ENabler or on the amp. Once I use the boost mod, I will look at it again.

I'll try using something else after the BB, like maybe a tube amp or preamp. Anything you guys would want me to test out?
 
#1,034
I don't have any mid-scooping issues with mine either. However, I have a graphic EQ on my amp, plus the basses I'm using are a P bass and one with a 3-band EQ. The bas with the EQ really comes in handy. I can set my amp and pedals pretty much how I want them, and make almost any adjustments I need from the instrument itself. I guess the scooped thing really depends on all the normal factors...your rig setup, your ears, your playing, etc.
 
#1,035
I just also tried with my Classic 4 equipped with TVJones thundertrons (the signal spectrum coming out of that thing makes a fender Jazz or Precision look like an acoustic ukelele with dull strings) and I also do not see a mid scoop. With everything on the BB at noon, I do see a crazy crazy EVERYTHING BUMP! :)

I'm trying to use the frequency graph to get an unbiassed non-ear related view of things.
 
#1,036
This may be just how it sounds to my ears. I mean like I said I didn't notice it had a problem cutting through so possibly there is no mid scoop. To me it has that metal tone that is usually achieved by heavy mid scooping. So possibly it achieves that tone while keeping the mids intact but I am glad to know using a frequency analyzer it shows the mids are still there. I would be more concerned if it didn't seem to cut through the mix. I keep my preamp pretty flat so I know I wasn't scooping any mids anywhere else. Thanks Shuman for testing it out.
 
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#1,037
bassmusic17 said:
This may be just how it sounds to my ears. I mean like I said I didn't notice it had a problem cutting through so possibly there is no mid scoop. To me it has that metal tone that is usually achieved by heavy mid scooping. So possibly it achieves that tone while keeping the mids intact but I am glad to know using a frequency analyzer it shows the mids are still there. I would be more concerned if it didn't seem to cut through the mix. I keep my preamp pretty flat so I know I want scooping any mids anywhere else. Thanks Shuman for testing it out.
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Well, I have not yet tested it through any kind of tube preamp or amp so I will check that out as well just in case. I'll try to post some graphs either tonight or later in the week.
 
#1,039
nshuman said:
Well, I have not yet tested it through any kind of tube preamp or amp so I will check that out as well just in case. I'll try to post some graphs either tonight or later in the week.
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My BB is runnin' through a MESA 400+ (tube pre and power section), and I definitely don't have a scooped sound. I do agree with bassmusic that it has that metal sound, which I could see giving it the perception of a scooped sound, depending on the other factors we've discussed. The main thing is that it's cutting through and sounds good in the mix. I'm anxious myself to see what the analyzer says with it runnin' through a tube pre and amp. Thanks for the technical aspect shuman!
 

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