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I Present the IdiotBox Effects's Blower Box

#142
andrew said:
I already knew I liked the pedal but the more I use it the more I come to love it. It's a lot more versatile than it's over the top thick distortion characterization it's getting from being connected to Blackie.
It does mild-medium drive really well too and sounds killer that way too. I like it a lot as a stand alone but it is so damn good coupled with the Brimstone XD-1.

Brimstone, BlowerBox, OFD are my current holy trinity. I love the o.g. Guv'nor, LoMenzo HyperDrive, OCD, Microsynth, Rat Tail,etc. too, but the trio is meeting all my current needs so well. It's really satisfying to run through a variety of mild to full bore distortion and fuzz sounds and love every one.
The BlowerBox is a wonderful surprise. It's invitingly intuitive to dial in, holds a variety of great dirt tones, is a super value, and looks cool. Don't let the Voivod connection fool you, this pedal will treat you right in so much more music than metal.
Click to expand...

Great review and I agree with it all that Brimstone looks wicked but I have all of the dirt an fuzz I'm ever going to use.
 
#143
yaksonator said:
It's a definite keeper for me. Although I don't have room on the board for it.... it's gonna be another one in the arsenal, won't replace anything with it because I don't have anything that sounds like it! Which is quite awesome! Been a while since I had an effect like this, especially dirt.
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After i said this i decided to rethink my board, so im gonna rearrange the order on my looper to fit it on there. It looks cool and it sounds amazing. Sgfx beta superdrive is gonna sit out for a while. I dont use it much but it's another one of those hold onto pedals...
 
#144
Soooo good. It arrived and I played around through a single EV15L and my 20 year old small box RAT that I used on everything prior is now retired. Love having the high and low boost/ cut over the old filter knob on the RAT. It might not be for everyone but this sound and some SVT vintage grit is all I need aside from standard tube clean tone.
 
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#150
Is anyone else having output issues with the BB? I love this pedal. Im on vac this week and have already been playing the heck out of it. Last practice though I thought it would be nice to have a more powerful output on the pedal. Is it just me or is anyone else experiencing this at all? Aside from that, I love it. The EQ is phenomenal and the tone, man! I guess the output volume really isnt a problem, I'll just have to crank it almost full on next practice this Wed.
 
#151
gregmon79 said:
Is anyone else having output issues with the BB? I love this pedal. Im on vac this week and have already been playing the heck out of it. Last practice though I thought it would be nice to have a more powerful output on the pedal. Is it just me or is anyone else experiencing this at all? Aside from that, I love it. The EQ is phenomenal and the tone, man! I guess the output volume really isnt a problem, I'll just have to crank it almost full on next practice this Wed.
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No, I haven't noticed that? I think it can get "too" loud but to be fair I play at low volumes and my ears are old :) and man you must be rocking the house with that volume up all the way nice!!.
 
#153
I got mine over the weekend and had a chance to break it out during rehearsal last night. I subbed it into the the Rat Tail space on my board and used it during our set at those junctions. In the mix I thought it was pretty good. After rehearsal I just A/B'd the two and I have a couple thoughts. The BB seems immediately more versatile mostly because the gain has a HUGE range that is all completely usable. Turning the gain all the way up sounds great, turning it down it starts to sound a little like a sansamp style clean. You can absolutely dial in just a little bit of grind.

I'm curious about the frequency centers of the low and high cut/boost knobs. The high one is right in that "snap" range that Matt describes on his website. Through my current VT bass settings it sounded a little harsh going past 9 on that knob but when I listen to Voivod I can see where he was going with that. In general when I had both tone controls up past 9 it started sounding very mid-scooped vs. the Rat Tail. That said, I think the same thing about the B7K, where the EQ centers on the tone knobs are just a little off where I wish they were for me to really dial in. I don't have my B7K setup right now but I'd like to hear the BB going through it as well.

I was hoping I could just get the BB and flip the RT but so far I haven't been able to replicate my RT settings. The BB does some interesting things that are worthwhile for me to keep both around for the time being. This is all first impression stuff, after all.

Greg- I see what you mean about the volume. I've got the volume knob around 3 o'clock to get just past unity gain (I want a little volume boost). If I had any beef about the design it's where the volume pot is. I'd prefer to have all four knobs up top where I can easily mark my settings and "reset" the pedal if needed. Ah well.
 
#156
Dang shuman, yours shipped a long minute ago no? That stinks. I hope it arrives soon!

John, I run mine through my B7K every time I use it. It sounds awesome through it. Of course ;) it's just like any other dirt pedal, sounds great through it. And you aren't lying about the drive knob being usable in every position. I almost wish I wasn't so happy with the tube grind on my OFD as my OD or I'd probably use the BB for an OD. But man, it sure excels at high gains too! That's where I'm leaving it right now.
 
#159
so i did a little recording of the blowerbox tonight, sorry for the noise.. i only have a zoom b3 as an interface, but i think it shows the low end!

the last two clips are a song my band does and the first one is the blowerbox, the second is the aguilar agro for reference. an octron2 is used for the octave, and a fuzzrocious bdpg.

i kept the bass and treble on the blowerbox at noon the entire time, just raised and lowered volume for unity.. i might have missed one so be nice.

the first clip is clean, the rest are the blowerbox til the end, the order of gain is
off
9:00
12:00
3:00
Full

 
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