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MBD-1 vs Rusty Box

smeet

smeet

Gold Supporting Member
Nov 27, 2006
9,201
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Sammamish, WA
www.reverbnation.com
#1
So, I now have both of these great pedals, and I don't really have room for both. I can't really decide between the two so far, and right now I can't play with a band so I don't know how they would compare live. I'm looking for a hint of pushed bigness, without losing focus/definition/impact, or getting fuzzy.

The MBD has a BIG quality to it, but I wonder if it will get washed out in the mix, especially at the low gain levels I use. The Rusty Box is a bit thinner, but is has a cool chainsaw quality to it that might cut through nicely.

I'm very familiar with the MBD, just got the Rusty today. If anybody has experience with both, please let me know how you think these two compare in a live mix.

Thanks!
 
#5
willsellout said:
I’ve had both. Gigged with both. They aren’t even in the same league IMO. MBD all the way.
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It's all a matter of taste and opinion. If one was looking for a clanky tone to cut through, or sound like Shellac/Jesus Lizard, the Rusty would be the absolute choice of the two.

I've owned both and see the merits of both. I have the Rusty right now, but I don't know if I'll keep it - I just scored a Reiner Gasoline, which I like better than both, and it works awesome with the clanky Peavey sound I love(and yes, I know the Gasoline sounds great with the MBD-1 as well).

I also just scored a vintage MarkIV Peavey amp, to go along with my preamps JohnK built. The Gasoline sounds like a third, more polished channel of this amp.
 
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#6
smeet said:
The MBD has a BIG quality to it, but I wonder if it will get washed out in the mix, especially at the low gain levels I use.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I don't have any experience w/ the Rusty Box, but I will say that the thing that really sold me on the MBD-1 was how it sounded in the mix, with a full band bashing away loudly. When I first plugged it in and played unaccompanied I was maybe even underwhelmed: "Huh, so it's a distortion with some actual low end, nice but not earth-shattering." But the first time I used it in a band I was like "HOLY SH*T, THIS THING ROCKS!!!" And literally within the first minute of playing with it the drummer stopped, stood up, pointed to the MBD and exclaimed "What is that thing?!?!"

"Washed out" is definitely not within the MBD's vocabulary. :)
 
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#7
FaithNoMan said:
It's all a matter of taste and opinion. If one was looking for a clanky tone to cut through, or sound like Shellac/Jesus Lizard, the Rusty would be the absolute choice of the two.

I've owned both and see the merits of both. I have the Rusty right now, but I don't know if I'll keep it - I just scored a Reiner Gasoline, which I like better than both, and it works awesome with the clanky Peavey sound I love(and yes, I know the Gasoline sounds great with the MBD-1 as well).

I also just scored a vintage MarkIV Peavey amp, to go along with my preamps JohnK built. The Gasoline sounds like a third, more polished channel of this amp.
Click to expand...
Where did you get a Reiner Gasoline? I had one once, and kinda wish I had another to compare with my Kuro T120.
 
#9
Bob_Ross said:
Sorry, I don't have any experience w/ the Rusty Box, but I will say that the thing that really sold me on the MBD-1 was how it sounded in the mix, with a full band bashing away loudly. When I first plugged it in and played unaccompanied I was maybe even underwhelmed: "Huh, so it's a distortion with some actual low end, nice but not earth-shattering." But the first time I used it in a band I was like "HOLY SH*T, THIS THING ROCKS!!!" And literally within the first minute of playing with it the drummer stopped, stood up, pointed to the MBD and exclaimed "What is that thing?!?!"

"Washed out" is definitely not within the MBD's vocabulary. :)
Click to expand...
To be clear, I never had a problem being clearly heard with the MBD. It's more that I like a pretty low gain sound, but I want that low gain to make a difference in the mix. With many pedals, I have the problem where I have to balance between being more fuzzy sounding than I like, or not hearing the effect in the mix.
 
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#10
MBD: works great from barely-there to full-on distortion that's nearly fuzz. Delivers bottomless bottom (so to speak ;)). The lowpassed clean blend is ingenious. Caveat for me: I prefer aggressive sizzle/clank for hard rock, and the MBD does not give me all I'm looking for. Easy solution is to run MBD into something like a Darkglass B7K. This works perfectly: I've always used the B7K as a low-gain sizzle machine, and it provides that icing on top of the MBD's phat distortion.

Rusty Box: I have only owned one since late October, haven't used it at volume. With that in mind: I've compared it to other favorites, and absolutely love the top end. Downside for me is the low end: I have to run the RB at low gain settings or the bottom gets too fuzzy/farty for my taste. The EQ is pre-OD, so my normal solution is to trim bass eq, then restore lows with amp EQ.

I've been lazy with the Rusty: have not tried stacking it. In another thread, someone mentioned running Rusty Box first, into another OD pedal. I should try running RB into MBD -- maybe that'll give me killer sizzle plus huge lows. Problem is, I'm stuck in my condo bubble with my little 1x10 practice amp: Bottom line is that I haven't given the RB a true test (full volume, band mix), so take my comments with a grain of salt.
 
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#11
Interesting. What I've had for a little while (only tried alone at home so far) is the MBD followed by the Darkglass Harmonic Booster. This lets me get a livelier/ruder sound than the MBD alone.

I'd like to have all three, but I just got a Effectrode LA-1A and my pedalboard is looking real small right now.
 
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#12
smeet said:
I'd like to have all three, but I just got a Effectrode LA-1A and my pedalboard is looking real small right now.
Click to expand...
That should be listed as a feature of that particular pedal :p

Having previously owned a Rusty Box as well as both the MBD1 and MBD2, I'll say this: The MBD1 was my favorite ever general purpose pedal for low to mid gain overdrive. It can do WAY WAY WAY gnarly things, but to me that's where it shined. When I downsized my board I switched to the MBD2 which supposedly sounded just like the MBD1, but I never found that to be the case. To my ears the MBD1 always sounded better, even when compared side-by-side using the same settings, or using different settings and trying to make one approximate the other. If space is as issue, which it sounds like it could be with your new LA-1A, then consider that the MBD2 is a sonic compromise compared to the MBD1, at least to my ears.

Regarding the Rusty Box; It's been a few years since I've owned one and it was the older 15V version that may have been center-positive if memory serves. The newer center-negative 9V versions are much more pedalboard friendly. I always really liked the characteristics of the distortion in the RB. To my ears it has a gigantic bottom end, but it also seems to cut some response out of the midbass and into the lower midrange, which is where most of the energy in a bass guitar's low end actually lives. This meant I would have to compensate with amp EQ downstream of the pedal in order to stay fat in a mix. Sometimes you don't want that added EQ at the amp, so you end up fighting with the pedal a bit. It's a very purpose-built pedal, and it's purpose is to get THAT tone. If you don't want that particular tone I don't think you'll be able to get much else out of it. There are a couple of videos online, in particular a TB'er with a white P-Bass and a Japanese guy who both show some versatility with the pedal, but it always has that one particular sound baked in. It's very polarizing. I got rid of it because it didn't work with what I was doing at the time, but I've been considering buying another one because even though it's such a niche product, I just kinda want one :D
 
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#13
You have to incredible pedals right there!

Ultimately a comparison would do neither justice - two pedals that do quite different things for the most part, and push the bass towards different space "in-the-mix".

I'd favour the MBD-1 for thicker punchier tones, whilst retains some grind and clarity. The MBD-1 is also more mid forward for the most and in particular has some serious punch and weight to the low mids. Great for helping create a wall of sound, whilst also providing some gritty/grindy articulation. Powerful pedal for blending in with Kick Drums and Guitars to just make everything sound absolutely HUGE.

As for the Rusty Box - I would use this to help carve out a space in the mix. The mid voice of this preamp is pretty unique and adds a certain hi-mid and treble character that really brings some wonderful life and articulation to the bass. This can sound harsh in solo, but within a mix can really be a beautiful thing.
The lo-mids then are tighter and trimmed a little (but not to weaken the sound), whilst the sub range can feel massive when the bass dial is pushed (though this will lead much distortion at higher gain settings).
All of these characteristics lead me to using the Rusty Box when navigating a denser mix, and wanting to give elements their space, whilst also staking claim to a space in the mix for the Bass.

Furthermore, the MBD-1 really covers the full range of saturation from subtle/lo-gain, through medium gain, distortion, and all the way to blown out saturation.
Whereas I generally prefer the Rusty Box for almost-clean preamp, pushed amp or grind-y distortion tones.

The two together is a rather unstoppable force, so if you can make that work, it would be a glorious thing.

IF you must choose, than I would suggest that largely depends on where and how you like the bass to sit within and support the mix.

Hope some of that is helpful.
 
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#16
Dang you @smeet and all your talk of a Rusty Box! :D I've been thinking about buying another one and this thread has convinced me that I "need" to. I just grabbed one off of Tronographic’s Reverb store where they happen to be running a 15% off deal right now, which makes it cheaper there than directly through their website. I was hoping some of the limited ones with the gray box and orange knobs was still around, but no such luck.
 
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#17
silky smoove said:
Dang you @smeet and all your talk of a Rusty Box! :D I've been thinking about buying another one and this thread has convinced me that I "need" to. I just grabbed one off of Tronographic’s Reverb store where they happen to be running a 15% off deal right now, which makes it cheaper there than directly through their website. I was hoping some of the limited ones with the gray box and orange knobs was still around, but no such luck.
Click to expand...

those SE ones were awesome looking.
 
#18
I think the Rusty is a bit misunderstood. It does totally excel at the brash/bright Shellac and Jesus Lizard tones, but is capable of a lot more too. The EQ is passive Fender-based TMB stack, so the “flat” settings (at least from the EQ perspective) start with Bass and Treble set low and Mids cranked. As is generally the case with this kind of tonestack, the Treble control really sets the mood and is the dominant control when set at noon and up- if you lower the Treble and push the other two controls there are a lot of thicker tones in there too (particularly in the Lo switch position). It’s been awhile since I had mine, but it did seem to have some upper mid boost in the voicing apart from the EQ as someone has verified in another thread. There may also be a pretty strong HPF built-in, though I never lacked for bass when I used mine.

I think the Rusty kills in a mix, and also really stacks well with other gain boxes. It is a legit preamp, and so the headroom and touch sensitivity are high compared to most drive pedals. It isn’t really “tubey” sounding, but particularly rocks played into a tube amp in my experience (though it sounds fantastic recorded DI as well). The power constraints are the main reason I sold my original one, but air should probably grab one again since they are on sale!
 
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#19
sunbeast said:
The EQ is passive Fender-based TMB stack, so the “flat” settings (at least from the EQ perspective) start with Bass and Treble set low and Mids cranked.
Click to expand...
This contradicts the manual which states that going clockwise from noon on the mids boosts and settings below noon cut. The manual is less clear about the bass and treble controls but does seem to suggest that they’re boost-only, or at least that’s what I infer from how it’s written. My interpretation from the manual would suggest that flat would be something like bass and treble zeroed out with mids at noon, but it’s honestly not a very well-written manual in terms of clearly defining what the EQ section is actually doing.

With passive bass and treble combined with an active mid it’s sort of halfway between a Fender tone stack on the top and bottom and a more conventional/modern EQ control in the middle. Fairly unique in that regard.
 

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