Well, I posted it already over in my preamp thread, but a Broughton SV-Pre has found its way into my Lair, too.
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Since this pedal is capable of serving not only as a preamp (as the writing on it suggests) but also as a drive pedal when you are generous with the gain knob, I'll include it here, too.
I'm still waiting on the Sushi Box Particle Accelerator, then I'll properly test the preamp capabilities - but for now, I'd like to comment on the abilities as a dirt machine.
Disclaimer:
Name and knob/switch layout of the pedal suggest that this is Mr. Broughton's take on a very popular amp head. I get the appeal, but I really don't like the SVT that much personally. I did not educate myself on the pedal when I started testing, but just played bass and turned knobs in trial and error fashion until I found something I liked.
If I was to describe the pedal in one word, I'd choose "beefy".
As soon as the gain approaches noon, I get good amounts of grit. It should not come as a surprise, but I'll mention it anyway: The breakup feels more like driving an amp hard than using a distortion pedal. My signal chain is fairly hot when it reaches the SV-Pre, so I guess that I need less gain than other people will use.
To my ear, the low switch did give me an option of slightly weaker bass, slightly boosted bass and the ampeg-thing with the dip around 250 and the sub boost (later reading confirmed that one setting is high passed, one setting is the ampeg-thing and the third is not a boost, but the off position). The bright switch is pretty much straightforward as can be. Flip for treble.
Then there's the three band EQ. Bass does bass, treble does treble, center flat, good amount of boost and cut. The true magic IMHO sits in the one bit where the pedal differs from the original. Where Ampeg has that weird mid selector switch (that has all the wrong positions for my personal taste, but seems to be just right for most other people) Mr. Broughton has implemented fully parametric mids, and that really works a lot better than the original.
I dialed in some grit and played around with Middle Management by giving the mids knob a solid boost and then sweep through the frequencies. In my setup, it seemed that in the first half of the dial until around 800-850Hz, I was giving the cleaner part of the signal a hump in the low mids. When crossing into the second half, the hump was applied to the sizzle, giving me the option to shape the character of the drive from growly to sizzly.
The interaction between the treble knob and the bright switch is something I have not fully comprehended yet. The description on the website describes the treble control as shelving and the bright switch as a switch to apply a treble boost. Having the treble past noon and flipping the switch seems to amplify finger noises.
I found that I liked the pedal best with the bass set to a slight boost, the low switch in the off position.
A good growly tone was found for me when I set the mid bump to just past 800Hz, bright switch off and treble just before 2 o'clock.
A good sizzly tone was with the mids bumped at close to 3k, bright switch on and treble at noon.
Even though I'm not a huge fan of the SVT, it is fun to stack that tonestack with others in the middle of a pedal board. I'll see what more I can coax from it.
I'm very happy with how beefy it is and with the sheer heft of the tone.
I'm not yet really convinced by the treble options. For want of a better description, I am aiming at the sweet spot between pearly and sparkly - but I'm getting harsh or muffled.
Tonight, I'll see how well it plays with others.
