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My Dirt Bender - Another Jounal

#2,322
Nekomata said:
Friendly question to the esteemed topic starter and all following filth afficionado's:

Is your Dirt Quest about pedals only?

What I'm trying to get at, I guess, is that amps can grow 'hair' on your overall tone. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, plenty pedals have been designed to emulate how (a) certain amp(s) go(es) about this. Nothing new there, right?

I recently got hold of a Mesa M-Pulse 600 amp and driving that one into 'tube saturation' territory made me question the 'employability' all of my drive/distortion/fuzz pedals. Coming from a Class D situation that was quite the pleasant suprise for me. I am nowhere as poetic as @el murdoque when it comes to tone descriptions and such, but I'd swear I heard angels sq*rting.
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When I started this thread, I was in the situation of playing purely through ampless setups, so I did not consider dirt that comes through an amp.
Now that I did join an 80s metal band a while ago, I'm using an amp again. Said band is doing all original songs and we've only just now managed to write enough material to play support for other groups or festival gigs and started applying for those.

However, relying on amp tone means relying on FOH playing along, and at least in my neck of the woods, that is not the best thing to do.
Sending FOH the DI out from the amp is a hit and miss. Will they add the necessary EQ and filtering to make it sound good? I know two guys who will, but I know more than four guys who won't.
If I wanted my cab mic'ed, I'd have to bring my own setup, and that would be hit and miss yet again.
For my personal situation, the best thing to do is to provide a solution that sends a working signal to an XLR output where FOH plugs in and, in a worst case scenario, only performs a line check and amplifies the signal without further processing.

Of course, amp distortion is a fine thing, since it not only requires an amp capable of dirt, but also a cabinet that works for ones personal tastes - but
in my personal experience it only works at both ends of the gigging spectrum: In smallest clubs and dives where your amp will carry the room because PA is only for vocals and on gigs so large that you can tell the techs what you want and they'll make it happen, with ample time for sound check and all.

I'm in the middle between these. Not famous enough to dictate my terms to a horde of willing underlings that make my every wish come true, but also not playing super small stages with zero PA support.
 
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#2,323
Nekomata said:
Followed (or sometimes getting overtaken) by this BJF box of magic:

ddARSBs.jpg
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I have been curious about this pedal, but also hesitant.

Having played the OG Blueberry straight from the soldering iron of Björn Juhl himself and then performing an A/B test with the "identical" Bearfoot Blueberry - after confirming with Björn that my four knob Blueberry is identical to the three knob version when I completely turn down the treble knob,
I was quite disappointed with the Bearfoot pedal. It was an okay overdrive, but it did not do any of the magic I love Björns pedal for.
 
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#2,325
What I like about the Abigar and the Blackberry is their... in one word... subtlety. For me, drive/dirt is usually not about all-out distortion, but rather about adding a 'layer of crisp'. With these pedals, that's easy to dial in. I realise that I'm talking 'bedroom tone', and, if I'm lucky, 'rehearsal room vibes'. The larger context, and perhaps also the musical genre, you are talking about, I guess, is a different story. One where subtlety perhaps does not play the leading role?
 
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#2,326
Nekomata said:
What I like about the Abigar and the Blackberry is their... in one word... subtlety. For me, drive/dirt is usually not about all-out distortion, but rather about adding a 'layer of crisp'. With these pedals, that's easy to dial in. I realise that I'm talking 'bedroom tone', and, if I'm lucky, 'rehearsal room vibes'. The larger context, and perhaps also the musical genre, you are talking about, I guess, is a different story. One where subtlety perhaps does not play the leading role?
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I do both.

I have a space for a dirt pedal on a board that is geared towards a clean tone, running essentially the Cali76, a Broughton RFE, a Strymon Big Sky and a Noble as always on signal chain. I don't need a lot of grind there and use the dirt pedal to add a top end texture and a gentle blooming, especially when playing double stops higher up the neck. You can basically claim that a good bedroom tone will also work in that environment.

In the metal band, I need to be as subtle as a sledge hammer. My clean tone is a lot dirtier than the dirt tones from the other board. Since I like it raspy there, it's more fun to stack a few devices running at low gain. In the moment, Audio Kitchen FPT into Verellen Meatsmoke into Origin Bassrig Super Vintage. With the Meatsmoke in the clean channel, each device is set so low that when you play only one, you can barely make out a hint of dirt around the edges of the notes - more a five o'clock shadow than a hairy patch.
In combination, there is a solid grind when I hit the strings harder - but that grind mingles with the guitars and blends well with the band mix. The listener is barely able to tell that this noise comes from the bass, but we bassists are used to not being heard, right?

The dirty sound is the Meatsmoke in the boost channel and that really melts your face off when you use it in the bedroom. It's got a pronounced mid hump and solid bass and while it works great in the band room, it's really ugly in the comfort of your home.
 
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#2,328
Nekomata said:
What I like about the Abigar and the Blackberry is their... in one word... subtlety. For me, drive/dirt is usually not about all-out distortion, but rather about adding a 'layer of crisp'. With these pedals, that's easy to dial in. I realise that I'm talking 'bedroom tone', and, if I'm lucky, 'rehearsal room vibes'. The larger context, and perhaps also the musical genre, you are talking about, I guess, is a different story. One where subtlety perhaps does not play the leading role?
Click to expand...
I also like some subtle dirt shading, and the treble texture it can add to proceedings for home playing, IEM practice, and some rehearsal scenarios. But I've also learned that my "bedroom settings" tend to sound like hot garbage when I'm at full band volume/in a mix. Some of the subtleties tend to get lost, either via the other instruments interfering with my hearing, or the amp responds totally differently to that pedal setting when it's turned up loud.

And, like @el murdoque mentions, while amp OD is/can be amazing (I had an old Ampeg B-18 which, when overdriven, is still a sound I cannot recreate via pedals), it tends not to translate well at gigs unless you have the FOH tech willing/able to get you that sound out front. Additionally, if we are playing a small enough space that PA is only for vocals, the chances are I can't turn the amp up loud enough to get good OD sounds. With the larger gigs, though, around 99% of the time, I don't get a mic on the amp, just an XLR line out; I find that getting my OD sound from my pedals, and using my amp as a clean platform, tends to be the most practical way forward.

YMMV though; there is no one universal way!
 
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#2,335
el murdoque said:
I will have to keep that on my list of dreams that I don't have a purpose for, since I'm not busking at present.

It's something that Matsumoku produced in the Lawsuit era of the mid to late seventies.
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Those Matsumoku produced Japanese basses are something else, that shoots way above their price class.

I own an original Aria Pro II bass produced there too myself, in the 80's.

And it is a phenomenal bass.
 
#2,336
Ritter667 said:
Those Matsumoku produced Japanese basses are something else, that shoots way above their price class.

I own an original Aria Pro II bass produced there too myself, in the 80's.

And it is a phenomenal bass.
Click to expand...

I did own an Ibanez Silver Series Fretless Precision from '78.
It did have a Jazz bass neck and that is the sole reason I do not own it any more. the sound was incredible and the quality held up to any given 70's Fender P bass. With ease.

But the thing that's coming in is something entirely different. A classic, for sure - a real Lawsuit Instrument, but man. . .. You'll see soon enough!
 
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#2,338
I am surprised I haven't seen any mention of the Nordland ODR-C here. It is the updated, higher build quality, version of the ODR-1 by the original designer of the Nobels version. Between the rave reviews of the Nobels, the expanded controls, and the (theoretically) improved quality I am surprised that I basically can't find any reviews of it in bass. Plus they are in Germany so it should be easy to get hold of.
 

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