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My Dirt Bender - Another Jounal
- Thread starter el murdoque
- Start date
Yesterday, I did commit several atrocities at once!
A friend of mine, who has recently opened up a bar in town, had an artist in his place who hosts an open stage thing.
He brings the whole nine yards - drums, percussion, keys, guitars (electric and acoustic), bass, microphones - I think he even had a mandolin, but the case was never opened. He's a multi instrumentalist and singer - so he'll fill any role needed and invite people to come in and jam with him.
I went there, and I even played quite a bit - and I usually do not perform in front of an audience without monetary compensation.
But what was worse: I did not know what to expect there, so I tossed a barefaced cab and power amp in the car.
I did not want to bring a big pedalboard, though. So I took several pedals from their places. I did settle on the Origin Trifecta plus a tuner on a Nano, driven by a Cioks 4 that runs off my laptop powerbank. The whole construction took less than 5 minutes and did not look pretty, but held together well enough.
However! That thing was not even taken from the bag. I simply took my bass and plugged it into the 1/4" jack on stage, neither knowing nor caring on what happened down the line. The bass was audible to the audience and sounded good enough. I suppose there was just a little EQ from the mixer and nothing else.
I hope the pedalboard gods will forgive me for that.
On the other hand: Take that, "I plug straight into the amp" people. I did not even use an amp.
A friend of mine, who has recently opened up a bar in town, had an artist in his place who hosts an open stage thing.
He brings the whole nine yards - drums, percussion, keys, guitars (electric and acoustic), bass, microphones - I think he even had a mandolin, but the case was never opened. He's a multi instrumentalist and singer - so he'll fill any role needed and invite people to come in and jam with him.
I went there, and I even played quite a bit - and I usually do not perform in front of an audience without monetary compensation.
But what was worse: I did not know what to expect there, so I tossed a barefaced cab and power amp in the car.
I did not want to bring a big pedalboard, though. So I took several pedals from their places. I did settle on the Origin Trifecta plus a tuner on a Nano, driven by a Cioks 4 that runs off my laptop powerbank. The whole construction took less than 5 minutes and did not look pretty, but held together well enough.
However! That thing was not even taken from the bag. I simply took my bass and plugged it into the 1/4" jack on stage, neither knowing nor caring on what happened down the line. The bass was audible to the audience and sounded good enough. I suppose there was just a little EQ from the mixer and nothing else.
I hope the pedalboard gods will forgive me for that.
On the other hand: Take that, "I plug straight into the amp" people. I did not even use an amp.
There you go - a few snippets in the jounal entry:
BJFe Blueberry Bass Overdrive (BBBOD) – The Dirt Jounal
thedirtjounal.com
I don’t know how you slept that night. Very poor behaviour.
Well, my participation was not compensated with money, but I made sure to drink my playing's worth in beer.I don’t know how you slept that night. Very poor behaviour.
That is a beautiful OD, and I have to say, these snippets provide as good an audition of these pedals as anything anywhere — given that these are essentially unobtainable without re-mortgaging the house, what other pedal in your view comes closest to this? You may have said elsewhere in the jounal, but I can’t remember.There you go - a few snippets in the jounal entry:
BJFe Blueberry Bass Overdrive (BBBOD) – The Dirt Jounal
Just for reference: Something I found quite interesting.
On the first two snippets, I play my Le Fay bass which runs a Jazz bass pickup configuration, but the output is on the weaker end. I have the neck PU full on and the bridge maybe 60%
The later two snippets are, of course, the P bass. This one has an Aguilar pickup which runs quite hot.
But what I hope I am not imagining is that some of the tonal qualities of the P bass are present when playing the J through the Blueberry - when you compare the second clip with the dry signal at the beginning of the third clip.
However, that particular quality is what I have not found in the OneControl or the Bearfoot FX.
I can't really say these are unobtanium - you just have to know where to look.
[This invalid link has been removed]
Joe's Pedals from the UK usually has one in stock.
Cheap? No.
Cork sniffer's delight? Absolutely.
Ok, I have to pull out my blackberry again. To see if I can match those tones. I remember really liking it, but ended up still using the dcx bass for that similar thing.
Edit:
And I’m getting close…but I don’t ever use the depth knob. It just kills my drives and fuzz downstream.
So at zero it stays.
Now I have to keep both on the board, for that same-ish touch sensitive thing lol
Dcx always velvety smooth at lower gain, and so good with pick playing.
Blackberry rougher and sounds better for finger style.
Edit:
And I’m getting close…but I don’t ever use the depth knob. It just kills my drives and fuzz downstream.
So at zero it stays.
Now I have to keep both on the board, for that same-ish touch sensitive thing lol
Dcx always velvety smooth at lower gain, and so good with pick playing.
Blackberry rougher and sounds better for finger style.
Last edited:
I just ordered a set of JJ tubes. 12AT7 tubes to put into the Tube Drive. I'm a bit afraid of the possible results. If that tube rolling changes the gain in a meaningful way - by lowering the gain on tap, I might have to re-structure one of my boards to make that green beast fit.
It's really weird, how a piece of gear that simple can grow on you after really failing the first impression.
It's really weird, how a piece of gear that simple can grow on you after really failing the first impression.
I know you won’t forget to update the clips in the Jounal.
After being on my radar since it's release, I finally pulled the trigger on the Origin Effects DCX Bass.
@el murdoque
What were your thoughts on this one again?
I seem to recall it being a really good one.
@el murdoque
What were your thoughts on this one again?
I seem to recall it being a really good one.
Here's the link for all of the Maître's reviews:
Here's the link for all of the Maître's reviews:
thanks!
The DCX Bass would be on my shortest shortlist for the one to keep if I had to sell everything but one.
Set it to EQ mode and it's the most dynamic pedal ever, with a gentle dirt plus that low and high knobs that make your rig sound $1000 more expensive.
Set it to OD mode and it packs a punch. A mean drive. Sounds like what the Tubescreamer dreams of sounding when he grows up. Super dense and balled up in a mix, instead of spread out all over the place.
Set it to EQ mode and it's the most dynamic pedal ever, with a gentle dirt plus that low and high knobs that make your rig sound $1000 more expensive.
Set it to OD mode and it packs a punch. A mean drive. Sounds like what the Tubescreamer dreams of sounding when he grows up. Super dense and balled up in a mix, instead of spread out all over the place.
All this is hyping me up for finally being able to play through it.
This reminded me of another pedal that I've been thinking about, by a builder I think I like more than you do ... Hudson Electronics. Their Sidecar is supposedly a more full-range Tubescreamer with bass and treble controls. There are a few YouTube bass demos, and it seems to "work" on bass, but the demos are somewhat biased towards the heavier end of the gain spectrum, which I like to have fun with at home, but don't really currently have much real world use for.
It's actually the 2-band EQ I'm as interested in as anything, and for this the DCX may be the better bet. I'm starting to find sweeping mid-controls to be quite frustrating (none of them seems to work like any of the others, presumably due to differences in the Q between the various implementations), and I'm wondering whether I'd be happier with an old-fashioned Baxendall-style EQ. At the other end of the spectrum would be the new Empress Bass Para-EQ with adjustable Q.
Interested in all thought and opinions.
I always feel torn between craving more complexity and simplicity with those things.
On most two band EQ versions, the bathtub keeps flirting with me.
On tilt EQs, I feel like I have to pay with treble for bass and vice versa.
On fully parametric EQs I get paralyzed by the options.
On most two band EQ versions, the bathtub keeps flirting with me.
On tilt EQs, I feel like I have to pay with treble for bass and vice versa.
On fully parametric EQs I get paralyzed by the options.
The Empress IS great as you don’t really NEED to touch all the pots.
Allow me to follow up on @el murdoque's praises, and say that the DCX is an absolutely lovely piece of kit. For a 2-band EQ pedal, it never fails to sit nicely in a mix. And this is a guy playing a J or 4003, which both already have a bit of inherent mid-scoop to them (I tend to play with both pickups on). The EQ points (don't know what they are) just happen to be voiced more or less ideally for bass, and it just makes everything sound more "there". Plus, I keep the gain control dimed; in EQ mode, it's subtle enough grit, saturation, and colour that doesn't come across in a mix as "driven" bass. Just heftier, beefier, and more clear sounding. I know this is an over-used concept, but this pedal in that setting is literally how I define "touch sensitive" in my head. All other dirt pedals are measured in that regard against the DCX.
And then, moving over to OD mode with the gain dimed is just an incredibly pleasing console-style fuzz-like sound. Not harsh harmonics at all, especially if you play with the voice switch, which keeps any fizzy top end in check, even as you boost the treble (HF) knob. I've been running a tube preamp on my board for the last few years, which the DCX feeds into; this combination is not something I will get tired of any time soon. Match made in dirt heaven (for me, anyways)!
@dedpool1052 I also thought this pedal was kind of a hype beast when it first started gaining traction on TB, but once I got a chance to try it out, I sheepishly realized that pretty much all the hype had been justified...
