My Dirt Bender - Another Jounal

[davelowell2]

@el murdoque

Any chance you can open it and snap a pic or two or maybe just tell us if it’s through hole or smd?

 

[el murdoque]

@el murdoque

Any chance you can open it and snap a pic or two or maybe just tell us if it’s through hole or smd?

Sure, will do. Does anyone know where these are made?

 

[davelowell2]

Sure, will do. Does anyone know where these are made?

The Aguilar site says Made in USA.

 

[NickyBass]

Fun fact: I'm not the only pedalboard-user in my household any more.
Mrs. Murdoque saw those social media posts with those "talking dogs" - those that press knobs with their paws and the knobs play pre-recorded samples - and she decided that el_murdoggo should learn that, too. So I found and bought a couple of these buttons. Yesterday she complained that those buttons are pushed all over the place when the dog presses them and mused about how to fix them somewhere.
I grinned, said wait a moment, and handed her this five minutes later:
View attachment 7355823

We have a Christmas decoration called Mr Christmas band. It's a bell choir thing and super annoying, but I love it. It's horrible. The characters spin to hit the bells and would constantly fall over. So, I used an old pedal board and mounted them directly to the board. No issues in like 10 years. I don't have a pic, but this is a quick Google image search of what it looks like in the package, unmounted:

 

[el murdoque]

Here's a small snippet with the Gain at 9 o'clock and the Tone knob around 2 o'clock.
As always, first pass is clean sound, second pass is the same, but with the Storm King added.

 

[warptheory]

Here's a small snippet with the Gain at 9 o'clock and the Tone knob around 2 o'clock.
As always, first pass is clean sound, second pass is the same, but with the Storm King added.


View attachment 7357796

Sounds great! Curious what it sounds like with gain at 10:30, and how it reacts when you dig in. I started to hear some more breakup on some of the notes that had a bit more attack on them.

 

[el murdoque]

Sounds great! Curious what it sounds like with gain at 10:30, and how it reacts when you dig in. I started to hear some more breakup on some of the notes that had a bit more attack on them.

This was just a first snippet. I'll record some more, heavily focusing on the low gain range.

 

[el murdoque]

@el murdoque

Any chance you can open it and snap a pic or two or maybe just tell us if it’s through hole or smd?

 

[davelowell2]

View attachment 7357848

Thanks!

 

[GrowlerBox]

I’m taking a close look at the Oats and Molasses completely logically but nevertheless slightly confusingly named VB-2. I have, of couse [sic] read @el murdoque ’s Jounal entry, but is there anything else I should know about it before forking over the readies?

I will be running it at 18V due to a peculiarity of the cabling on my board at present (it has to share a spot with the uni-vibe that I’m enjoying more each day, I have to say). That spot is occupied right now by a Modèle B, in rotation with a Ground & Pound, as a final gain stage at the end of the chain before the amp. Dirt fore and aft of the uni-vibe works really well, and can also be interesting after delay and spring reverb, at least in the case of an actual spring, I wouldn’t vouch for an emulation.

With all that in mind, does anyone have any other suggestions?

 

[el murdoque]

I’m taking a close look at the Oats and Molasses completely logically but nevertheless slightly confusingly named VB-2. I have, of couse [sic] read @el murdoque ’s Jounal entry, but is there anything else I should know about it before forking over the readies?

I will be running it at 18V due to a peculiarity of the cabling on my board at present (it has to share a spot with the uni-vibe that I’m enjoying more each day, I have to say). That spot is occupied right now by a Modèle B, in rotation with a Ground & Pound, as a final gain stage at the end of the chain before the amp. Dirt fore and aft of the uni-vibe works really well, and can also be interesting after delay and spring reverb, at least in the case of an actual spring, I wouldn’t vouch for an emulation.

With all that in mind, does anyone have any other suggestions?

I see you licked blood with the Bobs and like the taste, so you want to look at different implementations of two gain knobs on one pedal?
If my memory serves, the VB-2 felt like a very niche product that can take an essential role in a gain staging setup, but is not that great as a standalone dirt pedal. I'd say that you'll have to experiment on your own, because results will vary with signal chains.

 

[el murdoque]

Sounds great! Curious what it sounds like with gain at 10:30, and how it reacts when you dig in. I started to hear some more breakup on some of the notes that had a bit more attack on them.

Here you go - first pass clean, the rest is the Storm King with gain around 10:30 and Shape around 2.
I'm not changing anything only increasing plucking strength towards the end.

 

[GrowlerBox]

I see you licked blood with the Bobs and like the taste, so you want to look at different implementations of two gain knobs on one pedal?
If my memory serves, the VB-2 felt like a very niche product that can take an essential role in a gain staging setup, but is not that great as a standalone dirt pedal. I'd say that you'll have to experiment on your own, because results will vary with signal chains.

Thanks -- the Bobs remain near the top of the chain, and VB-2 will be at the end, as noted (I went ahead and ordered it). I'm thinking of it as a Bobs with bias controls, which I think will suit me well, as you imply. I also like things that are a little left field.

 

[projectapollo]

Yeah, Aguilar says that the Storm King is their standalone version of the Tonehammer pedal's AGS circuit.

And I'm glad I'm not the only one who experienced that YT problem with the constant Hi Gain sound and next to nothing with low gain.



Here's some more on the pedal, based on one evening of playing it.

The controls are simple and even something of a straightforward thing.
There's a Master volume that does volume.

Then there's Gain and a knob for tone, and a push button labeled kick.

The gain knob will pass signal at zero - the Tonehammer amp has a gain and drive knob and will also pass signal with those at minimum, I can't remember, but I think the pedal was the same. There is, as you all know, a lot of gain on tap. It's somewhere between a distortion and a fuzz when you crank it.
The tone knob is something of a treble blend. My ear tells me, you get a bit of a boost of the treble when you dime it, but the main function of that knob is to tame the sizzle. When you ride gain high, you get so much sizzle up top, it feels like some low end is dropping out. It's not cutting lows, but boosting the top has the same audible effect. I have yet to try it in a mix, but I predict that you get a clearly audible drive sound with a good ability to come through.
The Kick knob is another boost in what most people would call high mids and I call treble. Your finger noise gets a little more and clanking frets get more audible, but it is aptly named - there's a certain kick to it when you press that knob.
The grit size is very large. This is a bass pedal. There's nothing creamy about it. You're shoveling gravel here, not sand. I like that a lot.

I traded for a mint used Storm King at local pedal store yesterday. The solo test drive and knob turning experiments were iffy, thought this might be a quick flip. But two extended session in a band mix in headphones and really like this thing. It really does sound like the AGS thing from the TH pedal with even more variety on tap. Good steer.

 

[Zbysek]

Curious what it sounds like with gain at 10:30, and how it reacts when you dig in.

You can hear it in this video at 1:25...and again at 3:00 (till 3:15)

 

[Zbysek]

It's unclear to me what the Storm King's Shape control does... Anybody able to explain?

 

[el murdoque]

I traded for a mint used Storm King at local pedal store yesterday. The solo test drive and knob turning experiments were iffy, thought this might be a quick flip. But two extended session in a band mix in headphones and really like this thing. It really does sound like the AGS thing from the TH pedal with even more variety on tap. Good steer.

The AGS on the Tonehammer pedal had me foaming at the mouth. Why map it to a foot switch to create the illusion that you can switch it on and off mid song when there is no corresponding level knob and your volume levels jump all over the place? Especially in a pedal that is literally designed to go last in chain?

Insofar, the Storm King totally makes sense.

It is a pedal that sits extremely well in the mix.

 

[el murdoque]

It's unclear to me what the Storm King's Shape control does... Anybody able to explain?

The tone knob is something of a treble blend. My ear tells me, you get a bit of a boost of the treble when you dime it, but the main function of that knob is to tame the sizzle. When you ride gain high, you get so much sizzle up top, it feels like some low end is dropping out. It's not cutting lows, but boosting the top has the same audible effect. I have yet to try it in a mix, but I predict that you get a clearly audible drive sound with a good ability to come through.
The Kick knob is another boost in what most people would call high mids and I call treble. Your finger noise gets a little more and clanking frets get more audible, but it is aptly named - there's a certain kick to it when you press that knob.
The grit size is very large. This is a bass pedal. There's nothing creamy about it. You're shoveling gravel here, not sand. I like that a lot.

I used the word tone, but meant the shape knob in the above paragraph.

It's a treble control that lets you boost a little or cut a lot. Maybe it's technically an even boost and cut, being flat at noon, but it feels like you get more cut than boost. It is fine tuned to have a really tight grip on the harmonics you get through the clipping and you can dull the chainsaw blade and muffle the exhaust some, so you get a beefy drive tone with less brutal sizzle. It really helps with positioning your drive sound in the mix, and it makes the pedal work a lot better should you go straight to FOH without cab sim or play an amp with a tweeter.

 

[Zbysek]

I used the word tone, but meant the shape knob in the above paragraph.

It's a treble control that lets you boost a little or cut a lot. Maybe it's technically an even boost and cut, being flat at noon, but it feels like you get more cut than boost. It is fine tuned to have a really tight grip on the harmonics you get through the clipping and you can dull the chainsaw blade and muffle the exhaust some, so you get a beefy drive tone with less brutal sizzle. It really helps with positioning your drive sound in the mix, and it makes the pedal work a lot better should you go straight to FOH without cab sim or play an amp with a tweeter.

Interesting, thank you. When listening to online videos, I was thinking that it might be mid boost...

 

[el murdoque]

As to the Chorus Side Quest, I had to release a stream of words that will not pass the Talkbass rules and word filter.
Imagine an old school sailor who got his foot tangled in a rigging line while the sail went up and is now dangling upside down twenty feet up the mast and what he would say.

There are not that many pedal brands where I'd call myself a die-hard fanboy, but one if them is Effectrode. And Effectrode did make a pedal called the Vibra-Chorus, which comes in a gorgeous shell pink, and they are currently making and selling the evolved version named Tube Vibe, which is more of a bordeaux red and sports more knobs.

When I spotted these, something in me surrendered, and I proclaimed "The search is over. The hunt is on!" I think I found it, now I have to find one.