My Dirt Bender - Another Jounal

[Charlie Tuna]

It's the grind that helps you wake up in the morning and get you through the day.

Submitted without comment.

 

[el murdoque]

Submitted without comment.

I'm asking myself if this can be considered mobbing?

Furthermore, I'm unsure about your cultural heritage and upbringing.

Am I required to throw down a gauntlet or am I required to slap you with a soft leather glove?

 

[projectapollo]

I need to start this post with a grain of salt. The last time I contacted Aguilar with a specific question, a guy named Marco did reply. Given that I wrote my mail in the morning, which means it arrived in Brooklyn in the dead of night, I got a super quick reply (I imagined Marco just having arrived at his desk with his first coffee), and my followup question was replied within minutes. The message I sent this morning generated an auto-reply thanking me for reaching out to Korg customer service, with the info that their answer will take one to three days.





But now: Hammer Time!
View attachment 7375774




I feel that there is a difference in the input stage when comparing the TH500 and the pedal.
On the Amp, I usually run gain at zero, to make sure I don't get unwanted dirt, because from noon onwards, there's dirt happening, with the drive knob at zero. On the Pedal, I don't really get much drive, even with the gain dimed.
The amp has the input pad, and the pedal does not - might they have opted for an in-between setting that makes the pedal work with both loud active preamps and passive basses?

Is the Tone Hammer a capable preamp? The short answer is yes. The long answer is "Yes, of course it is!"
Is this the preamp thread? The only answer is no.
This is the dirt jounal, so I'm not gonna go on about how good or bad that thing is in terms of preamping my signal. I'm stomping the AGS knob and write about what happens.

I'm gonna stop drawing parallels to the amp here, too. What if you never played a Tone Hammer product? You'll here me rambling about how this is similar to the amp while this is not and you're none the wiser afterwards.
With the AGS active and the gain low, the response from the pedal qualifies as amp like. There is a gentle push back, and the playing dynamics offer you a good range of grind, from gentle to clearly audible.
The dirt that comes out of the Hammer does not sound very hammery. Actually, the Chinese copycats from DemonFX did find a better term when they did their rip off: Tone Mallet. I don't hear hammer striking anvil when I make the TH pedal shout, I hear a mallet striking hardwood. The hardwood has been soaked in water for a day or two, though.
It's a rich and organic grind, but in no means fancy. It's not that grind a tattooed guy with man bun and silky smooth full beard gets out of a Mahlkönig EK43 in the shop down the street. It's the grind that helps you wake up in the morning and get you through the day.
The AGS gets that steep drop off at 4k, like a bass cab would if it does not come with a tweeter, and that is a good thing, for the pedal works well without any cab sim engaged. The output is pleasing to the ear, even if you run the Tonehammer directly into the board.
The dirt the pedal supplies to the tone has, along to the organic qualities, a texture that is not best described as coarse, but it's also not fine. Compare pebbles on a beach to gravel of the same size from a gravel pit and you kind of get what I mean. It's no fun running barefoot on either, but while gravel can actually break skin, the beach pebbles only give a massage that is too intense for enjoyment. The Tonehammer grit is large, but not very coarse.
This nestles the bass sound very well in a mix, no matter if there's plenty of room for it to breathe or if it's fighting for dominance against driven guitars and drums.

I feel that the Tonehammer has many similarities with both the Sasamp BDDI and the Origin Bassrig Super Vintage.
It's a pedal that works, in a no nonsense blue collar fashion. It gets the job done - and that in itself has beauty.
But apart from that, you get to work the amount and texture of the dirt you're getting here.

There is that steep drop off at 4kHz caused by the AGS. And there is the treble knob that acts in that exact spot. You can use that to shape the top end of your drive signal in a meaningful way. Turn up the grit and then turn down the treble - grit gone. Turn up the grit and turn up the treble - even more grit and it's grittier.
Then, there are the parametric mids that feel like they are situated pre-drive, and those can really shape the tonal character of the drive in a mix. With the rather low frequency range of 180Hz-1000Hz, I found it useful to have a solid boost at 1000, to bring the articulation forward. A good alternative use is a slight bump in the 500-600Hz area to bring it forward in a mix. Something you would not do when playing a P bass because it already has enough of that, but any dual pickup bass can greatly benefit from that. Too much and it gets honky, but just the right amount and it gets present.
If there is enough of both articulation and presence in the mix, there's still the lower region, to pull the poor man's pultec trick by boosting bass and then cutting the lowest mids to avoid a mud slide.
All that does, as I said, not only EQ your signal, but boosting these frequencies feels like shining a spotlight on the dirt response in that particular area. There is more dirt in the selected place. This is a weirdly magical dual use of something as innocent as a parametric mids EQ.

As usual, excellent useful analysis, and good reading.

Aguilar's description of AGS "surrounding" the mid controls is interesting. "The AGS circuitry surrounds the midrange controls, enabling you to get a huge variety of tonal characteristics by simply adjusting the gain and midrange controls. What this gives you is a flexible control to get a wide range of tonal colors."

 

[el murdoque]

As usual, excellent useful analysis, and good reading.

Aguilar's description of AGS "surrounding" the mid controls is interesting. "The AGS circuitry surrounds the midrange controls, enabling you to get a huge variety of tonal characteristics by simply adjusting the gain and midrange controls. What this gives you is a flexible control to get a wide range of tonal colors."

Yeah. I really, passionately, hate these descriptions unless they come with more detail.

"The AGS circuitry surrounds the midrange controls".
I mean, the AGS does HPF and LPF, as we've already seen - and HPF and LPF do surround the midrange after a sense - so that statement is already true without AGS doing anything.

 

[projectapollo]

Yeah. I really, passionately, hate these descriptions unless they come with more detail.

"The AGS circuitry surrounds the midrange controls".
I mean, the AGS does HPF and LPF, as we've already seen - and HPF and LPF do surround the midrange after a sense - so that statement is already true without AGS doing anything.

But that's where you come in. To do the real analysis work and enlighten us and entertain at the same time. Your reviews have quickly escalated to my most trusted. I'd have to go by Gregor Fris, otherwise! Or worse, Anderton's.

 

[Charlie Tuna]

I'm asking myself if this can be considered mobbing?

Furthermore, I'm unsure about your cultural heritage and upbringing.

Am I required to throw down a gauntlet or am I required to slap you with a soft leather glove?

You were talking about coffee, right? I was.

Anyhow, the ToneHammer pedal seems to deserve a second chance. It’s funny how time and experience can change perception and in the game of cork sniffing, sometimes it’s our ears that can age like fine wine rather than the gear. (Of course, loss of hearing and tinnitus can also just dull them. )

 

[sunbeast]

Here is a fun little clip of the Tone Hammer and other dirt in the CCM classic "Bethel" style. It's been one of my tone goals for the past year or so. "I just find that....nice."

Those are definitely great tones! Very similar to a lot of early-2000s “indie-rock” tones.

I’m curious if he has compression on too or if that is all from the drives? It definitely sounds like a very “produced” and tight tone all by itself. I tend to go for a pokier/spikier dynamic and higher midrange thing, but I can see how these tones would work great to drive an ensemble without sticking out too much and how the AGS filtering helps hone things in well.

A big part of my interest in the Bassrig Fifteen is to try to simplify the way I shape the HPF and LPF of my FOH tone (via the onboard cab-sim), which currently is dependent on the built-in filtering of a few different devices including the DI from my Mesa Walkabout which outputs a fairly warm and tubey response but no cab-sim.

I have mostly stopped using a dedicated HPF in my rig as I’ve simplified my pedalboards in my current bands, but sometimes I hear recordings from the crowd where the FOH is pushing too much sub for my taste or occasionally too much top-end. I rely heavily on palm-muting for controlling my top-end on stage, which allows me to have a wide range of tone available dependent on how I play but I’ve been looking for a more reliable way to not give FOH too much of anything since I can’t always trust FOH to “get it”. I think the tight cab-sim cutoffs of the Fifteen should give me a lot of space to build tones from my pedals without FOH getting too much of anything. I also really like how organic and dynamic the lower Drive tones are from the Fifteen that should work great when pushed by other drives, and I can see that I could easily use the Fifteen by itself without missing anything which is something I haven’t ever had from a single pedal (I’ve almost always relied on a colorful amplifier at the least to form the basis of my tone). I look forward to hearing how the Fifteen sounds as a preamp into the Walkabout FX Return, as that amp has a driver tube that comes after the loop and should offer some interesting color. I could even keep using the amp DI to take advantage of that depending on the gig.

 

[jcburn]

Can I derail slightly and get @el murdoque 's opinion on Tonehammer AGS vs Storm King? Do you think they cross over or are similar at all? I've read that the Storm King is "based" on the AGS circuit which in reality can mean anything!!!

I'm set on my current preamp, so adding a full Tonehammer pedal takes up too much space, but it would be really cool if the Storm King can get the low-level drive tones and filtering of the AGS in a smaller package.

 

[gillento]

Those are definitely great tones! Very similar to a lot of early-2000s “indie-rock” tones.

I’m curious if he has compression on too or if that is all from the drives? It definitely sounds like a very “produced” and tight tone all by itself. I tend to go for a pokier/spikier dynamic and higher midrange thing, but I can see how these tones would work great to drive an ensemble without sticking out too much and how the AGS filtering helps hone things in well.

A big part of my interest in the Bassrig Fifteen is to try to simplify the way I shape the HPF and LPF of my FOH tone (via the onboard cab-sim), which currently is dependent on the built-in filtering of a few different devices including the DI from my Mesa Walkabout which outputs a fairly warm and tubey response but no cab-sim.

I have mostly stopped using a dedicated HPF in my rig as I’ve simplified my pedalboards in my current bands, but sometimes I hear recordings from the crowd where the FOH is pushing too much sub for my taste or occasionally too much top-end. I rely heavily on palm-muting for controlling my top-end on stage, which allows me to have a wide range of tone available dependent on how I play but I’ve been looking for a more reliable way to not give FOH too much of anything since I can’t always trust FOH to “get it”. I think the tight cab-sim cutoffs of the Fifteen should give me a lot of space to build tones from my pedals without FOH getting too much of anything. I also really like how organic and dynamic the lower Drive tones are from the Fifteen that should work great when pushed by other drives, and I can see that I could easily use the Fifteen by itself without missing anything which is something I haven’t ever had from a single pedal (I’ve almost always relied on a colorful amplifier at the least to form the basis of my tone). I look forward to hearing how the Fifteen sounds as a preamp into the Walkabout FX Return, as that amp has a driver tube that comes after the loop and should offer some interesting color. I could even keep using the amp DI to take advantage of that depending on the gig.

Did you try the Broughton FlipTop? Fliptop | Broughton Audio

 

[sunbeast]

Did you try the Broughton FlipTop? Fliptop | Broughton Audio

I have not. I was really looking for a pre with a DI rather than another character pedal per se and the things I read about the Fliptop didn’t really fit my goals either as far as the character of the drive tones available. The only Broughton I have or have tried is an RFE, which is super useful for making HPF and LPF with character but that just has never stayed on a board for long. It’s too cool to sell though. I should try to dial in something with it to tonematch the Fifteen cab-sim!

I will say that I’m glad that Broughton has shifted his business model somewhat to keep pedals available to buy, hopefully he eventually floods the market with any of his desirable pedals. The previous model created a whole crowd of pedal collectors/hoarders/gatekeepers and really turned me off to the brand in general. I ventured into the Broughton thread a few times trying to get some info on a few of his pedals and it sorta reminded me of a cryptocurrency or sneaker collector discussion forum. Very little info or discussion about the actual use/utility of the pedals and a whole lot of frivolous talk about the procurement and rarity of those pedals. I ignore these days, and do the same for the most part with any Broughton ad in the classifieds on TB which is a place I know I'm generally not welcome as I lack the Broughtons with which to trade.

 

[el murdoque]

Can I derail slightly and get @el murdoque 's opinion on Tonehammer AGS vs Storm King? Do you think they cross over or are similar at all? I've read that the Storm King is "based" on the AGS circuit which in reality can mean anything!!!

I'm set on my current preamp, so adding a full Tonehammer pedal takes up too much space, but it would be really cool if the Storm King can get the low-level drive tones and filtering of the AGS in a smaller package.

Fair question! I think I will rig an A/B setup to see what's what.
From memory alone, I would say that the Storm King has a LOT more gain available.
Of course, there is the matter of different EQ settings. The Tone Hammer does react to what you do to the parametric mids, and the Storm King only has a single tone knob, which seems to do more or less the same than the Tone Hammer's treble knob.
I will have to investigate that.

I decided to step up my game here. It has become somewhat of a habit of mine to first play the pedal for a session, just getting to know it, with as little outside information as possible and write a few words about this, but then go all analytical and gathering information - in part to confirm what my ears told me, and in part to do things right and proper. As part of this, I google for frequency response charts. Sometimes, other pedal nerds have recorded them and when I find one, I'm quite grateful, and use that.
But since we're doing the cork sniffing niche pedals a lot, google does not always spit out a handy chart.

That's why I decided to give making them myself a try. I found the Room EQ Wizard software which seems to be made for exactly that. Apparently, it does not send white noise, but a sweep of sine waves from 20Hz to 20kHz and then some wizardry to cobble them together into a nice and tidy graph.
I'll set up a test rig tonight (if the schedule allows) and see what happens.

 

[el murdoque]

I have not. I was really looking for a pre with a DI rather than another character pedal per se and the things I read about the Fliptop didn’t really fit my goals either as far as the character of the drive tones available. The only Broughton I have or have tried is an RFE, which is super useful for making HPF and LPF with character but that just has never stayed on a board for long. It’s too cool to sell though. I should try to dial in something with it to tonematch the Fifteen cab-sim!

I will say that I’m glad that Broughton has shifted his business model somewhat to keep pedals available to buy, hopefully he eventually floods the market with any of his desirable pedals. The previous model created a whole crowd of pedal collectors/hoarders/gatekeepers and really turned me off to the brand in general. I ventured into the Broughton thread a few times trying to get some info on a few of his pedals and it sorta reminded me of a cryptocurrency or sneaker collector discussion forum. Very little info or discussion about the actual use/utility of the pedals and a whole lot of frivolous talk about the procurement and rarity of those pedals. I ignore these days, and do the same for the most part with any Broughton ad in the classifieds on TB which is a place I known I'm generally not welcome as I lack the Broughtons with which to trade.

I've tried the fliptop and did not like it much.
On my 6 string, it could not handle the low B with any clarity, that's all I remember.

 

[Teryup]

I have not. I was really looking for a pre with a DI rather than another character pedal per se and the things I read about the Fliptop didn’t really fit my goals either as far as the character of the drive tones available. The only Broughton I have or have tried is an RFE, which is super useful for making HPF and LPF with character but that just has never stayed on a board for long. It’s too cool to sell though. I should try to dial in something with it to tonematch the Fifteen cab-sim!

I will say that I’m glad that Broughton has shifted his business model somewhat to keep pedals available to buy, hopefully he eventually floods the market with any of his desirable pedals. The previous model created a whole crowd of pedal collectors/hoarders/gatekeepers and really turned me off to the brand in general. I ventured into the Broughton thread a few times trying to get some info on a few of his pedals and it sorta reminded me of a cryptocurrency or sneaker collector discussion forum. Very little info or discussion about the actual use/utility of the pedals and a whole lot of frivolous talk about the procurement and rarity of those pedals. I ignore these days, and do the same for the most part with any Broughton ad in the classifieds on TB which is a place I known I'm generally not welcome as I lack the Broughtons with which to trade.

I am really glad to see someone else say this. I am sure they are great pedals, but the weird cult like culture around them has seriously turned me off. I also have no interest in gear I can't just go and buy at whatever time is convenient for me, I don't have the patience or attention span to search through the used market for anything specific.

 

[sunbeast]

I am really glad to see someone else say this. I am sure they are great pedals, but the weird cult like culture around them has seriously turned me off. I also have no interest in gear I can't just go and buy at whatever time is convenient for me, I don't have the patience or attention span to search through the used market for anything specific.

Yeah I know it’s nobody’s fault in particular- a small pedal operation (maybe just the one guy? I don’t know) gets more interest in his work than he can keep up with and doesn’t want to expand the business by hiring more people to fill the need- the only options are to do what he does and do “drops” of pedals or do like Sushibox did at one point and make a waitlist system. I think the “drops” thing unfortunately just makes more logistical sense and you aren’t holding onto money without pedals delivered or anything which can get strange as a small business owner (see all the warnings about paid-for yet undelivered product for years from bass, cabinet and pickup builders for examples). The “drops” thing on the other hand creates this perception of value based on rarity wherein people buy them up who have little or no want or need of them for their intended function and just grab them because of their rarity value. Then the thread becomes a bunch of collectors who are trying to justify or show off their behavior somehow and precious little time spent discussing the actual utilitarian aspects of the pedals. I have collected stuff in the past, so nothing against the concept, but it’s not really what I’m on TB to read or talk about personally.

3Leaf Audio was a similar scene, but it seems like that guy let it get to his head and offended his fan base with his pricing and business-approach which may have burst that bubble (I haven’t kept up- another company whose products I mostly ignore, though I do have an original 3Leaf Doom I need to sell/trade!).

 

[sloppy_phil]

Yeah I know it’s nobody’s fault in particular- a small pedal operation (maybe just the one guy? I don’t know) gets more interest in his work than he can keep up with and doesn’t want to expand the business by hiring more people to fill the need- the only options are to do what he does and do “drops” of pedals or do like Sushibox did at one point and make a waitlist system. I think the “drops” thing unfortunately just makes more logistical sense and you aren’t holding onto money without pedals delivered or anything which can get strange as a small business owner (see all the warnings about paid-for yet undelivered product for years from bass, cabinet and pickup builders for examples). The “drops” thing on the other hand creates this perception of value based on rarity wherein people buy them up who have little or no want or need of them for their intended function and just grab them because of their rarity value. Then the thread becomes a bunch of collectors who are trying to justify or show off their behavior somehow and precious little time spent discussing the actual utilitarian aspects of the pedals. I have collected stuff in the past, so nothing against the concept, but it’s not really what I’m on TB to read or talk about personally.

3Leaf Audio was a similar scene, but it seems like that guy let it get to his head and offended his fan base with his pricing and business-approach which may have burst that bubble (I haven’t kept up- another company whose products I mostly ignore, though I do have an original 3Leaf Doom I need to sell/trade!).

I will say the Broughton thread is a generally supremely cheery corner of the internet, with very little of the odious things and general ensh!ttification of the internet/world creeping in. It's surprisingly pleasant, and usually a pretty hilarious place to hang. If you can wade through the bread, breakfast, and illicit substance chatter, there is actually quite a bit of information on the pedals themselves, and great sound samples recorded by guys who own them.

There is also an unfortunate undercurrent of extreme collecting/hoarding, though, which I don't love. Part of that is just my own view on music and music gear; as a full-time professional musician, I see pedals and gear as tools, rather than pieces to be collected. This stuff has intrinsic value to performing and working pros, so to see things that are really tough to find just end up on some hobbyist's shelf, never to see the light of day, makes me die inside a little bit. But for a hobbyist/collector, they probably see nothing wrong with that pattern of behaviour, and would consider me to be overly sour regarding the whole topic.

At least, these days, we are so spoiled for choice with regards to gear that, if I can't find one thing, there's a good chance I can find something else incredibly similar. So I tend to avoid getting on my soapbox! Besides, life's too short for screaming at people on the internet...

 

[davelowell2]

One person’s hoarding is another person’s palette of options…

 

[just-1-more]

the only options are to do what he does and do “drops” of pedals or do like Sushibox did at one point and make a waitlist system

Or do what Analogman and Paul C did with the King of Tone and Timmy and partner with a major manufacturer on a mass produced model. Broughton maybe doesn’t have quite that level of popularity for the big buys to be interested though.

 

[sunbeast]

I will say the Broughton thread is a generally supremely cheery corner of the internet, with very little of the odious things and general ensh!ttification of the internet/world creeping in. It's surprisingly pleasant, and usually a pretty hilarious place to hang. If you can wade through the bread, breakfast, and illicit substance chatter, there is actually quite a bit of information on the pedals themselves, and great sound samples recorded by guys who own them.

There is also an unfortunate undercurrent of extreme collecting/hoarding, though, which I don't love. Part of that is just my own view on music and music gear; as a full-time professional musician, I see pedals and gear as tools, rather than pieces to be collected. This stuff has intrinsic value to performing and working pros, so to see things that are really tough to find just end up on some hobbyist's shelf, never to see the light of day, makes me die inside a little bit. But for a hobbyist/collector, they probably see nothing wrong with that pattern of behaviour, and would consider me to be overly sour regarding the whole topic.

At least, these days, we are so spoiled for choice with regards to gear that, if I can't find one thing, there's a good chance I can find something else incredibly similar. So I tend to avoid getting on my soapbox! Besides, life's too short for screaming at people on the internet...

One person’s hoarding is another person’s palette of options…

Naturally my post was going to be taken personally by some people. I really don’t mean it to, as none of it affects me at all if I don’t let it. I’m happy to avoid the Broughton thread and their pedals in general except when they are obtainable by ordinary means (like my RFE was). I specifically aim to not get in a collector’s mindset when it comes to music gear, as to me it’s just one more thing that wastes time and energy I could be using creating something or at least learning something (how I justify my Talkbass addiction!). I’m not looking to set alarms for crazy times to catch some limited pedal, most of his pedals are ultimately just his take on things that already exist in other forms that are easy to obtain (the RFE being a pleasant exception that I was excited for) so to me the GAS for something difficult to obtain is unreasonable to put myself through for something that doesn’t offer much of anything novel from a tone or utility perspective. Even if they were particularly unique I’d probably just wait until the hype died down or I got lucky and I could get one for reasonable prices (how I ended up with a 3-Leaf Doom). I’d love to try his take on the Traynor TS/Rusty Box type pedal but those seem basically unobtainable while the Rusty is available so meh.

I don’t have any brand loyalties except when a specific tone or feature set that I like is utilized on the regular by a certain company (Mesa amps for example have scratched my tone itch for 20 year now). I believe the most pedals I’ve ever had on a board from the same company is 2, currently Origin (Fifteen and DCX- may well sell the DCX though, depending on how the Fifteen performs in a band context) and in the past Darkglass (I spent some time combining a Vintage and an Alpa Omega Ultra) and Strymon (Mobius and Timeline). Everything else I use is a mash-up of all sorts of different companies that seem to offer specific sounds that I jive with, and I’m thankful to say I’ve never paid more than retail for any of it (and usually much less).

 

[davelowell2]

@sunbeast
I’m not offended if you meant me and I bet @sloppy_phil isn’t either.

It’s cool, we all love this minutiae.

To be honest, it’s probably a phase for a lot of people. I’ve been around that thread for maybe 7-8 years and there’s very few from when I started. You know, tastes change, kids, family, divorce, work, etc…

Back to dirt!

 

[sunbeast]

N

@sunbeast
I’m not offended if you meant me and I bet @sloppy_phil isn’t either.

It’s cool, we all love this minutiae.

To be honest, it’s probably a phase for a lot of people. I’ve been around that thread for maybe 7-8 years and there’s very few from when I started. You know, tastes change, kids, family, divorce, work, etc…

Back to dirt!

I just don’t want to be that guy that calls people that are into some thing I’m not into “fanboys” as a derogatory term and trying to have a more nuanced take. I ultimately can’t care much what other people do with their precious time and money as long as they don’t tell me what to do with mine. I collect tone-machines and dirt with the best of them!