My Dirt Bender - Another Jounal

[el murdoque]

I stumbled upon the Poly Effects Kanso by sheer accident. That looks super interesting!
And from there I found the Josh Smith Flat V which is even more interesting!

Any experience with any of these?

 

[el murdoque]

That’s a Meatsmoke owned by @Erithon. I have the shared eq V1 Meatsmoke.

Nice!
I assumed that the silence that followed every time I was raving about how much I love the Meatsmoke was because of the fact that Verellen only made around 300 pedals including early versions, Skyhammers and customs, and these are impossible to find and therefore no one has one ...

I'll be extra quick with sending you my settings then!

 

[jmmyoh]

Splitting hairs here: It seems it's the second channel of the supa dupa 2 in 1 pedal, which is two super hard ons in a row with added master volume.

Same difference. The one knob just has the gain maxed and only a volume knob.

 

[el murdoque]

@davelowell2

Here you go:

I switched everything off so the lights don't blind the camera, but apart from tuner and chorus, everything else is always-on.
The Aguilar DB316 is switched off when I'm playing the P bass, but it really helps in the mix with my Fakenbacker.

Signal chain is Fake Plastic Trees into Meatsmoke into Cali76 into DB316 into Bassrig.
The FPT delivers a little grind and the Meatsmoke does the rest.
Here's a snippet from these exact settings:

Bass is my Aria Pro II Rickenbacker copy, running Fender Heavy gauge flats, tuned D standard.
First pass is both pickups, second pass is bridge pickup solo, third pass is the boost channel on the Meatsmoke active.

 

[el murdoque]

Forgot to mention: The Broughton Low Pass Filter is the last pedal in chain, on the 1/4" out of the Bassrig, as a cab sim when running into the FX return of an amp with a cab that has a tweeter or a monitor wedge or some FRFR shenanigans.

 

[el murdoque]

Same difference. The one knob just has the gain maxed and only a volume knob.

That's why I said it's splitting hairs.

 

[davelowell2]

Thank you!
I’m going to listen a few times but I would have thought this a much brighter sound considering your treble on the MS.
I always look at that Aguilar pedal, too.

 

[el murdoque]

Thank you!
I’m going to listen a few times but I would have thought this a much brighter sound considering your treble on the MS.
I always look at that Aguilar pedal, too.

Flats and fingerstyle really suck out the brightness. Hook up a bass with fresh rounds to that rig and your ears will sizzle.

 

[Erithon]

Nice!
I assumed that the silence that followed every time I was raving about how much I love the Meatsmoke was because of the fact that Verellen only made around 300 pedals including early versions, Skyhammers and customs, and these are impossible to find and therefore no one has one ...

I'll be extra quick with sending you my settings then!

I didn't realize Ben built so few pedals. Do you know if their numbering is shared with the amplifiers? I've seen serial numbers up to a little past 900 on those. My Meatsmoke pedal is #226.

@davelowell2

Here you go:
View attachment 7426112


I switched everything off so the lights don't blind the camera, but apart from tuner and chorus, everything else is always-on.
The Aguilar DB316 is switched off when I'm playing the P bass, but it really helps in the mix with my Fakenbacker.

Signal chain is Fake Plastic Trees into Meatsmoke into Cali76 into DB316 into Bassrig.
The FPT delivers a little grind and the Meatsmoke does the rest.
Here's a snippet from these exact settings:

Bass is my Aria Pro II Rickenbacker copy, running Fender Heavy gauge flats, tuned D standard.
First pass is both pickups, second pass is bridge pickup solo, third pass is the boost channel on the Meatsmoke active.

View attachment 7426115

Sounds great! I never thought to run the Fake Plastic Trees into the Meatsmoke because both are preamps/overdrives and they offer fairly similar tonal profiles (tubes and tube-like). But you show how nice a combination that is!

My settings are identical, except I keep my treble at 1:00 on the first channel and 11:00 on the second channel. I'm not playing flats (well, not on my primary bass; my secondary bass does have flats) or running a LPF, though.

Are you running 12X7s? Or did you drop down to 5751s or 12AT7s?

 

[el murdoque]

I didn't realize Ben built so few pedals. Do you know if their numbering is shared with the amplifiers? I've seen serial numbers up to a little past 900 on those. My Meatsmoke pedal is #226.

Mine is, I think #264.

I quote the official Verellen spokesperson:

Looks like we did about...300 of them (MS, Skyhammer, etc.. custom blah blah blah..)

My guess would be the pedals have their own serial numbers.

Sounds great! I never thought to run the Fake Plastic Trees into the Meatsmoke because both are preamps/overdrives and they offer fairly similar tonal profiles (tubes and tube-like). But you show how nice a combination that is!

My settings are identical, except I keep my treble at 1:00 on the first channel and 11:00 on the second channel. I'm not playing flats (well, not on my primary bass; my secondary bass does have flats) or running a LPF, though.

Yeah, I like to turn both devices to a level where I get a little hair from each and that stacked is way better than each device turned up a bit higher would get on its own. I like that organic grind.

Are you running 12X7s? Or did you drop down to 5751s or 12AT7s?

Standard 12AX7s in there. I have a pair of 12AT7s here, which I currently have in the Effectrode Tube Drive to drop that down a bit, but I feel like the 12AX7s always have more of that needle prick clear sharpness and the lower gain models are a bit more mushy.

 

[jmmyoh]

That's why I said it's splitting hairs.

It's the same thing. There's no hair to split boy.

 

[sunbeast]

I know it's a smartphone camera that's somewhat on the brink of being overwhelmed, but I really dig the bass sound. Rich and deep, with just enough edge not to drown into low end rumble.

I missed replying, but thanks! This song doesn't really exemplify how spiky the Godin can get at times since I play most of the song with tight palm-muted thumb-pointer-middle plucking, but I figure if it sounds decent through an iPhone mic in the mix then its definitely working! My same friend has recorded some past examples of this band where the high mid in the attack was fighting the guitars too much, so I think the Fifteen really worked well here to tame it down. I will probably boost less bass on the Fifteen next time though- it sounded great where I was sitting but fills that room a little too much for my taste. I'd bet through a PA and with the cabsim engaged (or n a larger room) that it would be perfect as is though.

 

[tidbits]

Thank you!
I’m going to listen a few times but I would have thought this a much brighter sound considering your treble on the MS.
I always look at that Aguilar pedal, too.

My only gripe with the Aguilar is that it only goes up to something like 1k.

thats why I ended up with the Sine Effects nanoPara. I think it runs up to 4-5k, and has adjustable Q if you need a notch alongside a preamp with a simpler EQ. .

 

[davelowell2]

My only gripe with the Aguilar is that it only goes up to something like 1k.

thats why I ended up with the Sine Effects nanoPara. I think it runs up to 4-5k, and has adjustable Q if you need a notch alongside a preamp with a simpler EQ. .

Nice! You’re selling yours, though?

4-5k? Not me. That’s too high. I’m pretty sure my cab doesn’t produce much over 2-3k…

 

[tidbits]

Nice! You’re selling yours, though?

4-5k? Not me. That’s too high. I’m pretty sure my cab doesn’t produce much over 2-3k…

Yeah, I bought it mostly because I was looking to work in the 1.5-2k neighborhood. I had been running an empress bass comp with that tone/color switch giving the 2k bump up front, and I really liked having something bright up front. When I moved the comp towards the end of the chain I was using that nanoPara to do the bright thing.

I have it posted for now, because I've been leaning on the DCX bass to do the front of chain bright thing, so it's just sitting. I've actually been wanting to pick up another Empress ParaEQ to have on the shelf instead of the nanoPara.

I haven't been actively bumping it b/c I have an Archetype Valve Boost coming back and I was going to mess around with the nanoPara+AVB at the front in the DCX role, or see if I could make it work with some tube rolling in the spot the Finally occupies. The AVB compresses the signal so much I thought it was broken. BUT Josh says it's fine, so it might just be a me thing.

 

[sunbeast]

Flats and fingerstyle really suck out the brightness. Hook up a bass with fresh rounds to that rig and your ears will sizzle.

We have some similar gear but such different tonal goals I feel like!Most of my bass drive pedal journey is trying to find ways to make fingerstyle with flats cut through like it always did with my Mesa tube amps and with some pick-like attack envelope, I love the sound of a pick but never much enjoyed playing with one the same as my fingers and now I almost never bring a pick around my basses! For me basses like my Rics and that Godin from the video earlier make it relatively easy as they both have an abundance of attack on tap, but it has a lot to do with focusing the midrange. I also let my nails grow out a bit on my plucking hand (thumb, pointer, middle) to get some extra edge dependent on how I hit the string.

Here's a gig from this last November (I guess the video in the 3rd from last post is the best example, not sure how to directly link that video as I'm too old for Instagram apparently). Rickenbacker played fingerstyle with very old Sadowsky Black Label flatwounds through a chain of pedals (OvniFX Smoothie, Blackstone Mosfet, Origin DCX) into a Mesa Walkabout combo:

And from a recording 8 years ago playing fingerstyle on the same Rickenbacker bass with the same set of strings from the recent gig (which were already 2-3 years old when we recorded this!) but through my Mesa Prodigy head (with a Darkglass Vintage set for very low gain, most of the audible gain is from the amp which was cranked):

 

[el murdoque]

My only gripe with the Aguilar is that it only goes up to something like 1k.

thats why I ended up with the Sine Effects nanoPara. I think it runs up to 4-5k, and has adjustable Q if you need a notch alongside a preamp with a simpler EQ. .

Yeah, for me it was like this:
I realized I lacked mids.
I realized nothing on my pedalboard could fix that.
In a pinch, I used the EQ on the amp, and that worked perfectly for my situation. It was a Tonehammer.
I decided it's finally time to buy the Sine Effects pedal, but before that I wanted to hit up Thomann and look at the JHS Haunting mids.
Looking at the Haunting Mids, the website suggested I take a look at the Aguilar pedal, so I clicked it.
Description said it was essentially the mids section of the Tonehammer, cheaper than the Sine Effects and no international shipping needed. bam.

 

[Erithon]

I quote the official Verellen spokesperson:

Standard 12AX7s in there. I have a pair of 12AT7s here, which I currently have in the Effectrode Tube Drive to drop that down a bit, but I feel like the 12AX7s always have more of that needle prick clear sharpness and the lower gain models are a bit more mushy.

Thanks for that info. I tried to look up the original context--the quote in your post doesn't link back to a post--but I failed. I tried both threads of Club Verellen. Is it somewhere else? Maybe a PM to you?

I've got 12AX7s in mine as well. I felt they sounded the best: the most heft and definition. I did swap various NOS brands, though.

The AVB compresses the signal so much I thought it was broken. BUT Josh says it's fine, so it might just be a me thing.

It's not just you. It liked some of what the AVB does, but overall found it introduced too much compression at a point in my signal chain where I don't want that. I moved it along. I like other Broughton tube pedals more.

 

[el murdoque]

Thanks for that info. I tried to look up the original context--the quote in your post doesn't link back to a post--but I failed. I tried both threads of Club Verellen. Is it somewhere else? Maybe a PM to you?

I emailed Verellen directly and asked. AFAIK, the person answering me was Ben Verellen directly.

I've got 12AX7s in mine as well. I felt they sounded the best: the most heft and definition. I did swap various NOS brands, though.

Which tubes did you end up with?
I like that feeling of running a tube amp at slightly above max. It's hard to describe, but on note attack it feels like there is a little dent in the note, something the amp would try to fill out, but can't - maybe a very quick and gentle version of dip and swell compression, but just after the initial attack of the note hits.
I do associate that with power tube compression and the Meatsmoke somehow does it without power tubes involved.

It's not just you. It liked some of what the AVB does, but overall found it introduced too much compression at a point in my signal chain where I don't want that. I moved it along. I like other Broughton tube pedals more.

 

[el murdoque]

This is a recent demo I recorded with the FPT into Meatsmoke.