My Dirt Bender - Another Jounal

[el murdoque]

Here's the Becos with a drum loop, this time played with my Bassline Buster 6 (Aguilar pickups, LaBella DTFs) through my mini board (Origin DCX for a little bass and treble boost, Becos CompIQ mini, Disssa Toolbox):

...and while I was at it, I recorded the exact same thing with the empress:

 

[el murdoque]

I need help!

I really enjoyed that Haggtronix Rotten Sorcerer Pedal I had, and when I sold it, I promised myself to direct the money towards another heavy fuzz, but I never did. I just ran across a clip I had recorded with the Rotten Sorcerer and felt a pang of regret not having a proper fuzz at the moment.

So I am looking at something very similar. Most likely based on the Green Russian, but open to other suggestions, as long as it gets a good low end and won't drop the mids entirely. I would like a silly name and graphics, if possible. Any suggestions in that regard?

 

[el murdoque]

And apologies to Mr. Murdoque for spamming products on his thread.

It might be hard to see on first glance, but there is a difference between the two.
One is already sold out, even before it was released, while the other is readily available in super markets around the world.
If you get a chance to inspect them, you'll see that the sidewalls are different. On the Martian pedal, they are polished silvery metal while on the can of Spam, there's writing on them and the color scheme from the front is carried over.
Furthermore, when you look inside, one is filled with NOS Germanium diodes while the other is filled with ... spam.

 

[el murdoque]

Another pedal from my short list has been found and a price has been agreed upon.

 

[el murdoque]

Becos Overdrive.
Gain very low.
Tone maxed.
Deep switch off.
Clipping: Silicon Asymmetric
Dry EQ: 10 o'clock
Dry Mix: just past noon.

Same lick, but with the Empress:
Drive: very low
Mix: 3/4 up
Bass: 1 o'clock
Treble: maxed
Mids: 9 o'clock at the minimum frequency (scoop)
VU Meter Color: The warm yellow.

 

[el murdoque]

With these two clips my goal was to add a little bit of drive that leaves the long low notes untouched in their weight, but gives a little bit of harmonic content on the shorter higher notes.

 

[el murdoque]

And here's one for those of you that own fancy power supplies.

First pass is clean (Ric with a Pic),
second pass is the Becos with the gain and tone maxed, symmetrical silicon clipping, deep off, Dry EQ 10 o'clock, mix noon
third pass is everything the same, but this time with the pedal running on 18V.

It feels to me as if the 18V has a bit more emphasis on the clean blend, but I guess that's what happens when you run stuff at 18V and get more headroom.

 

[Mr. voodoobass]

Becos Overdrive.
Gain very low.
Tone maxed.
Deep switch off.
Clipping: Silicon Asymmetric
Dry EQ: 10 o'clock
Dry Mix: just past noon.

View attachment 7501153

Same lick, but with the Empress:
Drive: very low
Mix: 3/4 up
Bass: 1 o'clock
Treble: maxed
Mids: 9 o'clock at the minimum frequency (scoop)
VU Meter Color: The warm yellow.

View attachment 7501151

Ok becos here sounded great, but then empress sounded even better… damn

 

[sunbeast]

Becos Overdrive.
Gain very low.
Tone maxed.
Deep switch off.
Clipping: Silicon Asymmetric
Dry EQ: 10 o'clock
Dry Mix: just past noon.

View attachment 7501153

Same lick, but with the Empress:
Drive: very low
Mix: 3/4 up
Bass: 1 o'clock
Treble: maxed
Mids: 9 o'clock at the minimum frequency (scoop)
VU Meter Color: The warm yellow.

View attachment 7501151

The Empress has a nice attack to it, definitely something I look for in a drive when playing with flatwounds. I like the vibe of that for sure!

 

[Verticos]

Becos Overdrive.
Gain very low.
Tone maxed.
Deep switch off.
Clipping: Silicon Asymmetric
Dry EQ: 10 o'clock
Dry Mix: just past noon.

View attachment 7501153

Same lick, but with the Empress:
Drive: very low
Mix: 3/4 up
Bass: 1 o'clock
Treble: maxed
Mids: 9 o'clock at the minimum frequency (scoop)
VU Meter Color: The warm yellow.

View attachment 7501151

Are you running any other pedals with these demos? Mostly wondering if there's any compression and, if so, whether it's before or after the drives.

 

[el murdoque]

Are you running any other pedals with these demos? Mostly wondering if there's any compression and, if so, whether it's before or after the drives.

In those recent examples, I ran the dirt pedals into these three.

 

[el murdoque]

 

[el murdoque]

 

[gillento]

@el murdoque : All this talk about "edge of breakup" makes me wonder if you tried the TC Electronic Spark Booster (regular sized).
That pedal is my to-go tool for this.

 

[el murdoque]

@el murdoque : All this talk about "edge of breakup" makes me wonder if you tried the TC Electronic Spark Booster (regular sized).
That pedal is my to-go tool for this.

I am a gentle person and hard to anger, but when I am angered, I can hold a grudge for a long time.
I've yet to forgive TC for their Watts fiasco and the poor way they handled it and will steer clear of any of their products until then.

 

[warptheory]

View attachment 7502742

This is my favorite drive pedal right now. Cool to see the Tone graph. I usually have it between 10-12, maybe 1 or 2 if I'm needing to really cut through.

I love how easy it is, it's your tone with some hair and easy EQ for the character.

 

[el murdoque]

 

[gillento]

I am a gentle person and hard to anger, but when I am angered, I can hold a grudge for a long time.
I've yet to forgive TC for their Watts fiasco and the poor way they handled it and will steer clear of any of their products until then.

Are you talking about their RH amps?
I did not like them either. I tried all of them, even got the big one. To me the problem was not the advertised wattage but more their „slow response“. I found the same in the Kemper.

 

[dedpool1052]

View attachment 7502741

Got a chance to try this, and an ODR-1 with bass at a buddy's place.
He'd only ever used them on guitar.
When I said they had some buzz on TB, we tried'em both.
The Greer is quite low gain, but adds this nice "sparkle" to your tone.
The nobels, has a massive amount of low-end on bass. Too much almost.
However, it's tone was enough to convince me to (finally) pull the trigger on the mini2, with the external bass-cut dial, so I can fine tune it.

 

[el murdoque]

Are you talking about their RH amps?
I did not like them either. I tried all of them, even got the big one. To me the problem was not the advertised wattage but more their „slow response“. I found the same in the Kemper.

Yupp, the RH amps and TC's reaction once they were found out.
I mean, at least they changed the specs a while later, still advertising the amps as 450 and 750 watts, but this time they added some acronym which hinted that it's TC watts, not RMS.


I only played one of the amps once, and I know that back then, the EQ drove me nuts because I felt like I could not get it right. It always felt that one more minor tweak is necessary to get it from good to really good.