The good old ODR-1 is a great pedal, and I agree on the low end. If I recall correctly, I turned the spectrum knob up until the bass got too much, then stopped.
The Wampler Belle was the same in that regard.
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My Dirt Bender - Another Jounal
- Thread starter el murdoque
- Start date
The Wampler Belle was the same in that regard.
I feel like the Greer Lightspeed was made for adding a second layer for a guitar player. When you're playing a nice sounding single channel amp that's set to the point where it's mostly clean and has a gorgeous sound, then the Lightspeed can push it ever so gently over the edge and add a subtle layer of sparkle on its own. The near flat response hints that the goal seemed to be to create something that is really transparent and does not deform the signal, just adds harmonics on top. A gentle push into another device is what the main goal was and I'm still playing around with that, trying different combinations of pedals and preamps. As a stand alone device, it still feels best in the subtler settings - the area where you can provoke a gentle growl by playing harder.
It's very transparent, when set to unity, there's no coloration of the tone, just the added drive. When turning the FREQ knob all the way up, there's a mini treble boost, something you surely notice a lot more when playing rounds.
It's very transparent, when set to unity, there's no coloration of the tone, just the added drive. When turning the FREQ knob all the way up, there's a mini treble boost, something you surely notice a lot more when playing rounds.
Far be it from me to defend TCE or the RH amps in particular (I have an RH450, and while I rarely plug it in these days, volume is not the problem), but I'm not sure how much more tweakable the EQ section could realistically be, apart, perhaps from adding a Q-control to each of the 4 semi-parametric bands. It's never my preferred amp now, but as a grab and go "utility" amp (including decent if not extraordinary tuner, drive and compressor functions) I find I can't write it off completely.
Their stripped back 2290-based Nova delay is also very nice, although again, I'm not currently using it.
Another way of putting it.
It adds this "sheen".
Sort of brings up the overall signal in a pleasing way.
I would have those EQ's have less options, not more. I admit that back in the day I tried it, I was less accomplished in those terms and would not really have an idea on how to set a four band parametric EQ at all, but it seemed completely overwhelming because you could dive in there and tweak all the frequencies and then start all over again. I'm pretty sure that it's a cool feature for someone better versed and I like to imagine that el_murdoque of today would jump right in and do his thing and it'd sound good straight away.
In this here audio example, I'm yet again using the three pedals pictured above for the base sound (DCX-CompIQ-Toolbox).
First pass is those three, second pass is with the Greer Lightspeed in front of them, third pass yet again the Empress.
Fun fact:
In recent recordings, especially when going for a low gain sound, I realized that I always pluck the first note too hard after engaging the pedal.
I've found the problem quite quickly: My test bench is a music stand, so I can easily reach and tweak knobs while playing. This means the activation of the pedal is done by hand, the right one (plucking hand) in my case. That means in the transition bit my hand shoots out from the bass, clicks the pedal, rushes back to the bass and in order to hit the note in time, and then it plucks too hard.
Interestingly, you can hear it very well in the just-posted audio snippet when I switch to the Greer, but not on the switch to the empress.
The layout was, indeed, with the Greer on the test bench and the empress on the floor, so my first thought was that since the empress is foot-activated, I did not have to move my hand off the strings, but I did, because I had to disengage the Greer.
The current working theory is that in my brain, the following happened:
1. Synapses fire so Hand shoots out to disengage the Greer.
2. Synapses fire so Hand rushes back to playing position
3. Different synapses fire so Foot activates the empress
4. Since something else happened between placing the hand back on the strings and playing the first note, the hand forgot to be stressed and plays the first note normally.
In recent recordings, especially when going for a low gain sound, I realized that I always pluck the first note too hard after engaging the pedal.
I've found the problem quite quickly: My test bench is a music stand, so I can easily reach and tweak knobs while playing. This means the activation of the pedal is done by hand, the right one (plucking hand) in my case. That means in the transition bit my hand shoots out from the bass, clicks the pedal, rushes back to the bass and in order to hit the note in time, and then it plucks too hard.
Interestingly, you can hear it very well in the just-posted audio snippet when I switch to the Greer, but not on the switch to the empress.
The layout was, indeed, with the Greer on the test bench and the empress on the floor, so my first thought was that since the empress is foot-activated, I did not have to move my hand off the strings, but I did, because I had to disengage the Greer.
The current working theory is that in my brain, the following happened:
1. Synapses fire so Hand shoots out to disengage the Greer.
2. Synapses fire so Hand rushes back to playing position
3. Different synapses fire so Foot activates the empress
4. Since something else happened between placing the hand back on the strings and playing the first note, the hand forgot to be stressed and plays the first note normally.
The Greer sounds really nice there. Sweet and articulate, very transparent. The Empress seems to be either a little bit louder or have some additional lows, it feels like the latter to me since there's a little extra oomph at the beginning of the riff vs the back half when you get up into the higher notes.
Both sound really great.
My Empress is back getting the repair for the mid-freq knob being loose. I've been taking the time to further understand exactly where particular parts of the my overall sound come from, and that's been a fun exercise. Especially since I've got a new bass that doesn't (yet) have the same party tricks as my old one.
I've taken a couple things from the DCX bass and baked them into "my sound". First the high boost at the beginning of the chain, that very broad hill at 5.5k makes everything sound a lot more articulate, even when the low pass filter creeps down past it. Second is that idea of boosting highs pre-gain and cutting post gain, then vice-versa with the lows.
Then finally, that party trick on the old bass. When I built it I made every knob push/pull just to see what variety of sounds I could get from a passive bass. The one I really latched onto is running the P bass pickup in parallel. It's a lot more responsive in the high frequencies, at the expense of some overall output. When you compensate for lost volume (with a clean boost at the beginning of the chain) it's lovely, and there's this wonderful woody hollow character to the timbre.
I was playing it again when comparing my setup more closely between basses, and when I switched to the parallel setting that sparkle I'd been missing came back. Soooo it seems like the new bass is set to go under the knife sooner than I had anticipated.
Spot on. The empress has the bass knob at around 2 o'clock and that slight boost is enough to make the low much bigger.
Help out an electronic half-wit: Standard P basses are wired in series? I know I had a vintage P bass once where someone added a switch to go from series to parallel. I never figured out which was which, but one setting had more low end response and I only ever used that.
This DCX EQ is something else. Origin could make a pedal with only two knobs, the LF and HF knobs on the DCX. They could even make them boost only and I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
On my current small board, the DCX is set to EQ and the gain is low enough so it does not drive at all, all I'm using is the LF and HF knobs, the LF set to 2 o'clock and the HF to 1 o'clock and it's really just sounding "better".
I found something about the Lightspeed that I did not anticipate.
With my Ric copy, it does doom (of sorts).
Controls are simple: Loudness set to unity, everything else dimed. I used both pickups on the bass. Heavy gauge Fender flats, tuned D standard.
With my Ric copy, it does doom (of sorts).
Controls are simple: Loudness set to unity, everything else dimed. I used both pickups on the bass. Heavy gauge Fender flats, tuned D standard.
Exactly - standard is series. And in general, when wiring your pickups in series, you'll end up with more output and less treble content.
The thing that really got me interested in pursuing parallel wiring was a chart I saw that compared the response from series, parallel, and a gain compensated parallel. The series and gain compensated parallel were basically identical until highs started to roll off on the series plotting.
So the setting on that P bass with "more low end response" was your series setting, and you probably liked it more because without changing anything else "louder is better".
EDIT: this isn't the post that inspired me, but it demonstrates the difference fairly well
With the help of the fine folks here, I've corrected my circuit models for both series and parallel configurations including a guess of 100pF for the capacitance of each coil. I've re-run the simulations and here they are in the same colour schemes as before, black and white is series with 500k pots, green is parallel with 500k pots, and orange is parallel with 250k pots. Again the two parallel plots show the overlayed series plot for comparison.
As before, please let me know if you see anything incorrect with the circuit models.
These...
As before, please let me know if you see anything incorrect with the circuit models.
These...
This kills, I like it A LOT.
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My new hobby seems to be that whenever I find a new interesting thing with a pedal, I go ahead and try to copy it with the Empress.
I guess that was the case. When I had that bass I was much younger and lacked the patience for frivolous escapades such as gain-matching. I flipped the switch and one side sounded better, that was all I needed to know.
It came as quite the surprise to me, but I must say that the Lightspeed feels like a mix between a Tube Screamer and a tube amp at times.
I think side-jacks are keeping me from the Lightspeed at this point. My eyes are out for a CMC Audio Prototype Mk2, and maybe that Becos ZF drive to try in the place of the Blumes. But those are both few and far between.
You've also convinced me into revisiting the Singular Audio Tubedrve. I've got one of those on the way, but after hitting the regional distribution center in town it's taken an unfortunate detour and winged all the way to Florida, some 700 miles south of where it should be.
You've also convinced me into revisiting the Singular Audio Tubedrve. I've got one of those on the way, but after hitting the regional distribution center in town it's taken an unfortunate detour and winged all the way to Florida, some 700 miles south of where it should be.
That Proto is great!!!!
The Tubedrve did nothing to me though, so I passed it on to our dear OP.
Thinking of getting a DCX to have in EQ mode for always on breakup and pushing it with the SoloDallas BassX into overdrive when needed. Anybody tried pushing the w DCX with a boost?
I want to try the Tubedrve in a couple capacities - again in my low-gain spot, now that I added a separate EQ to add some of the air I miss from the DCX, and at different spots in my synth chain to saturate and glue those sounds together. It's much more likely to go into the synth chain.
I just gave that a whirl. In EQ, the DCX adds little to no compression, so you will have to catch that downstream with a capable peak limiter.
I had the Drive about noon, where it's just the slightest hint of breakup in my setup, and only when playing hard. I had to hit it with a solid boost to push it into drive territory, but the change in volume was too drastic to make sense in any kind of playing environment. With the comp set to peak limiting, it's doable.
