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My Dirt Bender - Another Jounal

#21
Based on your description of the Haunt and its shortcomings, you may like the Dirty Haggard Degrade. The blend can be filtered so all the highs are coming from the dirt, which can be tamed with the tone and gain controls. I use it as a bass heavy mild OD. It's bassier than my clean tone.

Negatives: the gate may cutoff earlier than you want as it is at its core a gated fuzz, there's no overall volume control so you may need to tweak your touch just a little to maintain unity, and because I don't share your ears it may just have all the shortcomings of the Haunt and I don't hear it the same way you do. Bonus is Haggard stuff is very affordable.
 
#22
SSBS Mini. Can go from clean boost to touch sensitive overdrive all the way to fuzz. Bias and gain knobs determine what type of effect you have. I used it as a gated fuzz (gain full on, bias full off) for a long time. Currently using it as an overdrive, gain around 11 o'clock, bias pretty clean too. Lovely touch breakup.
 
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#23
I did spend some time waiting today, so I researched dirt pedals.
Something became apparent pretty quickly: The way I approached my preamp bender will not work here.
With preamps I simply checked the recent history of bass preamp pedals and sorted them in two categories: 1. the ones I did not like and 2. the ones I might like. I then proceeded in buying as many of those in category 2 as I could get my hands on. Some were easy to get, others hard. But. We're talking about bass pre amplifier pedals. There is a limited supply of those and you can move through the lot at a leisurely pace in a finite amount of time.

If I applied the same measures in my quest for dirt, the result would be that I quickly get buried in an avalanche of dirt pedals and suffocate under the masses.
It seems like when you start a company that does effect pedals, you start with a) a dirt pedal or b) with an obscure idea of some weird pedal, which will quickly be followed with a dirt pedal because you don't want to be the only pedal company on the planet that does not offer one.

How to proceed properly?
I think that moving in a strictly chaotic pattern is the only way forward - or backwards, up, down or sideways.
I'll see how far I'll get with gut feeling, impulse buying and closely watching the local second hand market.
We'll see how quickly this one will be over.
 
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#24
That Gamechanger Audio Plasma pedal better has a steep learning curve.
I love how it looks and could spend ages watching that plasma tube while I play. The idea of having a powerful 2 band EQ (massive boost and cut) that can be applied either to the wet signal only or to both clean and wet is appealing, but I played it for about ten minutes when I got home and absolutely hated it.
 
#26
Mr. voodoobass said:
It sure is the coolest looking pedal, but I’m yet to hear a demo of it where it doesn’t sound like crap…
I’d say it’s impossible to find one pedal that does it perfectly. Worse case keep two that does its thing great, and you will have flavors for most occasions?
Click to expand...

I noodled a bit in the guitar range (12th fret up) and played chords with rather high voltage settings. I can see some value there. I nearly took the guitar off the wall but remembered my quest before I could drift off course.

When I started out, it was with at least half a dozen pedals capable of doing dirt. As I know me and I know how these things go, I'll sell those I deem redundant and direct the funds towards further acquisitions, learning what I want along the way. I guess I'll end up with more than two, though.
 
#27
The Gamechanger did not change game. It changed homes - I returned it today.

It's either too artificial sounding or it is too gated or both. Even with the clean signal blended in, it feels weird playing at low voltages. You can't let notes ring out where the drive gradually fades away. It's full on and suddenly the gate snaps shut. It was fun trying it but we were clearly not meant for each other.
This might be a fun pedal if you're running synth sounds but I gave up that project long ago when I swapped a five pedal group for a C4 because I don't use it that often.

The pipeline has to be filled, though and the second hand marked is plentyful.

Monday or Tuesday will bring some purple into my life: A Way Huge Pork Loin is on the way.
Since you can't have only pork loin, I'm debating which side dish to get.

My current two options are:
SolidgoldFX Beta DLX and Crazy Tube Circuits Planet B (the old, non plus version).
Should I maybe get all three?
 
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#28
Shopping spree ended (by force).
The second hand market was not that promising when I browsed it. Then I made a mistake and posted an ad stating that I'm looking for a drive pedal. There are more than just a few people willing to part with theirs once you offer sufficient monetary compensation. I had to pull the ad a few hours later.
Expected to arrive next week:

SolidgoldFX Beta DLX.
I've listened to the videos on youtube. This is an oddball given my preferences - and it has the same form factor the Blessed Mother has, but I liked what it did to a Jazz bass with flats. With the boost switchable to be pre or post drive, I could get two useful sounds out of this thing. On the one hand some light, barely there drive that sits well with oldschool sounds and with some boosting into that some more gain that shows I mean it.

Crazy Tube Circuits Locomotive.
I like that this is a simple pedal and that it's tube driven. My gut feeling tells me this could be exactly what I'm looking for. All you get to adjust is gain, tone and the dry/wet output volume. It sounded very touch sensitive and I liked the drive sounds.

Way Huge Pork Loin.
I've never owned anything Way Huge but always wanted to. The demos sound promising. I got a good price on one. I dig the purple.
 
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#31
pork.jpeg


Just in.
 
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#33
Okay, I can understand how one could want to have one of those.

I took the Pork Loin for a test ride. I only had a couple of minutes and no chance to open it up yet. There are three more controls inside and I want to look at them and set them back to stock if they have been tampered with. My first impression is quite good. It is a soft overdrive, very easy on the ears and there is not much gain on tap - even with the gain maxed it sounds friendly. This is not a bad thing, I think that is what I want.
Another bonus: It seems like it'll be a nice fit on my board from an aesthetic viewpoint. I have taken off the C4 for the moment because I still have that AMT pedal in the spot for the drive and because of that the power is set to 12V and I don't want to mess with that at all (and end up connecting something that can only take 9V to that outlet by accident), also I like to A/B the pedals.
When I A/B'ed it with the O-Bass I immediately noticed that the O-Bass sounds much brighter. Then I found out that the tone knob on the Pork Loin seems to be a passive tone knob like on a bass - all it does is roll off the highs. With that knob set at max, the signal from the bass is all there, but somehow more of it.
Even set to unity the signal is louder with the Pork Loin engaged - a mid boost maybe?
Then there's the curve knob that feels like it rolls off the highs on the sizzle when you engage it. The sizzle goes from dark, warm and soft to harder, more high frequency content, more shriek-y clipping sound.
Simply pluck a string and turn it from left to right and back so you hear the range and then pluck again and turn it slowly until it sounds right.

Playing it feels and sounds very natural. Breakup with medium plucking intensity starts a bit past noon on the gain knob and even with the gain around 2 o'clock, soft playing is not clipping yet.
 
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#34
el murdoque said:
Okay, I can understand how one could want to have one of those.

I took the Pork Loin for a test ride. I only had a couple of minutes and no chance to open it up yet. There are three more controls inside and I want to look at them and set them back to stock if they have been tampered with. My first impression is quite good. It is a soft overdrive, very easy on the ears and there is not much gain on tap - even with the gain maxed it sounds friendly. This is not a bad thing, I think that is what I want.
Another bonus: It seems like it'll be a nice fit on my board from an aesthetic viewpoint. I have taken off the C4 for the moment because I still have that AMT pedal in the spot for the drive and because of that the power is set to 12V and I don't want to mess with that at all (and end up connecting something that can only take 9V to that outlet by accident), also I like to A/B the pedals.
When I A/B'ed it with the O-Bass I immediately noticed that the O-Bass sounds much brighter. Then I found out that the tone knob on the Pork Loin seems to be a passive tone knob like on a bass - all it does is roll off the highs. With that knob set at max, the signal from the bass is all there, but somehow more of it.
Even set to unity the signal is louder with the Pork Loin engaged - a mid boost maybe?
Then there's the curve knob that feels like it rolls off the highs on the sizzle when you engage it. The sizzle goes from dark, warm and soft to harder, more high frequency content, more shriek-y clipping sound.
Simply pluck a string and turn it from left to right and back so you hear the range and then pluck again and turn it slowly until it sounds right.

Playing it feels and sounds very natural. Breakup with medium plucking intensity starts a bit past noon on the gain knob and even with the gain around 2 o'clock, soft playing is not clipping yet.
Click to expand...

Love the Pork Loin. Glad you dig it! Was on my board for a long time before the SSBS Mini unseated it. Still miss it though :/// Maybe a Pork & Pickle is in my future.
 
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#35
Just squeezed in half an hour more of playing.
I have to take back what I said earlier about the mids.
My main bass is passive and does not have that much output compared to my others (my P has an aguilar pickup that is quite hot, the others are active). When I plugged in the P bass, I had to go back on the gain for quite a bit for equal results.
Right now, I have the Pork Loin set so that when you kick it on while playing softly, there is absolutely no difference. As soon as you start hitting medium hard - that is where my comp engages - you get a bit of grinding dirt - soft, round gravel (the one you can walk barefoot).
When you dig in, it gets dirtier.
Tomorrow should bring the Locomotive pedal. That will make things interesting.
 
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#36
el murdoque said:
Shopping spree ended (by force).
The second hand market was not that promising when I browsed it. Then I made a mistake and posted an ad stating that I'm looking for a drive pedal. There are more than just a few people willing to part with theirs once you offer sufficient monetary compensation. I had to pull the ad a few hours later.
Expected to arrive next week:

SolidgoldFX Beta DLX.
I've listened to the videos on youtube. This is an oddball given my preferences - and it has the same form factor the Blessed Mother has, but I liked what it did to a Jazz bass with flats. With the boost switchable to be pre or post drive, I could get two useful sounds out of this thing. On the one hand some light, barely there drive that sits well with oldschool sounds and with some boosting into that some more gain that shows I mean it.

Crazy Tube Circuits Locomotive.
I like that this is a simple pedal and that it's tube driven. My gut feeling tells me this could be exactly what I'm looking for. All you get to adjust is gain, tone and the dry/wet output volume. It sounded very touch sensitive and I liked the drive sounds.

Way Huge Pork Loin.
I've never owned anything Way Huge but always wanted to. The demos sound promising. I got a good price on one. I dig the purple.
Click to expand...
I was actually going to suggest a SolidGold Beta- I had an original one (not deluxe) for a bit and it wasn’t to my taste (too fat and round, I like the option of cutting edge from a drive), but sounds like you might dig it given your comments and other pedal comparisons. They’ve made a few different versions of the Beta now with different clipping circuits, mine was the original which they have now updated with the MKII and presumably the Dlx so I assume they offer a bit more flexibility on the base tone of the one I had.
 
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#37
arepa_funk said:
SSBS Mini. Can go from clean boost to touch sensitive overdrive all the way to fuzz. Bias and gain knobs determine what type of effect you have. I used it as a gated fuzz (gain full on, bias full off) for a long time. Currently using it as an overdrive, gain around 11 o'clock, bias pretty clean too. Lovely touch breakup.
Click to expand...

I read that and somehow I have the SSBS Mini, in my mind, firmly stored in the 'interesting fuzz pedals' cabinet.
After you mentioned it kicked the Pork Loin off your board, I finally came around to give it a listen, and I'm glad I did. I am not sure whether or not this pedal will work with what I do, but I'm willing to give it a try, should I stumble across one. SSBS has them listed with six to eight weeks on their site and shops around here don't have stock, reverb is also empty, but I'll keep my eyes peeled.
 
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#38
el murdoque said:
I read that and somehow I have the SSBS Mini, in my mind, firmly stored in the 'interesting fuzz pedals' cabinet.
After you mentioned it kicked the Pork Loin off your board, I finally came around to give it a listen, and I'm glad I did. I am not sure whether or not this pedal will work with what I do, but I'm willing to give it a try, should I stumble across one. SSBS has them listed with six to eight weeks on their site and shops around here don't have stock, reverb is also empty, but I'll keep my eyes peeled.
Click to expand...
The Mini is great- compared to the Beta I found it tighter on the bottom and more midrange textured, still a bit dark for me which is why I moved it on. It uses a “starve” type function (lol abeles Bias) for the fuzzy tones much like the Fairfield Barbershop (labeled Sag), but I found the Mini to have a more cutting character to its tone that I much preferred (I found the Barbershop farty sounding in my rig)
 
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#39
el murdoque said:
I read that and somehow I have the SSBS Mini, in my mind, firmly stored in the 'interesting fuzz pedals' cabinet.
After you mentioned it kicked the Pork Loin off your board, I finally came around to give it a listen, and I'm glad I did. I am not sure whether or not this pedal will work with what I do, but I'm willing to give it a try, should I stumble across one. SSBS has them listed with six to eight weeks on their site and shops around here don't have stock, reverb is also empty, but I'll keep my eyes peeled.
Click to expand...

It can basically do all dirt flavors. And with the gain fully CCW, it can work as a clean boost. The big thing is getting the bias and gain knobs working together for whatever end you want. For me, I used these settings:
Gain full on, bias full on = full bodied fuzz
Gain full on, bias fully off = gated fuzz
Gain 11 o'clock, bias anywhere between 1:30 and 3 o'clock = lovely overdrive.

I keep the bass and treble knobs almost fully CW, since that's the no-cut zone (to my ears at least.)

Hope you're able to find one! My guitar player is looking for one too, and some trade forums I visit are saturated with "looking for SSBS mini" messages. Six to eight weeks doesn't sound terrible, though?
 
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