My Dirt Bender - Another Jounal

[el murdoque]

The DCX certainly does the same thing every Origin pedal does when you hold it in your hands: It oozes quality from every pore. It feels that kind of heavy that makes you think "this is expensive". The knobs are precise and run easy enough to, well, run easy - but stiff enough to keep their settings after a bumpy car ride. It looks classy and very well made.
The versatility of the whole thing certainly is fun to toy around with, too.
I kind of want it to fit into my setup and am willing to try out different spots.
The problem is that this gentle breakup super dynamic thing is already covered by the Saturn and that the tone sweetening it is capable of has a big overlap with the Noble.

 

[sloppy_phil]

@el murdoque we live in truly bountiful times as bass players. It never used to be this good! Instead of having merely token gestures from most of the pedal builders, we are now constantly given high quality options specifically tailored for bass. Many examples of players now beset with choice paralysis.

Your "problem" would have been unthinkable even 15 years ago... may your computations and permutations not prove overly head-scratching!

I personally try to avoid too much overlap in terms of what my pedals offer; everything needs to bring something to the party that none of the others do. But that's just me; many folks seem to have the polar opposite approach to board building.

 

[theunknowndude]

@el murdoque we live in truly bountiful times as bass players. It never used to be this good! Instead of having merely token gestures from most of the pedal builders, we are now constantly given high quality options specifically tailored for bass. Many examples of players now beset with choice paralysis.

Your "problem" would have been unthinkable even 15 years ago... may your computations and permutations not prove overly head-scratching!

I personally try to avoid too much overlap in terms of what my pedals offer; everything needs to bring something to the party that none of the others do. But that's just me; many folks seem to have the polar opposite approach to board building.

I’m the same, my main staples for a long time for overdrive is the cog mini 66 and for distortion the damnation mbd1. A few times recently I have bought an overdrive or distortion and then thought, but I have this in those two pedals and sold off the other overdrives and distortions…
I THINk I am sorted this way with fuzz too from the fuzz in my Justin chancellor wah and sold off my green muff reissue… but I am tempted to get a muff again as it is a different flavour from anything else.

 

[el murdoque]

Surprise: That Origin Pedal is going back.

Why? Let me explain:
The things that make the Origin special to me are, as I explained, the huge amount of dynamics in the drive circuit, the very tasteful EQ options and the auto-rolloff function.
All these should make it a keeper, BUT.

I don't have a real need for the EQ. The Origin does a tremendous job, but my Noble does it better.
I can't boost Highs and Lows even more, and trying to push on the Origin pedal while dialing back on the Noble yielded results that were worse than letting the Noble do its thing.

I don't have a real need for the magic treble roll off. If I learned one thing then it is that while I like a dark overall sound, my well worn flats, my preference for the neck pickup and my generous turning on all knobs labeled "bass" ensure that there's not much treble in my signal. A drive pedal is very welcome to add some -- without rolling off high frequencies.
Which leaves the fact that it is a very dynamic drive pedal. In my personal setup, it lacks character. A/B'ing it in the slot of my first dirt pedal (currently held by the Spaceman Saturn) gave the Saturn a slight edge because I like the added sizzle a little more - it feels a bit more like an organic, living sound, where the Origin delivers a surgical precision that does in no means sound artificial, it just could do with a wee bit more chaos. On top of that, the Saturn works super well with the Jive and the Origin works okay with it.

 

[sloppy_phil]

Well jeez, good thing I didn't put that tenner down on you definitely keeping the DCX after the initial gushing review! I knew there was a reason I don't gamble...

Also, reassuring to note that it's not always the shiny, new toys that catch the eye; sometimes it's the thing you already had which was the one you wanted. A lot of these pedals cover overlapping territory, and sometimes they overlap in places that compliment each other, and others can just get in each others' way.

Still curious how you'd get on with that Scorpion...

 

[el murdoque]

Well jeez, good thing I didn't put that tenner down on you definitely keeping the DCX after the initial gushing review! I knew there was a reason I don't gamble...

Also, reassuring to note that it's not always the shiny, new toys that catch the eye; sometimes it's the thing you already had which was the one you wanted. A lot of these pedals cover overlapping territory, and sometimes they overlap in places that compliment each other, and others can just get in each others' way.

Still curious how you'd get on with that Scorpion...

I still think it is a great pedal and everyone should try one - except maybe those that play flats into a Noble.
Also, I would have liked to make it fit somewhere in my signal chain where it really works, but there is no such place. And given that this is readily available and will be for some time, I can get another one whenever I feel like it.

I think once the return is through, I will have to get that Redstone.

 

[sloppy_phil]

@el murdoque This is silly. Clearly the answer is to build an entire second board around the DCX!

Problem solved. You are most welcome

 

[sunbeast]

The concept of a drive that gets darker when I dig in is counter-intuitive to me, as I've found lots of gain-stages already have that effect (in reality, most guitar and bass clipping circuits are adding lots of midrange harmonics that overpower the top-end and bottom-end). I guess the perfect drive is one that adds just enough top-end edge while digging in to retain attack clarity while not too much to get fizzy, and the best ones I've found for this purpose are cutting some midrange frequencies into the clipping circuitry and/or have some sort of "attack boost" high-frequency boost into the clipping circuit.
I'd like to give that Saturn a try!

 

[el murdoque]

I apologize for taking so long, not having any pedal incoming.
No more. Join me in the tedious wait for this to arrive:

 

[sloppy_phil]

Vas ist das?

 

[Derek Williams]

Vas ist das?

I remember seeing it here, almost ordered one too:

 

[Parzival]

I remember seeing it here, almost ordered one too:

Not gonna lie, when I hear Gregor start off talking about whintage tone or drive, I get kind of tingly feeling.

 

[el murdoque]

I think it's a lot easier to understand him when you're a German and can deal with the accent.
However, the subtitles work really well for all the basstheworld videos on youtube.

 

[el murdoque]

It's always a sad thing when a poor little drive pedal has to travel alone.
Let's get it some company.

 

[deepestend]

i just ordered a scorpion and will post a few soundclips once it arrives.

@johnk_10 what do you think of the scorpion so far?

 

[el murdoque]

 

[el murdoque]

Having family over and very little time to check out drive pedals, so the carrier did double time to get the CMC pedal here, too. Half an hour ago I had one pedal and zero time.
Now I have two pedals and zero time.

 

[sloppy_phil]

@el murdoque Surely the family can wait! Don't they realize there's a bunch of us here *very* curious to hear updates on your Jounal?

It's actually quite rude of them, interrupting and all. I'd have a word with them, personally...

 

[el murdoque]

Shall I pass you the telephone number? My sister is quite fluent in French and does the Anglo-Saxon tongue like a native.
However, they asked if it's okay to visit over the weekend and I said it is - fully expecting the incoming parcels to be delivered on Monday.


I gotta check out the OC-2 vs the modded OC-2 in the synth thread - but I'm the curiosest about the Redstone versus the HWUA.

On paper, we basically pit two pedals with a similar knob layout. One has the classic Fender tonstack and is running a tube, the other has a tonestack that is quite similar, but the mids are raised +6dB and fires into a Germanium diode. How will these two compare to each other?

How will the Redstone compare to the Saturn VI?


I'm keen to find out.

 

[sloppy_phil]

Shall I pass you the telephone number? My sister is quite fluent in French and does the Anglo-Saxon tongue like a native.
However, they asked if it's okay to visit over the weekend and I said it is - fully expecting the incoming parcels to be delivered on Monday.


I gotta check out the OC-2 vs the modded OC-2 in the synth thread - but I'm the curiosest about the Redstone versus the HWUA.

On paper, we basically pit two pedals with a similar knob layout. One has the classic Fender tonstack and is running a tube, the other has a tonestack that is quite similar, but the mids are raised +6dB and fires into a Germanium diode. How will these two compare to each other?

How will the Redstone compare to the Saturn VI?


I'm keen to find out.

LOL Are you assuming that just because I'm Canadian, I can speak French? The sad reality is that she's probably better than I am at it now; as a youth, I never quite saw, despite my very good grades, the point of speaking a second language, so stopped pursuing French once it was no longer a mandatory course (high school). Making up for it now by learning Spanish (the S.O. is fluent in French, so the two of us make a formidable travel twosome now), so I guess I'll have to chat with your sister in the ol' Anglo-Saxon. Maybe I can pass along my phone number, instead? I ain't racking up service charges calling to Europe!

Do you mostly use the UA as a dirt pedal, rather than a "preamp"?