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My Dirt Bender - Another Jounal

#601
sunbeast said:
I believe the Bluesbreaker and Tubescreamer use very similar clipping components, but with the control topology and tone circuits arranged in the circuit in a much different way. Usually the outcome of this is that the Tubescreamer is comparably mid-heavy, compressed, and a bit higher in gain while the Bluesbreaker is known for being more dynamic, clear, and with more lower gain range. In the Xotic BB circuit, they still have the Tubescreamer tone circuit but have it hard-wired turned almost all the way down resulting in a darker/thicker tone than most would think of as TS, then you have active EQ that can make it brighter but without raising up the midrange that usually screams TS. Then the Bass BB has a number of component-value changes that make the circuit more bass-friendly and taking it even farther away from a typical Tubescreamer variant (but still using the basic clipping topology of a Tubescreamer)
Click to expand...

The word Tubescreamer equals a mids heavy and compressed sound in my book - and that is something I don't like a lot. The introduction of a two band EQ alone lets you get around that mids bump.
Could it be that Xotic started off with a TS circuit and then tweaked, tweaked some more, changed bits and bops, put an active two band in there, tweaked once again, changed out more stuff and finally realized they wound up with something that A) makes them happy and B) Sounds and feels a lot closer to the BB than it does to the TS ?

I'd like to know how other BB derived pedals fare on bass. Interestingly, both the Xotic and the Wampler have that two band EQ, while the Analogman King of Tone and all the Marshalls (the original Blues Breaker, the BB-2 and the BB reissue) only have a single tone knob.
 
#602
el murdoque said:
Oh yeah! My curiosity is sparked.
The proverbial dog behind the oven has opened its eyes and raised an ear.

Wampler Tumnus ... is that the Klon?


I'm on a .... bender .. again!
Not only the Beta V is headed my way, but
I just closed the lid on something really special.
And quite expensive.
Click to expand...

Dog behind the oven? That’s gotta be a German expression; I’ve never heard that one before!

Tumnus is indeed the Klon. This whole dirt bender, and I don’t recall one Klone yet making its way into your clutches…
 
#605
Charlie Tuna said:
Tell us more about the Tumnus and bass retention and furrrr
Click to expand...

LOL! The simple truth is "I don't know". Haven't tried a Tumnus. Looking into it slightly farther, I'd say the Tumnus Deluxe would almost guaranteed be a winner; it's got a 3-band EQ with active bass and mid controls. I'm venturing, based on how well Wampler pedals appear to work on bass (Pantheon based on this review, and the Belle based on much personal experience), that the Tumnus would be no exception.

But, y'know, this is @el murdoque's Dirt Bender, not mine!
 
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#608
Maaaaaan!

You are becoming an important repository of dirt bass knowledge! If you could record one loop to some ditto looper etc. And play it back through each of your elite dirt toys (various settings, same reference loop) I could pay $ to subscribe lol
 
#609
Okay, I need a little help here.
I've found this on Talkbass:
IMG-20230913-WA0015.jpg


It shows what parts to replace on the Klon circuit to make it work with bass.
I did source all the parts from an old Playstation, my TV remote and the stereo that's been sitting in the garage and desoldered them.
But when I opened up my Klon to do the replacement work, this was what I found:
IMG-20230913-WA0014.jpg

Some weirdo has smeared black gunk all over the board.
It has hardened completely, now I can't make out which part is which - and I can't reach most bits to solder in the new ones. TB, please help! This pedal has cost me $4500!
 
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#611
el murdoque said:
Okay, I need a little help here.
I've found this on Talkbass:
View attachment 5188661

It shows what parts to replace on the Klon circuit to make it work with bass.
I did source all the parts from an old Playstation, my TV remote and the stereo that's been sitting in the garage and desoldered them.
But when I opened up my Klon to do the replacement work, this was what I found:
View attachment 5188663
Some weirdo has smeared black gunk all over the board.
It has hardened completely, now I can't make out which part is which - and I can't reach most bits to solder in the new ones. TB, please help! This pedal has cost me $4500!
Click to expand...

That's not some weirdo; that's what Klon did in-house! It was to protect their "mythical" circuit from ever being properly copied. I had never seen inside one, but have heard tell of the mysterious black goo.
 
#613
el murdoque said:
Okay, I need a little help here.
I've found this on Talkbass:
View attachment 5188661

It shows what parts to replace on the Klon circuit to make it work with bass.
I did source all the parts from an old Playstation, my TV remote and the stereo that's been sitting in the garage and desoldered them.
But when I opened up my Klon to do the replacement work, this was what I found:
View attachment 5188663
Some weirdo has smeared black gunk all over the board.
It has hardened completely, now I can't make out which part is which - and I can't reach most bits to solder in the new ones. TB, please help! This pedal has cost me $4500!
Click to expand...
That goo is caviar. Find a nice wine, sniff the cork and indulge.
 
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#616
el murdoque said:
The word Tubescreamer equals a mids heavy and compressed sound in my book - and that is something I don't like a lot. The introduction of a two band EQ alone lets you get around that mids bump.
Could it be that Xotic started off with a TS circuit and then tweaked, tweaked some more, changed bits and bops, put an active two band in there, tweaked once again, changed out more stuff and finally realized they wound up with something that A) makes them happy and B) Sounds and feels a lot closer to the BB than it does to the TS ?

I'd like to know how other BB derived pedals fare on bass. Interestingly, both the Xotic and the Wampler have that two band EQ, while the Analogman King of Tone and all the Marshalls (the original Blues Breaker, the BB-2 and the BB reissue) only have a single tone knob.
Click to expand...
You are comparing two highly modified takes on different pedals, so they aren’t a great sample to make general circuit extrapolations from. I suspect the difference between the standard (non-bass) Xotic BB and the Pantheon would be more significant, and the difference between a TS9 and a Marshall Bluesbreaker to be far more significant. For what it’s worth, I actually had an early Bluesbreaker that I tried with bass 20-something years ago and did not find it very useful at the time- but I knew next to nothing about gear or tone back then relative to now, it was just a cheap pedal at a local used gear shop that looked cool and the only bass drives I knew about at the time were the Sansamp BD and the Fulltone Bassdrive, both of which I thought were too pricey (haha, looks at current market value of pedal hoard….)
 
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#617
el murdoque said:
Here's something controversial:

I don't like dirt pedals with a clean blend.

Why?
For me personally, a clean blend is a crutch. It's the pedal builder's easy way out.
When you use the circuit you already built for guitar, plug it in and realize that this does not work on bass because it eats up the lows, you can either use bigger capacitors (sorry, electronics layman here) and such, re-tweak everything and slowly breadboard your way to a finished bass circuit, or you can simply take that guitar product that's too weak for bass, slap on a clean blend and be done.

I can live with pedals that have a clean blend, but work 100% wet - but a dirt pedal that needs dry mixed in is not my cup of tea.
Click to expand...
100% this for me as well.
 
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#618
el murdoque said:
But how to solder the board now? Am I stuck with a $4500 guitar pedal? I only have one guitar and that's $200!
Click to expand...

Did you find a solution yet ?

Makes me wonder what research you did before spending that kind of money on a guitar pedal, with the intention to mod it, when even Wikipedia clearly states that “Finnegan coated the components in epoxy resin to make the pedal harder to replicate”.
 
#620
Dr. Gonzo82 said:
Did you find a solution yet ?

Makes me wonder what research you did before spending that kind of money on a guitar pedal, with the intention to mod it, when even Wikipedia clearly states that “Finnegan coated the components in epoxy resin to make the pedal harder to replicate”.
Click to expand...


To be completely honest with you, I was just pulling @sloppy_phil 's leg.
Or was I was pulling Talkbasses leg for Sloppy_Phil's amusement?

At the very least, @Dr. Gonzo82 's leg has been pulled.


The secret, special and expensive pedal I bought is still in transit and it is not a Klon.
 
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