My Dirt Bender - Another Jounal

[arepa_funk]

This pedal has become my first choice for an overdrive sound. The simple two band EQ and the gain range are really good, and the sound feels so organic. Both the SS/BS Mini and the Spaceman Saturn VI, who have been favorites of mine, have fallen out of favor after playing the BB for a while. When I turned back to those two, they sounded too artificial to my ear. When I bought mine those were hard to get, but now that they
are dis-discontinued, everyone should get one.

Same here. I'd been using preamps for overdrive for a while after I traded away the Mini. The SV-PRE, Fliptop, a few of the Sushi Box offerings, among others. And the Pork Loin. I still dig the Broughton stuff for mostly clean preamp tones, but this Xotic BB is the bass overdrive champ to my ears. I don't miss the Mini and I barely think of any other options I've got around.

High gain (around 3 o'clock) with bass and treble at 1 o'clock is a phenomenal mid-high drive. Great for a boost below others' solos.

 

[Maxi Funkl]

Same here. I'd been using preamps for overdrive for a while after I traded away the Mini. The SV-PRE, Fliptop, a few of the Sushi Box offerings, among others. And the Pork Loin. I still dig the Broughton stuff for mostly clean preamp tones, but this Xotic BB is the bass overdrive champ to my ears. I don't miss the Mini and I barely think of any other options I've got around.

High gain (around 3 o'clock) with bass and treble at 1 o'clock is a phenomenal mid-high drive. Great for a boost below others' solos.

Bass BB VS BASS RC similar?

 

[arepa_funk]

Bass BB VS BASS RC similar?

Quite different actually. The RC isn't an overdrive, so it doesn't get dirty at all. It's a clean boost that's rich and three dimensional, has a Baxandall tone stack, and really makes passive basses sparkle.

The BB is an overdrive that can get quite dirty and skirts light fuzz territory. Also has a Bax stack.

Both together are phenomenal, they really work wonders together.

 

[Maxi Funkl]

Quite different actually. The RC isn't an overdrive, so it doesn't get dirty at all. It's a clean boost that's rich and three dimensional, has a Baxandall tone stack, and really makes passive basses sparkle.

The BB is an overdrive that can get quite dirty and skirts light fuzz territory. Also has a Bax stack.

Both together are phenomenal, they really work wonders together.

Thanks for that when I 1st got into pedals someone was going to sale me a barely used RC V2 for 50$ USD and I did not buy it because I'd never heard of the pedal only the Basses. I must have been crazy LOL!!!

 

[StayLow]

I will be satisfying my curiosity about how a handmade Swedish pedal done by the Man himself compares to the Bearfoot version. Is there any info on how the Bearfoot pedals are made? I've seen Chinese symbols on the box it came in.

View attachment 5351806

Hand-assembled in St. Louis U.S.A. No Chinese symbols of any kind on the pedals & boxes I’ve received from him.

Possibly yours was re-sold through a Chinese person or shop, or is fake (seems very far-fatched), or the box isn’t original.

 

[StayLow]

It might sound weird to those not familiar with German proverbs, but I have a chicken to pluck with the Bearfoot pedal.

I set up for an A/B with the OG Blueberry.
Twiddling with the controls, I quickly learned that the knob that is labeled with B on my unit and 'Nature' on the Bearfoot do something similar, but are mirrored.
With the B knob on the Blueberry, I get less distorted bass frequencies when turning it back (CCW).
With the Nature knob, I get less distorted bass by turning it up (CW).

I tried for a bit to match the two as closely as possible, but could not get them to sound the same. The Bearfoot has more gain. My Blueberry has the gain set around noon, the same level of breakup happens around 9 o'clock on the Bearfoot.

Apart from that, it gets hard to describe it, but this excitement that happens in the mid range that makes the Blueberry so special in my ears is completely absent in the Bearfoot, at least after the first session of playing it.
The Blueberry lends the sound a certain depth (as in deeper in the room, not deeper in pitch) and you get the feeling there's more of it. You want to run it at a very mild gain setting as an always on pedal.
The Bearfoot feels like yet another bass overdrive. Don't get me wrong. It's good!
But it bears the likeness of the original pedal and one might think they are very similar pedals, since they have the same decor and name. But my ears only found an absence in the most crucial section. That deepening, that feeling of the same tone, but lots more of it, was just not happening.
I will try to find it somewhere in there, but from the first test drive, I came back disappointed.

Huge factor may be that your Blueberry isn’t normal, given it has 4 knobs / treble boost, so is different that what nearly everyone else knows as a Blueberry.

Bearfoot was essentially made for BJFe, meant to be a Blueberry so “should” be very similar.

In any case, now you know! Maybe sort-of.

 

[arepa_funk]

Thanks for that when I 1st got into pedals someone was going to sale me a barely used RC V2 for 50$ USD and I did not buy it because I'd never heard of the pedal only the Basses. I must have been crazy LOL!!!

Jajaj that's a great deal for an RC! Have you had a chance to play either the BB or RC since?

 

[Maxi Funkl]

Jajaj that's a great deal for an RC! Have you had a chance to play either the BB or RC since?

I never tired either unfortunately!

 

[el murdoque]

Huge factor may be that your Blueberry isn’t normal, given it has 4 knobs / treble boost, so is different that what nearly everyone else knows as a Blueberry.

Bearfoot was essentially made for BJFe, meant to be a Blueberry so “should” be very similar.

In any case, now you know! Maybe sort-of.

I wanted to post a gut shot of both pedals, but was reminded that the BJFe has some black goo on the PCB that looks like Sikaflex (a terrifying glue that keeps stuff where it is until the end of time).

The thing is, Björn himself told me that on my four knob unit, with the fourth knob set fully CCW, it is taken out of the circuit and the unit is identical to his three knob version.
However, as mentioned before, the third knob on the Bearfoot and the BJFe work in opposite directions.

 

[el murdoque]

Should I be intrigued about the RC ?

 

[arepa_funk]

Should I be intrigued about the RC ?

Very enthusiastic yes over here, especially with passive basses. I used to have an active four string and it was good with it, but I prefer it with passives. The RC essentially provides an ultra version of "your sound." It doesn't color your tone, but it deepens the lows and boosts the clarity and definition. Very big fan of the RC. If it would have another name and graphics it would be more popular, imo. I haven't used the V2, which has the second gain stage. My understanding is that most people use it as an always-on preamp, but that defeated the purpose of having a boost. So the V2 corrects that by adding a secondary boost.

I shouldn't have slept on the BB for so long since I dug the RC so much. Both are forever pedals to me.

 

[Maxi Funkl]

Very enthusiastic yes over here, especially with passive basses. I used to have an active four string and it was good with it, but I prefer it with passives. The RC essentially provides an ultra version of "your sound." It doesn't color your tone, but it deepens the lows and boosts the clarity and definition. Very big fan of the RC. If it would have another name and graphics it would be more popular, imo. I haven't used the V2, which has the second gain stage. My understanding is that most people use it as an always-on preamp, but that defeated the purpose of having a boost. So the V2 corrects that by adding a secondary boost.

I shouldn't have slept on the BB for so long since I dug the RC so much. Both are forever pedals to me.

Coming from you that's one helluva high endorsement. I only own 1 passive Bass but still great information.

 

[sloppy_phil]

I ended up moving on my RC, which had more to do with it not being the right fit for my board(s) than anything inherently wrong with the pedal itself. @arepa_funk is right in that as an always-on tone sweetener, it does a wonderful job (I also use passive basses). That baxandall tone stack is very well voiced for bass! I had the v2, with the second gain stage.

If I were using it so that first gain stage was an always-on, and second channel was a boost, I may have kept it. But I already have my always-on tone stuff, and wanted a boost/drive pedal. Thought the second channel was gonna get even a *little* bit dirty, but it simply wasn't capable. I think I bought it expecting it be something it wasn't, or planned to use it in a way that it wasn't designed for. I could see it pairing very nicely with other drive pedals, for example! It was the lone drive/boost on my Nano board, which likely explains why it didn't work out.

 

[Parzival]

I had an RC Bass and it was pretty good, but it didn't make me go wow. I think two pedals in the similar category, Origin DCX Bass and Darkglass Harmonic Booster, are both better sounding pedals and more tweakable. Though, the DG may be a little more expensive and the OE is a lot more expensive, so there's that. That's just me though, YMMV.

 

[arepa_funk]

Coming from you that's one helluva high endorsement. I only own 1 passive Bass but still great information.

I'll try to post a pic of my "tone board" with the Xotics on it soon.

I ended up moving on my RC, which had more to do with it not being the right fit for my board(s) than anything inherently wrong with the pedal itself. @arepa_funk is right in that as an always-on tone sweetener, it does a wonderful job (I also use passive basses). That baxandall tone stack is very well voiced for bass! I had the v2, with the second gain stage.

If I were using it so that first gain stage was an always-on, and second channel was a boost, I may have kept it. But I already have my always-on tone stuff, and wanted a boost/drive pedal. Thought the second channel was gonna get even a *little* bit dirty, but it simply wasn't capable. I think I bought it expecting it be something it wasn't, or planned to use it in a way that it wasn't designed for. I could see it pairing very nicely with other drive pedals, for example! It was the lone drive/boost on my Nano board, which likely explains why it didn't work out.

Agreed about the Baxandall stack voicing, makes a really big difference. Ye old Precision with flats into the RC is truly great. Good point about expectations too, I kept hoping gain = dirt with it and it turns out that hope was answered by the BB .

I had an RC Bass and it was pretty good, but it didn't make me go wow. I think two pedals in the similar category, Origin DCX Bass and Darkglass Harmonic Booster, are both better sounding pedals and more tweakable. Though, the DG may be a little more expensive and the OE is a lot more expensive, so there's that. That's just me though, YMMV.

Haven't used either of those, but have heard great things. I love the Origin compressor, fwiw.

 

[el murdoque]

I had an RC Bass and it was pretty good, but it didn't make me go wow. I think two pedals in the similar category, Origin DCX Bass and Darkglass Harmonic Booster, are both better sounding pedals and more tweakable. Though, the DG may be a little more expensive and the OE is a lot more expensive, so there's that. That's just me though, YMMV.

Okay, that explains it to me in terms I can understand. I always describe the DCX Bass as a pedal that makes your bass sound $1500 more expensive - and it's a pedal I most likely would have kept if I played roundwound strings. I really liked that feature where it dynamically darkens your sound along with how hard it clips, but there's no point in reducing treble content if I don't feed it any.

My other problem on the RC take is, of course, owning a Noble.
The snob in me straight out refuses turning down the bass and treble knobs on the $1500 magic tube box to get that kind of boost from a $150 pedal.

 

[StayLow]

I wanted to post a gut shot of both pedals, but was reminded that the BJFe has some black goo on the PCB that looks like Sikaflex (a terrifying glue that keeps stuff where it is until the end of time).
View attachment 5376278

The thing is, Björn himself told me that on my four knob unit, with the fourth knob set fully CCW, it is taken out of the circuit and the unit is identical to his three knob version.
However, as mentioned before, the third knob on the Bearfoot and the BJFe work in opposite directions.

Oh, right. I’d forgotten, and I’ll gladly defer to Björn on any such matter without hesitation.

Given parts tolerances can vary up to 20% while still in spec, and those stringing can be in series plus those parts installed by hand… that could account for a lot of variation.

At least you tried. Respect to you, sir!

 

[el murdoque]

Oh, right. I’d forgotten, and I’ll gladly defer to Björn on any such matter without hesitation.

Given parts tolerances can vary up to 20% while still in spec, and those stringing can be in series plus those parts installed by hand… that could account for a lot of variation.

At least you tried. Respect to you, sir!

After your post I actually tried once more to play those two pedals.
This time I did so with a different mind set. Instead of expecting them to be (close to) identical and trying to get the exact same sound out of both units, I set the Blueberry to the settings I like (the fourth knob maxed, the weird tone knob around 10 o'clock which would be around 2 o'clock on the Bearfoot) with the gain set so it does some exciting to the tone and you can hear double stops blending together and blooming, but for audible distortion, you need to dig in.
On the Bearfoot, I did not use the dials of the Blueberry to approach a setting, but only my ears. I have the feeling that pedal has more gain on tap. When the Blueberry felt good with the gain around noon, the Bearfoot seemed to reach about the same at 11 or under.
With a gain that I liked I set the tone knob so the effect is spread evenly and then I did some fine tuning.
The result was, once more, like two very different pedals.
As I said, my Blueberry can do some sweetening in the mids that is so great and special that it easily made it to the current issue of the "I'll never ever part with that pedal" list of mine for that feature alone.

The Bearfoot does not really do that, but I was able to milk a sweet and creamy drive sound from it.
I want to say that when you listen to the demos of the SolidGold Beta pedals, you often find someone playing flats and going for an oldschool tone. The Bearfoot sounds like the tone the Beta would like to copy but falls (a bit) short of the mark. It is more organic and creamy sounding than any of the Betas I ever played.
I also feel a bit reminded of the Way Huge Pork Loin, but more in a sense of what I would have wished the device was more capable of.

However, compared to my BJFe Pedal, I want to quote:
"Good gets the job done. Great makes a difference."

 

[arepa_funk]

Tone board, missing RFE (it's en route.) I'm definitely missing some modulation and delay here. Will probably re-do this with a Nano Max.

I'm using the Diamond Comp with fours and the Cali76-CB with fives. The Analog Alien comp is used as a limiter.

This board is for my Warmoth p build.

 

[el murdoque]

What a weird situation do I find myself in at present:

The last dirt pedal has entered my house more than a month ago.
I am not actively on the hunt for any specific pedals apart from a four knob Fuzzrocious BDPG.

My three pedal boards are more or less complete and work as intended.

This would be a good moment for an (obscure) pedal brand to step forward and proclaim to have opened the next chapter in the book of bass preamp/dirt pedals.

Because when I browse what's there, I seem completely uninterested.