#1001 Dude this has been long going on, now you're talking candy and dirt pedals just when I have to swear off on both. 
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My Dirt Bender - Another Jounal
- Thread starter el murdoque
- Start date
No one gets excluded here!#1001 Dude this has been long going on, now you're talking candy and dirt pedals just when I have to swear off on both.
Wanna talk health food and clean pedals?
I've played around with the PX-101 a bit more in the last days.
One thing I found:
The pedal is incredibly reactive, even with weak output basses. It does not take long to find some funky quack sounds that work even with old flatwounds. The four pole filter comes down hard enough so it's clearly audible. I played disco lines and enjoyed the quack a lot.
Plus, it was time for some blasphemy: BBQ without meat. I'm member in a sort of farmer's club. It's like a couple of people in a community pay a monthly fee, which is enough for a small team of farmers to plant, care and harvest on a few acres of good land. Super organic, no chemicals. You get a basket full of veggies once per week. Winter is a bit worse, but during summer, you're hard pressed to finish off last week's basket before the next arrives. Hence the BBQ.
We did fennel cut to pieces and put in tin foil with olive oil and a bit salt and pepper. Put on the grill until it's soft. Tasty.
And zucchini with garlic, onions and a bit of chili.
We have those around here, called CSA, community supported agriculture. It’s so great to be a part of.
A direct translation for what we have here would be solidaric agriculture.
I really like that you often get stuff you would not buy yourself. Then you have it sitting at home, with a very short 'Best before' date, since it's completely organic and spoils quickly. It broadens horizons. And is often tasty - and very healthy.
So what about CSP?
Community Supported Pedalboarding.
You get a new pedal every week and need to play a gig with it until you can pass it on.
Community Supported Pedalboarding.
You get a new pedal every week and need to play a gig with it until you can pass it on.
@el murdoque I love all the fresh veggies and fruits that late spring, summer and early fall offer, I guess it would be from my early years living on a dairy farm with a large truck garden and later my Grandma Alice's garden. You can grow a lot of food in a 50' x 100' space she even had peach, plum and fig trees.
Having owned iterations of every Darkglass drive line, I can’t see a unified voice across them so am kinda befuddled at how often people talk about a “Darkglass sound”. Most likely you (all) are referring to the B3K/B7K which were their first big popular line and what defined the clanky/present distortion tones of tons of modern metal bassists starting in the 2010s. That tone is a result of a strong built-in pre-drive midrange scoop in that circuit, but even those pedals in their modern iterations can be warmed up with the right switch settings. All the other DG circuits have pretty distinct attributes- many of them do share the ability to boost high-mids into the clipping circuit as an option which can make them clanky, but that isn’t some fixed voice in any of them.
The original Vintage circuit (with "Era" control) is closely related to the B3K/B7K at least in fundamental circuit but with a completely different pre-drive EQ shape that changes the overall character pretty drastically (they are like brother and sister maybe, while the other DG circuits use very different topologies than either). It is inherently more low-mid forward than a B3K, with a rolled off treble (not dark though- still nicely present just without the inherent clank of the B3K at many settings), and in the versions with the “Era” control there is a sort of mild and variable “honk” to the midrange that cuts through a mix like butter in my experience. I played an original VMT or VMT Deluxe (with Era control) with a Rickenbacker strung with flatwounds as the main part of my rig for several years in a proto-metal band (Deep Purple-ish with some added Prog and modern spices) and it was indispensable for me. Having owned some of the later VMT Deluxe and Ultra pedals without the Era control, I found them more open in the upper midrange at similar settings and overall less distinct and less cutting in a band mix despite that added brightness. The Era control is hard to explain and seems subtle when playing alone, but in a mix it can be quite powerful and unlike anything I’ve heard in any other drive pedal- it seems like it is slightly shifting a midrange voicing around- deeper at the bottom up to the high mids when full open- my favorite settings were always on either side of noon.
I haven’t played with my DG Vintage much in recent years, but do keep it around. I prefer the touch-sensitivity and lower gain abilities of pedals like the Blackstone for what I play these days. The Vintage is great with a low output bass like my Rickenbackers, but a little too gainy for my tastes with most basses (and sounds best to my ears without any Clean Blend dialed in, which would help get lower gain tones)
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That's really interesting to read. I've been thinking about the VMT for a while but haven't committed yet. A lot of it is my bias towards the (perceived) DG sound, another part is that I mostly play G&Ls with MFDs and flats and think the output might be too hot for touch responsive, fingerstyle tones (funk, soul, etc.) while maintaining definition (cleanish until digging in) and avoiding muddiness in the lows, esp B string.
Can the VMT get there? I'm using the Hudson Broadcast, Sushi Boxes, and other of preamps but haven't really been 100% satisfied.
Having played G&Ls for many years I would say that unfortunately I don't think you'd be able to get clean enough with a Darkglass Vintage for what you describe without kinda fudging it by blending in lots of clean with the blend control- even my main passive P-bass with Fralin pickups is just on the verge of too dirty for me with the Vintage with the Gain all the way down unless I cut the volume before that pedal (which is my biggest criticism of all the DG drive circuits- not a wide-enough gain range for my taste). I also don't find the VMT to be among the most touch-sensitive overdrive pedals though its low gain sounds fit in a mix really well.
I really like the touch-sensitivity and low-gain abilities of the Blackstone Mosfet- might be worth a look for you! Then again, most standard 9V headroom pedals will struggle with the output of a G&L in my experience (probably including an L2000 or SB-2)- my favorite drive when I played an L2000 as my main bass was a Tronographic Rusty Box, which handled that signal with ease (I think it is internally powered at 24+ volts) and is pretty versatile (despite a reputation for brighter biting tones). Other higher-headroom preamp type pedals with clipping would also probably be suitable (like the Aguilar Tone Hammer as I recall). One of the reasons I moved on from G&Ls was how they tended to clip pedals (and sometimes amps) too easily.
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Thank you, that's really helpful! Yeah not being able to get clean enough is a deal breaker though hearing that it sits great in a mix as low gainer is a plus.
I hear you on G&Ls. I've had issues using pedals with them too, but I love the L-1000 too much to let it go. Some of my pedals are 18v so that helps too. I also got into the habit of never maxing the volume on the basses, it's always at 80%/85% and that definitely helps.
I keep my L1000’s volume and both tone controls at around 50%, small adjustments as needed, including increasing the volume to compensate when I go from OMG to single-coil or parallel mode (not often
)
I came here to clap my hands and say "Okay, people - back to business!"
...which seems moot, since everyone dropped the veggies and the chocolate bars and picked up dirt pedals again.
Good news: Incoming pedals in the not-so-distant future!
Here's the list:
-Darkglass B3K v1
-Darkglass VM v1
-Free The Tone Bass Blaster
-Jad Freer Capo
The Darkglass pedals should arrive fairly quick, since they are sent from Germany.
The Bass Blaster will come from fellow preamp Jounalist El Jefe, but he can't send it out this week, so we're looking at a bit of a wait here.
The Capo was ordered June 5th and I can't remember if the website said eight weeks or ten back then, but eight weeks are up.
...which seems moot, since everyone dropped the veggies and the chocolate bars and picked up dirt pedals again.
Good news: Incoming pedals in the not-so-distant future!
Here's the list:
-Darkglass B3K v1
-Darkglass VM v1
-Free The Tone Bass Blaster
-Jad Freer Capo
The Darkglass pedals should arrive fairly quick, since they are sent from Germany.
The Bass Blaster will come from fellow preamp Jounalist El Jefe, but he can't send it out this week, so we're looking at a bit of a wait here.
The Capo was ordered June 5th and I can't remember if the website said eight weeks or ten back then, but eight weeks are up.
Bit of a weird question:
What is, to your knowledge, the cheapest bass OD pedal with the following specs:
Four knob layout.
-Active two band EQ
-Gain and Master
-No "Blend"
What is, to your knowledge, the cheapest bass OD pedal with the following specs:
Four knob layout.
-Active two band EQ
-Gain and Master
-No "Blend"
Yeah I was an MFD addict for some years, then got rid of them all (at least the basses) until just a few months ago when I grabbed a too-good-to-pass-up deal on a Tribute Fallout bass from the G&L factory 2nds store. It i killer! Nice to be back, though it still doesn't like most of my analog pedals!
Hot take:
I've played maybe 6 G&L basses in my lifetime and I hated every single one of them.
Of Leo's neck designs, I dig the 50's P and the Music Man Stingray.
When it comes to tone, the G&L totally excel at everything I dislike - or at least it felt like it whenever I picked one up.
My first thought was "I gotta eat a bucket of fried chicken and then play this bass without washing my hands for at least eight weeks to get rid of that annoying top end" - then the guy who owned the bass admitted that the strings were not as fresh as he likes them and they need to be replaced.
I've played maybe 6 G&L basses in my lifetime and I hated every single one of them.
Of Leo's neck designs, I dig the 50's P and the Music Man Stingray.
When it comes to tone, the G&L totally excel at everything I dislike - or at least it felt like it whenever I picked one up.
My first thought was "I gotta eat a bucket of fried chicken and then play this bass without washing my hands for at least eight weeks to get rid of that annoying top end" - then the guy who owned the bass admitted that the strings were not as fresh as he likes them and they need to be replaced.
I want to give out a honorable mention of user @butterfingers1, who is currently working their way through this thread and has reached Page 49 by now
I want to give out a honorable mention of user @butterfingers1, who is currently working their way through this thread and has reached Page 49 by now
Best two days ever.
But here's a 4-knobber for you: Audio Kitchen Fake Plastic Trees
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I keep my L1000’s volume and both tone controls at around 50%, small adjustments as needed, including increasing the volume to compensate when I go from OMG to single-coil or parallel mode (not often
G&Ls are definitely polarizing jajaj! I love the MFDs but the big issue is sufficient headroom into effects. I don't want to give up on them, especially since lowering the volume also affects the overall character of the instrument.
@el murdoque, I saw here that you used the Hudson Broadcast as well. What model did you end up using? I've got a Dual but I think I want to trade it for the 24V (green) one, single stomp.
