My Dirt Bender - Another Jounal

[theunknowndude]

I suspected the same. My uneducated guess would be that feeding the pedal a flats-through-neck-pickup signal results in drive that is happening, just not audible. The somewhat weak upper harmonics and strong low end push the pedal, but while a roundwound string would ring out with much more treble content to fetch the distortion, the flats gets zilch.

It’s funny
I described the exact above to the alpha omicron when played finger style with coated strings… and that was with active pickups set 50/50 neck and bridge.

I never originally like the B3k as it was how you describe but when I had my other overdrive too “crunchy” for me / I setup the B3k in almost opposite off the normal videos and darkglass sound - I have it as an always on but if exciter for my low strings - bass full on, blend mostly clean and the top end mostly cut. So no clank, sounds like my normal bass sound except a bit of growl on my B and E strings if I dig in.

I usually use that for half my band stuff, or individually an mbd1, green Russian muff clone or the Justin chancellor fuzz wah (with the B3k on to give it a bit more wall of sound)

 

[sunbeast]

It’s funny, Darkglass is the one brand of pedal that has never tempted me. Was never sure why, but maybe I was hearing (or failing to hear) what @el murdoque is describing above.

I also have an iPhone and an iPad, but you have to draw the line somewhere

The original "Apple" comparisons to Darkglass I saw were in reference to price (fair 15 years ago, but these days with lots of analog drive pedals pushing over $200 not really quite as out of line as they seemed in the early days), and tendency to release new products that made old ones obsolete regularly. The second point never made alot of sense to me though, as DG had established a pattern of releasing a basic drive pedal (ie DG Vintage, B3K), a version with added EQ and DI (Vintage Deluxe, B7K), and a version with clean/dirt foot switches, expanded EQ, IR ability, headphone amp, etc (Vintage Ultra, B7K Ultra) pretty early on and none of the new ones actually made the old ones obsolete- I've had all the Vintage ones and went back to the basic one for my needs. The only other "iPhone" comparison that makes sense to me is the Android-user tendency to say that iPhones are all just hype and style over substance. Again that comparison makes no sense to me, because Darkglass products have unique circuits that do specific things that other products don't do the same, so whether you like what they do or not they by definition can't be all hype or style over substance. Its really just a matter of taste. Personally I have no brand allegiances, but I feel Darkglass created a market for bass-specific drives that previously barely existed apart from Sansamp and a few other random Tubescreamers with blend controls- and IMO are a big part of the reason for the modern renaissance of bass-specific options

 

[el murdoque]

The original "Apple" comparisons to Darkglass I saw were in reference to price (fair 15 years ago, but these days with lots of analog drive pedals pushing over $200 not really quite as out of line as they seemed in the early days), and tendency to release new products that made old ones obsolete regularly. The second point never made alot of sense to me though, as DG had established a pattern of releasing a basic drive pedal (ie DG Vintage, B3K), a version with added EQ and DI (Vintage Deluxe, B7K), and a version with clean/dirt foot switches, expanded EQ, IR ability, headphone amp, etc (Vintage Ultra, B7K Ultra) pretty early on and none of the new ones actually made the old ones obsolete- I've had all the Vintage ones and went back to the basic one for my needs. The only other "iPhone" comparison that makes sense to me is the Android-user tendency to say that iPhones are all just hype and style over substance. Again that comparison makes no sense to me, because Darkglass products have unique circuits that do specific things that other products don't do the same, so whether you like what they do or not they by definition can't be all hype or style over substance. Its really just a matter of taste. Personally I have no brand allegiances, but I feel Darkglass created a market for bass-specific drives that previously barely existed apart from Sansamp and a few other random Tubescreamers with blend controls- and IMO are a big part of the reason for the modern renaissance of bass-specific options

I would go one step further and say that they did some artistic stuff with a sleek design that is recognizable as Darkglass, with some new UI features.
Look at their Comp - with the touch surfaces. Or those infinity pedals with those black stripes (are they touch sensitive?).

 

[el murdoque]

But please, people: This is the cork sniffer's guild.
We don't discuss prices.


More expensive means more exclusive, because it's harder for the proletariat to access.

 

[sunbeast]

I would go one step further and say that they did some artistic stuff with a sleek design that is recognizable as Darkglass, with some new UI features.
Look at their Comp - with the touch surfaces. Or those infinity pedals with those black stripes (are they touch sensitive?).

That’s true- the custom milled enclosures and touch encoders, etc. as well as the ads once they started making YouTube promos. I guess those parts never really mattered much to me (same with the sleekness of an iPhone), but fair point. I still think of the earliest versions of the B3K and B7K when DG was still based out of Chile and direct order only and when only a handful of TB’ers had them and they were the talk of the town around here (and definitely had that “exclusivity” down due to the pricepoint back then!). The early ones had a similar aesthetic but a little more rough/DIY in a cool way (IMO)

 

[GrowlerBox]

The original "Apple" comparisons to Darkglass I saw were in reference to price (fair 15 years ago, but these days with lots of analog drive pedals pushing over $200 not really quite as out of line as they seemed in the early days), and tendency to release new products that made old ones obsolete regularly. The second point never made alot of sense to me though, as DG had established a pattern of releasing a basic drive pedal (ie DG Vintage, B3K), a version with added EQ and DI (Vintage Deluxe, B7K), and a version with clean/dirt foot switches, expanded EQ, IR ability, headphone amp, etc (Vintage Ultra, B7K Ultra) pretty early on and none of the new ones actually made the old ones obsolete- I've had all the Vintage ones and went back to the basic one for my needs. The only other "iPhone" comparison that makes sense to me is the Android-user tendency to say that iPhones are all just hype and style over substance. Again that comparison makes no sense to me, because Darkglass products have unique circuits that do specific things that other products don't do the same, so whether you like what they do or not they by definition can't be all hype or style over substance. Its really just a matter of taste. Personally I have no brand allegiances, but I feel Darkglass created a market for bass-specific drives that previously barely existed apart from Sansamp and a few other random Tubescreamers with blend controls- and IMO are a big part of the reason for the modern renaissance of bass-specific options

Thank you for taking me far more seriously than I take myself .

Aside from them not conforming to my taste (as an inveterate user of flats, the whole flats and nothing but the flats. Really, I’ll even play Chromes over roundwounds, so you know I’m serious), I have nothing at all against Darkglass, their marketing or their (sshhh) pricing.

 

[sunbeast]

Thank you for taking me far more seriously than I take myself .

Aside from them not conforming to my taste (as an inveterate user of flats, the whole flats and nothing but the flats. Really, I’ll even play Chromes over roundwounds, so you know I’m serious), I have nothing at all against Darkglass, their marketing or their (sshhh) pricing.

As I’ve mentioned, my love affair with the DG Vintage was almost entirely found using flatwounds! I actually don’t like it nearly as much with rounds (though I‘m also just less and less into rounds in general these days). With rounds I usually found it a little too gainy (though I was also getting tube amp saturation on too much of the time), except with my Rickenbackers (which are both quite low output). I need to pull it out and AB it with my Blackstone Mosfet though (which has become a regular always-on for me in one of my bands), definitely curious! I know they are very different both in tone and feel

 

[el murdoque]

I'd wager that the Blackstone is somewhat richer in the upper registers - both through added harmonics and due to its creamy sound.

Also, you get the red channel on top of the brown for when you need some more.

 

[el murdoque]

Happy news: Fellow dirt pedal gourmand @moon-bass has parted with his Free The Tone Bass Blaster and it's on its way across the pond now. With any luck, it might arrive within the week.

 

[el murdoque]

Heads up:

There's a SS/BS Mini for cheaper than I saw in recent years on Reverb right now, based in the US.

 

[el murdoque]

In engineering, it is common knowledge that every machine is a smoke machine if you operate it wrong enough.

In dirtpedalling, every pedal is a dirt pedal if you feed it hot enough.

This here actually was not that bad of an idea. To access dirt mode, you need to use a strong output bass or boost your signal a bit. The envelope knob obviously has to be all the way off and will not provide anything, same as the slow/fast switch.
At first I thought, Resonance has to be all the way off, too - but it has its use. The main knobs are Drive and Filter, just rename them as gain and tone.
The Filter knob obviously acts as a static LPF now, so you can use it to dial back on the top end sizzle.
I was getting two useful sounds out of it. Hitting it with a bossted signal and the drive dimed, I was getting something akin to a velcro fuzz. Lots of bottom end, lots of ripping. The Filter knob is quite capable to tame it to a very musical sound, then just fiddling a bit with the resonance knob - there's a sweet spot. Resonance off is fine, turning it up makes it a bit better and then it gets much worse. Dial back a bit and done.

The other setting is with the drive set to the typical "soft playing is smooth, hard playing is crunchy" setting and using the LPF to take just a little off the top.
Both sounds are rather oldschool and would not work in modern metal settings, but If you happen to have that pedal at home, just try it out and see what happens!

 

[sloppy_phil]

@el murdoque Fantastic work on turning this whole envelope filter sidebar back into a Dirt Bender! We aren't here for "normal" or "typical" pedal operation, we are here for gloriously worded sonic analogies of the distortion sounds you are pulling up over there in the land of lager and pretzels.

For what it's worth, I do consider the chat on this pedal interesting and informative. I don't think I've heard anything yet which would make me consider buying one to shoot out against my Xerograph Deluxe, but this seems like an incredibly well designed pedal, with a few tricks (intended or otherwise) up its sleek, Australian sleeve.

 

[Parzival]

I have my rig set and don’t lack for anything right now. But, I’m still gigging, so that means extra fun money.
I’m going to start trying out different drives. I tried quite a few but they were mostly in lower price ranges and I’m going to get a little cork sniffy and try to find some Murdock hasn’t gotten to.

 

[Parzival]

Also noticed another 4-knobber from our own JohnK

 

[Parzival]

Ok, don’t know how I missed this thread

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/singular-audio-tubedrve-pedal.1657712/

This just shot to the top of the Next pedal list.

 

[el murdoque]

Yeah, I've seen that one, too.

I do have to admit that not only my fun funds are quite depleted right now, also the SO, who does not have a keen eye for pedal acquisitions, has mentioned that it seems like the pile is growing even though I claimed to reduce the total number.
She does not really understand that sometimes, you cannot sell two pedals just like that. You need to buy five, then sell seven.
Sometimes you need to buy ten and sell twelve - so even though the current number is going up, it's actually on the way down.

Tracking for the Bass Blaster has updated twice today. First was at 8am, which was happy news - it touched down in the land of Beer and Pretzels.
Second was not much later, when the ETA jumped from Friday to Monday.

 

[arepa_funk]

The ROG Ginger/Flipster overdrive covers those bases too. This is a two-in-one pedal from JohnK, with the Barber Linden on the left the Ginger overdrive on the right. I think it's based on the Ampeg SB-12.

Here it is on a board from a jam a number of months ago. (Forgive the cabling, using a Nano board, power supply didn't fit underneath).

 

[el murdoque]

The ROG Ginger/Flipster overdrive covers those bases too. This is a two-in-one pedal from JohnK, with the Barber Linden on the left the Ginger overdrive on the right. I think it's based on the Ampeg SB-12.

Here it is on a board from a jam a number of months ago. (Forgive the cabling, using a Nano board, power supply didn't fit underneath).


View attachment 7000964

How would you describe the nature of the Ginger? I've only played a Portaflex from the sixties once, and I thought it sounded muffled - but that was of course running through the original cabinet, which was quite unable to provide any kind of treble. How do the highs sound here? How does it do when things get dirty?

 

[el murdoque]

I have a strong feeling that my next post is going to involve a picture of a yellow pedal.

 

[sloppy_phil]

Can't wait to hear your latest go 'round with this beauty, @el murdoque!

Sometimes you've just gotta give things in life another chance