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My Dirt Bender - Another Jounal

#1,541
I'm curious about the LED's though. Uli Rodenberg does not look that old, but it seems like he can remember the times when the English planes were overhead. The old Rodenberg LEDs were blindingly bright. You could determine the state of your Rodenberg with your eyes not only closed, but firmly pressed shut. Once, the guitarist fell down on stage and we could see that he fractured two metacarpal bones because his hand rested on the LED.

Will the new enclosure mean that there will be less light, too?
Given that the Tube Screamers from Ibanez take around 7-8mA of power and the Rodenberg manual says 50-80mA, I guess the excess will be routed to the LEDs.
 
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#1,542
el murdoque said:
I'm curious about the LED's though. Uli Rodenberg does not look that old, but it seems like he can remember the times when the English planes were overhead. The old Rodenberg LEDs were blindingly bright. You could determine the state of your Rodenberg with your eyes not only closed, but firmly pressed shut. Once, the guitarist fell down on stage and we could see that he fractured two metacarpal bones because his hand rested on the LED.

Will the new enclosure mean that there will be less light, too?
Given that the Tube Screamers from Ibanez take around 7-8mA of power and the Rodenberg manual says 50-80mA, I guess the excess will be routed to the LEDs.
Click to expand...
The darker the night the brighter the LED lights...


The blue LED on my Mosky Black Rat is absolutely blinding too.
 
#1,544
Let's just say that you folks are lucky I'm good at touch typing. Let's say you're better off entering a staring contest and the opponent they draw for you is the sun than you are looking down at the LDP while stepping on one of the foot switches. My head casts a shadow on the ceiling in a room lit bright enough so my eyes can read the manual without fetching my glasses.

First impression: This is good stuff. There absolutely has been a Tube Screamer in the LDP's ancestry.
Actually, I'd eat my strap if that pedal is not a Tube Screamer variant.
The knobs work as you would imagine they would. Tone is an active treble control with boost and cut. Drive passes signal when at zero, then there is that weird non-linear feeling when turning up. However, there's two switches the tube screamer does not have. The gain switch adds more gain. I personally find the pedal already quite mean when drive is all the way up, but hey - you can blast +20dB more in there if you want. The deep switch adds frequencies that you'll feel through the soles of your feet - and it's not really necessary to activate it, since the circuit does not cut lows as is.
Then, there is the boost section with its own tone knob and deep switch. I don't particularly enjoy a clean boost in my signal chain, but this can give you tonal options.
 
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#1,546
At first glance, the Rodenberg is a smooth version of the Tube Screamer with none of the issues I have with the original unit.
I will try it out in a crowded mix later this week and see what it does there.

Apart from that, I want to say that all the things that were fun on the TS are to be found in the LDP. Either they feel exactly the same or they feel better.
The only / main issue I had with the TS was of course the neutered low end, and there's none of that in the LDP.

It has the same feeling of being in the middle between an amp like and an overdrive like pedal, that neither pushes nor pulls.
You can set it up so you can play a line mostly clean and spice it up with occasional double stops that you pluck a bit harder and they blend and bloom with a smooth drive.
 
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#1,548
I have the LDP DELUXE It was my 1st boutique drive pedal. Mojo Mojo was my 1st drive pedal. If I had to do it all over again I'd buy the LDP same circuit with less versatility but much better pedalboard ergonomics. I found the Deluxe on the verb used for a lower price than the LDP new. So, in that case it was a no brainer. I'll be pulling it out this weekend and running through it now that I've gotten much more Bass dirt pedal exposure and understand my current likes and dislikes tons better.
 
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#1,549
Singular Audio tubedrve 1st impressions:

I was playing at very low volumes being a work week Wednesday night. My Geedy Lee with Dean Markley Nickel-plated Rounds most definitely wasn't the best low volume test bass. But pentode mode worked best but I'd hardly call what I did tonight a fair enough assessment what this pedal can do with passive basses. A real test is needed.

The next bass I used was a much better choice for test case scenarios. Charvel PJ IV with Colbalt flats & Audere Classic Pre-amp. Hot pickups pushed the pedal far better even at low volumes. Triode mode could be very touch sensitive like playing my Stratocaster or LP through my VHT Deliverance. No bass tone suck at all can't wait to try my Stingray Specials at real world volume levels. Instantly made me want put my Hagerman Value boost pedal in front of to see how much nasty Night of Thumpersauous People I can get. Although the boost pedal isn't need the pedal has plenty of umph on its own. Definitely performed better with boost switch engaged. A very positive 1st run.
 
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#1,550
Maxi Funkl said:
I have the LDP DELUXE It was my 1st boutique drive pedal. Mojo Mojo was my 1st drive pedal. If I had to do it all over again I'd buy the LDP same circuit with less versatility but much better pedalboard ergonomics. I found the Deluxe on the verb used for a lower price than the LDP new. So, in that case it was a no brainer. I'll be pulling it out this weekend and running through it now that I've gotten much more Bass dirt pedal exposure and understand my current likes and dislikes tons better.
Click to expand...
I'm a bit confused why Rodenberg chose the options they chose. I'm not particularly fond of a clean boost circuit. I have never needed one - the only time I had a boost pedal on my board, I was rotating between three basses that had lots of difference in the output. I set up the board for the strongest bass and then marked the boost levels needed for the other two to reach an identical level so my gain staging remained functional.

Having the option to pick between one dirt circuit coupled with a clean boost and two dirt circuits coupled with a clean boost. . . I would have preferred to use either just one dirt circuit or two dirt circuits and no clean boost. Or at least the option to run the boost into the dirt. But we'll see. I'll take it to band practice tonight. I have a faint hope that it will do the P-Bass thing in a mix. Not cutting through, not biting through, but gently shouldering its way to front and center where it sits just right, clearly audible without sticking out.
 
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#1,552
Zbysek said:
Agreed. I would prefer clean boost into drive than drive into clean boost...
Click to expand...
IMG_1077.jpeg

Isn’t that what the middle switch does, change order? It was on the original pedal.
 
#1,553
Mr. voodoobass said:
View attachment 7098075
Isn’t that what the middle switch does, change order? It was on the original pedal.
Click to expand...
I don't know, TBH. I don't own the pedal, so my remark was just a general one.

But from what I read on the product description page, the signal path seems to be fixed/unchangeable:

"Signal path: Bass => Overdrive => Clean Boost => amplifier"

My guess is that the toggle switch is just a hi gain switch...
 
#1,555
el murdoque said:
I'll take it to band practice tonight. I have a faint hope that it will do the P-Bass thing in a mix. Not cutting through, not biting through, but gently shouldering its way to front and center where it sits just right, clearly audible without sticking out.
Click to expand...

The faint hope was somewhat in vain. It's one of those drive pedals that fill up the sonic space nicely and help a not-so-dense mix along the way.
However, in direct comparison to my favorite pedal for that, the Origin DCX, the DCX won. I don't like the solo sound of the DCX that much when playing at home, but it really sits in the mix where it belongs. The Rodenberg is the opposite - it sounds great at home, but takes a half step back in the mix. I started off with milder settings but quickly ramped up drive and tone to get more out of it. With sufficient levels of both, I was getting a metallic clanking sound. That sound sat in the 'bite through' bit of the spectrum and I feared that any moment, a Korg-Lawyer would knock and enter to hand me a cease and desist from Darkglass.
 
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#1,559
First impression on the Green Rhino:
This is NOT a Tube Screamer. Or it is, but it is not.
It's green. It has Level/Drive/Tone knobs. But it also has the typical Way Huge weirdness going on.
The "Tone" knob does not really feel like it boosts and cuts like the other screamers do. I had the feeling that it is cut only and sounded best wide open. The manual states that it does -20dB @ 3kHz fully CCW.
So is it a passive treble control?
The "Curve" knob is described as a tool to soften the high end should it become too aggressive.
So is it a passive treble control?
I yielded the best results with both tone and curve fully CW.

The Freq knob is described in a fashion that people can understand. You get an internal switch to set the corner frequency for the knob to either 100Hz or 500Hz. Then the knob does boost or cut with +-12dB. It has a center detent. And it works.
Boosting 100Hz brings on the thunder.

I have not rigged a side by side comparison with the LDP yet, but will do so at my earliest convenience.

What I can say for now is that I quite liked the tone I was getting, but wished for a bit more treble content.

It also feels more like an overdrive pedal than the middle between overdrive and amp that is the Tube Screamer.
 
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#1,560
A/B with the LDP was somewhat surprising.
When you try to dial out all the extra options Rodenberg and Way Huge have added to the Tube Screamer circuit,
they sound surprisingly similar. Yet again, the throw on the drive knob on the Green Rhino feels more linear, but when you have it sitting in a position, you can toy around with the Rodenberg and find something very similar. So similar that it would make a blind test extremely hard.
They both sound like a Tube Screamer with the low cut removed.
There is still that strong emphasis on the (upper) mids from the drive, which brings those into focus. The Rodenberg is capable of more top end with the tone knob dimed - and I have the feeling that my setup is not capable of bringing all that treble into the room through the speakers.
When you dime the tone knob, you're bringing the treble range up a little, though - and that means you have the mids raised through the drive and the treble raised through the tone knob, which leads to the feeling that the booty is lacking. Both pedals have you covered, though. The Rodenberg has the Deep switch, which is well adjusted to take care of that particular issue. The Rhino has the freq knob. When you set it to 100Hz, you can boost or cut. I can see that on guitar, a cut at this point would tame the sound when you're playing through the neck humbucker. But on bass, boosting that frequency brings some thunderous lows. When you set it to about two o'clock, its effect is about equal with the LDP insofar as the boost of the lower frequencies offsets the raised midrange. That, however, means that you have quite a bit more on tap to boost beyond that point.
 
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