My Dirt Bender - Another Jounal

[Maxi Funkl]

I can happily report that I have made some sales on the pedal front, so the funds allow for one or two new purchases.

@Maxi Funkl : How is your verdict on the Tubedrve, now that you've had it for a bit?

Another pedal that has caught my Eye is the Beetronics Fatbee. I think I'll have to have one of those.

And that new Empress Pedal that popped up here: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/new-empress-drive.1665393

@bassbrad Did you already have a chance to check out the Karen?

It's a keeper. There's just something very organically pleasing about the dirt you can get from the Tubedrve. The Pentode/Triode switch is the key to this pedal. My MBD3 spot on my board is seriously in danger.
If someone is fan of slight overdrive to massive distortion it covers easily. It's one of those pedals I'd easily recommend without hesitation.

 

[el murdoque]

It's a keeper. There's just something very organically pleasing about the dirt you can get from the Tubedrve. The Pentode/Triode switch is the key to this pedal. My MBD3 spot on my board is seriously in danger.
If someone is fan of slight overdrive to massive distortion it covers easily. It's one of those pedals I'd easily recommend without hesitation.

Is it straight up gain and breakup, or does it impart a tonal flavor?

 

[Maxi Funkl]

Is it straight up gain and breakup, or does it impart a tonal flavor?

In my short few years of exposure to dirt pedals for Bass (since 6/2022) it's doesn't have a tonal flavor similar to any of the pedals that spent the most time on one of boards. Broughton Scorpion, Hampstead SubSpace, or MBD3. It reminds me of the drive I get from my Freyette/VHT DELIVERANCE 60 guitar amp. The DCX and SubSpace are closest to it if I had to give reference point. But without the same feel, vibe or character.

 

[el murdoque]

There will be an unboxing later today. The Chase Bliss Mystery Box is inbound.

Given the fact that their ratio of dirt pedals to everything else pedals is quite bad, my hopes for receiving something that can actually contribute to this thread are slim.
To my knowledge, only the Brothers, Bliss Factory and Preamp MK II are dedicated dirt pedals - the Dirt Bird could be mentioned, but these are only available in Mystery Boxes in the US, so there's that - and the Bliss Factory has already been covered here.

I promise I will do my best to receive something that does dirt and if not, I will do my best to force it to do dirt!

 

[el murdoque]

Well, that was a kind of worst case scenario. The two pedals I dreaded most were the Mood and the Habit. I got a Mood Mk II.

Even though in this video here:


They make a Mood Mk I sound dirty, I did try for about half an hour to get behind how that works and I failed miserably.
This thing is immensely complex. Sitting down and just twisting knobs and flipping switches basically gets you from one feedback loop into another.
From what I gleamed, this thing is a beefed up delay machine, but while cooking it, there is this one point where you add the unicorn dust and a few drops of LSD into the simmering pot, but the people at Chase Bliss were freshly out of LSD, so they used crack instead.

I've owned a Hologram Microcosm for a while and must say that that worked a lot more beautifully and it was possible to understand what the knobs do.
The Mood has something of an unpredictable phrase looper that repeats the last bits that happened BEFORE you press the button and the other side can modify it, but at the same time, they play into each other and it all escalates.

I must admit, I'm quite disappointed with that outcome. I feel like I will have to read the manual back to back (and make notes!) before I understand what this thing does and how it works, but I have no use for a pedal like this and will end up selling or trading it anyway, so it feels like a waste of time getting into it.

 

[warptheory]

Well, that was a kind of worst case scenario. The two pedals I dreaded most were the Mood and the Habit. I got a Mood Mk II.

Even though in this video here:


They make a Mood Mk I sound dirty, I did try for about half an hour to get behind how that works and I failed miserably.
This thing is immensely complex. Sitting down and just twisting knobs and flipping switches basically gets you from one feedback loop into another.
From what I gleamed, this thing is a beefed up delay machine, but while cooking it, there is this one point where you add the unicorn dust and a few drops of LSD into the simmering pot, but the people at Chase Bliss were freshly out of LSD, so they used crack instead.

I've owned a Hologram Microcosm for a while and must say that that worked a lot more beautifully and it was possible to understand what the knobs do.
The Mood has something of an unpredictable phrase looper that repeats the last bits that happened BEFORE you press the button and the other side can modify it, but at the same time, they play into each other and it all escalates.

I must admit, I'm quite disappointed with that outcome. I feel like I will have to read the manual back to back (and make notes!) before I understand what this thing does and how it works, but I have no use for a pedal like this and will end up selling or trading it anyway, so it feels like a waste of time getting into it.

I have a mystery box coming soon. I'm hoping it's a Preamp, Brothers, or Clean. I have a BS Wombtone right now that I'm looking to trade, let me know if you're down for a swap for the Mood, I don't really need it either, but a weird ambient delay may be fun.

If not, join the CBA Discord, they have a trade thread going on there too. PM me and I can send you an invite if you don't have it already.

 

[el murdoque]

I have a mystery box coming soon. I'm hoping it's a Preamp, Brothers, or Clean. I have a BS Wombtone right now that I'm looking to trade, let me know if you're down for a swap for the Mood, I don't really need it either, but a weird ambient delay may be fun.

If not, join the CBA Discord, they have a trade thread going on there too. PM me and I can send you an invite if you don't have it already.

I'd be down for a trade, but I live in the EU, which could make things complicated ...

 

[Zbysek]

Has anybody tried the new M2-OD bass pedal?

[This invalid link has been removed]​

Invalid Link Removed www.rodenberg-amplification.com

 

[el murdoque]

I've never laid hands on it, but it seems like the LDP Deluxe with a single improvement: You can change the position of the boost from pre to post, which gives you a staggering variety of possibilities. You can run the low gain channel, the high gain channel or both, either with the boost up front or without.
Six different dirt sounds.

Other than that, I suppose the lower gain channel is the same as in the LDP, and the higher gain channel is based on a 909.

 

[Zbysek]

I've never laid hands on it, but it seems like the LDP Deluxe with a single improvement: You can change the position of the boost from pre to post, which gives you a staggering variety of possibilities. You can run the low gain channel, the high gain channel or both, either with the boost up front or without.
Six different dirt sounds.

Other than that, I suppose the lower gain channel is the same as in the LDP, and the higher gain channel is based on a 909.

I have noticed one more improvement: the momentary operation toggle switch.

But the one pointed out by you is the most useful (at least for me). I very much prefer to be able to place boost before dirt.

The other alternative (for me) is increase gain and place an attenuator in front of the dirt

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/clean-booster-vs-passive-attenuator.1663545/

 

[el murdoque]

To keep things going in an interesting direction, I decided to acquire a Source Audio Aftershock Bass.
It should arrive early next week. The avid reader of this thread most likely will raise their eyebrows in mild surprise and say "But El Murdoque, did you not express your personal dislike for digital pedals, time and again? Did you not go through great lengths and spent more than $1000 on replacing your C4 unit with analog pedals?"

And I will answer: This is absolutely true. But I would like to play around with the options the Aftershock gives me, to maybe learn a bit more about dirt pedals. On top of that, I want to compare the Aftershock to real pedals - both in feeling and in sound. I want to know how close that pedal can get and if it is so good that I start an internal debate whether or not to allow a digital representation of what can easily be had in analog fashion on one of my boards.

 

[sloppy_phil]

For what it is worth, I have walked back some of my own opprobrium when it comes to digital effects. There was definitely a time when I was convinced that digital modelling would never be able to accurately capture analog sound and feel. Admittedly, I still haven't gone down the rabbit hole of digital dirt, so your dive into the Aftershock will be most appreciated, Herr Murdoque! But between two of my Iron Ether boxes (envelope filter and FM synth), and my Two Notes Torpedo (cab sim/IR), I have to admit that I have pedals doing a digital thing that is fully indistinguishable (to my ears) from their analog equivalent.

 

[el murdoque]

The last time I tried digital it was with the HX Stomp.
I found that it sucks particularly in two areas: Dirt and compression.
Sucks might be the wrong word. The humble bass player in me says that there are options that will totally work out and in a live setting, no one will notice.
However, the pedal snob in me is foaming at the mouth, wanting to tell the humble player to stuff it where the sun don't shine - and "Suck" is the perfect word.

Tackling a digital pedal that does only dirt and nothing else and tries to do that in a digital sandbox seems like the completely right or completely wrong decision and I need to find out which it is

 

[MattiZ]

Not a dirt pedal, but does anyone here have experience with the Dunlop Bass Wah Mini?
How does the bypass sound? The Thomann website says it's hardwire true bypass, but the Dunlop website says it's buffered ...

Seems this question never got an answer? I just wired my Dunlop Bass Mini Wah to a bypass loop of a MusicomLAB MK-VI switcher. I used to have it in-line with other pedals and never noticed anything, never really bothered to A/B it though.

Home, I don’t hear any difference with the loop containing the wah whether bypassed or active. But here I only play it at very low volume, with less than ideal amplification. The next band rehearsals take place some time next week, I might be wiser after that.

 

[el murdoque]

Seems this question never got an answer? I just wired my Dunlop Bass Mini Wah to a bypass loop of a MusicomLAB MK-VI switcher. I used to have it in-line with other pedals and never noticed anything, never really bothered to A/B it though.

Home, I don’t hear any difference with the loop containing the wah whether bypassed or active. But here I only play it at very low volume, with less than ideal amplification. The next band rehearsals take place some time next week, I might be wiser after that.

Thanks for that. How do you like the pedal?

 

[el murdoque]

Crazy busy day today, I even forgot to post the obligatory picture:

 

[el murdoque]

While a bit unorthodox, the Fatbee is a bit bland on the outside. If you take off the bottom, you'll see the PCB (d'oh).

Feast your eyes on this:

Apart from the fact that there's a hair in the pic and all the components are mounted on the other side, it's the prettiest PCB I've ever seen in a pedal.

 

[el murdoque]

I really only had a few minutes to plug in and play the pedal. Very brief first impression:
The three knobs are volume, tone and gain (even though they are named differently).
The tone knob controls the treble amount. I am not entirely sure if it's capable of boosting or if it's cut only and the circuit provides more treble, either by adding harmonics or just by the voicing of the circuit. I feel that I get a bit more finger noise and a bit more attack on the tone with the tone knob fully CW.

All in all, the name is aptly chosen. It certainly sounds fat.

More to follow soon. I have to head out again.

 

[el murdoque]

When I turned up the gain knob from the center area to nearly full, a childhood memory sparked up.

My family were close friends with another family and they had a child about my age. This guy occasionally had some very weird ideas on how to have fun outside. There was this barn. above the door, there was a hole between two of the wooden boards. It was dug by wasps that made their nest there, that hole was the entry and exit. The "weird idea of having fun" was to dare people to pick up an overripe apple from the grass and throw it at that hole. When your aim was on point and the apple struck one of the two boards right next to the hole, the wasps got really angry. I remember performing a half-hearted toss that missed the mark and lacked the momentum, thinking this ordeal might be over with that. Turning my head, I saw my friend launching an apple with all he was good for, hitting the board dead center with an audible thud.
That little hole started spewing wasps like nobodies business, and man, those beasts were MAD.
The next part of this pastime was as simple as it could possibly be. Imagine you're a elementary school age kid. Imagine you're confronted with a full swarm of angry wasps. Imagine your reaction. Right. It's this moment that you find out that a human can actually outrun a swarm of wasps. All it takes is a little head start the adrenaline pump jacked into overdrive by the prospect of a painful death.
Why am I telling you of somewhat terrifying childhood memories?

That moment when I turned and ran, the sound that made it through to my slightly foggy brain was a mix of a beautiful and serene late summer day, a swarm of insects that mean business and my own blood rushing through my body pumped by the frenzied heart muscle running at capacity, or slightly over. It kinda reminds me on how the Fatbee does its thing.
Replace the wasps with bees. No, replace the wasps with slightly overweight bees that are actually pretty chill about things (but keep in mind they are insects. The don't really do chill - so their version of a relaxed afternoon and yours differ greatly). You're nearly there.
It's got that deadly potential -- I mean I'm no expert, but my guess is that being killed by a swarm of frenzied wasps and a swarm of frenzied bees might not be exactly the same experience, but there have to be lots of similarities. It also has that raw power. Insects don't translate well into that, because they never invented V8 engines with lots of cubic inches. There's also some quality of using a rasp. Not on anyone's private parts, though - more like a very good rasp intended for rasping metal, but used on a great piece of hardwood.

I've owned one pedal that the Fatbee reminds me of: The MI Audio Blueboy Deluxe MkII. However, my guess is that this is little help since I'm describing one obscure pedal by using another obscure pedal.

 

[OldShark]

However, my guess is that this is little help since I'm describing one obscure pedal by using another obscure pedal.

I'd thought this is the goal of this whole thread... — I probably won't get hands on any of the pedals mentioned on these pages, but I really like those obscure descriptions!
And I remember fleeing from a swarm of angry earth wasps and loosing my glasses while I trying to undress my shirt as some had already gotten under that, so I can relate to that sound...