My Dirt Bender - Another Jounal

[el murdoque]

Rat. Gotta be a Rat.

Rat. Gotta be a Rat.

Never thought I would like a Rat on bass, but supposedly the JHS Punchline drive channel is based somewhat on a Rat, or Rat predecessor circuit, and I really like it more than I thought I would.

This!

And as for dirt cheap ass representative you should chose a Mosky Black Rat, which is just amazing for bass, and not just for the price.

My first thought was Muff when I read @el murdoque's post, but then I saw this right after, and have a feeling yours is the better guess!

And for the cork-sniffer version, might I recommend the Lusithand Ground & Pound, a cheeky little pedal from Merrie Olde Englande.

I'm thinking about a dive into low-gain fuzz options. I have a nice 2-transistor fuzz-face style pedal with an internal transformer-based passive pickup emulator to obviate the buffering/impedance issues (The Orbita 1974 by Analogworm, a Russian builder) which my piezo semihollow fretless seems to like, but I'd like to see some others.

Take your rodent to the vet and have it chipped. With a Motorola LM308. Or a Texas Instruments OP07 - or possibly a Texas Instruments OP07 that was re-labeled as a Motorola LM308 and sold as NOS at a higher price.

Good read here by Josh of JHS:

JHS Pedals

Guitar Effects Pedals made in Kansas City USA.

thejhsshow.com

My plan was to start with a simple ProCo Rat. Current issue, whatever the second hand market comes up with. I found one for 45 bucks, but was too slow. My current market sees €75 for a used one as the standard price - which is a bit much IMO, since Thomann sells them for €93.

I am fairly sure this will already be quite the experience. And I think I will then proceed to get one of the cheap ones, Harley Benton Rodent, Mosky, whatever.

The boutique way will only be trodden once I found that it is worth exploring further - I am gravitating towards the Blue Collander Tremond. A Rat from Poland with an interesting dry blend.

 

[el murdoque]

To those who would have guessed fuzz/muff (@GrowlerBox and @sloppy_phil ): I did experiment a lot with fuzz circuits early on, I even have a Big Muff at home. Two pedals that sparked my interest from time to time are the Fuzzrocious Grey Stache and something with a Superfuzz circuit.
However, something that most fuzz pedals did to me was that every time I had it dialed in so it would sound great (mean and gnarly), it would simply disappear in a mix.
I think I will re-visit the world of fuzz as a means to get a dirt sound instead of synth, but not anytime soon.

 

[el murdoque]

Dod 250 / mxr distortion+ showdown? Then can try and source the latest Spiral FX version

Apologies if that terrain has been covered already, I'm relatively new to the thread

Oh, I have never noticed that one. Interesting, though.

 

[gillento]

Oh, I have never noticed that one. Interesting, though.

I just got a recent one about 10 days ago. It sound really raunchy on its own and it stacks well with the Tech21 BassDriver breed.

 

[el murdoque]

Choice paralysis is real - I think that’s why I moved from HX stomp to individual pedals. Ironically now I’ve don’t that journey and know what I want I’m half thinking of picking up another stomp for preamp duties- need to test it though!

You bring up an interesting point about the choice paralysis. When I went digital with the Headrush, and when I used the HX Stomp, my mind was already made up about what I want, and all I had to figure out was how to implement it.
I mean, in a way, it's like sitting in a room that has lots of shelves and all are filled with 600+ pedals.
You have a board in front of you that will house ten of them.
If you know what you want the board to be capable of and know your way around those pedals, you'll be done in one or two hours.
Less if you really know all those pedals.
If you don't know your way around these pedals and have no clue what to do with the real estate you got, you'll probably starve to death in that room before you put down a single pedal.

The same goes for a digital thing. You have your slots and need to populate them. If you go "I want my signal chain to be a light overdrive, followed by distortion, then chorus, then EQ, then compression and then amp/speaker sim", you'll be done quickly.
If you go "I have no clue what the difference between a flanger and a phaser is and I want a great sound that works for rock and metal", you'll probably starve yet again.

Wish me luck because I don’t want to keep buying pedals

Bad news: You came to the wrong back alley of the internet. These are good people here, and none of them would ever wish something as cruel as that on you!

 

[el murdoque]

I just got a recent one about 10 days ago. It sound really raunchy on its own and it stacks well with the Tech21 BassDriver breed.

View attachment 7124637

You're starting your signal chain with the Para EQ dlx and finish it with the Q\Strip? Are both always on?

 

[gillento]

You're starting your signal chain with the Para EQ dlx and finish it with the Q\Strip? Are both always on?

Yes, the Empress is the first pedal in the chain and provides HPF and HPF to start with. Then I boost the low end slightly with the low shelf filter. The lowest para band removes some nasty low mids. Para bands 2 and 3 slightly boost different mid frequencies. So the signal that goes into the effects has no bad subs left.
The Q strip at the end of the chain adds a tiny bit of the lows back into the signal.

 

[Luke the Fluke]

You bring up an interesting point about the choice paralysis. When I went digital with the Headrush, and when I used the HX Stomp, my mind was already made up about what I want, and all I had to figure out was how to implement it.
I mean, in a way, it's like sitting in a room that has lots of shelves and all are filled with 600+ pedals.
You have a board in front of you that will house ten of them.
If you know what you want the board to be capable of and know your way around those pedals, you'll be done in one or two hours.
Less if you really know all those pedals.
If you don't know your way around these pedals and have no clue what to do with the real estate you got, you'll probably starve to death in that room before you put down a single pedal.

The same goes for a digital thing. You have your slots and need to populate them. If you go "I want my signal chain to be a light overdrive, followed by distortion, then chorus, then EQ, then compression and then amp/speaker sim", you'll be done quickly.
If you go "I have no clue what the difference between a flanger and a phaser is and I want a great sound that works for rock and metal", you'll probably starve yet again.

Exactly- I also got down to a really simple set up that worked for me - but at the time I viewed it as not gettting the most out the pedal rather than a positive at having it dialed in.

Now I have one core use and pedal replacement ild want it for.
And then 3-4 minor or fun things that I currently use the H9 for.

 

[el murdoque]

Exactly- I also got down to a really simple set up that worked for me - but at the time I viewed it as not gettting the most out the pedal rather than a positive at having it dialed in.

Now I have one core use and pedal replacement ild want it for.
And then 3-4 minor or fun things that I currently use the H9 for.

Worth checking it out. I'd be interested in how it fares against a H9 - that's top shelf competition there.

 

[el murdoque]

Good news: Rat inbound.


What about the Joyo Splinter?
Would that qualify as a cheap copy? What I like about that one is that it's capable of doing the Fat Rat.

I found one for twenty bucks.

 

[sunbeast]

Take your rodent to the vet and have it chipped. With a Motorola LM308. Or a Texas Instruments OP07 - or possibly a Texas Instruments OP07 that was re-labeled as a Motorola LM308 and sold as NOS at a higher price.

Good read here by Josh of JHS:

JHS Pedals

Guitar Effects Pedals made in Kansas City USA.

thejhsshow.com

My plan was to start with a simple ProCo Rat. Current issue, whatever the second hand market comes up with. I found one for 45 bucks, but was too slow. My current market sees €75 for a used one as the standard price - which is a bit much IMO, since Thomann sells them for €93.

I am fairly sure this will already be quite the experience. And I think I will then proceed to get one of the cheap ones, Harley Benton Rodent, Mosky, whatever.

The boutique way will only be trodden once I found that it is worth exploring further - I am gravitating towards the Blue Collander Tremond. A Rat from Poland with an interesting dry blend.

My first “good” distortion tone was a Keeley modded Rat (back when there were few if any boutique clones of that pedal around and the originals were everywhere) which I ran through an SVT and used for a few songs in my hardcore/metal band at the time on the “no diodes” setting. I kept that pedal around for many years, but finally sold it on when I picked up an Tronographic Rusty Box which I felt did something like what I liked from the lower gain side of the Rat in a more refined way that I preferred (I never really used either for higher gain stuff). I should revisit the Rat now that there are so many tweaked versions of it on the market!

 

[bassbrad]

+1 for the RAT and the DOD 250 as certified sources of dirt for bass. I shudder to think of all the gigs played using a RAT in some form or another add to that the number I sold over my time as a retail grunt. I developed a good relationship with Proco using them as my main cable supplier and always needed a few or many RAT pedals on each order. I know that several are lurking in my collection. They also used to include a candy bag with each order, always a nice touch. I used to joke that when opening a Proco box and a bit of cigarette smoke would sneak out.

I still remember trying to decide between a DOD 250, MXR Distortion + or a Ross Distortion and the Ross won. I was playing a Hagstrom bass at the time and it would just growl & sing with the Ross in such a special way. These daze I reach for a Mosky D250X that offers 2 versions of this circuit in a mini box when I need that fix.

 

[el murdoque]

This whole MXR Distortion+ and DOD 250 thing is indeed super interesting and I did not know anything about either of these pedals beforehand.

Most interesting is that it's quasi impossible to get to the root, since it seems that while both are based on the same circuit, they have been developed in parallel. My reading tells me that the MXR came out first as a commercial product, but at that time, prototypes of the DOD were already in circulation.

So it's impossible for me to buy the original pedal.

Luckily this is a problem with a rather simple solution

 

[gillento]

This whole MXR Distortion+ and DOD 250 thing is indeed super interesting and I did not know anything about either of these pedals beforehand.

Most interesting is that it's quasi impossible to get to the root, since it seems that while both are based on the same circuit, they have been developed in parallel. My reading tells me that the MXR came out first as a commercial product, but at that time, prototypes of the DOD were already in circulation.

So it's impossible for me to buy the original pedal.

Luckily this is a problem with a rather simple solution

an expensive one!

 

[OnlyFlats]

This whole MXR Distortion+ and DOD 250 thing is indeed super interesting and I did not know anything about either of these pedals beforehand.

Most interesting is that it's quasi impossible to get to the root, since it seems that while both are based on the same circuit, they have been developed in parallel. My reading tells me that the MXR came out first as a commercial product, but at that time, prototypes of the DOD were already in circulation.

So it's impossible for me to buy the original pedal.

Luckily this is a problem with a rather simple solution

Note the different modes. Must be similar circuits! (I don't own this pedal is was recommended on TB elsewhere)

 

[el murdoque]

an expensive one!

Well, my suggestion would have been to simply get both.

 

[gillento]

Well, my suggestion would have been to simply get both.

I thought you were going for one of each vintage ones.

 

[el murdoque]

I thought you were going for one of each vintage ones.

Going at it Pokemon-Style could become a thing, but only if the first seems so promising, I want to try the others.

In that regard, I just bought a MXR D+. One that's neither vintage nor modern, I'd say roughly from the 90s.

 

[el murdoque]

But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
The DOD250 / MXR D+ thing has totally sidelined the little furry one.

If I got my history right, then the Rat is the first pedal that uses an OPamp for clipping and its invention was a happy little mistake,
because instead of a 470 ohm resistor, Scott Burnham put a 47 ohm resistor in front of it. The result was the OPamp running so hot, it clipped by itself and the rest is history.

Talking about history, I spent yesterday evening watching the JHS Show video on the history of the DOD250 circuit.
If I understood everything correctly, the creator of the DOD 250 freely admitted that they lifted the circuit off the MXR D+ - which makes the MXR the OG - even though both pedals took different routes from there.

 

[bassbrad]

This whole MXR Distortion+ and DOD 250 thing is indeed super interesting and I did not know anything about either of these pedals beforehand.

Most interesting is that it's quasi impossible to get to the root, since it seems that while both are based on the same circuit, they have been developed in parallel. My reading tells me that the MXR came out first as a commercial product, but at that time, prototypes of the DOD were already in circulation.

So it's impossible for me to buy the original pedal.

Luckily this is a problem with a rather simple solution

I know you prefer the real thing but this one is doing the trick for me: Mosky 250X

Back then brand dealerships were closely guarded and highly competitive, very few music stores had more than one or two pedal lines so it was very common to have similar pedal types from differing brands that did not overlap. This was because the various brands were represented and sold through different distribution networks most often by a sales rep that visited stores in a region or state. MXR, DOD and ROSS are examples of these US brands before we saw the imports like Boss and Ibanez virtually took over the effects market. These were often aligned through instrument, amp or string manufacturer distribution networks. There were also several niche manufacturers that made "house brands' for different distributors that offered a wide range of music accessories known as "one stops". C. Bruno was a main one in Texas but there were several in different regions of the US. I would surmise it was much the same in the UK. The markets were limited so much before what we take for granted in todays 'world market'.