My preamp bender: A Journal.

[el murdoque]

As the prophecies foretold, a brown clad man knocked on my door.

This marks the end. While I spiraled myself ever upward until I hit the ceiling in the form of the Noble preamp, the only pedal that intrigued, yet eluded me from the beginning has been the Ictineo (or the Submarine Designer). With this loose end now tied down, I am curious to see what this thing does and how that might integrate into my setup - I'll let you know. However, I'll be off to band practice more or less straight after I come home from work, and when I come home from that, I'll most likely be tired.
More than a very brief first impression (if anything at all) will not be possible today.
But hey. Ictineo, it has taken me 8 months to track you down. I can wait another day to try you out.

 

[BassyBill]

My first choice would be the Q-Strip with something like a Fairfields Barbershop on the front end. Sold mine as I condensed everything to a Tech 21 Bass FlyRig. The EBS III came in a close second.

Riis

I am SO tempted to get the Flyrig and dispense with pretty much everythIng else. It just seems capable of doing everything I need - filter, octave (chorus as well), EQ, compression, Sansamp pre, DI… But I think I may need to keep my trusty MXR Bass Envelope Filter and my Digitech BSW as my octaver as I’m not 100% sure that the corresponding Flyrig functions could really replace these two.

 

[el murdoque]

The one thing that has always steered me away from the Flyrig is that it comes with a wall wart and has this tiny, flimsy power cable. I prefer sturdy mains cables all the way to the unit - even if that means you'll have to make it bigger.

I had a short dive with the Ictineo and immediately realized that there is a learning curve involved. I would not have imagined the pedal to sound as dirty as it did was the first thing that I thought.
I figured out a few things already. The knob labeled VOL controls the volume. Unity is not noon, not even near, it's more like 9 o'clock. The knob labeled TONE is not a passive filter knob that cuts treble. It does not really sound like a tone stack that is neutral at 12 and will boost bass/cut treble on one side and do the opposite on the other, either. I don't really know what it does exactly, but it does things to the tone.
Same goes for the BODY knob. It alters the tone, but I have no clue how.
The Boost Switch is simple. Boost or no boost. done.
Bass feels like a bass boost.
The two other switches are weird. Reading the labels, the left one seems to have a setting where it's flat, then a boost at 600Hz and a minus. The right one also offers minus, plus a boost at 1k or a dip at 250Hz.

What a weird little box.


The color is stunningly beautiful btw.

 

[Alivefor5]

What a weird little box.

My take exactly. I bought one new a couple of years ago along with a Barber Linden. The Linden is still with me, nuff said.

 

[bassbrad]

The one thing that has always steered me away from the Flyrig is that it comes with a wall wart and has this tiny, flimsy power cable. I prefer sturdy mains cables all the way to the unit - even if that means you'll have to make it bigger.

I had a short dive with the Ictineo and immediately realized that there is a learning curve involved. I would not have imagined the pedal to sound as dirty as it did was the first thing that I thought.
I figured out a few things already. The knob labeled VOL controls the volume. Unity is not noon, not even near, it's more like 9 o'clock. The knob labeled TONE is not a passive filter knob that cuts treble. It does not really sound like a tone stack that is neutral at 12 and will boost bass/cut treble on one side and do the opposite on the other, either. I don't really know what it does exactly, but it does things to the tone.
Same goes for the BODY knob. It alters the tone, but I have no clue how.
The Boost Switch is simple. Boost or no boost. done.
Bass feels like a bass boost.
The two other switches are weird. Reading the labels, the left one seems to have a setting where it's flat, then a boost at 600Hz and a minus. The right one also offers minus, plus a boost at 1k or a dip at 250Hz.

What a weird little box.


The color is stunningly beautiful btw.

IMHO the Ictineo takes your tone and adds a burnish to it, the tone functions are very interactive and most combinations sound magic. Lots of output on tap. Also FYI the BDPG is an offspring of the Submarine that @rratajski goosed the input stage and tweaked the tone stack.

My favored setting is all SUB, boost 1k, tone just before noon & body depends on which bass I'm recording.

Perhaps the instructions will help you grok the Ictineo.

My recording board with an Ictineo rehoused by @johnk_10

 

[SemiDriven]

What a weird little box.

Thanks for that. I about split a gut.

At first glance, it's definitely kinda weird.

 

[el murdoque]

IMHO the Ictineo takes your tone and adds a burnish to it, the tone functions are very interactive and most combinations sound magic. Lots of output on tap. Also FYI the BDPG is an offspring of the Submarine that @rratajski goosed the input stage and tweaked the tone stack.

My favored setting is all SUB, boost 1k, tone just before noon & body depends on which bass I'm recording.

Perhaps the instructions will help you grok the Ictineo.

View attachment 4666541 My recording board with an Ictineo rehoused by @johnk_10

Thanks for that.
It might be that I'm only a hobbyist when it comes to audio engineering coupled with the fact that my grasp on the Anglo-Saxon tongue is not as firm as that of a native speaker, but all this manual did was turn regular confusion into profound confusion.
Yesterday I felt like I need to figure out what the knobs do.
Now I feel like someone has explained it to me and I did not understand a single word of what they were saying.

It's a shame this pedal is too rare for youtube tutorials.

What I do with the BDPG is that I set all three controls a hair before noon and the master volume a hair past noon. What the BDPG does with my tone is best described as 'oldschooling it'.
On top of that, the magic it does is when I play staccato bass tones, I get that pumping sound that's hard to describe. When you play dub with it, it's the thing that makes heads bob.
Is that something I could recreate with the Ictineo?

 

[Gothic]

I really love this thread despite the fact it makes my bank account cry just by reading through it.
Thanks man!

 

[bassbrad]

Thanks for that.
It might be that I'm only a hobbyist when it comes to audio engineering coupled with the fact that my grasp on the Anglo-Saxon tongue is not as firm as that of a native speaker, but all this manual did was turn regular confusion into profound confusion.
Yesterday I felt like I need to figure out what the knobs do.
Now I feel like someone has explained it to me and I did not understand a single word of what they were saying.

It's a shame this pedal is too rare for youtube tutorials.

What I do with the BDPG is that I set all three controls a hair before noon and the master volume a hair past noon. What the BDPG does with my tone is best described as 'oldschooling it'.
On top of that, the magic it does is when I play staccato bass tones, I get that pumping sound that's hard to describe. When you play dub with it, it's the thing that makes heads bob.
Is that something I could recreate with the Ictineo?

I'll grant that the instructions are almost nonsensical until you grasp (grok) the pedal.
I found that going through the suggested settings taught my ear to understand what the Sub Designer was doing and helped me find the settings that worked best for me.

FYI Osman Kavcar the co-designer builder was from Russia living in Houston, TX at the time of the origin of the pedal, his design partners were also expat and all quite brilliant.

 

[el murdoque]

I played around a little more, but my pedal gives me quite a hiss in the brighter settings.
Could be because it's sitting on top of the PSU or due to the positioning on the board. I will try to put it later into the chain when the arriving signal is a bit hotter.
It could also very well be that my earballs are quite spoiled brats by now, being used to that sweet sweet combo of the optional BDPG into the Cali76, Broughton HPF/LPF and Noble - but I have not found a setting that's useful in this scenario. I have a busy schedule ahead, but the next time I can find, I'll dedicate to copy your setup and hook the input of the Ictineo to the output of the PA on my small board.

 

[el murdoque]

Okay, I tried rigging Ictineo on the Nano with the PA and it was an entirely different animal.

So I broke out a patch cable and a battery and placed it on the big board into a hotter spot, between the comp and the filter and there I had zero noise and a completely different response.

I still do not manage to grok the pedal. Sometimes the Body control kills all the volume when I set it to zero.

Both Body and Tone seem to interact both with the switches and with each other - quite complex. However, there are some sweet tones to be found for those with keen ears that play, adjust a knob for the smallest fraction and play again.

I figured that when I stack circuits that scoop mids, it'd be nice to have some brick in the collection that brings at least some of them back when I step on it.
Those who have owned an Ictineo know how stunningly beautiful that pedal is for the paintjob alone.
However, my board is full and I'd have to toss one pedal off to make it fit. At the moment I'm looking at both the Underground Accelerator and the SS/BS Mini. Those two are kind of redundant. I don't use much dirt, yet have two pedals dedicated to it.
I set the UA to give me a treble boost and some tube breakup, which works like a dream with the big reverb and picking chords.
The Mini is set to emulate an amp that's on the brink of farting out, which it does well, too.
I love both for what they do.
Gosh, I'm you ask about how they interact when I feed the dirt into the Ictineo.
In that regard it's just as beautiful as the BDPG. Your dirt pedal changes into something completely different.

I could spend hours toying with the possible combinations of chaining BDPG, Ictineo, Mini and UA and toying around with their settings.
Well i did spend hours. And I will spend more.

Uh, I just realized that I have not tried what the Ictineo does when I hit it with the C4.

Who needs sleep anyways?

 

[Gothic]

Have you tried any Darkglass pedals? I've a feeling you might like the Vintage or the X for some nice VT sorta "hair" with the vintage and HPF controlled dirt with the X. The ultra versions have a very nice clean side too, although they do share the EQ with the dirt side and I've found that you can't really even out both channels without compromising the drive section.

 

[el murdoque]

I've tried Darkglass briefly, back in the time when all they had were the B3K, B7K and Vintage.
To me it felt that they do the exact opposite of what I'm after.

I'm asking a solo'ed neck pickup with worn flats and they offer a Stingray with fresh rounds.

 

[el murdoque]

Yesterday was band practice and I took the UA from my board and placed the Ictineo in that spot.
It's sitting later in the chain, only followed by the filter, reverb and Noble.

The settings I arrived at are Body and Tone around one o'clock, boost off, bass on, 600Hz and 1k boost.
With the volume carefully calibrated to unity (set by ear, not by meter, since the mid hump makes it seem louder) it is somehow subtle, yet substantial.

The difference, as I perceived it, described in my own words:
On the Noble, I have boosted Highs and Lows. The lows are super smooth and extremely sweet. In the context of the reggae band this works extremely well, because I have the largest part of that tonal spectrum to myself and there is no competition within the mix. Now when I step on the Ictineo, it feels like the sound is sprouting some elbows. I have a lot less knowledge of the frequency spectrum than I care to admit, but to my layman's ears, the creator of the Designer Submarine has carefully tweaked the EQ curve to underline exactly those elbow frequencies that shove the bass to the forefront of the mix, but not much more.

When you flat out boost the mid spectrum, you get that honky sound (hello, P-bass) that also sits at the front, but it's ... well. ... that honky sound.
The Ictineo manages to leave out as much of the honking as possible.
I tried switching it on and off during songs to find out which action will be perceived as the change for the better and found that especially on the slower one drop songs I strongly preferred playing without the Ictineo, but as soon as it got busier, I was torn between the two - and with the vibes swinging more towards rock, I felt that the sweet, round softness of the bass of the Noble without the Ictineo loose a bit of their presence in the mix, so playing through both felt better - but I'll have to validate that playing proper rock instead of just jamming half a track to check it out.

 

[el murdoque]

Blowing the dust off of this old thread!

...and there's more!

 

[el murdoque]

...but before I get to the Super Stack, let me introduce another thing that found its way into my den:

A Broughton P15, which was sent to me by my pen pal @Charlie Tuna as a surprise present.
The surprise goes two ways here. I was surprised when it arrived at my doorstep and Mr. Tuna will be quite surprised that I think it is a present ;-)

I did not have much time in the recent past, so integrating the Super Stack into my pedal landscape was not easily done because of its 12V requirements. I did not want to set an outlet from my large board's Cioks to 12V in a hurry and then fry some precious and rare pedal in the process, so I need the time to check and doublecheck everything to get the Super Stack up and running. The P15 was a lot quicker to install. Just toss the old amp from the cabinet and hook up the P15 in its place, done.

I had a little time to listen to the P15 and A/B with the Noble.
Here's my personal take on "The Two Tube Titans":

I like the Brougton's design a lot - it's a bit of a bummer that the current units come in a sleek and black housing, this one has more of an oldschool quality vibe to it - but we're here to compare sounds.
The P15 has the flat setting with bass and treble controls at noon. That means the unit is capable of doing a mid boost by setting bass and treble (they are shelving) below noon.

The gain knob, however, is where the P15 magic happens. In my book, a quality tube driven unit is able to produce a clean sound without noise. Tube dirt is rather easy, but a super clean tube sound is the ultimate challenge for the pedal and preamp maker. Does the P15 do that? Yes, absolutely. Does it stop there? By all means, no!
When you turn up the volume knob, you'll get that tube magic people are often raving about.
It feels like the root frequency of your note is clean, but the overtones that ring with it have an amount of saturation that ... well, for me it required to redefine what "saturated overtones" means in my book.
I can catch some of that vibe with my Underground Accelerator by putting it after the Cali76 and carefully adjusting the gain to that one tiny spot where it's just right. Don't touch either pedal afterwards or it'll be off again. With the P15, hitting that spot is like shooting fish in a barrel - with a 12 gauge shotgun. You've clearly left the surgically clean territory but you've not yet arrived at light tube overdrive. Oh my - that is glorious!
The Volume knob has a certain range to it where the effect increases until it seamlessly blends into overdrive territory.

My ears, spoiled by listening to the output of the Noble for quite a while now, could not get accustomed to how the EQ works, though.
On the Noble, you sweeten up the Booty to make it fatter, warmer and juicier by turning the bass knob and you add sparkle and definition by turning up the treble knob.
The Broughton feels like it is more sober in that regard, but I'll have to play it some more before I can tell for sure.

This is fun again!

 

[el murdoque]

Finally!

This is not a Finally, though. It's a hand hammered Underground Accelerator with tonestack bypass switch in rainbow's end. I've waited a while for this little Sushi Box.

 

[el murdoque]

Is there a group for pedaholics?

'cause this also came in.

 

[Stevorebob]

Is there a group for pedaholics?

View attachment 4786477
'cause this also came in.

Pedal Breeders' BIG Board Club Part III

 

[el murdoque]

...too late to edit, but I forgot a crucial "l" in the word "pedalholics". Maybe an admin could step in?