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New Member Here

maddrakkett

maddrakkett

In Memoriam
May 8, 2007
340
4
Glendale, AZ
members.firstinter.net
#1
Hi all. I finally got activated and want to become a part of this community. Let me start by introducing my current gear:

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I'm a fan and user of Warwick basses. I acquired these four from April to September of this year. From left to right:

'06 Corvette Std. fretless 4; '00 Thumb NT 4; '07 Corvette $$ 5; '03 Corvette Std. fretless 4

Got the Thumb NT off eBay for only $1400 - never thought I'd ever be able to afford and own my dream bass :D, but here she is:
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After putting Bartolinis in my tigerstripe fretboard fretless 'Vette and my Thumb NT, here they are with my SWR Mo' Bass rack:
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Rack, from top: Samson PS9 Power Strip; Korg DTR-1 Tuner; SWR Interstellar Overdrive; Mo' Bass (w/ Mo' Control on the floor). Also have a Maxon AD-999 Analog Delay and E-H Nano Small Stone I'll be rack mounting in place of the 'Stella preamp and a ZVEX Vexter Fuzz Factory (with Mammoth Bass Mod), ZVEX Seek Wah, E-H Q-Tron, and an ElectroniX MessDrive, but don't use those pedals much now that the Mo' Bass does a better job of covering all that ground!

Here's my custom (gray finish instead of red) MessDrive:
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And the ZVEX "Mammoth Mod":
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And the Mo' Bass "Night Lights":
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#10
LifeIsBass said:
That's the coolest looking board on a fretless 'Vette I've ever seen! Nice collection!
Click to expand...

Thanks. The story behind that is I came into a little money back in April and was looking for a good fretless and remembered a GC that carried the Warwicks, which I had admired from a distance. I went down and bought my '03 and then a couple months later, I was gassing for a 5-string $$ and a GC that was about to move locations had just got the $$ in only 2 days earlier, but for the sake of the move, they knocked it down to the price of a 4-string!

I went back a couple weeks later to their new location and there was the fretless hanging on the wall with that tigerstripe board. I was mesmerized, but couldn't afford it. That night, I couldn't sleep because the image was burned in my head - then I remembered that I had a GC club card and could get 12-months no financing! I called in sick to work the next day and was at the GC when their doors opened, and walked out with the tigerstripe beauty before someone else did! So I have two Corvette fretless basses and it was hard justifying such a purchase - until I saw the fingerboard again and realized it's the right choice vs. kicking myself if I had let it go...

Looking back, I have no regrets, only massive joy and awe!
 
#15
Stuggi said:
Nice basses!

How's that Mo'Bass treating you? It's sure is a lovely amp. BTW, does the headphone jack on yours cut out the speakers when you plug something in? Because mine doesn't.
And what's that small SWR-thingy ontop of the monster?
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My Mo's treating me very well - it's even changed my whole effects setup: I used to use a pedalboard with a Q-Tron, Analog Mini Bi-Comp, etc., but when I heard the tube Limiter and Overdrive and the analog BassSynth and Chorus on the Mo', it was bye bye pedalboard and hello Mo'!

As for the headphones, unfortunately they don't cut the speaker (strange), but the manual confirms that you can unplug the speakers for late night privacy and that works fine for me, albeit a little inconvenient.

The SWR above it is an original Interstellar Overdrive preamp (mine is #64, made when it was first introduced in February 1994). What's cool about the 'Stella is that it has a 5-Watt EL-84 x 2 driven power amp in the preamp stage! It is loaded internally with an 8 ohm dummy load, but you can hook an 8 ohm cab up for a nice, true full amp vintage grind. By doing so, all the front panel controls are bypassed and only the Drive knob will work, giving you pure tone with no other circuitry in the path. But for 5-Watts, it is LOUD! You can then mic the cab and/or take a DI from one of the XLR outs. It makes for a great little recording amp, but I'm separating it from the rig to make room for my Maxon Analog Delay which I'm going to rackmount and let the Mo' Control switch ON/OFF through a MIDI interface. I find the Mo' Bass to sound better and has more output choices for recording than the 'Stella. But the 'Stella still has its use because of the internal power section...
 
#17
maddrakkett said:
My Mo's treating me very well - it's even changed my whole effects setup: I used to use a pedalboard with a Q-Tron, Analog Mini Bi-Comp, etc., but when I heard the tube Limiter and Overdrive and the analog BassSynth and Chorus on the Mo', it was bye bye pedalboard and hello Mo'!

As for the headphones, unfortunately they don't cut the speaker (strange), but the manual confirms that you can unplug the speakers for late night privacy and that works fine for me, albeit a little inconvenient.

The SWR above it is an original Interstellar Overdrive preamp (mine is #64, made when it was first introduced in February 1994). What's cool about the 'Stella is that it has a 5-Watt EL-84 x 2 driven power amp in the preamp stage! It is loaded internally with an 8 ohm dummy load, but you can hook an 8 ohm cab up for a nice, true full amp vintage grind. By doing so, all the front panel controls are bypassed and only the Drive knob will work, giving you pure tone with no other circuitry in the path. But for 5-Watts, it is LOUD! You can then mic the cab and/or take a DI from one of the XLR outs. It makes for a great little recording amp, but I'm separating it from the rig to make room for my Maxon Analog Delay which I'm going to rackmount and let the Mo' Control switch ON/OFF through a MIDI interface. I find the Mo' Bass to sound better and has more output choices for recording than the 'Stella. But the 'Stella still has its use because of the internal power section...
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Nice, I'll be looking out for those..

BTW, could you post a vid or mp3 when you're using the filtersweep on the pedalboard, since I don't have the insertcable to use it, and I'm contemplating how useful it would be to justify the cost of a 6m insertcable.

And on a sidenote, how do soundguys react when you bring that beef up on stage? Last time I used mine the dude freaked and tried to use a inline DI with my bass, but since my bass has such a hot output (G&L L2k) the bloody thing kept clipping when I hit the E and A strings, so we had to use the DI in the mobass, and he was accually really surprised on how well it worked, and what a good signal it put out.
 
#19
arbitrary said:
Is there a website for that pedal and where can I find info about the "mammoth mod"?

Thanks!


And those are some very nice basses!
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Thanks! The MessDrive is made by Music ElectroniX, which is a dude with an eBay store. He's a cool guy who stayed in contact with me while he had a box colored in gray per my specs. His eBay store is here:

http://stores.ebay.com/Music-ElectroniX_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZQ2d999QQftidZ2QQtZkm

The Mamoth Mod is my own creation. All I did was swap out the input cap for a 470uf and the output cap for a 470uf (doing so allows a lot more low end to pass through) and I put a 1Mohm trimmer pot between the "Wet" and "Dry" (or "Send" and "Return" lines to and from the Fuzz circuit) and the middle lug goes to the output. Hopefully this schematic of the Blend part will make sense:

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I set the trimmer to about a 50/50 blend - it's a passive blend, as the Fuzz Factory is very sensitive and highly interactive to other circuits, but this seemed to work best for me.

Due to their larger size, I had to mount the caps on a separate board and wire them to where the originals were. I added the Blend pot to the same board as well. The draw back is that the board takes up the space where the battery goes, so you will lose the option to use a battery and will have to power from a DC adapter. I was using a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2+ but a One Spot worked just as well.
 
#20
Stuggi said:
Nice, I'll be looking out for those..

BTW, could you post a vid or mp3 when you're using the filtersweep on the pedalboard, since I don't have the insertcable to use it, and I'm contemplating how useful it would be to justify the cost of a 6m insertcable.

And on a sidenote, how do soundguys react when you bring that beef up on stage? Last time I used mine the dude freaked and tried to use a inline DI with my bass, but since my bass has such a hot output (G&L L2k) the bloody thing kept clipping when I hit the E and A strings, so we had to use the DI in the mobass, and he was accually really surprised on how well it worked, and what a good signal it put out.
Click to expand...

I've only had mine for a week now, so I haven't tried it into my church sound system yet. Haven't got a video either, but if you still have your 25' 9-pin connector, you can put together a 25' insert cable like I did, with the following parts from Guitar Center:

Hosa HPE325 Headphone Extension Cable $10.99
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Live Wire TRS(M)-Dual 1/4"(F) Y Cable $6.99
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Ernie Ball 1/4 (M)-1/4 (M) Connector $3.99 (Qty. 2)
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Total cost is only $26.00 ($1/ft) and worth it to have all your functionality.

As for the pedal, it can be subtle, as the auto wah handles most of the effect already, but the pedal does give you a definite human feel and added control that is cool and funky with both the dirty synth and the clean wah sounds. I can also get close to a regular wah with the pedal, and the filter makes it funkier than my Dunlop Bass Wah, which got replaced!
 

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