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New mxr bass distortion!
- Thread starter Patchbass
- Start date
Actually Jimmy, your demo of the pedal at lower gain settings is what sold me. I don't need the crazy over the top distortion, so your lower gain demos were much better (for me) than the most of the over-the-top youtube demos.
Appreciate it immensely.
Appreciate it immensely.
Maybe I should ask for commissions
I was thinking they didn't make demos with the slight grind settings themselves because they have the Bass Overdrive and didn't want overlap. But the BO demo they did with Juan Alderete has him dialing in some pretty heavy settings, so I doubt that's the case. At any rate, I thought they really overlooked that aspect of the pedal in these demos, fine as they are, so I did one. Glad you guys enjoyed it, thanks for the nice words, and hope you have much fun with it!
This statement would probably sound funny to anyone unfamiliar with guitar bass effects LOL!
Is the Blower Box (by Idiotbox Effects) also similar to the Rats? I didn´t like the Blower Box and sold it, BUT i´m really digging the MXR Distortion a lot, hopefully soon available in Europe.
rratajski
Commercial User
- Jul 1, 2008
- 6,121
- 2,671
- Disclosures
- Builder for FUZZROCIOUS PEDALS
It is. It features a more aggressive distortion profile and different tone stack.
I didn't dig the BB either and I love rats! The Rat Tail is still my favorite so far but I still gotta try this MXR and a Volt Thrower.
So I got mine and played around with it some yesterday...I'll do a full review later in Gear Reviews but this is just some first thoughts.
The two pedals I was comparing this to on my board (with the same bass) was my EHX BBM Deluxe and the Blower Box. Blower Box came out being far more trebly and clanky, not a bad thing because that's exactly what I wanted it for. The BBM Deluxe is without a doubt my meatiest pedal, the crossover section lets me dial in some mean fuzz with a solid bottom end. This one is certainly loud and still thumps hard. The MXR is somewhere in the middle, it's not as trebly as the Blower Box when it comes to distortion, but it's not quite as "big" sounding as the BBM Deluxe manages to be for me. This works out great because it's precisely what I wanted and it fits right on my pedal board. When I want something more grindy than the Big Muff, but not as sharp as the Blower Box this is right there in the middle. Going to test it out with active basses later and see how it goes, more details then as well.
The two pedals I was comparing this to on my board (with the same bass) was my EHX BBM Deluxe and the Blower Box. Blower Box came out being far more trebly and clanky, not a bad thing because that's exactly what I wanted it for. The BBM Deluxe is without a doubt my meatiest pedal, the crossover section lets me dial in some mean fuzz with a solid bottom end. This one is certainly loud and still thumps hard. The MXR is somewhere in the middle, it's not as trebly as the Blower Box when it comes to distortion, but it's not quite as "big" sounding as the BBM Deluxe manages to be for me. This works out great because it's precisely what I wanted and it fits right on my pedal board. When I want something more grindy than the Big Muff, but not as sharp as the Blower Box this is right there in the middle. Going to test it out with active basses later and see how it goes, more details then as well.
Just got mine a few days ago and waited to gig out with it but this is one of the best pedals I've tried recently. I actually got the blower box a few days prior and have since shelved it. I know a lot of people dig it but I found the blower box to be harsh and relatively useless. The MXR has quite a wide range of tones available however I have found that no matter what I have dialed in I have run the tone at the utmost minimum in all applications.
It's a great sound, especially with a really deep sounding hollowbody like a violin bass. I like the brighter tones, too, but usually keep the tone knob at noon or below unless I'm going for a Larry Graham fuzz, and then I let it rip
This has become an instant staple on my board which is currently:
Way Huge Pork Loin ===>Darkglass VMT===>MXR-M85===>EBS D Phaser===>Keeley Bassist
Thinking of adding a second one just because there are SO many viable options with it that I can't leave it alone! I honestly can't decide where to leave it...definitely not a set it and forget it pedal!
Way Huge Pork Loin ===>Darkglass VMT===>MXR-M85===>EBS D Phaser===>Keeley Bassist
Thinking of adding a second one just because there are SO many viable options with it that I can't leave it alone! I honestly can't decide where to leave it...definitely not a set it and forget it pedal!
I'm sure this has been covered in the thread previously, but I might as well ask again: I've got one of Ryan's Rat Tail's on order, and am curious how this MXR/Fuzzrocious collaboration compares to the dedicated Fuzzrocious Rat Tail. They're both Rat designs, so I'm assuming they're similar on some level. The Fuzzrocious pedal is more expensive and affords some options (I got mine with the second gain footswitch for a low/high setup), but what are the tonal differences?
rratajski
Commercial User
- Jul 1, 2008
- 6,121
- 2,671
- Disclosures
- Builder for FUZZROCIOUS PEDALS
RT has more tonal options in how the pedal clips via the 1 and 2 knobs that isn't available on the MXR. The addition of optional mods. The no diodes clipping option, which opens the sound a lot and compresses less for a more natural sound of the bass with the rat tailiness added in.
Thanks Ryan. I don't know if you can say or not with contracts, non-compete agreements, etc. with MXR, but my assumption is that the Fuzzrocious Rat Tail is generally of a higher quality than the MXR BD given the higher price point and hand build as opposed to assembly line construction. Again, no pressure to comment on that if it would get you in any hot water from a legal standpoint with your friends over at MXR, which is a company I genuinely like by the way (proud owner of a BOD and a BCD that are in active use on my board frequently).
rratajski
Commercial User
- Jul 1, 2008
- 6,121
- 2,671
- Disclosures
- Builder for FUZZROCIOUS PEDALS
There's nothing legal involved, but I can't compare the quality of our pedals vs MXR. What I can say is that our stuff is handmade by me and the fam and MXR's stuff is on a broader scale in terms of production. Their parts are sourced from more renewable resources, whereas with the LM308 can opamp we use, it's soon-to-be-gone forever. They are building on a larger scale and ours is much, much smaller and in-house.
I don't know how the MXR shakes out compared to the Rat Tail, but the MXR gives me no indication that it's of lesser quality than the vintage Rat and Keeley Rat I used to have. Memory is a little fuzzy but sounds great to me.
And now the conversation just took a turn for the interesting, or extremely esoteric
Was just reading up on the history of the Rat, and it's no secret that Rat lovers by and large like the vintage LM308 versions over the versions they've made since the 90's that use the OP07DP opamp . I've always been one of them. I always felt the old ones sounded less hard and harsh. But I absolutely love the Bass D and knowing it doesn't have an LM308 changes nothing. So while my gig got rained out and I had to wait for the buyer to call it (took 2 hours), I did a little poking on the internet and came across this forum thread:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Cut to the chase...the OP said, "While they sound different with identical settings, the overall flavor is very much the same and they can be very easily made to sound identical with a little knob tweaking on one or the other."
Hmmm...never thought to do a comparison like that when I had my Rats. I just thought the newer ones sounded a little too harsh when I used them with the knobs in the same positions. Never thought that changing the knobs a little could make each pedal sound the same. What do I know about electronics? I'm a dunce when it comes to that stuff. I thought they were the same or they weren't, and back then I took other people's words about why that is at face value. And I never owned more than one Rat at a time so I never really got to do any in-depth analysis. All I knew is that the new Proco Rat 2 didn't hit me the same way that my vintage Rat 2 and Keeley-modded Rat 2 set in normal mode did.
And in that thread, the OP also posted this very telling video from Visual Sound:
Granted, it's about TS-808's and not Rats, and no LM308's or OP07DP's are used. But I really couldn't tell much of a difference at all when the guy swapped out opamps and switched between pedals. And that's his contention, that opamps don't really do much to the sound except cause you to have to dial in slightly different settings to achieve identical tones, and that diodes and capacitor values are way more important.
This makes me think that maybe I let my preconceptions about where the knobs should be on a Rat cloud my thinking, and maybe I misjudged the OP07DP Rats based on knob positions. So for me to find out for sure, I could buy two Rats and a second Bass D and some opamps and sockets and change them out and do lots of obsessive ABing. On a musician's salary? Not bloody likely! So what does any sane Talkbasser do in my position? One of two things:
1. I tag @johnk_10 and ask what he thinks. John and I have discussed opamps before in a different situation, and he said basically what the Visual Sound guy said, too. I kind of expect more of the same, but I'm sure he's done some Rat experimenting so he can give us a firsthand view of it.
2. I forget about it and enjoy the sweet and dulcet tones of my awesome MXR Bass Distortion, content in the knowledge that it sounds like a proper Rat regardless of what's inside.
Then again, no reason I can't do both. And I still maintain that the Pro Co Bass Juggernaut was a truly horrible pedal
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