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New mxr bass distortion!
- Thread starter Patchbass
- Start date
Which page?
I picked one of these up a couple weeks ago, and really dig it. Typically I'm an OD kinda guy but this thing sounds sweet, and it has me checking out other distortions now too. Just what I needed!
haha isnt that usually how it goes?? I wanna say it was page 8. But I will go look.
Definitely turned some heads in the band first time I kicked it on - super heavy (for me) but sits in the mix well. I didn't bond with the OCD sound (Joyo UD) but I'm loving the Rat thing for sure.
Thanks Greg!
Thanks Greg!
Greg I don't think you'll be disappointed.
I was at band practice on monday and had the volume up a litte higher than I thought - kicked it on and hit a note and the guitar player jumped about 3 feet in the air. Pretty awesome!
I was at band practice on monday and had the volume up a litte higher than I thought - kicked it on and hit a note and the guitar player jumped about 3 feet in the air. Pretty awesome!
Havent kept up with this thread in a while. Sadly im still "window shopping" when it comes to this pedal. Anyways ive found a mistake in the approach i sometimes take when GASing for a new pedal. I get pulled in when I have a certain sound i want to accomplish and feel a pedal might do that. I still do that but have to widen my intrigue, think further out of the box.A few at-home observations about the M85:
Compared to the SFT I owned previously, this unit has more low end going on, even without mixing in the dry signal.
I adjusted the LED trimpot to about 25% (factory set at full-on) and toggled between the LED/Silicon modes. At this setting, the volume is still a little higher on LED mode, but I am definitely hearing a difference between the two when soloed- very useful! To my ears, the benefit from having the two modes, aside from a wider range of effect, is that the two modes interact differently with other effects in the signal chain.
The pronounced midrange of the LED mode can get peaky and gnarly (which can be desirable) when used in combination with a sweeping filter or with a flanger that has some feedback going on- This can be smoothed out by adjusting the other effect’s parameters. However, switching to Silicon mode seems to make the distorted sound float above the range of the modulation and filter effects. Both modes sound like an angry beast with an octave.
The more time I spend with it, the more I like it! As with any effect, it will take me some time to learn how to take advantage of its range. Unfortunately, the next gig coming up is an "acoustic", volume-down situation
This quick review made me realize that. Great review and thanks for that. Never even took into consideration the fact that turning on/off silicon mode would give anothe canvas to work on when in conjunction with my other pedals. I might still accomplish the sound i originally needed/wanted, but i can possibly use it in other directions i hadnt imagined. Thanks for that
This is absolutely true. I wasn't enthralled with LED mode when I first got it, but it definitely widens the "usable sounds" palette, and now, 90% of the time I have it in LED mode.
It's weird but, I probably use it in LED mode when playing in a band more than silicon, even though I like the silicon side better solo or with other pedals.
I tend to find that LED clipping works best on bass or direct op-amp clipping. Most of the Overdrives which I like, all use LED's and my DAM Ezekiel clone has a choice of Geranium, silicon, LED or Op am clipping...and the latter two are much more potent, higher gain and just way more interesting grain structure. I find that LED clipping seems to carry a lot of my bass tone though the clipping, while still providing a lot of grit. It's like it's a clearer type of grit and doesn't stamp a bit "this is what this fuzz now sounds like" imprint over every thing.
I'm favoring the LED setting as well, Si sounds great, but it seemed a bit too "squashed" - LED is more "open". Hard to describe, but those are the best descriptors that I could think of.
LED sounds better to me solo and in a mix, that's what I'm using all the time
Thats a cool way of putting it, a dist that stamps its imprint all over everything haha. I see that you guys spoke about the LED mode having that internal level trim. Is there any other trims in there by chance?? By op amp clipping, do you mean like a diode switch?
No other trims that I know of. I didn't see any, anyway. And I don't know how to explain it technically, but op amp clipping apparently uses no diodes at all and feeds the signal right to the op amp.
Ah, ok, I see what youre saying. Ive most likely used it on some of the other dirt pedals Im familiar with. Thanks.
LED clipping seems to yield a lot of potential gain, but the op amp clipping seems to provide a similar type of clipping to LED's but the gain is even higher. So I think the diodes suck a lot of potential gain. I think the bass generally requires a lower amount of clipping than say a guitar. A lower amount of clipping can still sound quite extreme and I've had a few guitar fuzz pedals which I needed to tame a little (Triple Wreck come sot mind) before they sort of worked well on bass. I think that the bass frequencies push a circuit's ability to break up a lot easier than on a guitar for the same input gain.
I'm wondering if op-amp clipping is so hot because it's literally maxxing out the op-amp and hitting the rails and not simulating clipping by chopping off the peaks using diodes.
