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New mxr bass distortion!

#321
moishelichtfuss said:
So far I really like it. I also turned down the trimpot a bit, but I got the impression that the volume difference isn't as pronounced depending on how much clean you blend in. Is that possible? Maybe due to the interaction of clean and gain? However, now comes extensive testing.
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I'd say you're right. If you blend in clean to unity, changes in the other knobs and the switch don't result in drastic volume changes, so you can pretty much have your way with them at that point.

Jim C said:
How does this box fare for getting a light tube OD sound like the Ginger, Blue Berry, Barbershop, VT kind of thing?
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Excellent, especially if you put it into LED mode. Got a little bit of a mid boost somewhere between 500-800 hz, but it's totally tasteful and will get as mild as you need it. Here are a few brief samples of mild tones I could get with it and my Geezer'ed Precision. It's become the pedal I use most for overdrive, and it kills in the Motown medley we do.

 
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#324
This pedal is awesome sounding. This is the first MXR bass dirt pedal that I have been completely happy with right out of the box. I sent the el grande fuzz back almost immediately the bass fuzz deluxe was better but took a lot of knob twisting to make it useable for me. I wanted the bass OD but kinda got scared off of MXR distortions. Well I'm glad yall talked this pedal up so much cause I really like it. I'm useing LED mode with internal trim at factory setting, tone at noon, dist about 2:45, wet at noon and either just a touch of dry or none at all.
 
#325
This pedal intrigues me only mildly. I'll wait till they come up cheap on the used market. In the meantime, my MXR 78 Badass Distortion has thrown every other dirt off my board except for the Swanson Superfuzz, which is a totally different animal. I was shocked at how amazing the 78 sounds on bass, sans clean blend and all.
 
#329
If I remember correctly(the only problem with owning to many basses) the first bass I tested this pedal with was my Stingray and couldn't tell that it was having problems with the active. I thought it sounded great and pretty much like the demos I have heard. If you want to hear doesn't play well with actives plug one into a fuzz face.
 
#330
I'm slowly getting into this one. I was a bit put off by the clean blend at first, but after tinkering a bit, I found some very nice combinations. Can't wait to try it out in context in two days (when finally everyone's back from vacation and we can focus on some upcoming gigs).

It's like...a distortion...it does what it's supposed to do...distort. Let's see how it manages in the mix.
 
#332
my love to the MXR M85 was only slowly developing ... i almost considered "money back option" at last minute which i have never done before. But after 2 or 3 weeks of testing/tweaking/stacking i started to like this distortion a lot. The internal trim-pot is still untouched, will try that the next days. Fun part of my testing was stacking the distortion into my SourceAudio Manta (envelope filter), from there into my Tech21 VT Bass DI. I did send the DI signal to my DAW and recorded my testing scenario with drum beats in the background ... i was impressed: the recorded sound was even better than the live sound ... more testing/tweaking/stacking will follow.
 
#333
Hmm, I tried the MXR BD in a store yesterday and was less than impressed. Played with two passive basses. Tried many different settings, but it always sounded "farty" to me and the guy in the store. It looks like too much of the low end is passing through the distortion circuit, especially in LED mode. Reminds me of a RAT with Ruetz mod.
After all the nice reviews here, I really wanted to like and get the pedal, but at the end I couldn't. Matter of taste I suppose. Blending clean and dirty paths separately works nice though.
 
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#334
blr2 said:
Hmm, I tried the MXR BD in a store yesterday and was less than impressed. Played with two passive basses. Tried many different settings, but it always sounded "farty" to me and the guy in the store. It looks like too much of the low end is passing through the distortion circuit, especially in LED mode. Reminds me of a RAT with Ruetz mod.
After all the nice reviews here, I really wanted to like and get the pedal, but at the end I couldn't. Matter of taste I suppose. Blending clean and dirty paths separately works nice though.
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I found the same things on a lot of what you're saying. There were some things I really liked about it. But for all the stuff that's out there today, I found other things that worked much better for me. I can see why some really like it though.
 
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#336
Welp, not every pedal is meant for everybody :D I get those opinions, and I have a second overdrive on my board because over time I've found it doesn't quite work for everything. But for slightly mid-forward sounds, and especially when I turn my tone knob down a little bit on my Precision, I still love it.
 
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#338
gregmon79 said:
I'll tell you this much, I'll take fuzzro cat tail any day over the MXR. Man that pedal is seriously awesome.
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No kidding? How so? What do you like better about it? Was my understanding that the MXR was a simplified Cat Tail, and the op amps are different but not very significant when it comes to tone.
 
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#339
My parts P5 + the LED mode of the M85 definitely pokes the nose into the mix, and I personally like what it does (or doesn't do) with the low end. Finding a pedal I enjoy using at a relatively low price makes me like it even more. My favorite box o'dirt!
 
#340
JimmyM said:
No kidding? How so? What do you like better about it? Was my understanding that the MXR was a simplified Cat Tail, and the op amps are different but not very significant when it comes to tone.
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I've never done well with blends in pedals. The traditional style anyway. Whatever that means. Blends like on Darkglass I can work with. But for whatever reason, the blends on most dirts and fuzzes make it hard for me to dial them in. The MXR did get a little farty for me too. But, in its defense, I only had it for maybe two weeks. I struggled with the clean and dirty levels. Same thing happened with the MXR bass fuzz dlx too.

I used to have a rat King and did like it. But that was a long time ago. I struggled with it too back then. But I've also learned a lot since then and my setup has changed quite a bit. But I recently got the chance to play a regular rat tail with just the second dist mod and I really liked it a lot. You know how I am with the blower box, that is one of the only dirt pedals that has stayed on my board since I got it. In fact, it's the only one that has. Ever. But I can honestly say that the rat tail would give it a serious run for its money. It's really straight forward, is voiced well for bass and is really aggressive In the high mids dept so it does really good in the mix IMO.

So in short, for me, I think it's the independent clean blend dirt blend knobs that give me trouble. I seem to dig a dirt pedal with no blends. In most cases. The blend gets in the way most times for me. But I have had it work to my advantage before Too. Just not most times.
 
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