NPD Effectrode Blackbird

[Kijuer]

Saw one for sale for 270€, I couldn't resist. Should arrive next week.

Any owners here? Did I make a good move?

I've read on the manual the EQ section is based on the Fender Blackface Twin Reverb (Tone Stack?), so where should I start to have the most neutral response, to begin with?

 

[Kijuer]

I had the chance to test the Blackbird. It's a great, great sounding unit. You can FEEL the tubes. A whole another world. Kind of like listening to your bass sound in HD LOL. I've toyed with a few spare 5751s I had at home to see how they would affect the tone and I will admit that I like the slightly warmer, rounder edge they give to the high gain channel (12ax7 on V1 and 5751s on V2 and V3).

The big drawback is that the Clean channel EQ is a Fender Tone Stack, meaning that you'll have to set it at 2-10-2 (or 8-5-8- o'clock) to have a flat EQ and that leaves not much freedom for anything else unless you really dig super scooped sounds. It's fine by me as I have an external Boss EQ-200 with all my eq presets, so I leave the Blackbird's clean channel flat and that's it.

The OD channel is super juicy...compared to the Dakglass Vintage Microtubes, which i currently have on my board, is fuller sounding, less harsh, wamer, fatter, in one word: better. I am not a fan of those chainsawish/scratchy distortion every Darkglass fan seems to be craving for, in fact mine was set for a very mild drive, but even at low gain settings the Blackbird kicks its b*tt. You just can't compete against real tubes.

I am totally in love with it. Also, the high gain channel is tremendously silent. Big, big plus. Its EQ is not a Tone Stack though, it's shaped differently. I am still trying to understand whether it's a James/Baxandall type or else. Sounds pretty mid-forward with everything at noon. Definetly not flat. It's just a curiosity though, as you can achieve a ton of different sounds out of it regardless of what it's based upon.

Haven't tried the cabsim.

 

[evil dewars]

Awesome post, so vivid it's like a jam session.

You don't even need to post a demo but I sure hope you do.

 

[gtirard]

You don't even need to post a demo but I sure hope you do.

A bass sound demo of the Effectrode Blackbird would be really usefull.
- Many bass players seem to love it here and on Reverb,
- But I could only find guitar demos on YT and soundcloud
- The only bass demo I could find is on Effectrode website, there's a short cover of the Fever bassline. It sounds great (clean channel), but there's no comparison bypass/preamp on, so it's impossible to know if the great tone comes from the instrument and the player or from the pedal.

 

[dlb1001]

Was looking at this pedal, too, but without any bass demos, I didn't want to chance it. I had been looking a Sushi Box but there is a backlog on that pedal.
And like someone mentioned, I have a Darkglass pedal, too, but it just doesn't fit in the genre that I play so if Effectrode has the sound that I'm looking for then I would spring for one.
Also, the Effectrode has a DI out, which would be great for home recording.

 

[Mosfed]

The general consensus is that the clean channel sounds great on bass but the drive channel is kinda meh.

 

[Kijuer]

I wish I could. I had some s**t to deal with and to do it I had to sell it.
What I can tell you is that I found a very pleasing, woolly driven sound by changing tubes, using 12AU7 and 5751s. Three 12ax7s were overkill for my tastes.
What really didn't do for me was the built-in Cabsim in the balanced output. Took to much low-end off and put too many hi-mids in. Really "abrasive".

 

[Mosfed]

I wish I could. I had some s**t to deal with and to do it I had to sell it.
What I can tell you is that I found a very pleasing, woolly driven sound by changing tubes, using 12AU7 and 5751s. Three 12ax7s were overkill for my tastes.
What really didn't do for me was the built-in Cabsim in the balanced output. Took to much low-end off and put too many hi-mids in. Really "abrasive".

I am sure the cab sim was trying to replicate a Blackface amp or something similar like the Deluxe etc. not surprising that it didn’t sound good on bass

 

[Kijuer]

Yes, exactly.

 

[TheLopp]

The general consensus is that the clean channel sounds great on bass but the drive channel is kinda meh.

I wish I could. I had some s**t to deal with and to do it I had to sell it.
What I can tell you is that I found a very pleasing, woolly driven sound by changing tubes, using 12AU7 and 5751s. Three 12ax7s were overkill for my tastes.
What really didn't do for me was the built-in Cabsim in the balanced output. Took to much low-end off and put too many hi-mids in. Really "abrasive".

I disagree. I think the drive sound is one of my favourite drive sounds recently. I swapped tubes to at least 1 12AT7 but I kept the 12AX7 for the clean channel. Not sure how it really works but it sounds fantastic. For me, the grit has the right texture and I really like it.

I will do some more tube swapping in the near future and see where it leads me.

I have a LA-1A in front and that gives me some really nice options with the boost on or off.

Also, the SA EQ2 is routed pre/post Effectrode which gives a lot of tone shaping abilities.

Still thinking about to put the Cali76CB before the LA-1A or not. It sounded really great but definitely not K.I.S.S.

And the Blackbird in production now doesn’t have any cab sim, so I can not comment on that, but I use the CabZone X which is really good!

 

[gtirard]

I finally bought the Blackbird, and I love it. I like to keep things simple and this pedal allows me to have the 3 presets I need: always-on clean tube, slight crunch, and heavy distortion. I had to replace tubes #2 and #3 by lower gain alternatives though. Tube swapping is fun and easy

There was no bass demo so I made one - It's not perfect, but at least it can give an idea of how it sounds with a bass:



Next week I should receive the Mozztronics Valve Direct Box DI-2, I'll try to make a comparison.

 

[ShortScale24]

I finally bought the Blackbird, and I love it. I like to keep things simple and this pedal allows me to have the 3 presets I need: always-on clean tube, slight crunch, and heavy distortion. I had to replace tubes #2 and #3 by lower gain alternatives though. Tube swapping is fun and easy

There was no bass demo so I made one - It's not perfect, but at least it can give an idea of how it sounds with a bass:



Next week I should receive the Mozztronics Valve Direct Box DI-2, I'll try to make a comparison.

Did you ever receive the Mozztronics? How is it?

 

[gtirard]

Did you ever receive the Mozztronics? How is it?

I love it too. They are very different, but both are great. The Mozz is a real bargain. It is inspired from the Ampeg SVT and you can hear it. I also made a demo:

 

[GroovyBaby]

I finally bought the Blackbird, and I love it. I like to keep things simple and this pedal allows me to have the 3 presets I need: always-on clean tube, slight crunch, and heavy distortion. I had to replace tubes #2 and #3 by lower gain alternatives though. Tube swapping is fun and easy

There was no bass demo so I made one - It's not perfect, but at least it can give an idea of how it sounds with a bass:



Next week I should receive the Mozztronics Valve Direct Box DI-2, I'll try to make a comparison.

Just came across this demo and it’s super helpful. My band recently switched to IEMs and I’m looking to go ampless. This thing sounds great in the demo. Anyone hear compare it to any Sushibox pedals? They are smaller and if I can get similar tones, that would another option. I don’t need the DI as I think I’ll be running it out of my Genzler Magellan Pre at the end, unless this DI is as good.

 

[gtirard]

Just came across this demo and it’s super helpful. My band recently switched to IEMs and I’m looking to go ampless. This thing sounds great in the demo. Anyone hear compare it to any Sushibox pedals? They are smaller and if I can get similar tones, that would another option. I don’t need the DI as I think I’ll be running it out of my Genzler Magellan Pre at the end, unless this DI is as good.

FYI I sold it a few months ago, even if I liked it a lot, it didn't correspond to my priorities any longer.

After 2 years of using it, here's what I think

THE GOOD

• It's the only tube pedal I know which enables you to have "2.5" channels at your footstep:
  • Green channel: always on tubbey clean tone, with its proper EQ
  • Blue channel: overdrive (second EQ, shared with the Red channel)
  • Red channel: distortion (EQ shared with the Blue channel)
• Tube swapping is easy and fun

Before I sold it, I have used it a lot for gigs, and it was great to switch easily between a clean tone, just a little grit, and more pronounced distortion. It was great.

THE BAD

• The "tube warmth" in the green channel is subtle, hardly noticeable in a band mix. I think what I liked in the green channel is more a consequence of the scooped EQ than the added tube warmth (when EQ knobs are at noon, it corresponds to a boost in bass and treble and a cut on the mids)
• The EQ center points are designed for 6 strings guitars. It's OK to compensate for the loss of bass on the Blue and Red channels, but it's not the best EQ for bass guitars if you need to do specific things.

I think that a few Sushibox pedals will allow you to alternate between an always on clean tube tone and a boost channel, including the new Venus X, so you'll get only one level of drive instead of 2, but the EQ section will be much better optimmized for a bass guitar.

 

[GroovyBaby]

FYI I sold it a few months ago, even if I liked it a lot, it didn't correspond to my priorities any longer.

After 2 years of using it, here's what I think

THE GOOD

• It's the only tube pedal I know which enables you to have "2.5" channels at your footstep:
  • Green channel: always on tubbey clean tone, with its proper EQ
  • Blue channel: overdrive (second EQ, shared with the Red channel)
  • Red channel: distortion (EQ shared with the Blue channel)
• Tube swapping is easy and fun

Before I sold it, I have used it a lot for gigs, and it was great to switch easily between a clean tone, just a little grit, and more pronounced distortion. It was great.

THE BAD

• The "tube warmth" in the green channel is subtle, hardly noticeable in a band mix. I think what I liked in the green channel is more a consequence of the scooped EQ than the added tube warmth (when EQ knobs are at noon, it corresponds to a boost in bass and treble and a cut on the mids)
• The EQ center points are designed for 6 strings guitars. It's OK to compensate for the loss of bass on the Blue and Red channels, but it's not the best EQ for bass guitars if you need to do specific things.

I think that a few Sushibox pedals will allow you to alternate between an always on clean tube tone and a boost channel, including the new Venus X, so you'll get only one level of drive instead of 2, but the EQ section will be much better optimmized for a bass guitar.

Very helpful and appreciated. I’m going to look into the sushi box options then. I just want to add some mild tube drive to thicken the tone some, maybe a little heft in the low mids.