It has the flavour of an overdriven mic preamp. This makes it quite dynamic as it cleans up very well if you stay under the clipping threshold.
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Origin Effects DCX Bass: EQ or Drive?
- Thread starter Evan J
- Start date
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- Tags
- dcx orgin effects
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,634
- Disclosures
- John K Custom Basses
Just got my DCX and testing at home. When in EQ mode with the gain cranked I am not getting any overdrive. Should I? In OD mode I get overdrive signals fine. I own 5 basses both active and passive and non can overdrive the eq mode. I even tried guitar straight into pedal then into amp. It’s pretty clean sounding.
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My DCX starts to break up noticeably past noon in EQ mode, responsive to playing dynamics.
When I hit it with a boost, it breaks up a little quicker. Make sure you're powering it correctly.
I tested the EQ mode directly into my sound card, and had no issues getting the breakup somewhere past noon on the gain knob. That's with no pedals driving or boosting it. Tried it with my passive P bass and my active 3 band Stingray. Those are not hot output basses, the P is a vintage style output and my Stingray is close enough to it that I keep the same gain settings on all of my pedals for both of my basses. I'd contact Origin Effects if you think someting's up. Do you get a nice amount of overdrive in OD mode? In OD mode it gets into a fuzz like territory when maxing out the gain.
Thanks for testing. Yes in OD mode I get to fuzz like territory. Eq mode with gain on full I can only get the smallest amount of breakup if I dig in very hard. Or if I boost my signal I can get it to breakup but not without any boost.
Have you also tried using headphones, just to ensure it's not your cab that is masking it?
Yes I did try good headphones. I tried two amps/cabs, different power supplies 9v >100mA, different basses, different cables. I am contacting Reverb and asking for a replacement unit.
How is it eq’d? I’ve found on a lot of effects you’ll get breakup faster with more mods and highs dialed in. When I had a passive P and J, I always noticed the P would hit breakup faster than the J. I’m guessing because it’s more mid forward. Of course signal makes a difference too. I know have an active J and it breaks up faster than the P.
I still wouldn't be surprised if a replacement acts the same way. It's a very dynamic pedal, so if you are below the threshold of breakup you will get a clean signal. If you weren't able to get any breakup at all on EQ mode I'd be concerned, but if digging in or boosting works it could just be a combination of your playing style and the basses you use. Watching Nate Navrarro's demo of the pedal, he only really starts getting decent breakup at about 3 o'clock, and he is normally quite heavy handed (although in that demo he is playing a bit more subdued).
If using the active bass in your avatar I'd check its battery. All seems normal otherwise with the DCX out of the signal chain?
I don’t even get close to the break up he gets with my gain at max on EQ mode. If I dig in extremely hard, I can start hearing it saturate. If I boost it allot using my compression pedal I can force it to saturate as well. But without boosting and playing normally and digging in normally sounds clean. Even with a pick.
Battery is good. I tried with 5 different basses. All seems normal without the DCX
Well, thanks Derek, I’ve never seen that video of the DCX. Got some killer drive tones. I always used as EQ when I had one. Now I’m wanting another one.
