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overdrive/fuzz quest

#441
How is the Tech21 VT bass?

I have the T21 BDDI that I originally bought for overdrive but found I like it much better as a preamp to warm up my tone. I currently run a Boss OD but have a hard time getting it to sound organic. I have tried a few guitar pedals as well but have never been pleased.
 
#442
Bassbubble11 said:
How is the Tech21 VT bass?

I have the T21 BDDI that I originally bought for overdrive but found I like it much better as a preamp to warm up my tone. I currently run a Boss OD but have a hard time getting it to sound organic. I have tried a few guitar pedals as well but have never been pleased.
Click to expand...

I just got it. I liked it at home, then it seemed to get lost at band practice. However, not enough time spent getting used to it. I'll report after more use.

I tried the Boss, did not care for it at all.
 
#443
The VT is quite realistic sounding for a sub-$200 Ampeg tube emulation pedal, and it's considered something of a breakthrough for solid state tube emulation. The only complaints I've ever had about it is that it overly compresses, and the knobs are so sensitive and interactive that you can get a bit lost in it sometimes. And of course, it IS emulation, and while it sounds quite good, let's get real here ;)
 
#444
JimmyM said:
The VT is quite realistic sounding for a sub-$200 Ampeg tube emulation pedal, and it's considered something of a breakthrough for solid state tube emulation. The only complaints I've ever had about it is that it overly compresses, and the knobs are so sensitive and interactive that you can get a bit lost in it sometimes. And of course, it IS emulation, and while it sounds quite good, let's get real here ;)
Click to expand...

+1.

so far, the black '65 is REALLY impressing me. it cops a great fender tube amp vibe and is super punchy (not compressed).

i also built a BE Musket Fuzz clone, and although it's a very nice fuzztone, it's not really what i look for in a bass overdrive/distortion pedal. it's more like a super tweakable russian big muff and IMO, it works alot better on a guitar. here's a couple of pics of it (i used a 1290B enclosure for it to keep it small, so there's no place to put a battery in this one, but AFAIK many blackout effector pedals don't use one either):

Musketfuzzclone-01.jpg


Musketfuzzclone-02.jpg
 
#445
JimmyM said:
The VT is quite realistic sounding for a sub-$200 Ampeg tube emulation pedal, and it's considered something of a breakthrough for solid state tube emulation. The only complaints I've ever had about it is that it overly compresses, and the knobs are so sensitive and interactive that you can get a bit lost in it sometimes. And of course, it IS emulation, and while it sounds quite good, let's get real here ;)
Click to expand...

Great assessment.
 
#447
johnk_10 said:
i also built a BE Musket Fuzz clone, and although it's a very nice fuzztone, it's not really what i look for in a bass overdrive/distortion pedal. it's more like a super tweakable russian big muff and IMO, it works alot better on a guitar. here's a couple of pics of it (i used a 1290B enclosure for it to keep it small, so there's no place to put a battery in this one, but AFAIK many blackout effector pedals don't use one either)
Click to expand...

All the reasons i sold mine, i thought my green BM sounded better too.
 
#448
i agree. i think my '78 op amp muff sounds better.

anyway, here's a few quick clips of some pedals that i haven't posted a clip of yet.


here's the Musket (IMO, although it's tweakable, it still kind of a 'one trick fuzz pony'.

the first part is bypassed and the second one is about as clean as it gets if you don't roll the volume down. after that, i just kept raising the fuzz in this clip and finally truned it back down for the last part.

Musket:



heres the black 65 with various drive settings (note: this one sounds much better in real life).



here's the WIIO (i'm really digging this pedal! i actually like better than their SFT):



and finally some very heavy distortion with a jazz bass thru the pinnacle:

 
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#454
NOLA Bass said:
Can you elaborate?
Click to expand...

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f36/serial-compression-experiment-905262/

By the last post -- the most recent -- I had discovered I was getting the harmonic overdrive sound I was hearing in my head, that no overdrive pedal was giving me. I wasn't looking for distortion, just something that would work with my Gretsch.

At light finger playing, it the double-comping give me the obvious very even volume and some interesting harmonic detail. When I dig in, I get more volume and I begin getting what sounds very much like a light overdrive sound, but with no distortion.

I have a few more days of testing the results, but it looks like come Saturday morning, I am going to run the double-comp live at the Synagogue and see how it plays with their PA system.
 
#456
i was tweaking the circuit in the musket and got it alot more suited for what i'd like it to be. i have alot of the parts socketed in it so i can experiment with different clipping diodes (in both stages) and sockets for a few resistors for the gain stages, and coupling caps for its overal tone. i'm now running red leds instead of the 1n914's in the first distortion stage and it's a bit smoother, fuller and rounder. i'm also running a 220n output cap in place of the 100n for more low end, and boosted the pedal's overall clean ouput level from a gain of 3.7 to 7.4 by changing a resistor on the final gain stage. i also tried green, yellow and red 3mm leds in stage two, and although it boosted its output more, and was less distorted, it made the pedal a bit too dull/woofy, and lost alot of its character, so i'm running the stock 1N914's there.
 
#460
funkytoe said:
Hi John,

Since you have now brought up the issue of fuzztones, any chance you will be making a clone of the classic Roland AP-7 Jet Phase? I would love to see (and hear) your take on that classic.
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Hi Ken,
i probably would if i could develop a vero layout for one. i always thought that those AP-7's sounded really good.


i came up with a new fuzz/OD of my own recently. i haven't owned a rat in 20 years so i decided to build one, which is actually what this one started out as. i modded it for bass by changing the input and output coupling caps to allow more low end thru the pedal, then i 'revoiced' the drive circuit and used 1N270 germanium diodes instead of the silicon ones. instead of the LM308 chip (which i also tried), i'm using a TL071CP which is a little noisier in this circuit, but it has more top end, and sounds 'tubier' to me since it's an FET opamp. then i added an FET clean blend so i could mix in the clean signal with the OD/Fuzz. finally, i also added an FET clean boost which really opens the pedal up and IMO, makes it extremely versatile. it's basically a 3 in 1 pedal now, since it can be used as a clean boost, have either a slight or moderate overdrive, or go all the way into an all out heavy fuzz, and IMO, it does all of them extremely well without losing any low end. for now i'm calling it a 'BassFace' but i'm also thinking of calling it the 'DryRot'.

anyway, here's a couple of pics of it (there's no room for a battery in there (or anything esle!) now, but i use a PS for my pedals anyway):

BASSFACE-OD-fuzz-01.jpg


BASSFACE-OD-fuzz-02.jpg


i'll try to post a clip of it soon.
 

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