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Overdrive Help

#21
Dave W said:
Absolutely. I'm in a power trio cover band. I can't say that you'll get all of the various tones of those particular bands, but it works extremely well in a rock setting.

I should have added to my last comment on the fartiness (is that even a word?)...I typically run mine with the drive setting no higher than 2:00, sometimes lower depending on the venue we're playing in. I'm sure it's possible that at a higher Drive setting it's not as tight. With the Sag fully up you'll get the most headroom...so if you turn the Sag down it'll be less tight as well. So if you combine a higher Drive setting and a lower Sag setting you may experience it.

In a live setting you may notice it less. Most of the demos I've seen are pretty crappy and don't really seem to showcase what it does all that well.

It's very important to keep in mind that it's a very low gain pedal. In that setting it's where most people rave about it. When you try to make it do something else (like higher gain) it doesn't score so well. My goal was to sort of emulate a pushed tube amp, like an SVT or similar, without actually lugging an 85lb amp to gigs. Think Jason Newsted's tone on The Black Album. For my purposes it does that very well.
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Excellent, sounds the business!

Do you play with a Pick or Fingerstyle? You could play with both but was wondering what style you play when getting these sorts of results. I play finger style with a mostly light touch but I do like to dig in depending on the song/section etc.
 
#22
johnk_10 said:
IMO, the Barbershop is one of the best bass OD's period. it's definitely not the flavor of the month. (great will always be great).
the Blueberry is also excellent, as is the Xotic and Pork Loin (with the top end mod IMO), but if I had to pick one, it would be the Barbershop.
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The Barbershop certainly receives great praise. This is a tough one. How do you think the Barbershop would sound with a bass BB preamp before it? So the Barbershop was on for light O/D and when I want to push it a bit harder I could kick on the BB? Do you think this would work? Or would you say the Blueberry would work better for this?
 
#23
I'm not in London any more, now a bit further north up in Cambridgeshire! I ordered mine direct from Bearfoot, but I recommend ordering from Prymaxe when they get them in stock and using their discount codes (typically 15% off minimum, get on their mailing list). Just buy them all if you can and sell the ones you don't like - especially for pedals that are hard to find in the UK, you can sell used for the same price that you import (if you buy from Prymaxe that is). BB Pre's often pop up used on Basschat since they've been around for a long time too.

I don't think I've ever stacked these two in particular, if I do any stacking it's always either the BB or Blueberry into the VMT Deluxe since it has a nice speaker sim effect. I think both pedals are more suited to boosting into something else rather than being put at the end of the chain and having other pedals boosting into them if you catch my drift.

I am interested in trying the Barber Shop just to see what all the fuss is about, but it would have to be pretty amazing for me to ditch my current set up, and I just haven't heard anything I like from clips so far.
 
#24
I play with both fingers or a pick, whatever is called for. I typically dig in pretty hard no matter what I'm doing so my tone is always agressive anyways (think Geddy Lee), the Barbershop kind of exaggerates it and makes it happen a little easier than SERIOUSLY digging in. It's a dynamic pedal too, so when you back off it cleans up well and when yo dig in it breaks up. That's why I like it so much.

I've got mine always stacked with a 3Leaf LBB (EQ) after it as my basic tone these days. I'll also run an OCD into it if I want things to get really nasty. Works like a charm.

All of the pedals you mention will give you good results though, so I don't want to push you hard in one direction.
 
#25
A sadly overlooked overdrive pedal in this class is the TC Electronics Spark Booster. Oddly enough I bought a Spark and a Barbershop at the same time, the Spark as a clean boost and the Barabershop as my light OD. Imagine my shock when after about a week of testing their roles got reversed. The Spark Booster is a fantastic light OD with lots of voicing options and a built in EQ. I've got it set for a bit of hair and a bit of fatness. After owning every pedal mentioned in this thread and many more, I was quite shocked at how good of an OD the Spark is.

The Barbershop is fantastic as well, but can get a little blatty at high gain. Keep it at low gain and it's definitely the way to go if you want transparent. I use it as my 'clean' boost where the Spark was supposed to go which is really kinda wasting its talent, but I liked it so much that I didn't want to get rid of it completely :)
 
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#27
HOTSPUR1992 said:
Hmmmm, decisions!

I see you play a Rickenbacker, as do I. I take it the Barbershop sounds killer with it? The only thing I'm worried about is what Danny said about it getting a bit too "farty".
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I never heard the Barbershop fart once. But as has been said elsewhere in this thread, I ran it at low to medium gain, which is what it is being recommended for by everyone here. I also had a Pork Loin that was sort of ok, at least that's what I thought until I got a Barbershop, then it didn't sound good to be at all anymore. I remember trying the Pork Loin at higher gains and definitely not liking it there. By the time the Barbershop came around, I was using other pedals like the OCD, TFR, Sublime, and TAFM to get higher gain sounds.

I think the Barbershop does a brilliant job at giving an low driven dirty sound that could be an "always on" effect. It has wonderful "amp-like" response characteristics of cleaning up and dirtying up depending upon your attack and playing style..."touch responsive", if you like. When I used multiple dirt pedals with it, I always ran the Barbershop into the fuzz or higher gain pedals, but I do know there are people who do it the other way around and have had good things to say (just can't comment myself on it though).

I've had two Barbershops, both of which were sold in fits of GAS that I regret. I don't have one now, because I changed amps over to an Aguilar Tone Hammer 350, and I found that I really liked the sound of the amp head as my basic "dirty" tone, so I decided to sell my low gain dirt pedals in favour of higher ones, and that's more or less how I run things now. I'll definitely have another Barbershop someday, as I'm starting to get into low gain pedals again.

FWIW, I play primarily fingerstyle, and dig in pretty heavy. I played a lot of blues, blues rock, classic rock, and hard rock during the time I had the pedal.
 
#28
My experience is a bit different than most, but I tried and did not care for the Barbershop. I thought it changed my tone. I was looking for that tube amp on the edge of break up - a little bit of drive - a little hair on my notes - etc.

I'm not a big FX guy, but I tried the Pork Loin, the Vintage Microtubes, and the Barbershop. I thought the pork loin and the microtubes were both very transparent and sounded great. For me, the Barbershop gave a bit of a mid bump thing to achieve it's drive. Maybe I just wasn't dialing it in right, but to me, kicking it on gave the same kind of tonal change as rolling the neck PU off on your jazz bass to favor the bridge PU - very throaty tone. The Loin and Microtubes were very easy to dial in for me, and kept the sound of my bass - just adding some dirt on top.
 
#33
hennessybass said:
My experience is a bit different than most, but I tried and did not care for the Barbershop. I thought it changed my tone. I was looking for that tube amp on the edge of break up - a little bit of drive - a little hair on my notes - etc.

I'm not a big FX guy, but I tried the Pork Loin, the Vintage Microtubes, and the Barbershop. I thought the pork loin and the microtubes were both very transparent and sounded great. For me, the Barbershop gave a bit of a mid bump thing to achieve it's drive. Maybe I just wasn't dialing it in right, but to me, kicking it on gave the same kind of tonal change as rolling the neck PU off on your jazz bass to favor the bridge PU - very throaty tone. The Loin and Microtubes were very easy to dial in for me, and kept the sound of my bass - just adding some dirt on top.
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Interesting, I tried a vintage microtubes I did not care for it at all. It coloured my tone a lot and didn't sound natural to me at all.
 
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#34
HOTSPUR1992 said:
Interesting, I tried a vintage microtubes I did not care for it at all. It coloured my tone a lot and didn't sound natural to me at all.
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Different strokes. We all have different gear and different fingers, and all that stuff has a huge effect. I think the barbershop sounds great in JohnK's clip, and makes me wonder what I was doing wrong!! Anyway, I'm happy with my Pork Loin.
 
#35
I own a Genz 9.0 and a Pork Loin and a BBBOD. I play P and J bases. I like the BBBOD better for natural amp like sounding drive. It tends toward mid range or bass tones, but nothing terribly bright. It's far more authentic than my Darkglass Vintage Deluxe. The Pork doesn't have the punch of the BBBOD, and sounds a little more dark/muted and a big more buzzy at higher gain settings. It also tends to block the treble.

The Barbershop tones I've heard tend to be barely noticeable or kazoo-like with not much in the middle. I don't get the hype on that box, but I've never tried one either.

My vote is BBBOD.
 
#36
That Blacksheep Outlaw vid sounds terrible. It's a terrible Darkglsss buzz and clank with added fart.

Edit - I've seen other demo vids from him where the pedal isn't done justice, and some which seemed more impressive. Not saying the pedal isn't good, just that the demo didn't spark my interest.
 
#39
Buzz E said:
I know this is off topic, but can anyone that likes the Blueberry briefly compare it to the BlowerBox? I like what I hear in the Blueberry demos so far...
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I've got the Blower. It sucks the mids and has a more glassy feel at low gain and more metallic at higher gain. I use it mostly at low gain settings and occasionally run the BBBOD into it (never after). Both are great and in different worlds. Check my sound cloud for various samples of them individually and together.
Soundcloud.com/monsterthompson
 
#40
...bass on the Blower is much lower, bigger, and tighter. I get enough highs with the treble turned way down. BBBOD when turned toward 9 o'clock gets a bit muddy in the low end; probably really more in the low mids than true lows.
 

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