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Pedalboard help! EQ pedal? DI?

J

JohnathanBox

Oct 19, 2016
18
8
#1
Recently divorced from Helix, ready to get back on the scene with an amp and a pedal board.

Right now I have an Ampeg Venture V7, compressor, rat, wooly mammoth clone.

Here’s my problem though, I love the Ampeg sound with the hi and low switches on, but I’m not super happy with the “grit” you get on the amp. I’m also finding, of course, a little bit of a tone suck when I kick on my pedals.

Seems to be there’s a couple different ways to “fix” this but I don’t know what to try first.

1) get something like a sansamp, run it into the amp, set the amp flat, dirt pedals into the sansamp and use it to shape my dirt pedals / add that grit to tie it together.

2) EQ pedal to shape my dirt, find an OD pedal I like to replace the amp grit.

3) routing pedal. Something like the KMA Tyler, give myself the option to clean blend in low end.

Anyone got experience with this? Advice? Dos or do nots I might not be considering?
 
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#2
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#3
JohnathanBox said:
Recently divorced from Helix, ready to get back on the scene with an amp and a pedal board.

Right now I have an Ampeg Venture V7, compressor, rat, wooly mammoth clone.

Here’s my problem though, I love the Ampeg sound with the hi and low switches on, but I’m not super happy with the “grit” you get on the amp. I’m also finding, of course, a little bit of a tone suck when I kick on my pedals.

Seems to be there’s a couple different ways to “fix” this but I don’t know what to try first.

1) get something like a sansamp, run it into the amp, set the amp flat, dirt pedals into the sansamp and use it to shape my dirt pedals / add that grit to tie it together.

2) EQ pedal to shape my dirt, find an OD pedal I like to replace the amp grit.

3) routing pedal. Something like the KMA Tyler, give myself the option to clean blend in low end.

Anyone got experience with this? Advice? Dos or do nots I might not be considering?
Click to expand...

This is a double buzz-kill. You deep-sixed the Helix and the Ampeg's resident "grit" isn't making the cut. Don't laugh but I'm using a Sonicake Factory (70 bucks) that was given to me. The OD sounds really good, has a clean / drive blend, optical comp, 3 band EQ, and line-level DI. I see them used for <$50.

Riis
 
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#4
Not the answer to your dirt issues and I’d understand if you wanted a pedal that checked both boxes, but if you’re finding you want to parse the two issues out: One Control’s Clean Blend is great and I don’t run pedals without it, even when pedals supposedly have clean/dry signal blending features. Small footprint, though not cheap. I think the buffer is excellent and tone stays great/full/detailed despite any malarkey coming from the board (both intended and not). There are cheaper options and obviously I haven’t tried them all, but this is on the “better” side of the blend options out there IME.

one-control.com

Minimal Series Mosquito Blender Trail with BJF Buffer (OC-M-MB)

The Mosquito Blender Trail adds a wet/dry control to any effects pedal or loop. You get individual control over WET and DRY signals, letting you fine tune your tone . Activating the TRAIL switch permits the signal from the RETURN jack to continue to be mixed when the blender is bypassed, lets...
one-control.com
 
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#5
This a giant can of worms. Doesn’t have to be, but I suspect this thread will quickly fill with more suggestions than your wallet will appreciate. You can jump head first into the world of GAS or keep it simple.

The JHS is a nice option, will easily fetch whatever you pay for it if you don’t like it. The sonicake stuff is very underrated and I like it a lot but…resale value should you care about that is virtually nil. SansAmp is tried and true and has many loyal users.

Ultimately a drive with a blend and some tone shaping seems to be what might be the easiest solution.

The Way Huge Pork and Pickle is a great dual dirt pedal with a blend and a tone knob that is pretty useful. I would imagine it would work nicely for your situation.
 
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#8
JohnathanBox said:
... I’m not super happy with the “grit” you get on the amp. I’m also finding, of course, a little bit of a tone suck when I kick on my pedals.

...
Click to expand...

Find the right amp.

It's core to your tone, and an expensive item that you can't swap out easily like you can with pedals.





Definitely the most powerful but most underrated pedal in my opinion is EQ! Find one that doesn't cut lows (ie not a "guitar" pedal), but gives substantial shaping of the mids.
- Radial has some very good Pre/DI pedals with the aforementioned EQ — they are a pro-touring standard for a reason; and you can get something like ...
- Broughton's SVPre pedal for Ampeg flavouring.

There are small bypass-switchers that will help with preventing tone-suck by pedals not on — but won't prevent pedals that suck when you engage them. Get rid of the pedals that suck.

There's no magic bullet. You can take people's recommendations, which may ultimately help you narrow down your search, but in the end you still have to see if those rec-ies work for you.



Something like the Punchline might work, but in mega-combos there's always one effect that falls short in some way. Even if the Punchline had all great-sounding effects, you can't turn each one on/off with a stomp so that's a deal killer for me — and besides, you've divorced yourself from Helix so why jump into another all-in-one relationship?

Play around some, go modular, flirt with a bunch of different pedals 'til you have assembled a harem you really like.
 
#11
I don't wanna compliculate things but I'm gonna complexify 'em a tad :) .........the whole chain matters. When I play my Stingray through a certain head & cab the pedals I have sound great......but if I change the bass to a J all bets are off and significant adjustments are required. Heads are more forgiving than cabs if the amps have powerful eq with sweepable mids.....but every element in the chain has an impact, including the other pedals........if i change cabs the pedals need to be adjusted.....which is why I hate nested digital menus........it's complicated....
 
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#12
I am not sure if this would be the ultimate solution to what you are asking for, but I recently bought a second-hand Source Audio ZIO Analog Bass Preamp + DI and, man, do I like it!!!

In a very compact enclosure it has a simple yet very useful EQ, grit, DI and headphone out. Even though I do not care much for headphone outs on bass amps/preamps, this one sounds really good, it you ever want to use it.

Highly recommended...
 
#13
Feral Feline said:
Something like the Punchline might work, but in mega-combos there's always one effect that falls short in some way. Even if the Punchline had all great-sounding effects, you can't turn each one on/off with a stomp so that's a deal killer for me — and besides, you've divorced yourself from Helix so why jump into another all-in-one relationship?
Click to expand...
The only feature of the Punchline that is always on and can't be turned off is the EQ. So a lot like a Noble, in that way, eh? Not even close to a deal breaker for me :)
 
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#14
Aric Bjorn said:
The only feature of the Punchline that is always on and can't be turned off is the EQ. So a lot like a Noble, in that way, eh? Not even close to a deal breaker for me :)
Click to expand...
You failed to see my comment was about footswitches. I don't care if the amp-sim is on/off with a toggle/slide-switch, what I want is a STOMPER for it.

There are four sections to the Punchline, there are only two stompers — but my needs are not your needs so if the Punchline works for you that's great.

Depending on what the internal layout looks like, and the nature of the circuit-board, if there was space to mod it to footswitches and I liked each of the four aspects of the pedal — all four — by all means I'd stick it on my board. As it comes, stock, no.
 

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