Great board. Always wanted to try the Barbershop and Gamma. How do they compare?
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PYPB 44: ...like Tetris with boxes, wires and cables
- Thread starter Jean Baudin
- Start date
Great board. Always wanted to try the Barbershop and Gamma. How do they compare?
I actually just got the Gamma yesterday, so I've only had about half hour to play with it. So far I love it. The Gamma and Barbershaop are similar in sound to me, but the Gamma can go more extreme than the barbershop with the dirty,OD break up. The Gamma sounds great at any setting though! To me the Gamma also adds a little bump in the bass even where the barbershop is more transparent. They are both excellent pedals and I would recommend either very highly! I have the barbershop set so that it's basically clean with light fingerstyle playing, but gets hairy when I dig in. It's a mostly always on pedal for me. I'm going to use the Gamma as a heavier OD/tubey type break up sound. These two will never leave the board!
The Gama is more coloured than the Barbersop. The breakup on the Gamma is a bit different, definitely different flavour. The Gamma is cleaner, more transparent than the SGFX Beta. The Gamma also has that bass boost switch that can make it a bit crazy 
Definitely, if you dial the tone to the more bassy sound, you can definitely get old school. The JohnK sample gets there I think:
My last posting about my pedal board was from 18 to 24 months ago. I think I was basically saying I was all done forever at the time. LOL ... Not a bad run though. Clearly I'm a fan of "mass brands":
What I was finding though, across different bands I played with, I only needed (or had a desire to use) two or three for each band. It's a big board taking up a lot of real estate on the crowded stages I usually find myself on.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized I just use the modulation pedals for an R&B / jazzy band I play with, while the compressor and "bit of grit" Pork Loin were choices for my country / rock band.
So I really like how the arrangement below is going to work for me. Most likely with the R&B / jazzy band, I'll just take the top board and switch out the Phase 90 for a tuner. Bottom board is what I'll use with the country / rock band.
If I have a need to have everything at my disposal, I have the BOD on the bottom board going to a Visual Sound buffer that is secured underneath. The buffer then feeds out to the Phase 90.
The only drawback I can come up with is I need to daisy chain two 1-Spot's. While I have an 8 plus multi-cable (and another cable to power the compressor from the tuner for 9 connections overall including the buffer), a single daisy chain cannot reach both rows of pedals.
A few things were sacrificed along the way. Size-wise the MXR BOD simply fit better than the MicroPog. Not in absolute love with the BOD but not unhappy with it either. The Bass Envelope Filter on the previous board was only a space filler to be honest. I always loved the Analog Chorus or Zakk Wylde chorus and regretted selling mine in favour of the Bass Chorus Deluxe. The BCD was fine, but glad to have the Analog Chorus back on my board. Loved the Swollen Pickle for shoits and giggles, but never really had a practical use for it. With a buffer being under the bottom board and the Radial Boost also serving as a Class-A buffer, I no longer need the huge Radial Loopbone in the equation.
What I was finding though, across different bands I played with, I only needed (or had a desire to use) two or three for each band. It's a big board taking up a lot of real estate on the crowded stages I usually find myself on.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized I just use the modulation pedals for an R&B / jazzy band I play with, while the compressor and "bit of grit" Pork Loin were choices for my country / rock band.
So I really like how the arrangement below is going to work for me. Most likely with the R&B / jazzy band, I'll just take the top board and switch out the Phase 90 for a tuner. Bottom board is what I'll use with the country / rock band.
If I have a need to have everything at my disposal, I have the BOD on the bottom board going to a Visual Sound buffer that is secured underneath. The buffer then feeds out to the Phase 90.
The only drawback I can come up with is I need to daisy chain two 1-Spot's. While I have an 8 plus multi-cable (and another cable to power the compressor from the tuner for 9 connections overall including the buffer), a single daisy chain cannot reach both rows of pedals.
A few things were sacrificed along the way. Size-wise the MXR BOD simply fit better than the MicroPog. Not in absolute love with the BOD but not unhappy with it either. The Bass Envelope Filter on the previous board was only a space filler to be honest. I always loved the Analog Chorus or Zakk Wylde chorus and regretted selling mine in favour of the Bass Chorus Deluxe. The BCD was fine, but glad to have the Analog Chorus back on my board. Loved the Swollen Pickle for shoits and giggles, but never really had a practical use for it. With a buffer being under the bottom board and the Radial Boost also serving as a Class-A buffer, I no longer need the huge Radial Loopbone in the equation.
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Edit to my post above which I think deserves it's own post. To much delight, I can actually route through the 8 1-Spot daisy chain plugs to each pedal quite easily. There's a lot more length between the plugs than I thought. I only need a single 1-Spot! Yay! I have a small cable going from the power out on the tuner to the MXR CAE MC406 Buffer.
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Definitely a possibility, thanks! Changed out a number of pedals in the last month and my OD sounds too fizzy in the aftermath. I'll have to revisit ye olde castoffs...
Need more growly grind, less fizz...haven't been impressed with ODs in general, find myself chasing quality fuzzes that keep their composure at lower gain. Gamma, ss/bs mini and HE grind fuzz have my attention
Need more growly grind, less fizz...haven't been impressed with ODs in general, find myself chasing quality fuzzes that keep their composure at lower gain. Gamma, ss/bs mini and HE grind fuzz have my attention
I got a ss/bs Mini the other day. I've only had the chance to sit down with it once but I was immediately impressed. I think that it is a keeper. I'm going to take it out for another spin today. And it sounded downright wicked when I stacked it with a You're Doom, too.
I only recently got the ss/bs Mini too, I like it, very versatile pedal that can go from a light smooth breakup to an angry raw dist. Definitely a keeper, especially nice with the top mounted jacks I got.
Cross-post from the Breeders' thread:
uPOG-> Blender-> Tuner-> Wah-> Compressor-> Delay-> Reverb-> EQ-> Boost
For the blender:
A: Flanger-> Ultimate Drive
B: Phaser
C: MultiDrive
There's only one change I'm anticipating in the near future, which is getting a Pitch Fork to replace the uPOG.
uPOG-> Blender-> Tuner-> Wah-> Compressor-> Delay-> Reverb-> EQ-> Boost
For the blender:
A: Flanger-> Ultimate Drive
B: Phaser
C: MultiDrive
There's only one change I'm anticipating in the near future, which is getting a Pitch Fork to replace the uPOG.
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WonderLove will make way for the new Octave pedal next month.
Okay, second sit down with the Mini. *Full Disclosure: I bought the Mini primarily because I'm on an overdrive hunt for my Bass VI, and the Mini looked really cool. And it is. I love the crunchy Lo-Fi sound you can get with the "Bias" knob dialed way back, but it can get pretty gnarly too as the "Bias" knob approaches "12 o'clock". The other knobs are highly interactive as well, and there's still a string to string pick attack presence that I want to be able to retain. All in all, I'm super stoked on this pedal. Alright, with that being said,
I played through it with my Roscoe fretless 5 (preparing for a sub gig tomorrow with it), and holy smokes - this pedal is proving to be extremely versatile! The "Bias" knob reacts a bit differently with a regular bass (non Bass VI), in that I'm not quite getting the sag quality as much as sort of a mildly gated synthy tone. And it's awesome. While palm muting, and the Mini ("Bias" knob just before "9 o'clock") going into my 3Leaf Proton, I'm getting this really slick, syrupy, funky sound that is going to get a lot of real world playing time. What a fantastic little pedal!!!
