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Sound Clips: Way Huge Swollen Pickle

CPplaysBASS

CPplaysBASS

Mar 17, 2007
1,021
1,780
Ontario
theradiosonics.com
#1
OK ... caveat right off the start. All these clips sound way better coming out of my amp and I'm not experienced enough at recording to know how to simulate "air", but hopefully it gets the idea across :)

Bit of background ... my only direct experience with bass fuzz, up until know, has been the EHX Bass Big Muff Pi. I generally loved it, until I tried using it live. As is well documented by many here on TB, you get lost in the mix.

So it seemed the way to go was the Wren & Cuff Pickle B, but once I saw the price of the Swollen Pickle drop below $100 - and given the Way Huge Pork Loin is my absolute fave pedal of all time - I had to give the Swollen Pickle a try.

Bottom line, I'm going to stick with it. I like it a lot ... don't love it ... yet. But I'm confident I'm getting closer to finding a setting that nails what I'm hoping for (cutting, open, uncompressed). It just takes some time and patience when you're tweaking internal controls. After reading another thread on other TBers settings, I thought I'd take my first stab of assembling some sounds clips.

Now, some settings that other TBers love with their own bass are obviously going sound very different with mine, especially if we're talking passive vs active. I list more specifics in the vid, but it's a passive Fender MIA Jazz I'm using here.

Hopefully I don't inadvertanly turn people off the pedal! Just trying to help others that may have the pedal and not sure where to start in terms of settings (especially with the internal controls).

YouTube: Way Huge Swollen Pickle Bass Clips - YouTube
 
#2
TB#2 is very similar to my settings. I love this monster of a pedal. I just recorded some demos with my band on Friday, and used this pedal a lot. I'll post clips once the demos are done (which might be a while since we're doing it all ourselves in between work, gigging, and practice schedules).

-JV
 
#3
#7
Great, glad my settings were helpful!!! Yeah, it sounds a lot different through our different rigs (mine's a lot 'messier' sounding and more distorted). Not that I would have been insulted at the 'mis-representation' or anything. It's a tricky pedal and one I'm sure sounds different through every rig.

If you care to hear it, I use it for a couple of seconds with those settings at 2:49 in the song "Cities of Lead" in the link below. It is not mixed very prominantly so you don't hear the fuzziness very distinctly, but you can hear how big and deep it is.

-JV
 
#8
blastjv said:
Great, glad my settings were helpful!!! Yeah, it sounds a lot different through our different rigs (mine's a lot 'messier' sounding and more distorted). Not that I would have been insulted at the 'mis-representation' or anything. It's a tricky pedal and one I'm sure sounds different through every rig.

If you care to hear it, I use it for a couple of seconds with those settings at 2:49 in the song "Cities of Lead" in the link below. It is not mixed very prominantly so you don't hear the fuzziness very distinctly, but you can hear how big and deep it is.

-JV
Click to expand...

Cool ... will definitely give it a listen after work hours!

If I thought of it beforehand, I should have had the volume on my bass all the way up. That's probably a big difference in the "messiness" factor too ... I typically play with the volume of both Jazz pickups at about 75% full (which is what I did the demo at), but it makes more sense to max the volume on the bass when feeding into a fuzz pedal for best results. I might re-do the clips!
 
#9
I wasn't talking about 'best results', just the difference between my sound and yours. Mine's not better, it's just better for what I'm trying to acheive. Since you had the sustain knob rolled back a ways I'm sure you weren't trying to acheive the same sound I do, anyway. Sounds like you loved the sound you got, and that's the only thing that matters. Honestly, I would ask why you would want to have to tweak the knobs on your bass every time you hit your fuzz pedal? I'd rather tweak the fuzz to work with my 'normal' bass settings.

-JV
 
#11
Great pedal! Incredibly huge rich sound live, and A LOT of bass (the way I had the internal knobs tweaked last was too much). I ended up selling mine though, the stage would literally shake when I'd turn it on, and it was way too tricky with the volume setting, it either got too overpowering or lost in the mix. I was playing with it for months, but it's just too fiddly for live setting IMO. And the volume knob is uber sensitive. Settled on Blow Torch for my fuzz needs (for now).
 
#14
Dazonbass said:
Just what I was looking for. Thanks for making that demo.
Click to expand...

Glad you liked the video ... I actually need to update it. With both pickups on my Jazz on full, and tone with the treble all the way up ... THAT's it for me.

It was only after I made the vid and posted it that I relized I had my pickups only about 75% of the way up (usually where I like it when not using fuzz). Having the pickups full on though (regardless of type of bass) just makes sense if you want to agressively cut through.
 
#16
blastjv said:
Honestly, I would ask why you would want to have to tweak the knobs on your bass every time you hit your fuzz pedal? I'd rather tweak the fuzz to work with my 'normal' bass settings.

-JV
Click to expand...

I get what your saying, but the overall character of the pickup changes over and above just the change in volume ... similar to an amp I suppose. I don't think I can tweak the pedal to match the effect of having the pickups on full. It's a subtle thing, and now that I found "the tone", I'm deathly afraid to try anything else :)
 
#18
Thanks for the thread and the clips -- none sound like exactly what I'm going for, but they give me an idea of what might be done with the internal controls. Right now, I'm having boom/mud issues with the pedal. I posted more about them in the thread you linked to in post #3, above. Will post a brief update here, as well, if I have success. Again, thanks for the clips.
 

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