I'll try and report when I'm not playing them like crazy!I've been obsessing about both pedals at one time or another, so please report back when you''ve played with them
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Stoner/Doom Bassists Thread, Part 90: Maxed Out
- Thread starter Korladis
- Start date
Waiting for Oranssi Pazuzu (De Helling, Utrecht, Netherlands, 19 May 2022):
That's great to hear. Now you can get yourself all straight and moving forward (which it sounds like you are in the midst of). The end of a relationship is always hard, but, sometimes it's for the best.Well, I have some good news to report.
After a ssllooww legal process, the divorce became official in early May. Shortly afterwards my ex and son moved to their new home. Since then, I live alone.
Now living alone is the part I dreaded. I lived alone for some time when I was very young , and I couldn't do it. I barely kept myself alive, but wasn't able to make money or keep the house clean. Long story. So naturally I've been wondering if this time around I'd do any better.
Turns out I'm doing well. I go to bed on time, I go to work on time, I do the laundry and other chores. I cook healthy food for myself, and I regularly go for a run.
Also, I'm drinking less alcohol, I'm drinking less coffee, and I'm eating less candy. I even practice the band music more.
So to my surprise, I'm starting to feel this divorce was actually a good idea.
Got the Motorbass and Atreides in today. So far, really digging the Motorbass. It's surprisingly versatile in its niche, and covers similar ground to a Rat, but with more dynamics. Fits in nicely with what I was hoping for, which was a standard, easy to dial in hard rock/heavy metal tone. Will likely work quite well for old school Metallica (which is what I've been jamming on lately). Perfect for that, and dead easy to dial in for a great tone. 3 knobs, one of which is volume. If you want a dead simple "rock and roll" pedal, this one is by far the best I've played.
The Atreides... is weird? I mean, I knew it was weird, and I've had and enjoyed weird pedals, but this one is the weirdest. I can't really say anything else about it yet except that it's the exact opposite of the Motorbass in terms of plug and play - this thing will NEED tweaking. So I'll keep trying it out and see what I can get from it.
The Atreides... is weird? I mean, I knew it was weird, and I've had and enjoyed weird pedals, but this one is the weirdest. I can't really say anything else about it yet except that it's the exact opposite of the Motorbass in terms of plug and play - this thing will NEED tweaking. So I'll keep trying it out and see what I can get from it.
Well, I'm happy for you. I'm waiting for the results of the last exercises I've submitted and I'm done with the current semester. While there's still the job (for a break from that I have to wait until August), at least I'm having weekends off for a while. Should finally start working on the kits (EQD Acapulco Gold and Rangemaster) I bought myself in... probably January as a belated Christmas gift?
That and actually playing. Would be nice to get further at the two songs I've been learning (Into The Void by Black Sabbath and Rise Above by Black Flag) that the intro and the main riff respectively. Neither of these on bass, though.
Heresy?
I hear that. I had the main parts down to Four Horsemen for a few months now. Then I got crazy busy again for a bit and maybe played bass twice in about 3 months? So this past week of being able to actually sit down and play was glorious, and I got to hammer out the parts of Four Horsemen I needed to. Been great. If only my main bass wasn't down for a bit. Oh well, gonna gut the electronics that I amateurishly wired (and really messed up!) and get a pre-wired harness, then have a local tech finish it up. I'm grateful it's an older retired guy who does it in his free time, and who happens to live 5 minutes away. So I'm optimistic that once I get the pre-amp on Wednesday, my bass may be fixed by Friday.
Excited to get to be a part of this Madness. Gone several times. First time I get to play tho.
The Motorbass pedal is awesome. Definitely sticking with my "similar to a Rat" assessment from earlier, but it's by far the easiest "Rat" I've ever dialed in. If I had any complaints (which I don't!), it would be that it's somewhat bright for my usual tastes - but it IS Lemmy in a box, so that's to be expected. Regardless, I'm loving this thing. It absolutely rips for old school metal and hard rock.
And since this made me think of Rats, I started messing with my Iron Pig to compare. I kept the diode options the same on the Iron Pig (LED) since there are SO many options. The Iron Pig is always slightly bassier, but not as dynamic and punchy as the Motorbass. They can get similar levels of grit, but the Iron Pig requires more travel on the distortion knob. The Iron Pig distorts the lows more (akin to a fuzz), but the grit isn't quite as in your face. Overall, they're definitely similar tone-wise, but also distinctly different. I could get a similar enough tone from the Iron Pig, but not the same tone. Then I was reminded that the Motorbass has an internal charge pump for extra voltage (25v, I think?). Anyway, dug out my old charge pump for the Iron Pig which can do 18v and tried that. It's even better than before! Fuller lows, more dynamic, slightly smoother - just better in every way for me. Still not quite the same as the Motorbass, but closer.
I also compared it to my Rat Tail. The Rat Tail has grit and feel more similar to the Motorbass, but the lows aren't as present. They're more compressed, even though I have the Rat Tail set to almost minimum for distortion of the lows. I may have to send it in to Ryan for a blend one day. It's also not as dynamic as either the Iron Pig or Motorbass. It's still in the ballpark, and would do a fine Lemmy tone when needed, but if I wanted THAT tone, I'd get the Motorbass.
Anyway, thought that would be of interest to some here. Still dialing in the Atreides, and I found out that there are two internal switches/knobs in typical Way Huge fashion. One is an octave setting for 1 or 2 octaves down. Mine was set to 2, which is probably why it was so glitchy in the first place. Set it to 1, and it's definitely better. The other was a regen knob for the phaser. Got that lowered a decent amount and we're getting somewhere. I'll keep tweaking, as there isn't much else to say for the moment.
Other stuff happening in bass world - any of you have a Dunwich DIY HM-2? I love mine, and have gone back to shooting out HM-2s again briefly. The high knob appears to do nothing on mine. I can literally tell no difference between the maximum and minimum settings. I assume this isn't normal. I looked at the guts, but the pots are obscured by and directly soldered to the board. It all looked good to me, but again, I'm an amateur when it comes to soldering. Hoping that someone here could confirm that the high knob does indeed do something on their pedal.
And finally, in other bass news, hoping to get my old SR505 permanently fixed soon. It freaked out again on me the other day, and I just decided that now that I have time and am getting a big raise this year, I'll splurge and get a pre-wired Bartolini harness for it and eliminate the variable that is my terrible wiring altogether. So hopefully later this week I'll have that in and bring it to the tech a few minutes away. Maybe by the weekend it'll be good as new!
And since this made me think of Rats, I started messing with my Iron Pig to compare. I kept the diode options the same on the Iron Pig (LED) since there are SO many options. The Iron Pig is always slightly bassier, but not as dynamic and punchy as the Motorbass. They can get similar levels of grit, but the Iron Pig requires more travel on the distortion knob. The Iron Pig distorts the lows more (akin to a fuzz), but the grit isn't quite as in your face. Overall, they're definitely similar tone-wise, but also distinctly different. I could get a similar enough tone from the Iron Pig, but not the same tone. Then I was reminded that the Motorbass has an internal charge pump for extra voltage (25v, I think?). Anyway, dug out my old charge pump for the Iron Pig which can do 18v and tried that. It's even better than before! Fuller lows, more dynamic, slightly smoother - just better in every way for me. Still not quite the same as the Motorbass, but closer.
I also compared it to my Rat Tail. The Rat Tail has grit and feel more similar to the Motorbass, but the lows aren't as present. They're more compressed, even though I have the Rat Tail set to almost minimum for distortion of the lows. I may have to send it in to Ryan for a blend one day. It's also not as dynamic as either the Iron Pig or Motorbass. It's still in the ballpark, and would do a fine Lemmy tone when needed, but if I wanted THAT tone, I'd get the Motorbass.
Anyway, thought that would be of interest to some here. Still dialing in the Atreides, and I found out that there are two internal switches/knobs in typical Way Huge fashion. One is an octave setting for 1 or 2 octaves down. Mine was set to 2, which is probably why it was so glitchy in the first place. Set it to 1, and it's definitely better. The other was a regen knob for the phaser. Got that lowered a decent amount and we're getting somewhere. I'll keep tweaking, as there isn't much else to say for the moment.
Other stuff happening in bass world - any of you have a Dunwich DIY HM-2? I love mine, and have gone back to shooting out HM-2s again briefly. The high knob appears to do nothing on mine. I can literally tell no difference between the maximum and minimum settings. I assume this isn't normal. I looked at the guts, but the pots are obscured by and directly soldered to the board. It all looked good to me, but again, I'm an amateur when it comes to soldering. Hoping that someone here could confirm that the high knob does indeed do something on their pedal.
And finally, in other bass news, hoping to get my old SR505 permanently fixed soon. It freaked out again on me the other day, and I just decided that now that I have time and am getting a big raise this year, I'll splurge and get a pre-wired Bartolini harness for it and eliminate the variable that is my terrible wiring altogether. So hopefully later this week I'll have that in and bring it to the tech a few minutes away. Maybe by the weekend it'll be good as new!
I need to finish my DIY HM-2, and the CTG. I ordered enclosures with holes drilled per God City's specs but they don't fit. I'm not sure if they need extra deep boxes or what (doesn't say they do). Could still be my fault as I'm a total novice. I'll followup when I've made some progress.
We played during this fest in the past at a bar that wasn't part of it and got a good number of people there. The HMF is Sxsw style where most of the bars in this Detroit enclave - Hamtramck is surrounded on all sides by Detroit [Hamtramck was traditionally the Polish part of the city but now is quite the melting pot]. Anywho, yeah its a really cool fest.
Also just played a much smaller fest [DuoFest - 10 duos, blender style, 2 stages] at The Sanctuary [punk/metal bar/venue] in Hamtramck this past weekend. Ham-town is a great spot for live music.
I've found out that apparently there were options to split the highs and mids or not, and that the "split" pad on mine is empty. So far, I assume that means mine are tied together and both are controlled by the mids knob. We'll see.
I saw that comment. Odd that bridging two solder points would separate the pots. I'm no electrical engineer, but I'd figure that jumping the "split" would combine the mids and highs rather than separate them.
The build guide says: "The N.E.W. DIY HM-2 is the classic circuit, with additional clipping options as well as the choice to make the “hi color mix” the original single knob for both mid and treble, or to split mid and treble to their own pots.
It would be very easy to test, you just bridge the two empty holes with something conductive (paper clip?) and see if the knobs function differently.
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Bridging the gap gives me more treble overall, but the knob itself still has no effect. Weird.
Well, it sounds like bridging the SPLIT does add the treble into the mids control. It likely also means that something is up with the treble control. Could be a lot of things. If you post a guts shot I can compare it to mine to see if anything is obvious, but again I'm no electrical engineer.
I saw you asked about the build guide- you can download it here.
