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Stoner/Doom Bassists Thread, Part 90: Maxed Out

#59,881
Katoosie said:
Yeah! So I have some thoughts about this pedal and these are my settings on it.

View attachment 4828946

This is how I found the settings I liked, after weeks of messing around with it.

Mosfet clipping - sounds better than the LED in my opinion. The break up of sound is more natural and less artificial to my ear.

Then, volume to the max, blend at 0, gain at 0. Gain shape and tone at noon. Blend to 25, you'll hear that the volume drops - compensate with gain to get whatever amount of dirt you want, for me it's at like 15% or so. I get some saturation, volume boost and some fuzz but not enough to mess with my bass tone. Turn the volume knob down until the volume of the entire thing is the same whether bass mountain is on or off (that is my preference) and set the tone knob so that the sound frequency (not sure if that is the correct term - I turn the knob around to find a spot until the sound while not playing anything and while bass mountain is on, the "hiss", is no longer able to be perceived and distinguished between the pedal being on or off) stays at the same volume. Then I use the gain shape knob to match the tone of the unit to my bass tone, so that my bass tone fully comes thru and all I hear is fuzziness added on top of it which gives it a lot of character.

Does that make sense? It's kinda complex but I think this is the best way I could describe the whole thing. I've spent quite a while fiddling with this thing and I really like it.

I've noticed that this box has quite a strong voice of its own, hence why my blend knob is set to 25% only. Not a fan of how this pedal thins out the sound. Feels like it drops some bass, maybe boosts some mids? I wouldn't even know where to start with an analysis like that, would probably need a frequency analyzer since my ear is not that good yet - but it definitely thins out the sound somewhat or adds quite a bit of its own thing, which personally doesn't work for me - I like to keep my bass tone alive and well, not masked by any pedals.

I definitely love it and its a keeper for sure. I got it because I was looking for a replacement for a darkglass alpha omicron and this thing was complex enough yet not overwhelming and it sounded hella good to my ear. It was battling a damnation audio curmudgeon, OBNE Haunt from 21' and whatever else I forgot about.

So yeah. Oh and the art on it is sick :)

Tell me more about this box and your experiences with it, when you got the time.
Click to expand...
"I like to set my gain to point at the demon's butthole." Yeah, I'm a 12-year-old.
 
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#59,883
People in cover bands, how do you do it? Things are dry dry dry in my area, ex-band homies live just far enough away to make it a total hassle and so I find myself entertaining an offer from a cover band startup, doing 90s-2000s 'pop-rock'.... i.e. the guy forming it doesn't want to do typical old-dude 60s/70s/80s rockers (nothing wrong with them). I think I might have to decline because I can probably predict some disagreement on song choices. My dang particular/obscure tastes from that era and all.

What to do? Keep eeking along with my solo wankery, waiting for something else more interesting to come along, or get out and just interact/play with folks even though I don't really like how the songs smell? I am more of a side man when it comes to bands, I don't think I've ever had mental space to herd a bunch of cats to work/play my own original stuff.

Christ.
 
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#59,884
cornfarmer said:
People in cover bands, how do you do it? Things are dry dry dry in my area, ex-band homies live just far enough away to make it a total hassle and so I find myself entertaining an offer from a cover band startup, doing 90s-2000s 'pop-rock'.... i.e. the guy forming it doesn't want to do typical old-dude 60s/70s/80s rockers (nothing wrong with them). I think I might have to decline because I can probably predict some disagreement on song choices. My dang particular/obscure tastes from that era and all.

What to do? Keep eeking along with my solo wankery, waiting for something else more interesting to come along, or get out and just interact/play with folks even though I don't really like how the songs smell? I am more of a side man when it comes to bands, I don't think I've ever had mental space to herd a bunch of cats to work/play my own original stuff.

Christ.
Click to expand...
Sell everything, Buy a cabin in the woods and write, record, mix, and master an album by yourself. It worked for Panopticon.
 
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#59,889
Will_White said:
Sell everything, Buy a cabin in the woods and write, record, mix, and master an album by yourself. It worked for Panopticon.
Click to expand...

This is my default (except for the cabin). Working on the next batch currently, but my pace is slow as snail snot because of life/job/kid/etc. I try to rope in ex-band homies to play/record parts for me (because I can't play the ____, or play the ____ that great, or come up with great parts for the ____ ). Ultimately I can do without a band, but y'know.....cabin fever.
 
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#59,890
cornfarmer said:
People in cover bands, how do you do it? Things are dry dry dry in my area, ex-band homies live just far enough away to make it a total hassle and so I find myself entertaining an offer from a cover band startup, doing 90s-2000s 'pop-rock'.... i.e. the guy forming it doesn't want to do typical old-dude 60s/70s/80s rockers (nothing wrong with them). I think I might have to decline because I can probably predict some disagreement on song choices. My dang particular/obscure tastes from that era and all.

What to do? Keep eeking along with my solo wankery, waiting for something else more interesting to come along, or get out and just interact/play with folks even though I don't really like how the songs smell? I am more of a side man when it comes to bands, I don't think I've ever had mental space to herd a bunch of cats to work/play my own original stuff.
Click to expand...

Aaah, sounds familiar. Was in that spot about two years ago, smack into the pandemic, too. I'm more of a metal guy, and preferably Doom/Stoner (duh, that's why I'm in this thread). Got an offer to play with a cover rock band. Set list looked like nothing I played before, mostly 80s-2000s pop-rock. Apart from perhaps three songs, I've never even consciously listened to, well, the songs. I had to google a couple of the bands, too. In short: NOT my scene.

But joining that band was the best thing I did in many many years as a bass player.

Point is, even though we're a cover band, we don't go for a tribute band sound, not in the least. One of the songs I knew for example was "Minnie the Moocher", which we play in a sort-of Sludge version. There's a Cat Stevens song we play as heavy rock. We combine Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name of" with the Smurfs title track (the cartoon TV version, not the movies). That sort of thing.

… and it's tons of fun, as well as challenging in a good way. Would never have thought this possible from just looking at the set list, or listening to the few live recordings they had. So, yeah, go for it I'd say. You never know what develops out of a cover project. And if the dude forming the band is a stifler for details and requires you to do stuff exactly as on the records, or whatever, you can still quit.
 
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#59,893
Katoosie said:
Yeah! So I have some thoughts about this pedal and these are my settings on it.

View attachment 4828946Tell me more about this box and your experiences with it, when you got the time.
Click to expand...

Well, here goes so far after a few hours of tweaking. First off - it sounds like you and I have different tone goals with the pedal. It sounds like you're going for a light drive that just adds a touch of hair to your bass tone, which is what I use my Pork Loin for. I tried your settings (not your method yet!), and it's definitely too subtle for what I'm wanting, but it did sound good. I'm aiming for a level of dirt between "light tube" dirt like my Pork Loin and all out saturated (but not too crazy) fuzz from my Muffs. Kind of a like a "heavy tube" tone with plenty of saturation, but that still sounds like "me" and my bass. Whereas you seem to be going for a touch of dirt on top of your bass tone, I'm more in the vein of I don't want to lose my bass tone, but I do want plenty of dirt. With that in mind, here are my settings as of now:

Clipping: MOSFET
Volume: As needed
Tone: Pointing between the left Demon's elbow and knee (approximately 10:15)
Gain: On the "n" in "Gain" (approximately 1:00)
Gain Shape and Blend: Both at 9:00 (Depending on the exact amount of dirt I want, I may adjust blend slightly)

So far, this is giving me just enough high end boost and dirt to cut through, but not enough to sound like a completely different instrument. I've also noticed that it's sensitive to what's driving it as my bass with an aftermarket upgraded pre-amp definitely makes it "clankier" and my stock bass with less lively electronics makes it darker. Gotta EQ the bass a bit, anyway, as I'm contemplating a new pre-amp for that bass anyway. With all of this, I've also set my Iron Pig's diodes to MOSFET now, as I'm really liking that setting on the Bass Mountain. Not a huge difference from the LED/Silicon combo I was using, but a little different. I'm liking it.
 
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#59,894
If you built a kayak then yeah. Just started collecting parts for 12/6/1 #2. The fearful green boy site seems to be gone but plans are available elsewhere. #1 5F118422-11D0-46FD-BFA1-579E55679BFE.jpeg
 
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