Stoner/Doom Bassists Thread, Part 90: Maxed Out

[scabpicker]

Nice! Didn't even know about this...gotta see if I got room for it. How do you like the micro freak? Live mi micro brute, grab and go making awesome sounds instantly is so fun.

Hehe, you didn't know about Dark Lord Day? I figured it was a fixture up north, and everyone knew about it. My friend in Chi-town has been talking it up for awhile and I'm finally taking the plunge. Apparently The Melvins headlined one year before he started going. I'm not 100% sure what to expect, but it looks like a beer and metal centered festival, so I'm sure I'll enjoy myself.

Man, I enjoy the Micro Freak, but I'm far from figuring it all out and conquering it. The first barrier is the funky capacitive keyboard. If you touch it, it's (probably) going to trigger. I'm used to feeling my way to the new keys and pressing them, this doesn't really allow that. So, I can play it, but I have to think about it harder than I normally do, and watch where my fingers are going.

Plus, I got it around the same time I got a Keystep Pro. I've been dividing my time between them, I've had some fun times and even a nice recording or two, but have mastered neither. Perhaps somewhat idiotically, I haven't plugged the Keystep into the Micro Freak. I should probably do that soon. Heck, I haven't even started playing with the Micro Freak's own sequencer. The various synth engines and the arpeggiator are a lot to absorb.


How do you feel about the MicroBrute? I've thought about grabbing one in a moment of weakness. But since I have a Moog, it seems like an indulgence. Though, it would be a lot more portable than my Matriarch or DeepMind12.

Not sure how true it is, but fuzz first came about from a circuit that partially failed and clipped the signal way hard. Can't remember the full story but it was on a recording console and happened during a bass solo no less.

Totally true, but a six-string baritone. It's Marty Robbins' "Don't Worry". One of the mixer channels was failing, and it made that pretty wonderful nasty sound. Marty didn't like it, but the producer left it in. Eventually that failing channel was reverse engineered (by imagination, since the original channel strip had failed) into the Maestro FZ-1. Alternately, Red Rhodes reverse engineered it for the Ventures before it died, but he was trying to recreate the sound of "Don't Worry", so that mixer channel seems to be the beginning of "fuzz".

The dungeon master might actually be what you're looking for. You want the lows and the high mids, it has both in spades. It's got nasty muff breakup, but adds in some SF octave character too.

Dang, that's another IdiotBox I wanna try.

 

[Novarocker]

Hehe, you didn't know about Dark Lord Day? I figured it was a fixture up north, and everyone knew about it. My friend in Chi-town has been talking it up for awhile and I'm finally taking the plunge. Apparently The Melvins headlined one year before he started going. I'm not 100% sure what to expect, but it looks like a beer and metal centered festival, so I'm sure I'll enjoy myself.

Man, I enjoy the Micro Freak, but I'm far from figuring it all out and conquering it. The first barrier is the funky capacitive keyboard. If you touch it, it's (probably) going to trigger. I'm used to feeling my way to the new keys and pressing them, this doesn't really allow that. So, I can play it, but I have to think about it harder than I normally do, and watch where my fingers are going.

Plus, I got it around the same time I got a Keystep Pro. I've been dividing my time between them, I've had some fun times and even a nice recording or two, but have mastered neither. Perhaps somewhat idiotically, I haven't plugged the Keystep into the Micro Freak. I should probably do that soon. Heck, I haven't even started playing with the Micro Freak's own sequencer. The various synth engines and the arpeggiator are a lot to absorb.


How do you feel about the MicroBrute? I've thought about grabbing one in a moment of weakness. But since I have a Moog, it seems like an indulgence. Though, it would be a lot more portable than my Matriarch or DeepMind12.



Totally true, but a six-string baritone. It's Marty Robbins' "Don't Worry". One of the mixer channels was failing, and it made that pretty wonderful nasty sound. Marty didn't like it, but the producer left it in. Eventually that failing channel was reverse engineered (by imagination, since the original channel strip had failed) into the Maestro FZ-1. Alternately, Red Rhodes reverse engineered it for the Ventures before it died, but he was trying to recreate the sound of "Don't Worry", so that mixer channel seems to be the beginning of "fuzz".







Dang, that's another IdiotBox I wanna try.

Lol, so I wasn't just making poopie up that I thought I read! Didn't know about the ventures bit, that's way cool.

And yeah if you're interested in the heavy weapon, I'd almost say opt for that over the DM first. It's a DM and Blower Box in parallel. Not sure why but I effing love parallel dirt boxes, especially if they stack together well, which the heavy does. I've got it last in my chain and have ran a sub octave, filter, fuzz face, fuzzrite, Gonkulator, tonebender, and all manner of other dirt/mod stuff into it and they all seem to work pretty solid with one side or the other and often both.

For the brute, I honestly love how once you have a couple sounds in your head that you know you like, you can get there in no time even if every knob has been turned (my kids love doing such all the time). Probably takes about 15s to get them to the ballpark of what I'm thinking of without making a sound, then another 15-30s to dial in more if needed.

Love the tactile feel, wide variety, mini patch bay is tons of fun and it works great with pedals. If I wanted a portable synth, or something to lay down leads with it nails it. The seq is easy as pie too. I feel ya on the keyboard for the microfreak, it pumped the breaks for a min on it for me.

I would look at it as a more portable matriarch, though the sounds may be a slight bit diff, and I love the richness and depth of blending either octave or 5th harmonics in at the drop of a hat.

Oh and for the 3floyds, I just found out about em maybe 2 years ago. Great brewery, even got some of their's in the fridge right now. Had no clue about the hoedown though! Granted I'm that oddball that doesn't know squat about what's going on anywhere with me not being on barely anything for social media. Looks like a damn good little fest though for sure.

 

[Matt-J2]

I almost went to Dark Lord Day last year to see Cannibal Corpse and Municipal Waste but, honestly, I don't really do big crowds. And at ~$200 for a basic ticket I just couldn't push myself to go. I even have family in the area!

Dark Lord Day itself also wasn't on my radar until maybe last year? Possibly before, not sure, but not a lot before. They didn't do it a few years there, and while I knew of 3 Floyds before that it wasn't something I looked into much. Then someone bought a pitcher of Zombie Dust and told me to give it a go. Anyway, it's not super advertised outside of social media so far as I'm aware, but I'm not really hooked into any scenes.

 

[Kaa]

applied to

 

[br1qbat]

Yep, though it is discontinued, and can be kind of pricy used. I think I got the last new one from GC in 2020, because it took them like a month to ship it. I love it. The only used one I see on Reverb right now is $65, which is twice what I paid for mine new. Though there is someone selling a combo of the Tuna Melt, BLT and French Toast for $125. So if you want a trem and an echo, that's not a bad deal.

Dang, didn't realize the French Toast was that much. The Joyo is built very very well for $30, the Dano.... not so much.

 

[kleinenenten]

Totally off-topic, but looking for some music enjoyment advice/ideas.

Here's the situation. I have LOTS of digital music. I don't want to stream, and I don't want to use my phone (I use that to learn songs, and it has separate playlists that I don't want to have to toggle back and forth from). I like that my old iPod seamlessly integrates with my car and lets me control everything via the car's radio controls. However, it can only hold about half of my songs. There are now "upgraded' iPods with more storage added, but even then, I hit the hard limit based on RAM. There's a workaround for that, but then you lose the car functionality, which is a huge part of the advantage here. It's important for me to be able to just keep listening to the playlist wherever I am at the moment. My car CAN read USD drives, but it sorts them by whichever folders have audio, meaning each individual album is a separate folder. I can't just find a specific band etc., so that's just not going to happen.

So is there something out there that is basically a modern iPod that would work with a car's radio controls? I know I can always use the aux function, but that whole safety while driving thing means I prefer using the radio controls. There are plenty of Digital Audio Players (AKA MP3 Players in my old man parlance) available, and they take SD cards for expandable memory slots, but I doubt any of them work with a car. A phone (NOT mine, as the memory can't be expanded enough) could solve all of this minus the playlist issue, and is likely my best option overall, but is there anything else out there?

 

[scabpicker]

And yeah if you're interested in the heavy weapon, I'd almost say opt for that over the DM first.

Hehe, it'll depend on which I impulse buy first, a Heavy Weapon or a used DM.

Not sure why but I effing love parallel dirt boxes, especially if they stack together well, which the heavy does.

I know why! Because it gives you two dirt boxes and tone stacks at the same time, minimum. It's like having a pseudo stereo setup without having to futz with all of the equipment to run stereo. Almost any two form a combo platter of deliciousness, you've just got to run your mono mix with the levels. Three is almost too much flavor to work with. I love my No Moon, even though it's Tube Screamer circuit has gone wonky. Matt says he'll fix it for free, but it'd be nice to throw some beer money in when I send it. I've been too lazy to box it up and send it back, though. The Tube Screamer is just flavor compared to the RAT and the Muff circuits sitting right there, looking at me. I'll be sure to take care of the beer when I get off my tuckus and send it.

For the brute, I honestly love how once you have a couple sounds in your head that you know you like, you can get there in no time even if every knob has been turned (my kids love doing such all the time). Probably takes about 15s to get them to the ballpark of what I'm thinking of without making a sound, then another 15-30s to dial in more if needed.

Yeah, I'm totally going to grab one of those on my next phase of grabbing stuff. I had hoped the MicroFreak would fill its spot, but it's really it's own patch of fantastic weirdness, there's no comparing the two. Totally different machines.

Granted I'm that oddball that doesn't know squat about what's going on anywhere with me not being on barely anything for social media. Looks like a damn good little fest though for sure.

Heheh, I'm not on any social media besides message boards and Linkedin (and I pretty much only log into the latter to accept friend requests). I miss great shows in my own town because of this, but that's the price we pay. Fortunately my ex-roommate has been hyping this fest to me for a few years. Also fortunately for me, High on Fire headlining and my disposable income and free time allowing my attendance coincided nicely this year.

I almost went to Dark Lord Day last year to see Cannibal Corpse and Municipal Waste but, honestly, I don't really do big crowds. And at ~$200 for a basic ticket I just couldn't push myself to go. I even have family in the area!

Besides the $200 price level, there are also the $333 Deluxe tickets that are super fancy, and the $66 General Admission tickets that are for the show, but don't include any of the beer. The $333 tickets were sold out before I got a chance in the ticket queue. I refreshed a minute or so after I bought my $200 ticket, and all of the $66 tickets were gone by then.

So. you can go for less than $200, but you'd better be ready to go at noon on the day they go on sale. Otherwise, yeah, the metal show is packaged with pricey beer (which yeah, best case, you're turning it into urine).

applied to

<Foghorn Leghorn> Now, what you're talking about there is distortion. <smacks him on the head> I said, distortion, son.</smacks him on the head> Now, that's what people did in the stone ages before they understood diodes and such. Now we don't need to go putting shaving and screw driving elements into our speakur cones. We're more edumucated now.</Foghorn Leghorn>

 

[scabpicker]

Dang, didn't realize the French Toast was that much. The Joyo is built very very well for $30, the Dano.... not so much.

Yeah, without a doubt. If budget is your concern go for the Joyo. A metal case isn't the answer to everything, but I just don't feel like I trust the switches on any of my pedals with a plastic case.

 

[Matt-J2]

Besides the $200 price level, there are also the $333 Deluxe tickets that are super fancy, and the $66 General Admission tickets that are for the show, but don't include any of the beer. The $333 tickets were sold out before I got a chance in the ticket queue. I refreshed a minute or so after I bought my $200 ticket, and all of the $66 tickets were gone by then.

So. you can go for less than $200, but you'd better be ready to go at noon on the day they go on sale. Otherwise, yeah, the metal show is packaged with pricey beer (which yeah, best case, you're turning it into urine).

Ahhh, I missed the $66 tickets on the list. Oh well, sounds like I wouldn't have been quick enough anyway!

I do like a good stout, but man is this stuff getting expensive.

But hey, make sure to post up and let us know how the show is! And the beers, too.

 

[Kaa]

Totally off-topic, but looking for some music enjoyment advice/ideas.

Here's the situation. I have LOTS of digital music. I don't want to stream, and I don't want to use my phone (I use that to learn songs, and it has separate playlists that I don't want to have to toggle back and forth from). I like that my old iPod seamlessly integrates with my car and lets me control everything via the car's radio controls. However, it can only hold about half of my songs. There are now "upgraded' iPods with more storage added, but even then, I hit the hard limit based on RAM. There's a workaround for that, but then you lose the car functionality, which is a huge part of the advantage here. It's important for me to be able to just keep listening to the playlist wherever I am at the moment. My car CAN read USD drives, but it sorts them by whichever folders have audio, meaning each individual album is a separate folder. I can't just find a specific band etc., so that's just not going to happen.

So is there something out there that is basically a modern iPod that would work with a car's radio controls? I know I can always use the aux function, but that whole safety while driving thing means I prefer using the radio controls. There are plenty of Digital Audio Players (AKA MP3 Players in my old man parlance) available, and they take SD cards for expandable memory slots, but I doubt any of them work with a car. A phone (NOT mine, as the memory can't be expanded enough) could solve all of this minus the playlist issue, and is likely my best option overall, but is there anything else out there?

I got nothing for you, sorry.

 

[Kaa]

Hehe, it'll depend on which I impulse buy first, a Heavy Weapon or a used DM.



I know why! Because it gives you two dirt boxes and tone stacks at the same time, minimum. It's like having a pseudo stereo setup without having to futz with all of the equipment to run stereo. Almost any two form a combo platter of deliciousness, you've just got to run your mono mix with the levels. Three is almost too much flavor to work with. I love my No Moon, even though it's Tube Screamer circuit has gone wonky. Matt says he'll fix it for free, but it'd be nice to throw some beer money in when I send it. I've been too lazy to box it up and send it back, though. The Tube Screamer is just flavor compared to the RAT and the Muff circuits sitting right there, looking at me. I'll be sure to take care of the beer when I get off my tuckus and send it.



Yeah, I'm totally going to grab one of those on my next phase of grabbing stuff. I had hoped the MicroFreak would fill its spot, but it's really it's own patch of fantastic weirdness, there's no comparing the two. Totally different machines.




Heheh, I'm not on any social media besides message boards and Linkedin (and I pretty much only log into the latter to accept friend requests). I miss great shows in my own town because of this, but that's the price we pay. Fortunately my ex-roommate has been hyping this fest to me for a few years. Also fortunately for me, High on Fire headlining and my disposable income and free time allowing my attendance coincided nicely this year.


Besides the $200 price level, there are also the $333 Deluxe tickets that are super fancy, and the $66 General Admission tickets that are for the show, but don't include any of the beer. The $333 tickets were sold out before I got a chance in the ticket queue. I refreshed a minute or so after I bought my $200 ticket, and all of the $66 tickets were gone by then.

So. you can go for less than $200, but you'd better be ready to go at noon on the day they go on sale. Otherwise, yeah, the metal show is packaged with pricey beer (which yeah, best case, you're turning it into urine).



<Foghorn Leghorn> Now, what you're talking about there is distortion. <smacks him on the head> I said, distortion, son.</smacks him on the head> Now, that's what people did in the stone ages before they understood diodes and such. Now we don't need to go putting shaving and screw driving elements into our speakur cones. We're more edumucated now.</Foghorn Leghorn>

So, in this scenario, am I the rabid weasel character?

 

[davedamage]

Just a heads up to those looking to attend Dark Lord day... If it's anything like it was pre-covid, get there EARLY. The line is one of the longest things I've ever seen.

 

[davedamage]

Also, bring regional craft beers not available in Indiana/Illinois and you can trade for stuff you'd never get locally.

 

[scabpicker]

So, in this scenario, am I the rabid weasel character?

Hehe, I never thought of him as rabid. I always thought he was just hungry and a chicken aficionado.

Just a heads up to those looking to attend Dark Lord day... If it's anything like it was pre-covid, get there EARLY. The line is one of the longest things I've ever seen.

Also, bring regional craft beers not available in Indiana/Illinois and you can trade for stuff you'd never get locally.

Noted, and noted. I'll have limited cargo availability since I'll be flying, though.

 

[kleinenenten]

Cross-posting from the Fuzz Addicts page, but thought some of you may enjoy this info as well.

Just got my CMC Muffs. They are exactly what I was expecting, in all the right ways. So now, I have CMC Tall Font, Bubble Font, and Civil War varieties, in addition to my other Muffs. I'll be talking about the CMCs here.

Generally speaking, they are all capable of rather similar tones - which makes 100% sense because they are all closely related. Unless otherwise noted, these findings are with identical settings to make comparison easier, as well as being tested on my 700RB-II. My current go-to settings on these is SIL diodes, Sustain at 10:30, Tone about 1:30, and Shape (a mids control) at 3:00. All of these tests were conducted while jamming along to my standard songs these days - old Sabbath, early Metallica, and early 2000's Swedish death metal ala In Flames, Hypocrisy, and Amon Amarth.

My current favorite is the Bubble Font. It has just the right amount of clarity and saturation, but also enough dirt to cut the mix. It is solidly in the middle of the other two in pretty much every way, and I mean that in the best way. The Civil War is easily the gainiest with the most treble content and presence, and the Tall Font the least gainy with the least treble content but fattest lows. The Civil War cuts the most in the mix, but also has less bass response than the other two. But none of them is shy in the bass department. The Tall Font has the most bass, but cuts the least in the mix. All of this is exactly what I had expected given the specific Muff circuits they are based on. And I have to say that this is likely the best Tall Font variety I've ever played (as I feel like most "Russian" Muffs I've tried are going for the Tall Font sound, though I've never tried the W&C and HAVE tried the Musket). I also haven't searched out TONS of Russian Muffs, so I don't count myself an expert on them in a general sense. My experiences with Russians are with the EHX Reissue, Russian Pickle, Supercollider '71 (which is Green Russian, I think?), and a Musket clone.

As I tried to adjust settings, I found a few things. Lowering the gain to 9:00 and tone to 1:00 on the Civil War got me closer to the Bubble Font's tone (on the previous settings), but still with more compression and a bit more bite overall from the gain. In the mix, it was slightly noticeable, but not a big change and casual listeners would likely not notice. To get closer to the Bubble Font tone with the Tall Font, I upped the gain. But that also meant the overall tone changed a bit, as it seemed that as the gain increased, the presence of the circuit also increased. This is where I often dislike the Tall Font circuits - I feel the extra gain makes the treble content harsh. To compensate for this, I lowered the tone to 12:00. This solved much of the issue, and with the Shape knob I was still able to be heard in the mix. It did however muddy the lows slightly - it's not bad by any stretch, but it did lose some clarity, especially when compared with the Bubble Font. The lack of clarity in the lows is also a concern of mine with the Tall Font versions, as I feel they get a little too chunky in the distortion at that point and lose some authority.

Overall, each has their place, and I'm going to keep them all for now. Next up is testing the Tall Font on my 400RB-IV, as I feel that it often has more slightly more treble and less bass than my 700RB-II. Hopefully, that solves some of the excessive lows and what not mentioned above, and I can add gain, reduce tone, and still get a very similar tone. I also have no qualms about buying more stuff from CMC - they're all top-notch boxes with excellent prices. So worst case, I buy another Bubble Font! I'm interested to try the Civil War on my guitar rigs when they get back from the shop as I typically prefer gainier Muff settings on guitar. That should be a great fit!

 

[kleinenenten]

Just had a weird though regarding my iPod/music situation I posted about yesterday. I could get a cheap phone (I NEVER get expensive ones because I don't really care about that) that can take a big SD card (at least 256gb) and put ALL of my music on that. Then, just use two different music apps... One can be for listening to music with my "big" playlists, and the other can be for learning stuff with my "small" playlists. Just swap the app before I go to the car. AND in my quick search, I can likely buy the new phone and get the big SD card for less than one of those upgraded iPods. This also gets me the added bonus of upgrading my phone. Not that I care for that necessarily, but mine is a few years old, and if this new phone checks all of the boxes, why wouldn't I do that too? This may be my ticket.

 

[kleinenenten]

Just had a weird though regarding my iPod/music situation I posted about yesterday. I could get a cheap phone (I NEVER get expensive ones because I don't really care about that) that can take a big SD card (at least 256gb) and put ALL of my music on that. Then, just use two different music apps... One can be for listening to music with my "big" playlists, and the other can be for learning stuff with my "small" playlists. Just swap the app before I go to the car. AND in my quick search, I can likely buy the new phone and get the big SD card for less than one of those upgraded iPods. This also gets me the added bonus of upgrading my phone. Not that I care for that necessarily, but mine is a few years old, and if this new phone checks all of the boxes, why wouldn't I do that too? This may be my ticket.

Never mind that idea. My car doesn't really allow me to do anything audio-wise with my phone except go to the next or previous track. Since I'm trying to avoid handling my phone while driving, this is a no-go. But I think that this will work great on my next car, which I assume will have even more technology. My current car is ~10 years old, and it works well with my iPod, and does great with Bluetooth phone calls etc., but I know that newer cars can basically control your whole phone via the dash. I had one briefly - it was great! Then someone ran into me and totaled it... Ah well, not a big deal. Just 1st world problem stuff. I guess I'll stick with having to re-arrange songs on my old iPod every so often and put that money towards more bass gear!

 

[br1qbat]

Cross-posting from the Fuzz Addicts page, but thought some of you may enjoy this info as well.

Just got my CMC Muffs. They are exactly what I was expecting, in all the right ways. So now, I have CMC Tall Font, Bubble Font, and Civil War varieties, in addition to my other Muffs. I'll be talking about the CMCs here.

Generally speaking, they are all capable of rather similar tones - which makes 100% sense because they are all closely related. Unless otherwise noted, these findings are with identical settings to make comparison easier, as well as being tested on my 700RB-II. My current go-to settings on these is SIL diodes, Sustain at 10:30, Tone about 1:30, and Shape (a mids control) at 3:00. All of these tests were conducted while jamming along to my standard songs these days - old Sabbath, early Metallica, and early 2000's Swedish death metal ala In Flames, Hypocrisy, and Amon Amarth.

My current favorite is the Bubble Font. It has just the right amount of clarity and saturation, but also enough dirt to cut the mix. It is solidly in the middle of the other two in pretty much every way, and I mean that in the best way. The Civil War is easily the gainiest with the most treble content and presence, and the Tall Font the least gainy with the least treble content but fattest lows. The Civil War cuts the most in the mix, but also has less bass response than the other two. But none of them is shy in the bass department. The Tall Font has the most bass, but cuts the least in the mix. All of this is exactly what I had expected given the specific Muff circuits they are based on. And I have to say that this is likely the best Tall Font variety I've ever played (as I feel like most "Russian" Muffs I've tried are going for the Tall Font sound, though I've never tried the W&C and HAVE tried the Musket). I also haven't searched out TONS of Russian Muffs, so I don't count myself an expert on them in a general sense. My experiences with Russians are with the EHX Reissue, Russian Pickle, Supercollider '71 (which is Green Russian, I think?), and a Musket clone.

As I tried to adjust settings, I found a few things. Lowering the gain to 9:00 and tone to 1:00 on the Civil War got me closer to the Bubble Font's tone (on the previous settings), but still with more compression and a bit more bite overall from the gain. In the mix, it was slightly noticeable, but not a big change and casual listeners would likely not notice. To get closer to the Bubble Font tone with the Tall Font, I upped the gain. But that also meant the overall tone changed a bit, as it seemed that as the gain increased, the presence of the circuit also increased. This is where I often dislike the Tall Font circuits - I feel the extra gain makes the treble content harsh. To compensate for this, I lowered the tone to 12:00. This solved much of the issue, and with the Shape knob I was still able to be heard in the mix. It did however muddy the lows slightly - it's not bad by any stretch, but it did lose some clarity, especially when compared with the Bubble Font. The lack of clarity in the lows is also a concern of mine with the Tall Font versions, as I feel they get a little too chunky in the distortion at that point and lose some authority.

Overall, each has their place, and I'm going to keep them all for now. Next up is testing the Tall Font on my 400RB-IV, as I feel that it often has more slightly more treble and less bass than my 700RB-II. Hopefully, that solves some of the excessive lows and what not mentioned above, and I can add gain, reduce tone, and still get a very similar tone. I also have no qualms about buying more stuff from CMC - they're all top-notch boxes with excellent prices. So worst case, I buy another Bubble Font! I'm interested to try the Civil War on my guitar rigs when they get back from the shop as I typically prefer gainier Muff settings on guitar. That should be a great fit!

Dude, you are like a fuzz sommelier. Thanks!

 

[kleinenenten]

Dude, you are like a fuzz sommelier. Thanks!

Thanks and all, but I'm not a fan of wine... I'll take the title of "Fuzz Cicerone", which is the same basic thing as a sommelier but for beer.

If I had the editing skills, I've debated doing some sort of review channel. I've always been slightly miffed at the lack of "regular guy" gear reviews. So many of the reviews I see are using nothing but top-notch boutique stuff, or so many plug-ins etc. that most people who are interested really don't know what's going on and can't judge at all what it will sound like with their gear. Add to that the general tone issues inherent in listening/watching to someone else's rig, and so often a gear preview is a shot in the dark. I don't have anything fancy, and my pedals are definitely where I differentiate my rig - and even then, a vast majority of what I play through is pretty readily available. But my rig itself is pretty commonplace (lower to mid-level Ibanez basses into GK rigs, or lower to mid-level Ibanez guitars into ~30 year old Peavey solid state amps). "Regular Guy Reviews" seems like it would have a definite niche for just straight up simple, no frills reviews, with gear that is actually attainable for the average player.

I got a few minutes with the Tall Font on the 400RB-IV - here are the findings. Like expected, upping the gain and lowering tone (to about 11:00 and 1:00, respectively) got me a nearly identical tone to the Bubble Font. The Tall Font still had a bit more saturation overall, and some more compression going on, but not much. For being gainier, it seems that the Bubble Font actually saturates the signal less overall in that it doesn't seem to distort the lows quite as much. It's a little snappier in the highs with distortion, but I think that's because the Tall Font has such a low end emphasis, and with tweaking they are nearly the same. I'd say they were about 90% identical out of the mix, and nigh indistinguishable in the mix. So for now, I'm thinking the Tall Font will live with my 400RB-IV to get the most bass out of that rig and to keep the treble in check (with the Tall Font's tone knob being reduced slightly), and the Bubble Font can live with the 700RB-II with its inherently deeper lows and more even tonal spectrum.

I plan on doing more in-depth testing this weekend, but am stoked to see what happens. I'm certainly thinking of grabbing one of CMC's Elk and Ram's Head clones. Especially since the Ram's Head is apparently what the Pharaoh is based on, and that was my absolute #1 fuzz until just recently.

 

[Deleted member 132197]

Dude, you are like a fuzz sommelier. Thanks!

a fuzzilier if you will. We can even make a pretty uniform