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Taming the Malekko Diabolik's Volume Boost

TMFoodBass

TMFoodBass

Guest
Feb 24, 2012
155
76
Adamstown, PA
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#1
So, I recently acquired a Malekko Diabolik and I like the way that it sounds, but I can't stand the Volume boost that it gives my signal. I was looking for a nice blended fuzz sound (maybe 20% fuzz, 80% clean), but the controls are so touchy that this seems hard to achieve in that pedal alone and retain unity volume with the rest of my pedalboard. I did consider placing a passive sound attenuator pedal after or before the fuzz to try to fix the problem, but I am open to other suggestions.

Thanks.
 
#2
TMFoodBass said:
So, I recently acquired a Malekko Diabolik and I like the way that it sounds, but I can't stand the Volume boost that it gives my signal. I was looking for a nice blended fuzz sound (maybe 20% fuzz, 80% clean), but the controls are so touchy that this seems hard to achieve in that pedal alone and retain unity volume with the rest of my pedalboard. I did consider placing a passive sound attenuator pedal after or before the fuzz to try to fix the problem, but I am open to other suggestions.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

From reviews I have read / the fact it is based on the brassmaster, this is allegedly part of the design... steered me clear away from it. From reading it seems most people need to set everything at close to 7 o'clock / almost off to get unity.

If your looking for something similar, aftershock has a similar sound as one of the engines with much more versatile clean blend / volume / eq settings you can get. That would get you the 80/20 split you want?
 
#3
Get a bypass looper with volume control like this. You can likely find one cheaper/ smaller with some searching. Sucks to double/ nearly triple the size and complexity of a single pedal, but if it sounds good then you just kind of have to deal with it.

Alternatively, some pedal builder out there should be able to mod your Diabolik to have a master volume control.
 
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#4
J Posega said:
Alternatively, some pedal builder out there should be able to mod your Diabolik to have a master volume control.
Click to expand...

Malekko might even be able to do that.

I have two B:assmasters, and neither of them have the giant volume boost like the Diabolik, yeah I'm not a fan of how ridiculously loud the Diabolik is, but I love the sound of it.

TMFoodBass said:
So, I recently acquired a Malekko Diabolik and I like the way that it sounds, but I can't stand the Volume boost that it gives my signal. I was looking for a nice blended fuzz sound (maybe 20% fuzz, 80% clean), but the controls are so touchy that this seems hard to achieve in that pedal alone and retain unity volume with the rest of my pedalboard. I did consider placing a passive sound attenuator pedal after or before the fuzz to try to fix the problem, but I am open to other suggestions.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Keep the clean knob up, keep the fuzz at around 8 o'clock and you'll still get a good fuzz sound that shouldn't be too loud.
 
#5
I liked the Diabolik a lot, but yeah, crazy loud! I just kept everything way down, but I preferred more 50/50 so it was easier to achieve.

No suggestions other than the ones already given. Good luck. :meh:
 
#6
So I tried the volume attenuator idea this weekend and it seemed to work to perfection. I set the diabolik to where I liked it (fuzz - 9:00, clean - 2:30, squish - 8:30), and followed it with the volume attenuator set at about 60%. Really happy with the results. As it stands, I'll use it that way. In the future I might end up using a bypass looper with volume control. Thanks everyone for their input!
 
#7
So, let me get this straight:
The "Fuzz" knob controls the VOLUME of the signal affected by the fuzz, right? This means that the amount of distortion (gain of the fuzz) is fixed and you use the Fuzz knob just to set the output volume, basically?
Is it the same with the "Clean" knob?

If the pedal works like I think (maybe I'm wrong of course), why you're having all these problems keeping it at unity gain? You just need to keep both knobs around 8/9 o'clock like some users suggested in this thread. Am I missing something?
This pedal sounds absolutely gorgeous but I'm not sure if it's a good idea to buy it.
Thanks.
 
#8
Hypercaffium said:
So, let me get this straight:
The "Fuzz" knob controls the VOLUME of the signal affected by the fuzz, right? This means that the amount of distortion (gain of the fuzz) is fixed and you use the Fuzz knob just to set the output volume, basically?
Is it the same with the "Clean" knob?

If the pedal works like I think (maybe I'm wrong of course), why you're having all these problems keeping it at unity gain? You just need to keep both knobs around 8/9 o'clock like some users suggested in this thread. Am I missing something?
This pedal sounds absolutely gorgeous but I'm not sure if it's a good idea to buy it.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Yes, the fuzz knob is the volume of the fuzz and the clean knob is the volume of the clean; the two are mixed at the output stage of the pedal. The "squish" knob is the gain of the fuzz, also affecting the gate effect; when gain set lower, there is more gating effect. I like to set the "squish" as high as possible but allowing effective silencing in between notes.
Something to be aware of is that this pedal is very sensitive to both the level and impedance of the source, as the impedance effects the gain of the input stage. It can easily be overdriven (in a bad way) by say a high output active (low impedance) source. I even had problems with my passive pickups, as they are both hot and relatively low impedance (DC resistance of around 2.5K). The solution was a 20k resistor put in series, you can fit a small one in the shell of a typical cable shell. Note that this only deals with the input overloading, and not the massive volume output of the pedal.
 
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#16
jw23mind said:
Yes, but worth working with in my opinion. There's something really unique in the sound and I've gone through a lot of fuzzes including octave fuzzes, and none quite like it. Try it into a muff for a great hybrid fuzz (and gain volume control in the process).
Click to expand...
Have you ever tried putting a compressor right after the Diabolik? It should work taming the output.
I have a Keeley Bassist (which is awesome imho) and it's right after my tuner. I could move it after dirt and before modulations/delay/verb like some people do.
 
#17
Hypercaffium said:
Have you ever tried putting a compressor right after the Diabolik? It should work taming the output.
I have a Keeley Bassist (which is awesome imho) and it's right after my tuner. I could move it after dirt and before modulations/delay/verb like some people do.
Click to expand...
I think that I did at some point, but in the end have realized I prefer to get compression from distortion, and my cleans to remain fully dynamic (no compression). You could say the russian muff is my favorite compressor!
 
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#18
Definitely. :)
I bought the Diabolik eventually, so I'll report back as soon as I find some interesting tones.

About the compressor: coming from guitar (which I still play btw) I always placed my compressors right after my tuner. When I started playing bass and watching other people pedalboards I realized that A LOT of bassists prefer studio-like compressor and they place them at the very end of the chain or right after dirt and before modulation/delay/verb.
I'm gonna try this setup to see if it works with my rig, at the moment my Keeley Bassist is right after the tuner and I use it to keep volume stable and when I slap. Having it after dirt and set in the right way should help having a nice defined tone. I hope that boosting my fuzz or OD will still have some volume boost, though.
 
#20
I tested the pedal quickly and yes, cranking the fuzz knob seems to make it sound just a little bit more open and extreme (especially when the squish knob is also cranked) , but the volume is just unmanageable.
I tried putting my compressor after the Diabolik to tame its output while cranking the fuzz knob and ended up moving it back at the beginning of the signal chain. It worked but I didn't notice a big difference imho, at least at low volumes.
I'm using the Diabolik with the fuzz around 8/9 o'clock (unity gain or slightly beyond) and it sounds good, I don't need to push it more to be honest.
 

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