THE Pedals for the SVT Sound

[NKBassman]

i found even with the bass boosted it sounded weird to my ears. I had it for 2-3 months and tried a bunch of different settings and behind a couple diff amps (mesa 400+, alembic f1x+amp) but never found anything that worked. I really lusted after it as well when it came out - tried to buy it new a few times which was pretty frustrating (thats true with almost any Broughton pedal tho), finally found one on reverb.

I thought the same thing about the MBD-1 as well - a bunch of folks really love it but it never did anything for me either, so i'm writing the whole thing off as (take your pick):
- ymmv
- every bassist has their own tone they pursue
- same pedals sound different with different efx chains, players & amps
- one mans treasure is another mans trash
- the tone that works is the one that fits in with what other players in the band are doing and the genre you are playing and not the tone that sounds good solo'd
- the One True Bass Tone (™) that exists above all others can only be played by my Genius Fingers (™) thru my Genius Pedalboard (™ again) and any other bass tone ever created is trash and fit only to be used as a foley-in flatulence sound in an Eddie Murphy movie.
- There is no "right" or "wrong" sound, judgement of such can only be done by the creator of said sound.
- There is no crappy bass tones, only crappy people.

-ts

All good, no need to justify your take on it. I’m an unapologetic Broughton Boy through and through, but I’m certainly not under any impression that’s the only game in town.

 

[Fuzzbass]

I just use my Master Effects Super 300 and eliminate the middleman.

Sounds pretty darn cool even on my work laptop. I'll have to revisit later on headphones.

 

[Peaveylover]

Sounds pretty darn cool even on my work laptop. I'll have to revisit later on headphones.

I stumbled upon this pedal by accident a few weeks ago. It is now my number one for recording. Nothing touches it.

 

[Fuzzbass]

This is a somewhat serious request. Back when I was rocking my 70's SVTs, I sometimes thought "why do I have to choose just one of these cool mid frequencies?" Especially true given that I often used 3k as my treble, so that effectively meant no mid. I assume the answer back then was that multiple mid controls would have been prohibitively expensive... perhaps another tube, or whatever. But now that we're in the age of SS emulation, can we please have more than one mid? I like the idea of locking in those classic SVT freqs, so maybe two vari mids?

I know, more mid controls means more ways I could wreck my tone from over-tweaking, but dammit, I'm willing to take that risk!

 

[Peaveylover]

This is a somewhat serious request. Back when I was rocking my 70's SVTs, I sometimes thought "why do I have to choose just one of these cool mid frequencies?" Especially true given that I often used 3k as my treble, so that effectively meant no mid. I assume the answer back then was that multiple mid controls would have been prohibitively expensive... perhaps another tube, or whatever. But now that we're in the age of SS emulation, can we please have more than one mid? I like the idea of locking in those classic SVT freqs, so maybe two vari mids?

I know, more mid controls means more ways I could wreck my tone from over-tweaking, but dammit, I'm willing to take that risk!

The Master 300 has you covered there. All five of the selectable frequncies kick major ass in mixes, but are all different flavor. Plus the boost, ultra high and ultra low take it to the next level. The 300 is like 10 pedals in one in that regard.

 

[Fuzzbass]

The Master 300 has you covered there. All five of the selectable frequncies kick major ass in mixes, but are all different flavor. Plus the boost, ultra high and ultra low take it to the next level. The 300 is like 10 pedals in one in that regard.

But can you adjust more than one frequency at a time? Again, on the classic SVT I often liked to boost 3k as my treble control, but that effectively left me without a mid control. I really wished I could adjust either 220 or 800 in addition to boosting 3k. If I switched the vari-mid to 800 to adjust mids, then I couldn't dial in the clanky 3k treble that I liked.

 

[Peaveylover]

But can you adjust more than one frequency at a time? Again, on the classic SVT I often liked to boost 3k as my treble control, but that effectively left me without a mid control. I really wished I could adjust either 220 or 800 in addition to boosting 3k. If I switched the vari-mid to 800 to adjust mids, then I couldn't dial in the clanky 3k treble that I liked.

Ahhh, didn't quite understand your post. No, the frequencies are locked in and can't be combined. I agree that it would be a good thing to break apart that five way switch and offer separate mids for each band. But imagine how complex that would be? And expensive.

 

[Fuzzbass]

Ahhh, didn't quite understand your post. No, the frequencies are locked in and can't be combined. I agree that it would be a good thing to break apart that five way switch and offer separate mids for each band. But imagine how complex that would be? And expensive.

Agree. Less expensive than doing it on an all-tube amp, but even so, that's why I wanted to settle for something like two vari-mids: the three lowest freqs on one, the three highest on the other (or whatever).

A pair of overlapping sweep mids would work... but that's not very SVT-like.


Edit - updating this post b/c I don't want to stay off-topic in this thread: I just remembered that my Darkglass B7K Ultra V1 has the mid-switching I'm referring to. The Lo Mid is 250/500/1000, and Hi Mid is 750/1500/3000. Note that there is some overlap here... but the bottom line is that I can select my 3k on the Hi Mid, and still be able to tweak 250, 500, or 1k on the Lo Mid.

Obviously, Darkglass is NOT Ampeg! I'm only referring to mid-tweaking.

 

[Peaveylover]

Agree. Less expensive than doing it on an all-tube amp, but even so, that's why I wanted to settle for something like two vari-mids: the three lowest freqs on one, the three highest on the other (or whatever).

A pair of overlapping sweep mids would work... but that's not very SVT-like.

A man can dream........ Thanks Fuzzbass, you're good people.

 

[Sensei Tim]

Hi Guys! Tim from Master Effects here.

Thanks for all of the kind words regarding the super 300!

I completely understand the complaint about the pedal size/height. Unfortunately it's kind of a necessary evil because of the DI output. because of the physical size of the XLR jack and the stomp switches and PCB inside I needed to use a tall enclosure.

If people would be ok with using a balanced 1/4" TRS jack for the DI, then i can definitely shrink the size of the enclosure to a 1590BBT which has the same footprint of the standard 1590BB enclosure that many builders use, but the height of a 125B enclosure to fit those jacks in over top of the PCB.

I've been trying to get the SMD version going for a little while now. I hope that the boards that i'm expecting next week will be the final version.

Cheers!

Tim

 

[BunchyMutt]

i found even with the bass boosted it sounded weird to my ears. I had it for 2-3 months and tried a bunch of different settings and behind a couple diff amps (mesa 400+, alembic f1x+amp) but never found anything that worked. I really lusted after it as well when it came out - tried to buy it new a few times which was pretty frustrating (thats true with almost any Broughton pedal tho), finally found one on reverb.

I thought the same thing about the MBD-1 as well - a bunch of folks really love it but it never did anything for me either, so i'm writing the whole thing off as (take your pick):
- ymmv
- every bassist has their own tone they pursue
- same pedals sound different with different efx chains, players & amps
- one mans treasure is another mans trash
- the tone that works is the one that fits in with what other players in the band are doing and the genre you are playing and not the tone that sounds good solo'd
- the One True Bass Tone (™) that exists above all others can only be played by my Genius Fingers (™) thru my Genius Pedalboard (™ again) and any other bass tone ever created is trash and fit only to be used as a foley-in flatulence sound in an Eddie Murphy movie.
- There is no "right" or "wrong" sound, judgement of such can only be done by the creator of said sound.
- There is no crappy bass tones, only crappy people.

-ts

I really tried liking the MBD-1 (owned it twice) and the MBD-2 (owned it once) and ended up flipping them all

 

[Peaveylover]

I really tried liking the MBD-1 (owned it twice) and the MBD-2 (owned it once) and ended up flipping them all

+1. Never understood the hype for that pedal at all. I had a 1 and 2. Both were very average pedals.

 

[BunchyMutt]

+1. Never understood the hype for that pedal at all. I had a 1 and 2. Both were very average pedals.

Don't get me wrong, I totally support what Jeff is doing and I know it sounds great in some rigs. It just didn't work with mine and what I was looking for

 

[Peaveylover]

Don't get me wrong, I totally support what Jeff is doing and I know it sounds great in some rigs. It just didn't work with mine and what I was looking for

It's ok to have an opinion Bunchy. Jeff's a big boy.

 

[BunchyMutt]

It's ok to have an opinion Bunchy. Jeff's a big boy.

I know. Tbh I don't find statements like "both were average pedals" to be useful and I was responding more to that

 

[rafitoprtx]

I use a Pigtronix Bass Fat Drive and sounds really close to Svt if you ad the Cab and tubesim that should do the trick.

 

[kevmac]

I know I'm not the most discerning customer, but I was happy enough with the Catalinbread SFT into my Quilter BB800. It got close enough for the girls I date.

Let's face it the reason people abuse their back and wallet is that an SVT only sounds like an SVT.But the Catlinbread SFT gets you in the ballpark.It is a great sounding pedal regardless.

 

[Fuzzbass]

+1. Never understood the hype for that pedal at all. I had a 1 and 2. Both were very average pedals.

I think 'average' is somewhat fair, but I think that's why the MBD is popular -- that is, popular with the crowd that wants distortion without tonal coloration. The Grizzly Bass was that pedal for me, but now it's the MBD1: I prefer the MBD feature set and think it's easier to dial in. Also, the MBD can go from barely-there to practically fuzz, and handles high output basses extremely well (definitely NOT true for some of the "transparent OD" favorites).

For rock, I'm with you: I want pedals with more 'zazz' (sizzle, clang, whatever). So, I often do something like stack MBD into whatever zazz pedal I'm using that night. The zazz pedal is set to low to moderate gain, then I kick in the MBD for extra dirt. The MBD is neutral so it doesn't mess with my overall tone, just gives me the higher gear, so to speak.

To get back on topic, I wouldn't call the MBD an SVT pedal.

 

[labeledbass]

Its been said but I 32nd Broughton's SVPre. Broughton has his gain staging down light years ahead of Tech 21, in all the jfet pedals. The breakup is even more linear than tube in some cases. But many people complain that its not SVT "", when it only sounds like the front end/preamp, which is still the case. True "SVT" sound comes from a combination of preamp/poweramp/cabinet, not just the preamp.

 

[TheLopp]

Its been said but I 32nd Broughton's SVPre. Broughton has his gain staging down light years ahead of Tech 21, in all the jfet pedals. The breakup is even more linear than tube in some cases. But many people complain that its not SVT "", when it only sounds like the front end/preamp, which is still the case. True "SVT" sound comes from a combination of preamp/poweramp/cabinet, not just the preamp.

This is so true, the preamp is only 1 part of the sound. Power amp and cabs is really important to cop a sound. I really, really like the Shift Line CabZone X. It has some great cabs and the power amp emulations does actually make a big difference.

And from what I understand, you can actually mix your own IR with any power amp emulation with their software. I’m perfectly happy with the Bass Pack IRs.

I really hope to get one of those SV-Pre’s from the new batch, but I know I’m not alone.