The Spaceman Club

[Lammchop93]

Or do you think the mercury is special enough to spend the extra?

as an always on pedal, maybe. It retains lows better. If you are strictly wanting an always on low gain pedal,
the Redstone may be your best bet. And if you like it, then you could try the mercury. Yes the Redstone has more knobs, but mine has pretty much been set it and forget it.

if you want a pedal just to kick on when you need more drive, the Saturn may be the way to go.

 

[Lammchop93]

Or do you think the mercury is special enough to spend the extra?

can you describe the tone you are searching for?

 

[Laklandfan]

I recently listened to a bass video reviewing the Saturn 6. It sounded pretty damn good. My only concern would be I might need a little more drive than what the S6 delivers. Which leads me to the Apollo 7 and or the Redstone. How does the A7 do on bass? Any major low end loss. I'm assuming the A7 is just a higher gain version on S6, minus the diode switch.

But what about the Redstone? I dont need a preamp pedal. I just need an OD pedal. But does the preamp section serve useful to dial in missing lows and mids from the OD?

What do yall recommend?

From spaceman: The Apollo has 2 types of diode clipping, and one mode without diodes. I think of it as more compressed, and akin to classic diode clipper drives. The Redstone on the other hand is all discrete, so it's more about driving the transistors, and it'll sound more like the OG Mercury circuits. It'll be a bit more open, and less compressed than the Apollo.

 

[Laklandfan]

can you describe the tone you are searching for?

Light OD (dirty boost?) that can give a little texture to my tone without really changing it, but also touch sensitive to wake up if I dig in like a tube amp can. It looks like the mercury used switches for EQ vs a conventional tone knob on the Saturn, the knob seems more flexible to dial in. To me, your mercury seemed brighter than the Saturn in the clips, but turning the tone knob might get there.

 

[Lammchop93]

Light OD (dirty boost?) that can give a little texture to my tone without really changing it, but also touch sensitive to wake up if I dig in like a tube amp can. It looks like the mercury used switches for EQ vs a conventional tone knob on the Saturn, the knob seems more flexible to dial in. To me, your mercury seemed brighter than the Saturn in the clips, but turning the tone knob might get there.

Based on your description, I would do the Redstone with the gain very low.

the mercury with the harmonic cranked didn’t add that much dirt. It gave it more character, but in a band setting I’d bed you’d never notice it. You’d have to turn up the boost knob to get there, and it gets loud quickly doing that.

the Saturn or Redstone would be my recommendation. The Saturn is more “crunchy” and the Redstone is more “wooly”. I ran both at 12v. The Saturn is probably more transparent at low gain setting. But will loose more low end as you turn the gain up.

They both sound great, but the Redstone does give you more EQ to add in lows if needed. I don’t think you can go wrong with either though. But that’s my 2 cents.

 

[g4string]

Found a good deal on a used S6…..in the bedroom, it sounded good. But I have yet to try it w a full band. I have a rehearsal Sunday. So I’ll give it a go. If funds permit, I’ll prob snag a Redstone just to AB them and then keep what sticks.

 

[dedpool1052]

Light OD (dirty boost?) that can give a little texture to my tone without really changing it, but also touch sensitive to wake up if I dig in like a tube amp can. It looks like the mercury used switches for EQ vs a conventional tone knob on the Saturn, the knob seems more flexible to dial in. To me, your mercury seemed brighter than the Saturn in the clips, but turning the tone knob might get there.

There's a used Redstone at GC
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$50 less than new, plus a liberal return policy.
Pretty easy to "audition" it.

 

[dave64o]

Arrrgh... I just ordered another drive pedal that I didn't need. Now I've got another to tempt me ...

 

[Teijo K.]

Used Aurora incoming. After I got the Explorer it was pretty easy to decide what to get when I decided to get a flanger for my other bass board.

 

[Laklandfan]

There's a used Redstone at GC
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
$50 less than new, plus a liberal return policy.
Pretty easy to "audition" it.

Looks it’s already gone.

 

[g4string]

Anyone have any experience with how the Empress Germ drive might compare to the Redstone?

 

[johnk_10]

i had both the Saturn VI and the Redstone. while a i really liked it, i sold the Saturn VI and kept the Redstone. i found the Redstone to have better low end and a more pleasing sounding overdive (especially at low OD settings).

 

[Charlie Tuna]

i had both the Saturn VI and the Redstone. while a i really liked it, i sold the Saturn VI and kept the Redstone. i found the Redstone to have better low end and a more pleasing sounding overdive (especially at low OD settings).

Well that almost seals the deal for me. Does the Redstone do plain ol' clean boost as well as the Saturn?

 

[johnk_10]

Well that almost seals the deal for me. Does the Redstone do plain ol' clean boost as well as the Saturn?

yep. i actually prefer it clean or just on the edge of breakup. too much gain or raising the bass control can make it too raspy for my taste.

 

[Charlie Tuna]

yep. i actually prefer it clean or just on the edge of breakup. too much gain or raising the bass control can make it too raspy for my taste.

Thank you, sounds like a good replacement for the Saturn.

 

[Laklandfan]

The fight begins. Hard to tell if yet which is better alone, but even on mild settings running both on gives a whole other level of OD. So running together seems to warrant totally different settings if they were solo. Running both at 12v.

 

[dave64o]

Interesting. I'll be real curious to hear your impressions as the fight continues. I really like my Saturn VI and am using that as my low gain, always on tone. I also have an Apollo VII, which I like, but it has a lot more gain than I need for my band’s song list so I’ve been considering selling it and trying a Redstone based on what I’ve read here recently.

 

[Laklandfan]

Interesting. I'll be real curious to hear your impressions as the fight continues. I really like my Saturn VI and am using that as my low gain, always on tone. I also have an Apollo VII, which I like, but it has a lot more gain than I need for my band’s song list so I’ve been considering selling it and trying a Redstone based on what I’ve read here recently.

Initial impressions of bedroom tone: they are in the realm of each other. Not as worlds apart as I’d thought. I honestly think either can fit my needs. Spaceman agreed the Apollo is more than I need, but the redstone into the Saturn seems to really kick things up. The Saturn even with less knobs is awesome, tone knob is effective, and I don’t feel suffers from lack of a blend. I like them both so far. I don’t know, if I’ll get to try with a band soon. I’d say for the money value; the Saturn is better choice because it’s much cheaper. If they were same price it’d be a toss-up. I’m running them after a buffer and before compression, has anybody experimented with different places in the chain?

 

[dedpool1052]

I like the Saturn going into the Redstone.
Redstone set as my baseline, with the Saturn giving it a loving push.

Neither suffer from not having a blend, as you said of the Saturn.
I will say the Redstone has far more bite on tap.

A few pages back, someone had asked SE about the EQ on the Redstone and how they interact.


I'm going go back and repost it.

 

[dedpool1052]

Originally posted by @Charlie Tuna in response to his questions about the Redstone EQ.



"Yep you've got the idea right. The tonestack is modified using the Fender tonestack as a starting point.

In the case of the Redstone, the Mid control is centered at 600Hz. When all 3 tone controls are at noon, there is an 8db dip from the Lows, and Highs to the mid scoop. When Mids are at max, with Highs and Lows at noon, the dip is more like 4dB. Turning Mid to minimum, with Highs and Lows at noon, the dip is huge at 15dB-ish.

To get ruler-flat response you would lower Highs and Lows to minimum. When this happens, the Mid control can be set anywhere, as it simply acts like another gain control.

With Mid, Low and High at noon, the Highs reach the peak amplitude at 10kHz, and from there gently slope downward toward the mid dip. At 2kHz they are roughly 3dB below peak. Lows reach peak amplitude at 40Hz, and slope gently downward towards the mid dip, 200Hz is roughly 3dB below peak.

Obviously, these numbers deviate as you manipulate the controls. The Redstone has great bass. I was really focusing on getting it sounding good with bass. I brought prototypes to my band's practices and based much of the tonal choices on feedback from my bass player. For reference, he mostly plays a vintage G&L L5000. So I know the Redstone can even handle 5 string basses pretty well. Other basses used in the process: my 1980 G&L L1000, an American Jazz Bass with '62 wiring, and a Peavey T40 with an aluminum neck.

It was a bit of a balancing act to make sure the Redstone sounded good with both bass and guitar. For example, I think the ideal bass high-end, would be a little different. It's also possible that some folks would want the the center mid-dip frequency a little lower for bass guitars. It also has probably more bottom-end than most guitar players need!

So the compromise I chose was to get great bass for bassists, decent all-around mid-band response that's less scoopy that a stock Fender, and highs biased towards guitar players. I think we did pretty good, hopefully you dig it!”