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Tronographic Rusty Box Soundclips

My Rusty Box came in yesterday, but I was only able to spend a little time with it last night.

Initial reaction/quick thoughts...

Stuff I dig:
Great sound and simple to use! The RB really beefed up the sound of my PbassV. With only a few knob turns, I was able to go from old school vintage to modern grindy rock quite easily. The Rusty doesn’t have as much gain as I thought it would, but that makes me happy. Low to medium overdrive is my favorite. :) The Hi/Lo switch is awesome for getting different flavor starting points, then you can fine tune your sound further with the EQ controls. (see pic below for my initial favorite settings) I haven’t had a chance to test it yet, but I could see the Boost switch coming in quite handy for solos or when you really want to hit another effect or the front of an amp with a hot signal. The RB is built like a tank, everything feels very solid.

Stuff I don’t dig:
The line out is nice, but I find myself wishing it had an actual DI on it. The included adapter is nice and won’t be a problem on my bigger board (power strip mounted underneath a PT1), but my main board is a PT Mini with a DC Brick, so I’ll have to think about how I want to solve that. Wish I could run the RB with one of the 18V outs on the Brick!

Remember, these are just initial thoughts. I’m looking forward to trying it out through my live rig tomorrow evening for a “final verdict” kind of thing. Do I really “need” the Rusty? I found myself wondering that last night... I’ve also got a Fromel Shape EQ and plenty of overdrive options. And how often will I use the Boost switch?

Okay, now I’m just rambling. I’ll post back with some thoughts once I get it through my live rig. ;)

Initial settings:
Boost the lows, roll off some treble and mids and I found a good vintage tone. I set the Gain switch on Lo for less emphasis on high frequencies and the Gain knob so that my sound had just a little grit when I dug in a bit, and more when I hit the Boost.

Like I said above, I could see the Boost switch being used for solos/driving other equipment, but I could also see it as an "always on" thing because it does change the Rusty's sound some.

Looking forward to trying it tomorrow night with my live rig!

5sg.

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The Rusty doesn’t have as much gain as I thought it would, but that makes me happy. Low to medium overdrive is my favorite. :)

That's how I like it as well. Probably closer to the low (Gain at about 9:00) and it's an always on pedal for me.

Do I really “need” the Rusty? I found myself wondering that last night... I’ve also got a Fromel Shape EQ and plenty of overdrive options. And how often will I use the Boost switch?

Since mine is always on I do need ("need" being relative of course...) it. I think once you get it in a mix you may like it even more. I know I did. As far as the boost... I rarely use it. A few times one of the guitarist forgets to ensure his distortion volume level is at comparable levels to clean and once he switches over he's much louder. I've used it the boost to come up (in practice) on a couple of those occasions but for the most part I never use the boost.
 
I think once you get it in a mix you may like it even more. I know I did.

I'm expecting I will. If I really dig it through the practice setup (which is actually a headphones setup since I live in an apartment), that means it's going to be pretty killer through my live rig. I'm interested to see if the Rusty colors my tone at all... It seemed like it had a little of it's own personality, which is cool. :)

5sg.
 
silky smoove said:
It provides a fair amount of color. Not as much as something like a VT, but it definitely adds something. Whether you like it or not is another story. I love it in my rock band, but hate it in my pop band.

Sounds like exactly what I'm hoping for then. Interesting that you don't like it in both bands... Is the reason anything you can put into words, or is it more of just a vibe?

5sg.
 
In my rock band it reigns in my uber wide voiced head/cab (Tecamp Puma1000 into an LDS nEarful 15/6/1) and adds a touch of overdrive to help me blend better between the top of the kick and the bottom of two distorted guitars.

That's exactly the opposite of what I want in my pop band. I want a crystal clean, wide (ie deep sub bass extension with glassy top end extension) tone that blends with the kick to create a unified instrument voicing on the bottom, sit right next to a clean guitar (think Strat into Twin Reverb) in the midrange, and sparkle up top when playing slap. Sort of a more even, wider version of the typical Marcus tone. Basically the opposite of what the RB was designed to do, so it's no surprise that it's not my go-to flavor for that band.
 
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Still haven't heard anything and I've been on the list for months.

But (not to rub it in) I was lucky enough to get one in the classifieds. Most of my setup has been in the "experimental" phase for a bit now but I'm really liking the sounds I can get out of this thing. Its played a role in almost every show I've played since I got the thing.

Oh and finally hearing this tone come out of my bass made me go crazy: YouTube - ‪The Jesus Lizard - "Then Comes Dudley"‬‏

Being able to bust out Jesus Lizard and Shellac tones whenever you want is enough reason to own this pedal (though it can produce more sounds than that).
That woman's carrying....
 
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