Right.. if you have a good sounding rig then you really have no need for pedals. I played pedal-less for 15+ years but recently have been experimenting with different sounds. As far as "tube emulator" goes I think DG has nailed it in pedal form...
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tube emulator pedal, any idea?
- Thread starter fredolee16
- Start date
Right.. if you have a good sounding rig then you really have no need for pedals. I played pedal-less for 15+ years but recently have been experimenting with different sounds. As far as "tube emulator" goes I think DG has nailed it in pedal form...
Vintage growl like what? Do you have any particular recorded tones that you are chasing? That would make narrowing thing down a lot easier.
The blend is key. Turn it to the left. It doesnt need to be on full. Im using a DarkGlass B3K and the blend is set at about 8pm. Just a bit of extra dirt.
Also, your active bass has a hotter signal then you passives so you probably need to adjust the input lower. Try lower input on the amp as well.
This is something I learned the hard way
While tube emulators have come a long way and sound fantastic, they sometimes need a bit more TLC than a full-on tube amp does in order to get the best tone. Mind your input gain and EQ settings. The VT Bass from Tech 21 sounds fantastic if you like the Ampeg tone, but you sound like you might want to keep the character knob very low or near zero. I like mine at 9 o'clock, gives it some grind when you dig in but the focus is on round thump. Careful with the EQ though, it's VERY sensitive.
The Ginger is more of an update to the Flipster circuit. You can still buy the Flipster as a pedal from OLC, for example, or have someone custom build a Flipster for you. Splitting hairs, but to someone who is not familiar with runoffgroove, there are some differences in thinking about their circuits vs shopping for traditional pedals.
The Flipster is made to emulate an SB-12, and from what I gather the Ginger gets into more bass-focused territory, maybe B-15 or V4-b type stuff to my ears. I think JohnK says it's more SVT-ish.
Semantics aside, I have a Ginger that John built for me, and it is the perfect pedal to my ears for Ampeg tube feel. I agree wholeheartedly with the above comment that an SFT may be a bad choice for a hot bass, since it overdrives into fart territory quickly with hot signals. The Ginger may suffer the same to a lesser extent. The Beta may take an active circuit a touch better...not really an Ampeg sound per se, but an awesome old school overdrive sound nonetheless.
Looking for that kind of SVT tone but without broke my wallet.
Tube emulator, SVT sound, Stingray?
VT Bass:
VT Bass:
Well, I was looking for something to add a bit of "grind" (I don't need the big fuzz, ya know) and sometimes the VMT is nice, but I just don't use it often. I think if I was playing in a more straight-rock or blues band, it might be more useful. I do use my chorus & envelope filter, depending on the tune... but I find that the basic "grind" I want is found in the tube preamp of my two main heads (Shuttle 6.2 & Ashdown ABM500) or in my fingers.
All good suggestions here. But, if you want a tube sound you should get a real tube. This something I've been looking into that's interesting...
I would second " the Blend " knob ... ! I have a B7K , just to ad a little EQ'd warmth/dirt ... my old Aguilar Tone Hammer was nice ... I've gone thru craploads of tube preamps/pedals , but I want one that'll be OK on guitar and organ/electric pianos type sounds ...
you could make your StingRay into a Passive bass .. !!??
you could make your StingRay into a Passive bass .. !!??
Doner Designs
Steve Doner
- Jun 2, 2012
- 5,784
- 6,819
- Disclosures
- Doner Designs is an alias for Steve Doner
hardwire cm2, about $50-60 used, sounds just like bpeg tube pedal(ampeg sim) if you crank the bass and treble about 75%, works great with active electronics too
i use a fuzzrocious dark driving, to get some tubeyness with my pignose hog 30 and to get some drive with my tube head
Ehx English muffin. No tube emulation just real tubes! More British voiced but I went looking for ampegy drive and liked this better. Give it a shot!
Find a used TubeWorks Blue Tube pedal. It's not a tube emulator, but rather a real tube preamp in pedal form. It's a great way to turn a SS rig into a tubescent sounding one.... Having tried the sansamp pedals I have to say that there's no contest... The Bluetube is awesome.
Use it like I do then, for a raunchy OD tone when you want to kick in some more dirt. I also pair mine with an ABM head.
Well I tried the Big Muff Deluxe yesterday (from a friend) and I have to tell you that I like it. Doen't like the distortion but after a exhaustive work, I founded that with the crossover help a little bit to dial a good warm tone. The problem that I founded was that when I turned on the crossover the sound used to loose some low end and this device doesn't have a eq knobs. Maybe combine this one with and pedal eq or a booster could be a good idea or not?
This could be another option but everything is better when you can dial your eq directly from your bass without touching your amp...at least for me.
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