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VXL Bass Attack. Good? Bad? anyone?
- Thread starter los100malditos
- Start date
I like it. It's a quite different pedal than most pre/distortion pedals, though. Like you might call the Sansamp stuff Ampeg simulators, but the VXL is what I call a Hartke simulator 
I like it. Bought one then sold my BDDI. Mine is on all the time. I dont like the shape mode though.
I use to own one. it was pretty decent. it can add more warmth and dirt to your sound. it also sounds pretty cool with distortion pedals.
- Sep 26, 2005
- 1,955
- 641
- Disclosures
- endorsing artist: Dean guitars, Marshall , Rotosound strings
I'm probably ousting myself as a luddite, but I have one and don't quite 'get' it.
It is good for a clean, scooped tone. It made my old, muddy, practice amp sound ok.
Where I find it really shines is with Fender guitars! Great clean tone with spitty treble.
The shape mode is weird. Overall it acts as a boost, but the knob goes from an insanely scooped tone through to a tone with all the bass dialed out. The overdrive is usable but doesn't sound good unless blended mostly out of the signal. Great for a little hair on the tone perhaps. I would have liked to have seen a mids knob over the weird 'ultra treble' control, which I forget the name of.
The presents in the manual sound less than ideal as well... and I have the weird manual blip that suggests you can run an effects loop through the thing. I would also liked to have seen a speaker/cab simulator on the DI output, otherwise you will be sending ultra-buzzy and trebly tone to the soundman. I found it difficult recording a DI feed from the thing that wasn't inaudible in the final mix...
It is good for a clean, scooped tone. It made my old, muddy, practice amp sound ok.
Where I find it really shines is with Fender guitars! Great clean tone with spitty treble.
The shape mode is weird. Overall it acts as a boost, but the knob goes from an insanely scooped tone through to a tone with all the bass dialed out. The overdrive is usable but doesn't sound good unless blended mostly out of the signal. Great for a little hair on the tone perhaps. I would have liked to have seen a mids knob over the weird 'ultra treble' control, which I forget the name of.
The presents in the manual sound less than ideal as well... and I have the weird manual blip that suggests you can run an effects loop through the thing. I would also liked to have seen a speaker/cab simulator on the DI output, otherwise you will be sending ultra-buzzy and trebly tone to the soundman. I found it difficult recording a DI feed from the thing that wasn't inaudible in the final mix...
Yes, Hartke does love the scoop, but I've found the blend knob comes in very handy for de-scooping it without losing any intensity from the overdrive. And ditto for the shape knob...I never use it.I'm probably ousting myself as a luddite, but I have one and don't quite 'get' it.
It is good for a clean, scooped tone. It made my old, muddy, practice amp sound ok.
Where I find it really shines is with Fender guitars! Great clean tone with spitty treble.
The shape mode is weird. Overall it acts as a boost, but the knob goes from an insanely scooped tone through to a tone with all the bass dialed out. The overdrive is usable but doesn't sound good unless blended mostly out of the signal. Great for a little hair on the tone perhaps. I would have liked to have seen a mids knob over the weird 'ultra treble' control, which I forget the name of.
The presents in the manual sound less than ideal as well... and I have the weird manual blip that suggests you can run an effects loop through the thing. I would also liked to have seen a speaker/cab simulator on the DI output, otherwise you will be sending ultra-buzzy and trebly tone to the soundman. I found it difficult recording a DI feed from the thing that wasn't inaudible in the final mix...
I have one, and I enjoyed using it to add some much-needed warmth to my Peavy Mark VI. It did scoop the tone, but the EQ on the Mark VI was able to help counteract that, at least until the preamp blew out.
Now I have an SWR 550X and I don't use the Hartke anymore. But I plan on doing the Aural Enhancer bypass mod and may try the VXL again once that's done to see how it works.
Now I have an SWR 550X and I don't use the Hartke anymore. But I plan on doing the Aural Enhancer bypass mod and may try the VXL again once that's done to see how it works.
SirMjac28
Patiently Waiting For The Next British Invasion
Does anyone know what the bass and treble (and brite for that matter) eq frequency centres are on this thing? I have a used one incoming from ebay and am curious - hoping the bass frequency is higher than the one on my LMII head.
Forgot to mention one thing that I didn't like about the pedal: the EQ knobs are always active, whether the footswitch has been hit or not. At 5 they have no affect on the sound, but there's no way to completely deactivate them from working without setting the Mix knob all the way dry.
I'd like to help, but I have no idea where the points are...
My mind doesn't work that way, because I just use my ears to dial tones in - it doesn't matter to me where the frequency points are.
Add the sweepable mid control (Shape knob), and the combinations are huge.
In February, I'm taking a huge leap of faith, and heading into the studio with it as a DI - I've always miked my amp before - so I've brought our PA into the house today to see if I can replicate my Hartke rig with it though an 'uncolored' system...
Managed to get pretty close.
With the shape control at about 2:00, the bass rolled back to 10:00, treble and bright rolled off. A mid bump on my bass gets me in the ballpark.
I'll have to see how it sounds through the console, but it should be tweakable.
My EUB sounds great though, with the Zoom A3 as a DI...
With the shape control at about 2:00, the bass rolled back to 10:00, treble and bright rolled off. A mid bump on my bass gets me in the ballpark.
I'll have to see how it sounds through the console, but it should be tweakable.
My EUB sounds great though, with the Zoom A3 as a DI...
