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Walrus Audio Badwater Bass Preamp

#41
I used one live last weekend. Always on with DI going to FOH, then cable out to a Fender SB300 onstage. Used the boost intermittently and got several compliments from folks. Sound guy, other musicians and non-musicians. (I ditched the buffer right before the show.)
20220625_075614.jpg
 
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#45
Nuage420 said:
I've done a world tour of pre amps and dirt, this one is a top 3
Click to expand...

I generally play clean, but when I want just a little dirt, I really like what I can get with just some gain and drive from my Tone Hammer 500. Smooth dirt, maybe?

Are you familiar with that, and if you are, can you compare/contrast that with the badwater? Can i get like.... close enough? I'm not a tone perfectionist. More like a tone "goodenuffist."
 
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#46
musicman556 said:
I generally play clean, but when I want just a little dirt, I really like what I can get with just some gain and drive from my Tone Hammer 500. Smooth dirt, maybe?

Are you familiar with that, and if you are, can you compare/contrast that with the badwater? Can i get like.... close enough? I'm not a tone perfectionist. More like a tone "goodenuffist."
Click to expand...
Aguilar is one of the few stops I've made. But I gravitate towards pronounced punchy cleans with a little dirt sprinkled. This nails it. It's not over bearing but noticably there.
 
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#48
Now that I'm seeing some reviews, I'm seriously considering flipping my Sansamp VTDI + Xotic SP Comp (I'd move my Whitey Tighty comp to my guitar board, and putting a Walrus Badwater on my board.

I really like my VT, but if I'm being completely honest, I hate how finicky the controls can be. Have to reset it pretty much every time I pack up and set up somewhere else, and if it's not perfect, I'm not a fan of the sound.
 
#49
Got mine for about 2 weeks, it sounds really great...except the factory setting for compression.
20220610_225837.jpg


The compressor is samshing every notes, really brutal compression right our from the box. But opening the back cover, there's attack and release trim pot. And guess what, the factory setting is attack at minimium and release at max, it's compressing in the most violent way.
After slowing the attack and set faster release, the compressor become much gentle and useful, and sounds pretty good.
Highly suggest to adjust the attck and release for personal taste, really don't know why walrus don't put this information in their manual.
And if you don't feel good with the compressor when testing Badwater in shop, it's defintely not your fault.

The EQ section to me really shines out.
It's not that intuition as other EQ, due to the frequency on two mids and the broadband design, which makes all 4 bands interacting with each other.
But the broadband EQ makes it sounds pretty smooth, even at extreme setting. It's more like a mastering EQ, smooth and musical, powerful and can change the sound a lot, but not surgical to be used on fixing particular frequency issue.
 
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#51
akizh said:
Got mine for about 2 weeks, it sounds really great...except the factory setting for compression.
View attachment 4735349

The compressor is samshing every notes, really brutal compression right our from the box. But opening the back cover, there's attack and release trim pot. And guess what, the factory setting is attack at minimium and release at max, it's compressing in the most violent way.
After slowing the attack and set faster release, the compressor become much gentle and useful, and sounds pretty good.
Highly suggest to adjust the attck and release for personal taste, really don't know why walrus don't put this information in their manual.
And if you don't feel good with the compressor when testing Badwater in shop, it's defintely not your fault.

The EQ section to me really shines out.
It's not that intuition as other EQ, due to the frequency on two mids and the broadband design, which makes all 4 bands interacting with each other.
But the broadband EQ makes it sounds pretty smooth, even at extreme setting. It's more like a mastering EQ, smooth and musical, powerful and can change the sound a lot, but not surgical to be used on fixing particular frequency issue.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info! Didn't know about the trim pots
 
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#52
Nuage420 said:
Thanks for the info! Didn't know about the trim pots
Click to expand...

The most interesting thing is that you can't bypass the compress, but they still set it to extreme as factory setting... and not telling anyone there are trim pots inside.
They could lose customers that test this preamp in shop and found the compressor sounds too squash.
Anyway, it's still a good compressor, after setting it to personal taste.
 
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#54
akizh said:
The most interesting thing is that you can't bypass the compress, but they still set it to extreme as factory setting... and not telling anyone there are trim pots inside.
They could lose customers that test this preamp in shop and found the compressor sounds too squash.
Anyway, it's still a good compressor, after setting it to personal taste.
Click to expand...
It's funny that Bass the world raved about using a ton of compression and how good the compressor is. And how they used a lot of it.
 
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