Sounds cool. Whenever I see Nate Navarro play I realize it is time to go practice lol.
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Walrus Audio Badwater Bass Preamp
- Thread starter Lammchop93
- Start date
Gigged for the second time last night with mine. Into a Mesa D800+. Didn't like it as much as I did with a Fender SB300. Issue was the boost and not being able to control it. Probably user error, but my .02.
Well, i spent an hour or so with the Badwater today and just cant seem to get anything i like from it. I ran it through the return on my Rocket Bass 112 using my passive P-bass with Geezer p-ups. Not sure why, but I just cant seem to jive with the preamp. Maybe its me because I refuse to believe this thing can sound so bland. 
Going to play with it for the rest of this week and hope i get that aha moment.
Going to play with it for the rest of this week and hope i get that aha moment.
Any more live users here? Just ordered mine with a discount from thomann. Should be here early next week!
Looking for some more opinions on this pedal! I recently started playing in a country band where I don't need my massive pedalboard, but would still like to have a quick grab and go pedalboard solution where outside of a tuner I'm set!
Well, I can't give any advice/experience on the Badwater. I was looking into buying a Badwater pretty heavily for awhile, but ended up buying a Trace Elliot Transit B instead, and I'm SUPER happy with it.
It has a great tuner built-in. It IS my quick grab and go solution, no other pedals necessary. Tuner, split-band compressor, 5 band EQ, drive/overdrive, a pre-shape filter to quickly get that 90s Trace Elliot sound (I don't use that, but it's there) Pre and Post DI outs, the ability to place the compression before or after the EQ, switchable input pad for active/passive. It's a solid metal chassis with enough heft to not get knocked around easily on-stage, or tugged around by a stiff cable. Switches are nice and solid, and far enough apart to not accidentally hit the wrong one or two buttons at once. It also lights up nicely with different colors for different things, so you can easily see what effects are on or off.
I do like that the Badwater has two bands of semi-parametric mids. I am an EQ junkie and appreciate the extra control over center-frequencies that it offers. All that being said, the 5 band EQ of the Transit B has been great as well. I haven't had a case where I wished it was any different. The first Sunday I brought in the Transit B and used it instead of the MXR Compressor and Tech21 BDDI that are the "house" pedalboard at our church, the sound engineer perked up and yelled "What's different?! The bass sounds incredible!" from the back of the church. He's getting a more powerful and clean signal than ever, he told me. I've been using it for a few months now and he's told me on mornings when I play (and bring the Transit B) he doesn't even EQ my channel any more. Sometimes he'll add a little more compression at the board (I don't use very much compression at the pedal) but that's it.
I'm sorry that that isn't really an answer to your question about the Badwater, but I hope my experience may be useful to you. I was also looking for a simple or single-pedal solution, and I found it in the TE Transit B. I bought it, fully prepared to send it back if I didn't love it. Welp, I love it! Way more than I even thought I might.
It has a great tuner built-in. It IS my quick grab and go solution, no other pedals necessary. Tuner, split-band compressor, 5 band EQ, drive/overdrive, a pre-shape filter to quickly get that 90s Trace Elliot sound (I don't use that, but it's there) Pre and Post DI outs, the ability to place the compression before or after the EQ, switchable input pad for active/passive. It's a solid metal chassis with enough heft to not get knocked around easily on-stage, or tugged around by a stiff cable. Switches are nice and solid, and far enough apart to not accidentally hit the wrong one or two buttons at once. It also lights up nicely with different colors for different things, so you can easily see what effects are on or off.
I do like that the Badwater has two bands of semi-parametric mids. I am an EQ junkie and appreciate the extra control over center-frequencies that it offers. All that being said, the 5 band EQ of the Transit B has been great as well. I haven't had a case where I wished it was any different. The first Sunday I brought in the Transit B and used it instead of the MXR Compressor and Tech21 BDDI that are the "house" pedalboard at our church, the sound engineer perked up and yelled "What's different?! The bass sounds incredible!" from the back of the church. He's getting a more powerful and clean signal than ever, he told me. I've been using it for a few months now and he's told me on mornings when I play (and bring the Transit B) he doesn't even EQ my channel any more. Sometimes he'll add a little more compression at the board (I don't use very much compression at the pedal) but that's it.
I'm sorry that that isn't really an answer to your question about the Badwater, but I hope my experience may be useful to you. I was also looking for a simple or single-pedal solution, and I found it in the TE Transit B. I bought it, fully prepared to send it back if I didn't love it. Welp, I love it! Way more than I even thought I might.
For those of you who've had the pedal I have a quick question! I bought one of these to try out; was hoping to use it on a gig last night. Pedal came in; looks great and everything works as it's supposed to, however; the pedal was noisy. The DI had a really pronounced top end air to it, and when the pedal was engaged the eq would just sweep through the hiss. Has this been the case for anyone else? I tried numerous cables etc..
Man I hate that it seems I'm the only one replying, and it's negative. :-( I did a LOT of reading on the Badwater and a few other pedals before I finally pulled the trigger on the Transit B. What you are experiencing is not unique, unfortunately.
Noisy output was the #1 (and unnervingly common) complaint about the Badwater, and it's what steered me away from it.
I don't think you're doing anything wrong, and it don't think it's a bad cable, dirty power, or fluorescent lights causing interference. I think it's a bad. water. Sorry man. :-(
I appreciate that I'm not just posting into a void; I've only read one other complaint of noisy output on the Thomann Music page, and I've listened to all of the demoes from Amos Heller etc.. and you can tell there's noise for sure, in a mix will it make a difference I don't know, but I know that in my particular pedal example the noise was as loud as the bass signal. I've been a big supporter of Walrus for a long time, however; this ain't it. My mini board will have to find another pre for the time being
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,638
- Disclosures
- John K Custom Basses
i had a Badwater for a while. the top end hiss was the biggest fault that i thought that it had. otherwise i thought it was a good sounding pedal, but the hiss was the reason that i sold it.
That's incredibly disappointing; good to know they're all like this will save me from trying another.
Just to update this thread.. I ended up getting the Walrus Mira with the money I got refunded for the Badwater, and I must say it is an absolutely beautiful sounding compressor. They knocked it out of the park with this one, that alone with an always on MBD-2 might become my mini rig going forward with a JDI at the end of the chain
After making these adjustments where do you usually keep your Sustain knob? I'm someone who doesn't fully understand compression no matter how many videos I watch so It's nice to get a decent starting point from someone else.
Man, am I thankful I came across this thread!
My main pedal for the past couple years has been an EBS Microbass 3, that I love but I'm having a hard time with the dirty/clean mix as it always seems to rob my overall volume.
The Badwater REALLY looked like the ticket, but that noise issue doesn't sound good.
My main pedal for the past couple years has been an EBS Microbass 3, that I love but I'm having a hard time with the dirty/clean mix as it always seems to rob my overall volume.
The Badwater REALLY looked like the ticket, but that noise issue doesn't sound good.
Don't know if it helps, but after lots of searching and some trial and error
- Trace Elliot Transit B - Transit B was great for church, but as I started to play in a weekend rock band I wanted a better to me/different drive sound and sold this when I got the TH & 1176 mentioned next.
- Tone Hammer & UA 1176 pairing - Love the TH pre's clean sound, and I LOVE the AGS for dirt, but it is simply impossible to bounce from clean to dirty without a giant boost in volume if you have any useful amount of gain dialed in. SO ANNOYING! Als, the TH needing 18v power makes it annoying for trying to build a small/simple pedalboard.
- SansAmp BDDI with UA 1176 or UA LA2A - fine enough. I have left this as the "house" board at church with the LA2A so it is dumb easy to adjust for our rotating bass players. Sounds fine enough as we mostly just keep the bass tones clean-ish.
I have now landed on the JHS Punchline and it is AMAZEBALLS.
The drive/distortion section on the Punchline has a dry/wet blend knob, so you can keep the cleans with all the beef intact and add in as much dirt as you want. What blows me away about this pedal is how flexible the thing is. Yes, it's design intent was to nail a specific 60s recording signal chain for bass and it's a homerun in doing that. BUT ALSO there is enough range and thought put into it so it can get more modern and hi-fi. The amp sim is hekkin beautiful, and there are a lot of flavors of dirt in this thing. The compressor is super great, too. Doesn't clip easily, and it also has simple controls but with wide ranges, so you can go from max squish to mild enhancement or "lift."
The thing is dead-silent in terms of self-noise, as well. At first plug-in, with all settings at "flat"/noon, it sounds a little dark, and that was a bummer for like 3 seconds until I just nudged the mids to 1 o'clock. BAM! Magic. For some more bite in my classic rock band setting, I push the mids closer to 2 o'clock and that just makes everything gravy, especially when the drive is on. I think the idea was that the EQ at flat would be reminiscent of that 60s bass vibe, and a little dark. I normally whinge and fuss about most 3 band EQ, complaining that I want at least a high mid and low mid control better shape things, but dadgummit if Josh didn't just nail whatever the center point and Q slope is to just magically lift or sink exactly what it is I want from my mids in one simple knob. Really crazy.
The downsides... the dang things is expensive at $500. Sweetwater still has some. Also, I HATE the stupid knobs that come on the pedal. I know they're supposed to be the same as the knobs on some vintage piece or whatever... but they are UTTER CRAP for visibility on a pedal. They'd be fine on a piece of rack gear, but not a pedal. After seeing someone else here swap theirs out I did the same and it's perfect.
https://www.talkbass.com/threads/jhs-punchline.1650779/
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The Punchline looks great, and I was giving it a lot of consideration. I figured that if anyone knows how to put a bass preamp together, Josh from JHS would be that guy.
Last night I went full impulse and ordered the Sansamp XB. With very few exceptions Tech 21 stuff has always done well for me.
That said, if the Ebs had a better way to balance the volume on both channels I'd never take it off my board.
Thank you for the input!
Last night I went full impulse and ordered the Sansamp XB. With very few exceptions Tech 21 stuff has always done well for me.
That said, if the Ebs had a better way to balance the volume on both channels I'd never take it off my board.
Thank you for the input!
