OD & Dist: a gain story

[gila_crisis]

Somewhere along the line I'd started to get a bit obsessed about the Jesus Lizard tone. I mean, it's the best. But I'd never had any means to get anywhere near it. Electronic Audio Experiments had come out with the Surveyor and it'd been on my radar for a while.

The Aion FX Isotope I can't really remember, but I think this dude arrived before the Surveyor did. I ended up swapping out two of the transistors from the funky BC whatevers Laowiz digs to I think 2N3904. I think. I was just messing around and found it sounded best this way. So this is a review for a slightly modded Isotope. Anyways, I found it stayed clean for quite a lot of the travel of the gain range, and that the bass and treble were surprisingly easy to dial in. The transformer limits the bandwidth a lot, so you can really go hard on the treble without getting ice picks. There are quite a lot of nice sounds in this pedal, up to medium gain. It gets that blown out transistor amp sound which isn't really my bag, so I use it in the slightly dirty range. It's a bit cleaner and "nicer" than the surveyor. If you're after the IVP sound then both are very very good, even though they are pretty different in a way.

Cool you have these 2 pedals: a while ago I was tempted by a second hand Surveyor a friend in Austria was selling, then I saw the Isotope kit, and I was almost tempted to get that instead, as from what I understood in the more or less the circuit (or its typology) is more or less the same.

[goroth]

They are both very good pedals, and they both have that particular sound, for sure. EAE John has a good ear and has worked the IVP idea into something that has a broader range of applications, so if budget was not a factor I’d recommend that. But if you want to try the ivp sound then both are excellent choices.

[Blackened Soul]

The only dirt pedal that I have acquired in 2021 that I feel is worth mentioning is the Orange Bax Bangeetar Pre-EQ
Yes I know these things are expensive as fuck and I don't know if I'd ever buy one new, but, it is one of the few pedals that I found that lives up to the hype. I sounds as "tubey" as tube pedals I owned [mesa V-twin, H&K Tubeman V1 and V2, Blue tube, budda zenman] with out all the ground noise and hiss that tube pedals have. The nicest part is it sounds Orange, where most of these types of boxes all sound fendery, even the mesa sounds fendery. I recently did an over dub to a old song where we ran my bass through it just to see with plans on revamping the clean direct line through my Orange Thunderverb 200 as normal for dirty bass parts and and we were pretty happy with the sound,

NSFW: show

The bass sound sits pretty damn well in this recording considering this song was tracked in like 93-94

way better than any plugin even with our using the cab emulation output. No it isn't a absolute replacement for the real amp and I don't feel it would have worked as well in a song that was more stripped down production wise where you needed to hear the air and roar of angry tubes it isn't bad. The best thing about it to me is not it's cranked sound but that you can get a realistic in the middle grit/dirt with air which almost every pedal to me fails at. for more moreness it stacks ok with other OD and octave fuzzes, but like most modern ODs and amps most "normal" fuzzes bug it down unless it is set clean. The only down sides are the size, like older pedals of yesteryear it actually doesn't need to be that big compared to it's internals, also the one qualm I have is like with all british amps I wish the treble control did a bid more interns of reducing the treble when it's turned down.. still it works better than most marshall stuff...

[coldbrightsunlight]

sounds great! I was intrigued by this when I saw it, cool to hear it's actually good.

[cosmicevan]

I think I've acquired more dirt pedals in 2021 than I did pedals in 2020 (so yeah...a LOT). I'll have to write up some thoughts on these when I catch a moment that I want to spend writing about dirts.

[K2000]

I just did a bass dirt A/B shootout with a few older pedals I had on hand. The results were a little surprising... I need bass dirt at the moment that feeds back easily, that is easy to dial in, has clarity and note definition, lots of sustain/no squelch, and sounds rad. I'm working on a potential bass/noise experimental duo or trio. It wasn't a massive shootout lineup (I forgot a couple of contenders at home):

Mountainking Megalith - easily had the most radical gravelly texture, and the most low end oomph, but got a little muddy on the lowest notes. I may have been able to dial it in better, but I'm trying to avoid needing to do that. Might still revert to this one though.

Tone Bender MkII clone built by Laurie- amazing sonic resonance when feeding back - it literally sings - but on bass, the lowest notes kind of rolled off the lows. It's great on guitar though.

Darkglass Microtubes - pretty mild bass OD that didn't fit the bill at all, and I'm not sure if I will ever find any use for this pedal.

EHX Flatiron Fuzz - not a bad fuzz, it's fine on guitar, but kind of lacks personality.

Earthbound Audio Supercollider - almost won the shootout. Feeds back nicely, solid bass all the way down the fretboard (I tune the bass to D natural, nothing crazy), good clarity and sounded really good. But it was barely edged out by:

Homebrew Electronics UFO Fuzz ('ultimate fuzz octave') Weird winner, huh? Total surprise to me. Sounds great feeding back, good clarity and note definition, solid bass in the lowest registers, dead simple to operate (only the 2 knob TB MkII is simpler). And the octave on a second footswitch if I need to add that sound. Maybe it's not so weird though? My friend used to use a Zvex Octane III (with the octave off) and got really heavy sounds from that pedal. The UFO was just a hair better than the Supercollider on bass (Supercollider is awesome on guitar too).

Did not try/forgot to bring:

Malekko B:assmaster - one of my favorite bass fuzzes, but it squelches the sustain and I want as much as possible because I already use flatwound strings (which lack sustain). It's a great one though, if you need to play a lot of fast notes with fuzz (great note definition and texture).

Boss HM-2 - forgot it at home.

EHX Russian Big Muff reissue - forgot about it, but I'm not the biggest muff fan (can be muddy)

If you have other bass dirt recommendations, let me know.

[frigid midget]

A couple ones that worked great for me, back when I was still playing bass in a noise/sludge thing with just a drummer:

Red Witch Fuzz God II. I guess it's a zvex style fuzz, but I found it easier to dial in useable tones than with my fuzz factory. Not quite as crazy as the ff, but that's actually one of the reasons I like it better, especially on bass.

Zvex Mastotron. Has a stupid amount of dangerously low bass. Has to be dialed back for guitar, but sounds awesome on bass.

EHX IC Muff reissue: big surprise to me, I never really like muffs on bass untill now. Didn't expect to find it in a cheap new ehx pedal. Tone control off, gain at around 2 o'clock
It's still a true muff of course, cause if that whooly character sounds too muddy for you, you might want to pass up on muffs altogether.

Blackout Effectors Musket. Also a muff that didn't annoy me on bass. Pretty tweakable, and a ton of gain.

The Elements. Tweakable enough to work with anything from bartitone to slide trombone to drum machines.

Boss ODB-3. Fuzzy and wild for something that's called an 'overdrive'. Best bang for the buck, by far.

Dod Bonecrusher. It did lack a bit of saturation/grit, I liked stacking it with something else. But the eq and gain character makes up for it. Regret selling mine, for some reason they've become unobtainable in this part of the world.

[gila_crisis]

My girlfriend plays bass, and she has a Boss ODB3. The other day I took it to give it a try, and I must admit it's not bad at all! It was a good surprise!

[MechaGodzilla]

the orange bax preamp thingy fucking kills but it's a huge heavy unit and the clicky pots is a bit stupid.

[frigid midget]

I doubt anyone will wanna hear about the big MIAB shootout I had this summer. Mostly popular well known tgp approved overdrive and distortion pedals. Needed a non-fuzz overdrive for my new band, and I've gotten rid of all my rat/dod/etc style pedals a while ago.

In short though:

- I now get why so many people go crazy over some of those hyped overdrives.
- Boss is still the shit.
- The Danelecro Eisenhower is NOT an ovedrive pedal. I want one

[Blackened Soul]

the orange bax preamp thingy fucking kills but it's a huge heavy unit and the clicky pots is a bit stupid.

totally.. damn clicky pots.. all in best settings are between the detents...

[ALLisNOISE]

I also use it with the gain and treble switched engaged with the gain knob ramped up as a guerrilla radio signal antenna to pick up radio signals that come from across the border from China and also from way down in BKK and locally too. i spread my instrument cable all across my room and walk around my room with it plugged into anything with pickups in it plugged into my amp and once i find a station i like, then i stop and lay on the ground for hours listening to military propaganda in Thai, Chinese government broadcasts, language lessons in japanese or english, and whatever else overlaps or wanders through the signals that floods over my house in the middle of nowhere. I know this was most likely not the intended use that RMA set out to have these used for, but i use it for this often and sometimes just listen to the soft noise roaring waves of shortwave static evolving when i need to slow my mind a bit.

I don’t wanna derail this thread, but I use this:

http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/

It’s a web based wide band radio. On my iPad, I’ll sweep around til I find a number station or some foreign news report, then I’ll route that into some hazy signal manglers (CT5, rEvolver, Fabrikat, Morphagene, Erbe-Verb, Qu-bit Nebulae etc.) and long, SOS-type delays. It’s always a journey, for sure.

I can only imagine what THAT would sound like pulsing through the RMA; radio signals fighting other radio signals, inter-modulating in ways they never would on a regular radio dial.

And to add to the discussion, you guys need to add regular old boosts to that list too!

There’s magic to be found by brickwalling —say... 90db— of clean gain into some unsuspecting input.

I really feel like that’s the impetus behind the RMA design ethos — a cleverly blended and balanced series of overflowing gain stages. While that can be said about ALL dirt pedals, RMA’s forte seems to lie in the ugly, outer extremes of those gain stages; pulling beauty and nuance from components pushed beyond their operation specifications.
I’ve yet to own any personally, but I’ve always lusted for his creations from afar.

One of my favorite “drive” tones is slamming the input of my Alesis NanoVerb. With nothing more that some hot pickups and some tasteful twiddling of the Input and
Adjust knobs, you can dial in some wonderfully smeared 12bit cascades of cicadas leveling a hail of rockets against an army of rusty box fans!
And the absolute best part is this din just described is a summoned or abated by adjusting your playing dynamics!
I can go from blurry finger picked melodies to opening a howling portal to Hell with literally a flick of the wrist!

Closer to the actual topic of the thread—
I didn’t get it in 2021, but I DID get my dream bass this year, a murdered out 78 Ric 4001, so I’ve put this pedal back into the pedal rotation… so it counts.
Anyway, the Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster —a pedal my coworker gave me when he was cleaning out his closet— is, to me, THE perfect, always on sidekick to stock, anemic Ric pickups. I had an 86 4003 w/ HiGains (Sold it in a fit of financial desperation ) and now this bass with a Toaster (quieter than the HiGains but richer lows) in the neck and Horseshoe ( ) in the bridge.
Both basses sound(ed) amazing —albeit quiet— but the low output always feels lackluster TRYING to push a fuzz. Up front, compressors piled on the squish and robbed the clang; Lightly driven ODs (GCI Brutalist Jr, Hudson Broadcast, Rat) sound greatly their own, but they imparted their own flavors which might sound good with one fuzz, but be zero definition square wave mud with another.

Enter the Pickup Booster, knob at noon and Resonance switch off. It... just... works...
That Ric jangle, but with enough heft to not just feel like a big old de tuned guitar.

And speaking of guitar... funnily enough, I find it to be pretty meh on guitar. It’s ok, but for my SG, my boost of choice is the DirgexEAE 30V BiFET Boost.
I especially love running that thing in front of an oscillating fuzz with a choked gate (staccato, clipped dying battery Velcro squonk...) then kicking on the boost, blasting the gate wide open into the Oscilloverse.

If I find time this weekend, I’ll go back through my collection with a fresh set of ears and write up a little blurb* on my favorite standouts.

*= IF you guys are interested.
I know don’t post a ton, but I when I do, I alway mean to just write a few sentences, and then end up writing a thesis…
So... genuinely sorry about the wall of text you guys have to slog through on my posts.

Anyway, drives are cool, I guess.

[goroth]

you can dial in some wonderfully smeared 12bit cascades of cicadas leveling a hail of rockets against an army of rusty box fans!

I love this.

[K2000]

That whole post was gold…

[ALLisNOISE]

Awww... you guys!
I log on to read about some fuzzes, and you guys give me a case of the warm n’ fuzzies!!!