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Harmonic Percolators are overrated. There, I said it.

Original IVP is rad AF.

goroth wrote:

manymanyhaha wrote:Actually, I started a thread about this some time ago: viewtopic.php?f=149&t=61302&p=1337314&h ... p#p1337314

But! I've had 5 or 6 IVP's over the years, currently still have three (and trying to sell one). I have had two Dude Incredibles, still have one and I like it. It does not quite replace the IVP but close enough since the IVP is 2U rack space and the DI is a small pedal. And really, each IVP I've had sounds slightly different so making proper apples to apples comparisons is never going to quite be possible.

I also have the Buzz version. In some ways I like it better than the DI but it has an inherent noise that I fortunately can not hear for most part but depending on your setup, you might. But the Buzz, you can practically bring the gain all the way down to zero. The DI requires some gain at all times so the Buzz has a little bit more flexibility

One of my close friends who got the IVP bug because of me bought the large and compact Sleeping Dog versions and he says that he likes either of them better than the DI. He brought them around at one point and I messed with them for less than an hour and I did like them but not quite sure long-term. He's a great friend so I'm giving him one of my IVPs in exchange for one of the Sleeping Dogs. When Covid subsides and we are able to get together again and do this exchange, I will report back

So there you go, my input! Finally, something I can help YOU all with, makes me happy.

Ah shit, shoulda done a search first. Thanks for the info dude.
Plenty of good ideas in here, thanks homies!

No worries, glad I could help. If you are like me, the first time I heard THAT sound and became totally smitten was when a friend brought over the Billiard Player Song/Wingwalker 7". We listened to that thing over and over and over again for weeks, months, until Action Park came out. And then we listened to that for a few months more. I mean, I had loved Big Black before that but those two early Shellac releases were on a different level in terms of how a guitar, bass and drums could sound.

And I've read all the stuff over the years about how he gets that sound and all of it is true to a certain extent (metal picks, aluminum neck instruments, full range cab paired with normal cab, mid 60's Blackface Bassman etc) but the one thing that IS that sound is the IVP. And then of course, just the way he plays. I mean, I have some of the same equipment inspired by that sound but I sound nothing like that, nor would I want to.

And the thing about the IVP that I don't ever read about is that it is very versatile. I've gotten some really nice mid-rangy MBV style tones out of it, some sludgy bassy tones, all kinds of tones.

But the actual units are old and hissy and scratchy and some times unpredictable and kind of cool that way but also way too large for pedalboards. For my purposes anyway. So it is really cool that several folks have decided to try to approximate these units and as I said before, they aren't exact but for my tastes, get you close enough for the vibe.

I was just looking and that Aion kit is available again. I'm really curious about it since it is the only one of these I haven't messed with but I have too much to do!

codetocontra wrote:Harmonic Percolators are overrated. There, I said it.

I actually kind of agree. I've played a few and I like them all but none are still on my board

Dandolin wrote:The Surveyor brings the clang, but that eq is super powerful - it's versatility is under-rated, imo. I use it in the end-of-chain slot - I tend to like it more with non-Perc dirt feeding it (even tho I'm a Perc stan) I guess, like Goroth, I love the clang, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing

For real I like that when you roll off the treble/bass it's pretty flat and almost transparent sounding, really easy to tweak to suit the situation and it stacks so well with other dirt (my fav is using it like a dirty boost front of chain to make everything just a little more gnarly).
Even if the toanz aren't the same as the OG IVP, I think the Surveyor has an edge in terms of modern utility/versatility that makes it worth considering, especially so for people who aren't trying to sound like Shellac.

I don't necessarily want to sound like shellac (though I love them) and this is selling me on a Surveyor

backwardsvoyager wrote:

Dandolin wrote:The Surveyor brings the clang, but that eq is super powerful - it's versatility is under-rated, imo. I use it in the end-of-chain slot - I tend to like it more with non-Perc dirt feeding it (even tho I'm a Perc stan) I guess, like Goroth, I love the clang, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing

For real I like that when you roll off the treble/bass it's pretty flat and almost transparent sounding, really easy to tweak to suit the situation and it stacks so well with other dirt (my fav is using it like a dirty boost front of chain to make everything just a little more gnarly).
Even if the toanz aren't the same as the OG IVP, I think the Surveyor has an edge in terms of modern utility/versatility that makes it worth considering, especially so for people who aren't trying to sound like Shellac.

The first in the chain last in the chain fight off!

I thought we wanted to sound like Bob Weir

That would be pretty good tbh

I'd rather be ripped like bob weird tbh

For any DIYers I'd recommend building the not-commercially-available Madbean Rump Roast. It's a JFET version of the Dr Z Carmen Ghia preamp. It's definitely comparable to the Surveyor demos I've seen, at least on its lower gain settings. Does not have a bass control, but the last quarter turn of the RRs cut knob does remove a lot of high end while emphasizing the lows. I use it at the beginning of the chain and it cuts through like a champ without being ice pick-y. More Tom Petty than Steve Albini but in the same ball/action park.

Edit because I tried a Harmonic Percolator (DIY) placed before - and for clarity - the Rump Roast (ew, mine is called Jellybean) is a not an ideal end-of-chain tone shaper unless it's always on. Anything before it needs like a 30% volume increase, or it needs to compensate for volume loss. Plenty of that on tap, but just in case you come across/decide to build one (it's a p simple circuit). Anyway, the combo sounded rad and if you want clang on the cheap, there it is dude. YMMV

Well, thanks to some ILF teamwork (skullservant and worra) I've got a V1 Surveyor. And thanks to Laowiz I've got an Aion Isotope. The Isotope is built with different transistors, and I'm not sure how much that affects the sound. Firstly, they are both immediately recognisable as _that_ sound. Beyond that they are quite different. The Aion is more brash and the Surveyor is smoother. I still haven't tried anything out with my proper rig, just home. The Surveyor is proving to be a handful through the small living room amp. Almost any setting sounds bloody brilliant. The expectation that I had, of that... round... kinda treble, is definitely there. Reading the documentation I'm guessing it's the limited bandwidth of the transformer doing some smoothing. You can get this excellent mid low gain (low gain but sounds pretty fucken hard if you dig in) chunk, and you can really crank the treble. I don't crank the bass a lot because it loses attack (as it should with the eq pre gain, it's just not my favourite sound). On its own almost anything sounds good. I'm finding it a bit more finicky stacking other pedals into it - the treble gets easily out of control, but that could be my living room amp tbh. It's harsh as fuck

Looking forward to experimenting more.

sounds rad goroth. Looking forward to trying them next time we hang out... In 2030?

vidret wrote:

goroth wrote:The EAE Surveyor is based on the Intersound IVP Preamp and it is the sound of my dreams. I dunno how I didn't discover this earlier but you can't always be super smart about gear.

But it seems to be a unicorn in the pedal world. Are there any other pedals based on the IVP, or ignoring the IVP aspect, anything that gets that same sharpness without being icepicky?

I'm not interested in Albini peruolator thing - that's rad and all, but it's not what I'm getting at. There are amazingly few demos of the Surveyor out there, but like this is a good demo of that harsh but not harsh sound - [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhfnI5NYkvg[/youtube] - even though it's often stacked and run at medium gain in that vid.

oh my god a bax EQ in front of the dirt section in a pedal with lots of gain?

why don't you tell me these things i call dibs

Jero is developing a Baxan for me... it’s a haxan with a bax in front...

I bet that'll sound great.

goroth wrote:

vidret wrote:

goroth wrote:The EAE Surveyor is based on the Intersound IVP Preamp and it is the sound of my dreams. I dunno how I didn't discover this earlier but you can't always be super smart about gear.

But it seems to be a unicorn in the pedal world. Are there any other pedals based on the IVP, or ignoring the IVP aspect, anything that gets that same sharpness without being icepicky?

I'm not interested in Albini peruolator thing - that's rad and all, but it's not what I'm getting at. There are amazingly few demos of the Surveyor out there, but like this is a good demo of that harsh but not harsh sound - [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhfnI5NYkvg[/youtube] - even though it's often stacked and run at medium gain in that vid.

oh my god a bax EQ in front of the dirt section in a pedal with lots of gain?

why don't you tell me these things i call dibs

Jero is developing a Baxan for me... it’s a haxan with a bax in front...

You're going buck wild!

this hasn't helped my desire to get a surveyor