Bassists & pedals.

[Kopfjaeger]

Josh,

That would be awesome since I have no idea between the difference in sound these pedals will make. This will be a tutorial, of sorts, for me.

Sepp

[cassius987]

Okay. I will go ahead and try to do a good demo of each of the three pedals on my board. It will take longer but it will be fun to put together and it'll be a few more vids for my YT channel.

[cjj]

Okay. I will go ahead and try to do a good demo of each of the three pedals on my board. It will take longer but it will be fun to put together and it'll be a few more vids for my YT channel.

Excellent! This will be good! Thanks!

[Fuzzy Thoughts]

Thanks guys, I'm really enjoying hearing your thoughts on pedals and seeing your boards! I'm surprised how many of you are using "guitar" pedals instead of the more bass-centric ones.

A lot of "bass-centric" pedals have left me cold in the past. If I have to sacrifice some of the really deep lows (<80 Hz usually) to get my effect to work for the song that's fine (although many effects don't even do this or can be tweaked so they don't). Too many pedal makers think a bass pedal needs to sound really boomy and fat for us to like it but I find this is often incompatible with getting the effect to cut through the mix at without overwhelming the rest of the band with a big level boost. That said many of those pedals can also be tweaked or configured more like a "normal" pedal and then it just becomes a matter of what you think sounds better. I know guitarists who run the Bass Big Muff and love it; I prefer the Tall Font Russian (cloned from the green Russian Muffs) for my bass. I think with effects it's really rare to find a right or wrong answer.

I agree for the most part. Actually one thing I have noticed which I think leads to this problem is that dirt pedals boost highs and so a lot of people think that you are losing lows [now yes a lot of "guitar pedals have input and output caps which "cut rumble" which is a problem.. but that is mostly overdrives and some distortions not fuzz] so they think boosting the miss or low-mids will fix this but it never does.. really all that should be needed is a way to cut/shelf the high highs and you shouldn't lose beef. I like sovtek muff and have had a old green one for ever... but.. for me most muffs don't work well with my setup because they just turn to mud which is a sound I really like.. but doesn't fit with any of the bands I play in For live stuff I like pedals with blends for two reasons: 1. you don't have to worry about the pedal keeping the beef and can you can just settle on the dirt texture you want and 2. it lets you get a bi-amped sound with one amp. For recording though there are no rules and I think I have over 30 fuzz pedals now mostly for this... or um... the byproduct of years or tone chasing....In the end may all time favorite pedal is the Katana Sound Super Bass fuzz which is a copy of a Univox mrk-III super fuzz [the blue and orange one] with a clean volume and a high roll-off, it also has a octave toggle so you can get two different sounds out of it

[cassius987]

Thanks for your comments Aaron. I have never been a huge fan of blend controls with fuzz myself, simply because I think to achieve the effect they imply you can get (keeping "the beef" around as you put it) it detracts tonally from the effect and muddies the final signal up even if technically they are "gated" from each other. Maybe if there is a clean blend that only works on the very lowest frequencies it would be okay, but I think most of them act on the entire signal. This is why in the end I am going to set up a Ric-O-Sound rig where the neck pickup works, most of the time, as my clean blend. It is much deeper and thumpier than the bridge pickup anyway so it should take to this role quite well.

Remember too with a lot of fuzz pedals you can use the tone control to regulate the highs and the overall voicing. I will demonstrate that a little with the Tall Font Russian, hopefully I'll start recording the clips tonight.

One pedal that really does do "deep fuzz" well is the Swollen Pickle... but again it's a thinking man's pedal and you really have to be patient with it to get the right sound. It's hard juggling so many variables, whereas the classic Big Muff is really just A) set your gain B) how much distortion? C) tone control to taste (although B and C do interact a bit).

[Fuzzy Thoughts]

Thanks for your comments Aaron. I have never been a huge fan of blend controls with fuzz myself, simply because I think to achieve the effect they imply you can get (keeping "the beef" around as you put it) it detracts tonally from the effect and muddies the final signal up even if technically they are "gated" from each other. Maybe if there is a clean blend that only works on the very lowest frequencies it would be okay, but I think most of them act on the entire signal. This is why in the end I am going to set up a Ric-O-Sound rig where the neck pickup works, most of the time, as my clean blend. It is much deeper and thumpier than the bridge pickup anyway so it should take to this role quite well.

Remember too with a lot of fuzz pedals you can use the tone control to regulate the highs and the overall voicing. I will demonstrate that a little with the Tall Font Russian, hopefully I'll start recording the clips tonight.

One pedal that really does do "deep fuzz" well is the Swollen Pickle... but again it's a thinking man's pedal and you really have to be patient with it to get the right sound. It's hard juggling so many variables, whereas the classic Big Muff is really just A) set your gain B) how much distortion? C) tone control to taste (although B and C do interact a bit).

True.. also not all "blends" are created equal... ones that spilt the signal first tend to work a little better...
All the Swollen Pickle is though is a overly modded muff.. and there are sooo many muff variants these days with just about every option you can think of you could spend days playing them all... But yeah a unmodded muff is.. fun...ish.. thing is the tone control doesn't cut highs really it boosts lows or highs depending on which way you turn it and middle is "suppose" to be flat... which it isn't... you need a muff with a tone bypass to get that, and that is a really different sound.

Also if you want DEEP fuzz you should look at old Ibanez/elk/other japanese makes.. Wau Fuzzes which are a Ibanez Standard fuzz with a really powerful filter.. things can do wale sounds. Also Devi ever Cherry Pop Variants are really Deep.. I think the current one is called the warhorse...

[cassius987]

Well to each his own (regarding the Pickle). Sure it's a modded Muff but... man, there's really nothing else like it I have tried. If somebody wanted a Muff, I would never recommend the Pickle, even though you can get that sound. It excels at squishy, compressed stuff.

Totally agree with you that the tone control on a Muff is never "flat".

[Fuzzy Thoughts]

Well to each his own (regarding the Pickle). Sure it's a modded Muff but... man, there's really nothing else like it I have tried. If somebody wanted a Muff, I would never recommend the Pickle, even though you can get that sound. It excels at squishy, compressed stuff.

Totally agree with you that the tone control on a Muff is never "flat".

Oh I think it is a great pedal... just nerding out a little...

[cassius987]

Okay, the TFR vid is done. I forgot how long it takes just to edit! Doesn't help that iMovie is such a PITA if you aren't familiar with it... But in the end I'm happy with how it turned out. Please enjoy.

[cassius987]

Correct me if I'm nuts, guys and gals, but is the bass coming through more on the right side? I didn't record it in stereo...

[cjj]

Sounds OK to me, totally centered (using headphones).

Great video, by the way, really gives a good idea of the sounds/adjustments.
Thanks for posting it!

[cassius987]

Thanks CJ! It is probably my crummy earbuds then. I'm glad you like the video!! It actually helped me get a little firmer grasp on my favorite settings for the pedal too, so I'm glad I recorded it.

I will try to do the Pork Loin next (some time next weekend). The Swollen Pickle is going to take a long time and a lot of planning, especially since I'm doing it for bass, but if I get it right I think it will be really cool. In the mean time let me know if there's anything I can do better for my reviews/demos to make them helpful.