Pedals You Want To Try

Pedal I'm about to try: EHX Ravish Sitar. Our sax player loaned it to me for a few weeks.
 
Some samples of the Ravish. This is bass into Ravish into computer; no other processing was done. I can't believe I've been messing with this pedal for like three hours now. My verdict on bass? Super fun, but probably useless in the real world.


One must pick the scale one is going to use, in order to get the sympathetic strings to ring out in the right key. This first one is maybe the most "obvious". EHX calls this the "exotic" scale. I learned it as the Arabic scale. I accidentally slip into the very similar Phrygian Dominant at times here too, but it still seems to work OK with these settings.

Dropbox - E Exotic.mp3 - Simplify your life


I wanted to see if this thing could be used to drive a groove. Answer: yeah, sort of. Not sure how it would fare in the mix, but this sounds pretty cool by itself anyway:

Dropbox - G minor.mp3 - Simplify your life


This one is in D Lydian. The unit doesn't do modes, so I set it to A major, which is relative to D Lydian (all the same note). Seems to work pretty well. There is a way to program whatever scale you want into the sympathetic strings, but I didn't mess with that yet.

Dropbox - D Lydian.mp3 - Simplify your life
 
Here are a few more experiments I've been doing.


Most of the tones I like have a lot of the dry signal mixed in. Here's one completely without dry signal. It's a little thin for a bass tone, but that might be just what the doctor ordered when mixed with a bassy drum machine.

Dropbox - B minor.mp3 - Simplify your life


Speaking of drum machine, I had to try running one through the pedal. I let it run dry for two measures before kicking the pedal on:

Dropbox - G minor drum machine.mp3 - Simplify your life


The unit also has separate outputs for the lead and sympathetic strings. If you just plug into the lead output, you get the sympathetic strings mixed in, but if you use the sympathetic output, the signal gets split accordingly. For this one, I just plugged into the sympathetic output, so none of the original bass part is in there, except as implied by the sympathetic strings. I wanted to hear what happened to the sympathetic strings if you mix a few chromatic notes in, therefore I put some alterations (b9 and b13) into the dominant chord of the key.

Dropbox - A7 alt in D major (sympathetic strings only).mp3 - Simplify your life
 
Just out from the Tech21 oven:
Steve Harris SH1

Steve Harris Signature Sansamp – Tech 21 NYC
steve_harris_top-oewcdc94q0njqhjejnsd9tour27m54usx5cgfkm5h6.png
 
Bassist4Eris said:
The unit also has separate outputs for the lead and sympathetic strings. If you just plug into the lead output, you get the sympathetic strings mixed in, but if you use the sympathetic output, the signal gets split accordingly. For this one, I just plugged into the sympathetic output, so none of the original bass part is in there, except as implied by the sympathetic strings. I wanted to hear what happened to the sympathetic strings if you mix a few chromatic notes in, therefore I put some alterations (b9 and b13) into the dominant chord of the key.

Dropbox - A7 alt in D major (sympathetic strings only).mp3 - Simplify your life
Click to expand...
I like this feature.

Thanks for sharing this experiment. :)
 
This Tube Screamer-based OD sounds killer on bass. At least on YouTube.

 
Well, I went out today and tried the Kangra (see two posts above). It certainly didn't suck, but it didn't blow me away either. It's a shame, because it was used and I could have saved some money. But having made the pilgrimage to my favorite store, I decided to try out a few others that had been on my list:

Way Huge Pork Loin. Pretty good, but it didn't inspire me enough to part me with my cash.

EHX Bass Mono Synth. Way better than the Boss SYB-5. I was tempted, and still am, but I know I'd never use it.

MXR Bass Octave Deluxe. I tried this one before and really liked it, but decided to try it out again. It's cool, and I'd recommend it to someone looking for a souped up OC-2. But I'm not, and I don't even use octave enough to justify obsessing.

Mutron Micro-Tron III. Unfortunately, this was not for sale; someone at the store had already called dibs. But they were kind enough to let me try it anyway. I can see why these get the love they do. So much character! It was out of my price range but I would have bought it anyway if I could have.

At that point I was ready to give up on having a NPD. Instead, I told the clerk I was unhappy with my current OD because I felt it had too much nasal midrange, and that I wanted something with a flatter response. He thought for a minute, and then suggested the Way Huge Green Rhino. This pedal wasn't even on my radar, but it was used, so I figured why not. I tried it and guess what? I bought the darn thing. It really retains the clarity of what I'm playing, while adding just as much dirt as I could imagine wanting. Retain lows? Hell, it's got a 100k knob. Turn that up and this thing will boost your lows.
 
On a whim, there was an MXR Carbon Copy analog delay for sale used for $80 so I brought it home... somewhere in recent history I had all but given MXR the "ho-hum" and had decided if those three letters were on it, it probably wasn't as good as somebody else's pedal of the same...

I'm not sure if my old ears got duller, or maybe the first 2 goes on this pedal were a flop because of me or what, but I am really digging this pedal. So... as far as what to try next, I just have to say I'll try it if it says MXR on the pedal nowdays... I also think I have changed my thinking about pedals, instead of thinking "hey this pedal has to do everything possible the effect type can do"... I'm finding the niche or niches that some of these pedals are made to fill... which means the pedal is the same, but my brain somehow changed... maybe a chunk of the pot resin from the 70s finally fell off... haha

MXR M169 Carbon Copy Analog Delay - 01.jpg


I did think of what I'd like to try next (took my brain a few seconds to remember)... that would be the MXR Carbon Copy's bigger brother, the Carbon Copy Deluxe...

MXR M292 Carbon Copy Deluxe Analog Delay (1).jpg
 
Oh, and this one -- Meris is the company, and their reverb pedal is called the Mercury7... the YouTubers have got some really cool demos of this out there... definitely got my curiosity as far as multiple applications...
meris-mercury7-pedal_76119_1a.jpg

meris-mercury7-pedal_76119_5a.jpg
 
Yootoobs of the Mercury7






These are all guitar-use demos, but very curious how it would work for adding spacey-ness to bass as well...

I just want one, I don't care if all I can do is play Kazoo through it with a green bullet hyarmonica mic, hahaha
 
If you get the chance to, check out the Royal Jelly!
One pedal to cater for all your drive, fuzz and everything in between needs unless you require scooped Darkglass metal sounds. This thing is more Beastie Boys, Muse, RHCP, FNM etc. I am still very enthousiastic after a couple of months owning this.

20191123_124651.jpg
 
A whole new brand I had not looked into... dang... it is the time of pedals galore in the market place.

I remember when all the (seemingly) hundreds of BOSS pedals hit the market late 70s/early 80s... They had 2-3 and more of each pedal. Distortion, Overdrive, Phase, Flange... I know there were other factors that made the "other guys" seem to disappear and go out of business, but I have personally always blamed BOSS for flooding the market so that we only had them (and those huge BOSS multi-pedal displays) to try out at the store... They got away with that at that time and space.

But should another Asian-made company do the same and try a market share take-over today, with all the hundreds and hundreds of specialty manufacturers and boutique makers... I don't think BOSS would have had the same attraction as they did back then. It wasn't long and every guitar shop, even small mom and pop places had the huge multi-pedal BOSS pedal display. Something like 30 BOSS pedals all plugged in and powered on a huge 4-foot by 4-foot p[edalboard store display. I have to admit, their marketing department thought tank was woking overtime.

Because I blamed BOSS for running all the USA companies out of business, I boycotted their stuff my whole life. The only BOSS pedal I've ever bought was an SD-1 Super Overdrive I was coerced into buying by another guitar player in a band. I think I gave less than $50 for it brand new. It had a decently "transparent" sound he was trying to get me to try, but when I left the band I left the SD-1 at a store for trade for something else. I always having a BOSS-anything on my pedalboard.

Then this year I bought a BOSS RV-500 Reverb to use with my guitar rig. I was looking for ambient sounds to use with praise and worship music at church. It was like $350 (ouch)... I got it, excited to hear all the advertised sounds... ran through all of the factory presets and hated it... I especially needed the "shimmer" reverb and the factory shimmer setting is so out of control its not even useable. I cringe to even look at this pedal these days. The only way to get any decent sounds out of it (or so I've been told) is to (weeeee) dive into the multi-page manual and spend oodles of butt time reading. I hate reading. And I hate owning one pedal that sits there on the shelf, staring at me, defying me with crappy factory settings that are all but unuseable. GRinning at me that they finally won and bilked me for money I have boycotted them from all my life and 40+ years of playing electric something.

It didn't help that I grew up in an all-auto-workers family in Michigan. I don't think I can name a relative that DIDN'T or DOESN'T work for an auto plant. I think you'd have to have been in that culture to understand, but especially in the 1970s when there was an OPEC oil embargo, gas shortages, and the only American car got around 10 miles per gallon (or so)... From my perspective the Japanese car manufacturers rushed in, offered cheesy/boxey, thin metaled monstroscities that the buying public rushed to in order to save (a LOT of) money on gas. Add to that labor union rhetoric ("AMERICA WORKS WHEN YOU BUY AMERICA") (I still have that bumper sticker on my 1979 Anvil rack case)... You'd have to be sitting around the dinner table with my family of auto workers, but to buy anything but an American car (still to this day) is like asking the entire family to ex-communicate you for life. Then there is the story of the time "that damned Jim bought a Jap rice burner car"... Enter BOSS, a Japanese company, edging its way into the guitar pedal scene. It doesn't make any sense unless you can experience one Christmas dinner or Thanksgiving dinner around the same table as my extremely foreign-car prejudiced people.

Thank God I got a brain, left Michigan's rampant and seemingly permanent unemployment scene, and found a brain and a life elsewhere...

I now drive a 2009 Nissan Versa hatchback with edging 200,000 miles on it I paid $1,500 used for, hahaha... and hell or high water, I am going to win on that BOSS RV-50 Reverb and I WILL figure it out...

I am also considering a BOSS PS-6 Harmonist Pitch Shifter... haha...

There was also a day back in my Michigan labor union brain washed days when I would not have bought anything but an America-made guitar or bass. The company that really opened my eyes for instruments made overseas was Reverend. My first Rev was a Warhawk 390 guitar (3 x P-90 pickups). The thing was spotless, and had as perfect an intonation as one could have hanging on the wall. It inspired me to the point that during my graduate degree my research focus became Globalization.

Sorry if this post got a little long, and I really do hate to read, so I am fueling my own hate... haha...

The point I wanted to make was... with today's abundance of boutique and other makers having thousands of pedals to choose from, I don't think BOSS entering the market today would have the same impact as they did when there was a lot less competition in the late 70s.

Now I gotta go investigate Beetronics YouTubes... haha... and FWIW, I am the description guy for a relatively large mom and pop online music store, and I thought I had heard of everybody... haha.... NOT... not in todays pedal market.

What a time to be an electric musician....
 
JamHandy said:
So... as far as what to try next, I just have to say I'll try it if it says MXR on the pedal nowdays..
Click to expand...

I really like these:

M81 Bass Preamp
M88 Bass Octave Deluxe
M280 Vintage Bass Octave
M85 Bass Distortion
M82 Bass Envelope Filter
M87 Bass Compressor (identical circuitry to the M76 Studio Compressor)
M-117R Flanger
 
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