Best BMP for Bass / Mods?

[toddvirgil]

Anybody got opinions on which BMP to build for bass, and whether/what mods to make to the frequency shaping?

John K, Mr-Bass-Player-Pedal-Builder-Extraordinaire, I know you've got opinions here :) Would love to hear them!

T

[Silver Blues]

Well I'm not John, lol, but the classic Green (or Black) Russian is always a good starting point. Black Arts Pharaoh is a cool one too. I put together a hybrid GR/Ram's Head job last year and it is absolutely monstrous. I haven't tried it (really want to though) but the Mojo Hand Iron Bell sounds great, and it has a contour control which I believe controls the depth of the mid scoop, a welcome feature.

[toddvirgil]

Thanks Silver!

I think I'll go with a green russian -- would you adjust the in/out caps for Bass?

[rocket88]

hey todd. i'm actually about to start on a green russian too cause I always wanted one and heard how great for bass it is.  I built the iron bell, and monstrous doesn't even touch the sound I get from mine. the amount of volume is so ridiculous its redonkulous, not to mention the gain, and having the contour knob just adjusts the mids so it doesn't get get too muddy. i'm not sure of the gain for the transistors that I should have used, but all of mine were betwee 474-500hfe. I think even if you do built a russian the iron bell is one to have too. oh, and I have a real black arts pharaoh and its an amazing muff variant, totally worth building for guitar and bass.

[toddvirgil]

Thanks for the suggestions Rocket! I built an Iron Bell and it never got me real excited - maybe if I put some higher gain transistors in it it will be as awesome as yours...

Have either of you modded a muff for bass? Or do they work fine without any mods?

T

[Silver Blues]

I did mine from scratch. I'm going to do another one, a little different. I went nuts with increasing caps but I don't think it's totally necessary. The transistors in mine are actually pretty low gain, around 300 or so hfe. They're 5088s. When I get the other one done, if I like it I'll post the mods in Contributions.

[johnk]

as far as muffs and muff derivatives go, I've built these:
EHX Green Russian
Earthbound Audio SuperCollider
Blackout Effectors Musket
Way Huge Swollen Pickle
BlackArts Pharaoh
Johnk LowBallz (treble & bass Baxandall tone stack)
IC muff
Mojohand Iron Bell
Earthquaker Devices Hoof
Cornish G2
BJFE Fire Red Fuzz

out of those, my faves are the Cornish G2, the Fire Red Fuzz and my LowBallz. IMO, the Super Collider is another good one.

[Beaker]

As a bassist myself, I'm not too keen on the Big Muff on bass - simultaneously farty and fizzy, but without much "body" to the sound. The best Big Muff for bass is the Green Russian as it has more bottom end to it, and it goes down into overdrive territory, making it more usable.

The fault lies in the mid scooping tone stack that really does no favours to a bass. I've not tried any of the other variants suggested so far apart from the Fire Red Fuzz, which is great.

However I REALLY like the idea of John's Lowballz - I'm presuming it's a BM drive section, but the tone stack replaced with a Baxandall? That sounds like a great idea.

[toddvirgil]

Beaker and John - thanks for the input!

John - do you have a layout for your lowballz? I'd love to give that fella a shot...

T

[johnk]

toddvirgil wrote

Beaker and John - thanks for the input!

John - do you have a layout for your lowballz? I'd love to give that fella a shot...

T

I do, but I need to locate it.

[negativefx]

Hey John, slightly off topic here... I emailed you via this forum around a week ago and didn't get a response so not sure if it went through...

There's a talkbass thread going right now regarding the two orange preamp pedals you have on your site that have been modded for bass.  Would you be willing to share the mods you made or even better, the veros for them?

Thanks!

[johnk]

i'm sorry, but my orange pedals take a lot of tweaking to get them to sound right so I'm not posting my veros of them.

[Beaker]

I've just come across this layout, and it may be just what the Fuzz Doctor ordered. The Catalinbread Manx Loaghtan - a Big Muff (Rams Head?), but with a Baxandall tone circuit. The sustain control also has a much wider range.

I'll be building this one for sure!


By the way, D1-D4 are 1N4148, and D5 is 1N4001.

[toddvirgil]

Nice Beaker!

Hey John, any luck finding your lowballz vero?

T

[Beaker]

Cheers Todd,

I forgot to mention that there is a video demo of this pedal on the Catalinbread website - it's the middle one. Watch from 7 minutes in for a demo on bass.

http://www.catalinbread.com/manx-features

Sounds pretty good to me.

I'm guessing that John's Lowballz will be fairly similar, but knowing him he will have fine tuned it even more!

[rocket88]

I just built the Manx Loaghtan, but all I get is white noise when the pedal is engaged, bipass works perfectly. I can control the volume, but not input signal comes through. Any idea what could be wrong?

[johnk]

it would be volume 2 to output, volume 1 to ground, just like almost every other pedal.

[rocket88]

thanks john. I figured that out once I found the schematic. I connected it right above treble 1 since that goes to ground or should I have connected it right below bass 3, which would put it directly to ground?

I still can't figure out why I only get a white noise with the pedal engaged. I checked all my transistors and they seem to be in place correctly, I even reversed them to see if that made a difference, but still no signal. This is driving me nuts, its the first pedal out of 14 I've built that didn't fire right up, or I couldn't find my mistake and fix it.

[johnk]

BTW, the Manx is basically what I based my LowBallz on (with a few minor component tweaks) but I did find the Manx vero that I drew up. here it is:



I had to make a few components & links share a connection, but that way I could get it to fit in a 1590B.

[rocket88]

Oh, nice. maybe there's something wrong with my board. Maybe, I should just redo it using yours. I've never had any issues with you're layouts. You are the man, John.