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#1
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Custom electronic design?
I know that "back in the day", studios had most (all?) of their gear
custom-built, and guitar stomp-boxes of the mid-60s were sometimes custom jobs. Those days seem to be long gone. Too bad, because I could use one of those mad tinkerer types. Can anybody help me out with this? I'm a bassist. I live in brooklyn, NY. I've been looking for YEARS for a compact (i.e. not a humongous heavy tube amp) way to get some "tube-amp-like" overdrive into my sound. I've tried every "bass overdrive" unit I could find and none of them do what I want. I've tried most of the guitar units too, and still nothing is quite right. I've owned at least 9 different stomp boxes (some for a day, some for years) and all of them are/were problematic. The RAT is close in some ways but it sucks out the bottom octave :-( Many of these circuits are simple enough that with my very limited knowledge I can *almost* understand them. But I just don't know nearly enough to know how to realize the sound I hear in my head. Any advice? e.g. do any of the "boutique" stomp-box shops do custom work? |
#2
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Custom electronic design?
Paul Winkler wrote:
I know that "back in the day", studios had most (all?) of their gear custom-built, and guitar stomp-boxes of the mid-60s were sometimes custom jobs. Those days seem to be long gone. Too bad, because I could use one of those mad tinkerer types. Can anybody help me out with this? I'm a bassist. I live in brooklyn, NY. I've been looking for YEARS for a compact (i.e. not a humongous heavy tube amp) way to get some "tube-amp-like" overdrive into my sound. I've tried every "bass overdrive" unit I could find and none of them do what I want. I've tried most of the guitar units too, and still nothing is quite right. I've owned at least 9 different stomp boxes (some for a day, some for years) and all of them are/were problematic. The RAT is close in some ways but it sucks out the bottom octave :-( Many of these circuits are simple enough that with my very limited knowledge I can *almost* understand them. But I just don't know nearly enough to know how to realize the sound I hear in my head. Any advice? e.g. do any of the "boutique" stomp-box shops do custom work? There are still some guys around who do custom work. I think the problem is that you probably won't get the sound you want from a custom job either. I mean, all the companies selling little boxes are trying their best to get "big tube amp sound" in a smaller package. If you don't like their results, who's to say you'll like the results of your custom job? If it's possible, then it probably already exists. My advice would be to get a tube bass preamp (Maybe an Ampeg SVP, though I don't have any experience with it) and if it doesn't sound like you want, then have it modified until it does. If you want the sound of tube overdrive, use tubes. Though there's a good chane that what you really want is the sound of an output transformer, or overdriven power tubes, or a big speaker being driven hard, or a combination of all these things. Some of them can be faked inside a small box, and some can't. It takes a lot of experimenting with existing devices before you can really know what you need in a new device. ulysses |
#3
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Custom electronic design?
"Paul Winkler" wrote in message om... I know that "back in the day", studios had most (all?) of their gear custom-built, and guitar stomp-boxes of the mid-60s were sometimes custom jobs. Those days seem to be long gone. Too bad, because I could use one of those mad tinkerer types. Can anybody help me out with this? I'm a bassist. I live in brooklyn, NY. I've been looking for YEARS for a compact (i.e. not a humongous heavy tube amp) way to get some "tube-amp-like" overdrive into my sound. I've tried every "bass overdrive" unit I could find and none of them do what I want. I've tried most of the guitar units too, and still nothing is quite right. I've owned at least 9 different stomp boxes (some for a day, some for years) and all of them are/were problematic. The RAT is close in some ways but it sucks out the bottom octave :-( Many of these circuits are simple enough that with my very limited knowledge I can *almost* understand them. But I just don't know nearly enough to know how to realize the sound I hear in my head. Any advice? e.g. do any of the "boutique" stomp-box shops do custom work? I heard a guy using the Bass Pod and it actually sounded really good! Of course, I don't know what else he had going on...but it's atleast worth a shot. Go check one out at your local music store and see what you think. |
#4
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Custom electronic design?
Paul Winkler wrote:
The RAT is close in some ways but it sucks out the bottom octave :-( Tried any of Roger Mayer's stuff? How about Michael Fuller's Fulltone stuff? -- hank alrich * secret mountain audio recording * music production * sound reinforcement "If laughter is the best medicine let's take a double dose" |
#5
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Custom electronic design?
Find a Fender Deluxe amp, go through the straight channel rather than the
tremolo channel, unplug the Deluxe's own speaker and plug a bass speaker (8 or 16 ohms only) into it. Be surprised how good it sounds. Needless to say, don't try this with the Fender's own speaker; it'll blow up. Failing this, several years ago I reviewed a Sony multi-effects unit, two RU high, four channels, I forget the model number (it was the $500 one, not the multi-thousand one). It did a decent job of simulating the sound of a real bass amp, somewhat overdriven. And it had a lot of tweaks to mess with. Peace, Paul |
#6
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Custom electronic design?
Justin Ulysses Morse wrote in message ...
There are still some guys around who do custom work. I think the problem is that you probably won't get the sound you want from a custom job either. Thanks for the perspective. You make a convincing argument. I mean, all the companies selling little boxes are trying their best to get "big tube amp sound" in a smaller package. If you don't like their results, who's to say you'll like the results of your custom job? If it's possible, then it probably already exists. My advice would be to get a tube bass preamp (Maybe an Ampeg SVP, though I don't have any experience with it) it's okay, but not really there ... and if it doesn't sound like you want, then have it modified until it does. Ahhh, I should have thought of that. Thanks! Maybe I should re-survey the existing preamp options and see if one seems likely to be a good platform for modding. If you want the sound of tube overdrive, use tubes. Though there's a good chane that what you really want is the sound of an output transformer, or overdriven power tubes, or a big speaker being driven hard, or a combination of all these things. Some of them can be faked inside a small box, and some can't. Yeah, I know. I don't really care if it's "authentic tube sound", I just care if I like it. The solution might be tube-based or not, I'm keeping an open mind about that. It takes a lot of experimenting with existing devices before you can really know what you need in a new device. Yeah. I should sit down with some boxes whose saturation character I like and fiddle with pre and post EQ, which I've noticed has a *big* effect. My intuition is that I might get closer that way, and at least refine my idea of what it is that I want. --PW |
#7
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Custom electronic design?
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#8
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Custom electronic design?
Tried any of Roger Mayer's stuff? How about Michael Fuller's Fulltone
stuff? I have the Fulltone Bass Drive for use with my SWR Workingmans-15. I think it's great. It doesn't suck the low end out. You can go to searing tube-ish distortion. But best of all, you can also go from mild warmth to slight crunch without destroying your sound. And you can also defeat it's compression, so it's versatile for a stomp and sounds great. Doug |
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