MartinB

Hi folks! I've had my eye on the Laney Digbeth pre-amp pedal for a while, and having recently joined a new band I had a good excuse to try one out. I've seen a decent amount of positive reactions to this pedal here and there, so I'm just going to cover some of the info that I wasn't able to find out about before buying. If you want to check out photos and the basic specs, head on over to https://www.laney.co.uk/amps/bass/digbeth/db-pre Before I start on the graphs, I'm aware that firing white noise into a pedal isn't the most accurate form of measurement, and obviously we don't listen with our eyes, but I'm happy that it provides some value by demystifying what some of the controls actually do. First off, here's as "flat" as my audio interface will record - no pedal involved at all: Frequency along the bottom; relative dB up the side There's a little roll-off below ~50 Hz and above ~8 kHz, so bear that in mind when looking at the rest of the graphs. Time to plug the pedal in. Before we touch any of the dials, does this pedal have a baked-in tone? Well, the manual says that the EQ controls (bass, lo-mid, hi-mid, treble, tilt) don't have any effect at their detented centre settings, so let's see what happens when you toggle the "bypass" footswitch. Green: FET (clean) channel, all controls at 5-out-of-10 / 12 o'clock / centre position Red: Pedal in "bypass" mode Pretty flat! Bypassed it pretty much looks the same as having no pedal at all. I've read elsewhere that this pedal is buffered rather than true bypass. Switching on the FET channel with everything at noon, it's slightly above unity gain (i.e. a little louder). There looks to be a very mild bump in the mids, and a little roll-off in the low lows. A good starting point to start turning things and seeing what happens... First, the Bass control: Red: minimum Green: maximum Is that a shelf, or just a peak at a low enough frequency that it runs into the limits of what the interface will capture? Either way, you can get around 10 dB boost or cut at about 50 Hz. On to the Lo-mid. This one's got three possible settings, and the manual lists them in the wrong order. With the switch in the upper position, you get this: The manual says: The graph says: 12 dB boost or 8 dB cut at 180 Hz. With the switch in the middle position: From the manual: Yep, that's definitely wider than the previous setting! About 15 dB boost or 14 dB cut at 480 Hz. Finally, the switch in the lower position: A narrower 15 dB boost or 14 dB cut again, this time at 700 Hz. Now the Hi-mid: Looks like 15 dB boost or cut at 1.5 kHz. I'd say this is closer to the "pop / fret noise" zone than the 700 Hz lo-mid setting 🤷‍♂️ And the Treble: Interesting 🤔 The curve's a little different when boosting vs. cutting. Overall it looks like it peaks around 8 kHz, but with a shallow slope right down to the mids. Last but not least, the Tilt control: Red: minimum (most bassy) Green: maximum (most trebly) As most reviews have pointed out, a little goes a long way with this control! 😂 The pivot point is around 830 Hz. I think the idea is to use this to make slight adjustments to the overall sound for live usage, e.g. giving it a nudge to the treble side if you're on a hollow, boomy stage. But it interacts in interesting ways with the rest of the controls, especially with Bass and Treble adjusted in the "opposite" directions to the tilt. For example, you can approximate a 60s cab where there's a bump in the low-mids, but output rolls off a lot below that. Overall, this pedal has a very versatile set of controls. The EQ points are all in sensible places, and the mid controls are focused enough that you can hear what they're adding or removing, rather than just a big old blob of MIDS. I've used it for a few rehearsals with random studio amps, but not live yet. Currently my starting settings are: Lo-mids 7 (with the switch upwards), Hi-mids 7, and Treble 6 - everything else flat. That's giving me some punch in the lows, and some presence and pick attack further up. Other things: The face of the pedal is covered by a ~1mm thick glossy plastic plate with all the control labels on it. This feels like it might be prone to cracking, given that the point of a pedal is to be stepped on. But I could be totally wrong - it's backed by a flat metal surface after all! Time will tell The Digbeth logo is an additional moulded bit of plastic that sits on top of that. I think it looks cool; you may think it's tacky! As a Birmingham resident, I'll admit that the name did sway me a bit towards trying this pedal out 😁 It's a bit taller than your average pedal (i.e. the distance from the floor to the top of the footswitches is greater) - could be awkward if mounted on a thick pedalboard It comes with rubber feet attached, but they peel off cleanly What about the Tube channel? Well, it doesn't involve any actual tubes. But it does sound pretty good! There seems to be some additional low-pass filtering compared to the FET channel, and some mild EQ pre-shaping even with all controls flat: Red: FET Green: Tube (at minimum Drive) I failed to set these to approximately equal volume, but you should be able to see the difference in the EQ. The filtering of extreme highs means that it doesn't get too fizzy when the gain is turned up - it almost acts like a cab simulation. This means the DI signal doesn't sound atrocious with dirt! 😅 I don't have a lot more to say about the Tube channel, as I've not used it much yet. I might record some clips in the future. Well that's your lot. I hope some of it was helpful! 😁 tl;dr Pedal is good!

Emulation, but it sounds pretty good. There seems to be a low-pass filter on the tube channel, which means the DI signal doesn't get all fizzy when you turn up the gain

Very happy with my Keeley Bassist - it's pretty much idiot-proof. Worth noting that the Keeley GC-2 is almost identical to the Bassist, and the MXR M76 Studio Compressor is identical to the M87 - sometimes you can find these a bit cheaper

Not currently, but I was in two bands for a year or more without having any real problems - one of them preferred to rehearse on weeknights, the other at the weekend. And neither was gigging frequently enough (or at short enough notice) for there to be any clashes. Not having dependents helps with the whole "having free time" thing.

The stuff that's fun to listen to isn't always fun to play, and vice versa. Somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot.

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks

Those things are quite the GAS-preventers. For pretty much any new amp that catches my eye, I can say "Yeah, but it's not as {x} as my Shuttle". Sadly it's no defence against buying pedals 😆

Have a look at gig listings for the sort of venues you want to play - usually you'll be able to see who the promoter is. And if not, it's possible the venue does it in-house, so get in touch with them directly. These days I think it helps a lot if you've been able to build a decent social media following (🤢) - it theoretically gives some indication of whether folks will turn up without the promoter having to do any actual promotion. Good promoters will see your potential regardless, but they're rare. Also if there are other local bands that are any good, reach out - promote their releases, ask for advice, generally be nice. If they have any influence on their promoters, they'll put in a good word. Good luck!

Note that since the controls on the Shuttle have detents (notches), there can be quite a volume jump between each setting if you're trying to keep things quiet - particularly on Master Volume. You'll probably find you need to set Master Volume as low as it can go while still producing sound, and then use the pre-amp controls for more fine control.

Bloody Squier! The bridge pickup route on mine isn't even straight - the pickup is closer to the neck on the G side than the E side. This doesn't stop it being a great-looking, -playing and -sounding bass however!

Odd birds, those "Standard" series Squiers - both the Jazz and Special (PJ) model use only the narrower neck-width Jazz pickups. The pole pieces on my Special's Jazz pickup are actually slightly wider than the strings as well, which is the opposite of what you'd expect when using a neck pickup at the bridge. In any case, you'd need to enlarge the route in order to use a normal Jazz bridge pickup. But I imagine most of the audible difference between the neck and bridge pickups on a Jazz is 99% down to their position, not the slightly different width - you'd probably be fine sticking a neck pickup in there.

Great straps! I have a couple. They look good, they're very comfortable, and they don't have obnoxious branding.

Welcome! 👋

The way he casually cracks one vintage Fender against another as he takes them out of the rack 😆 Must be nice...

King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown (1976) is essential stuff. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/3W2vBxtqk6gORb4sWWMen6?si=mGooWNjdRi-p16ejlnCYCw Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lhfaHpb7aE6t8OUlg4V3rH1l1hFhsmjXc

Do the nut slots ever become too loose when you reduce your string guage, or does it not matter if they're cut properly?

As a lot of folks have already mentioned, the most obvious comparisons would be Madness or The Specials at the point where they'd become a lot more pop-rock than ska revival. Or maybe Dexys Midnight Runners. So, 80's pop-rock. I'd have said "new wave", but it's one of those terms like "hardcore" that's come to mean very different things to different people.

You're most welcome. Glad to hear that they worked out for you!

Maybe it was a thoughtless comment that, when challenged, he acknowledges makes him sound like an idiot and doesn't represent his views. Or maybe he's a raging misogynist and says stuff like this all the time. We don't know, because the NME failed to do any actual journalism.

My Rockboard power supply came with a bunch of cable end nipples, but sadly all my spares have been given to bandmates or lost on dark stages. I reckon this sort of thing is pretty much the same though: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/122740864851 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274899608983 Given that the plug barrel is 5.5mm, I'm not sure whether you'd need M5 or M6 to get the right amount of grip 🤔

You're doing your own arrangements, yet you've been pushed into the background so much that you might as well not be there. I wouldn't be happy in that situation either. If they can't or won't accommodate you, then maybe it's time to start thinking about a new band that's better aligned with what you want - a duo, a trio, a genre that's bass-led...

The Fender Bass - an Illustrated History says "Precision" refers to the accuracy of notes, i.e. because it's fretted, but the authors don't reference where they got that from 🤷‍♂️

Is that quilted maple?

I've still got one of these from the late 90's - only 20W and 8", yet it can get loud enough to rehearse with a drummer!