bnt's Pedalboard Saga: Tone City Matcha Cream, Landlord FX Bottom's Up, JHS Series 3 Phaser, & more to come.

[bnt]

I have one of the Matcha Cream pedals on the way from Anderton's: it's their tiny Big Muff Pi clone. It's not being sold as a bass-focused pedal, so you have to be careful, but I've seen people put bass through it in a few videos, most recently one from Anderton's where Cici tried out a few Distortions and Fuzzes. She went for the ProCo Rat, but the video did confirm this pedal handles bass very nicely. I thought it was worth the advertised £45, but they took £7.50 off at the checkout, so even better!

 

This is the beginnings of a bass / guitar pedalboard: I only have one pedal at the moment, a TC Spectradrive. It can emulate a Big Muff through a TonePrint, but I think it's better at the end of a signal chain as more of an amp sim / mix compressor / DI. So I intend to add a few more FX in front of that, such as a compressor and a modulation pedal or two (I want Chorus and Phaser)

 

In the same order I also have a Landlord FX "Bottom's Up" octaver. Also not a bass-specific pedal, it's brand new on the market and there are no reviews at all yet. I thought it would be worth a punt at the advertised £30, then they took £5 off. In terms of features it lines up with the Harley Benton Sub, and could even be from the same OEM. Knobs for Dry plus two octaves, which are switchable between -2/-1, -1/+1, and +1/+2. I want to hear a little of the +1 for a pseudo-8-string effect. Given its price, I am not expecting miracles, and it won't compete with the Boss OC-5 or the Laney 85 (the one I really want). If I don't like it, I might sell it for a tenner!

 

edit: changed the title, since this is clearly not over yet ..! ☺️

Edited June 5, 2023 by bnt

[Rob Bisby]

I believe the matcha cream is modelled after the green russian big muff, hence the colour, so it'll take bass really well. Not heard of the octave pedal though so looking forward to your opinion on it

[0175westwood29]

can confirm it takes bass very well indeed!

[bnt]

The pedals arrived today. At first I wondered whether the Matcha Cream was faulty, since it made a howling noise at either end of the sustain range, but that was the free PSU that Andertons had supplied with the pedals. (It's worth what I paid for it, frankly.) With a better PSU driving the chain - the one from the SpectraDrive - things were much improved. I noted that the tone circuit cut bass at higher settings, or seem to, which might be useful in some situations, but I kept it lower.

 

As for the Bottom's Up, it's not good news. The upper octaves are audibly out of tune, which to me means the +2 is useless and the +1 is only useful at low levels. (I understand why, it has to do with Fast Fourier Transforms, but it can be done better.) In -1/+1 mode, both octaves at about 9-o'clock, it thickens the sound, but I don't get the pseudo-8-string effect I want. It does have a feature that was not advertised at all: the ability to save favourite settings as a preset, including the switch setting. This means you can have three tones: knob settings, preset, or bypassed.

 

This was all with the SpectraDrive at the end of the chain, driving headphones, so it may be different through an amp moving air or a decent speaker simulation.

 

Next? Moar Pedals, and a Pedalboard with a proper PSU.

[Rob Bisby]

Yea the free power supply isn't cracking is it. If you're only using afew pedals I'd recommend an mxr dc power brick, they fit well under pedaltrains.

 

Joyo do an octave down and up pedal. Seems good from what I've heard

[0175westwood29]

2 hours ago, bnt said:

The pedals arrived today. At first I wondered whether the Matcha Cream was faulty, since it made a howling noise at either end of the sustain range, but that was the free PSU that Andertons had supplied with the pedals. (It's worth what I paid for it, frankly.) With a better PSU driving the chain - the one from the SpectraDrive - things were much improved. I noted that the tone circuit cut bass at higher settings, or seem to, which might be useful in some situations, but I kept it lower.

 

As for the Bottom's Up, it's not good news. The upper octaves are audibly out of tune, which to me means the +2 is useless and the +1 is only useful at low levels. (I understand why, it has to do with Fast Fourier Transforms, but it can be done better.) In -1/+1 mode, both octaves at about 9-o'clock, it thickens the sound, but I don't get the pseudo-8-string effect I want. It does have a feature that was not advertised at all: the ability to save favourite settings as a preset, including the switch setting. This means you can have three tones: knob settings, preset, or bypassed.

 

This was all with the SpectraDrive at the end of the chain, driving headphones, so it may be different through an amp moving air or a decent speaker simulation.

 

Next? Moar Pedals, and a Pedalboard with a proper PSU.

when you say they are out of tune, is this the pedal or very slight intonation issues?

[bnt]

2 hours ago, 0175westwood29 said:

when you say they are out of tune, is this the pedal or very slight intonation issues?

I mean the pedal: when you add in the +1 octave, it’s slightly flat compared to the actual octave you get with e.g. a harmonic. Intonation of the bass is not a factor, I’m talking single notes through the pedal.

[bnt]

It turns out that this NPD had a hangover: yesterday I remembered that there is a music shop not too far from where I work in Dublin. So I headed there after work, and came away with another pedal: a JHS Series 3 Phaser. I've heard generally good things about these pedals and was able to try one in the shop.

 

It's unusual in that it's a Phaser with a Blend control at a reasonable price, to mix the dry signal with the processed signal. It has a Width control that, as far as I can see, does what Depth does on other Phasers such as the TC Electronic Blood Moon. Other Phasers such as the MXR Phase 90 don't even have that. At extreme Width settings, the effect borders on tremelo, which is something I wasn't expecting,

 

I spent more on this one pedal than on the other two combined (incl. postage & customs fees), but that just tells you how much I like the Phaser sound in moderation. I may still get a Laney 85 too - I recall there was one on sale here not so long ago.

[MrDinsdale]

Welcome to the slippery slope of fx, I upsized my pedalboard 3 times in about 6 months to accommodate new toys 😂

 

Very tempted to grab the matcha cream!

[bnt]

I changed the title because there is more on the way, maybe by the weekend or next week:

• Peterson StroboStomp Mini
• Orange Kongpressor
• a pedalboard, of course.

 

[bnt]

Quick update for those interested: the pedalboard is taking shape. The Kongpressor is interesting: despite its name, it seems to me to be quite gentle, and doesn’t give me an obvious “compressor sound”. The Chime control is also subtle, a gentle bass or treble boost. The EQ and some TonePrints on the SpectraDrive can be much more aggressive. (I’m keeping the SpectraDrive” on the board for now as a kind-of amp sim / mix compressor, and for its I/O.)

 

The MiniStomp is doing what it says on the tin. It’s more accurate than my ears. I mentioned above that the Bottoms Up pitch shifter wasn’t good: the out of tune octaves are not subtle and the tuner shows the +1 is maybe 20 cents sharp and the +2 about 40 cents sharp. If you tuned an 8-string bass that way, your bandmates would start looking for heavy objects to use on you and/or the bass. So I’m still looking for something better, probably a Laney 85. 
 

But I’m going to take it slow for now, while I ponder my options. 

Edited June 20, 2023 by bnt

[bnt]

I'm definitely learning a lot since last time I posted. In the last few days I added a Boss MD-200, since I want to try more modulation options. So far they are mostly very nice in moderation, but I'm just starting with that. It has the Overtone function, which I'm trying for that psuedo-8-string thing I want. I'm zeroing in on tones, and since the MD-200 has memories, I can save my progress. The Vintage Phaser and UniVibe emulations are also nice, though the optional fuzz with them isn't appealing to me yet.

 

I currently have the MD-200 at the end of the signal chain, since it's a stereo device and I use wireless stereo headphones. (The "TV" kind, with low latency, not Bluetooth.) It does have me pondering the utility of stereo bass, though, since I know that bass tends to be mono in live situations. For the moment, at home, a bit of stereo is nice to have. I'm not talking about crazy panning L-R, but rather a gentle stereo chorus or similar. The Overtone mode has a Blend control that fattens it up as desired: I just want a little of that. I do have to use headphones, mostly, since I share a house with non-bassists.

 

Does that mean the JHS 3 Series Phaser is getting replaced? Maybe. I might keep it as a subtle "almost always on" phaser. My opinion of the KongPressor hasn't changed much: it's not doing any harm, but I'm struggling to see where it's doing much good. I've temporarily switched the TC SpectraDrive to the front of the chain after the tuner, since I think need to learn more about compression through the various TonePrints. Ditto for its Drive section: do I need a more sublte "vintage" drive in my chain? Not sure.

 

I want to experience "too much" so I can dial it back, and the Orange KongPressor isn't giving me that. The Matcha Cream fuzz is definitely staying: I like its versatility and how it keeps the low end unless you turn the Tone control up too high. I'll keep the Bottom's Up pitch shifter in case I find a use for it somewhere down the line, but it's got no place on the board at the moment.

[bnt]

I did a "here's my board" post here, but it's already changing since I wrote that:

• Orange KongPressor is making more sense now. The other day I was playing away, trying different pickup levels, when I realised that the results were more consistent and I just sounded better. I have it set to quite a short attack and moderate release. I didn't have the volume too low, really: with volume at the 9 o'clock position, the level matches the bypass level. Rather, it has a lot of headroom, and turning up the volume boosts levels at least 10db, which has an effect on the drives down the line. So I'm going to use it that way, always on, and bypassing it will make a real volume drop available if I want it.
• I've learned that among g****rists the T-Rex Diva Drive is a highly-regarded Tube Screamer type pedal, released in 2015 at more than three times what I paid for it. I think it definitely needs to be heard through an amp, or at least amp & cab sims. I don't know whether straight after compressor and octaver is the right place for it.
• JHS 3 Series Phaser is a keeper; not too in my face the way I have it set, though still trying various things.
• TC SpectraDrive is near the end of the signal chain again, as a "finalizer" as before, but now before the Boss MD-200, not after as in the post.
• Boss MD-200 is a bit too much, especially since I really should stick to a mono signal. The only time I'll want stereo effects is when recording to computer, where I might add some modulation etc. in the mix. It doesn't help my basic tone, though. Expression pedal works fine and can go to the side of the board, doesn't have to be on the board as in the picture.

 

Edited July 23, 2023 by bnt