Wolverinebass

Where are the tracking numbers?!! All of us want to click "refresh" every 30 seconds tomorrow for 6 hours..... Ha!!

Many years ago, I had an idea. Why didn't bass amp manufacturers do an amp which had distortion bands seperated by frequency? That was 15 years ago and now, the future is here. For those of you who "set everything flat" or "don't do distortion," leave now. There is nothing here for you except pain. Some of you may be aware of the fact that Wounded Paw do a 700W version of this, but as I don't like the "small box" format. I wanted a rack pre format. Basically, it's a switchable 2 channel pre. One side being the 6 band overdrive and the other being a clean channel. The 6 band overdrive is immensely flexible and can do a clean tone if you want and can go all the way to full on armageddon. The textural variances you can get from this is truly remarkable. If you play a 5 or do downtuned, then this thing will work for you really well. It has better low end distortion than Darkglass to my ears (much more crack) and the treble has so much harmonics going on that the treble knob often has to be used to tame them a bit. I really can't overstate the flexibility of this. You can go from clean to mild overdrive, to fuzz, to total insanity. It is also possible to have a clean low end and distorted top end. The other night I got a very "Live at Leeds" type tone with my 50's Precision, then recorded with my Wal in drop D in a more "Justin Chancellor" type setting. I did ask for a few tweaks from standard. On the back panel I got an extra XLR out added as well as a parallel input so as to use it in the loop of something else if you wanted to. I also asked for a mod making the effects loop active on the clean tone. This was to cover myself for other things. As for other features, the Effects loop can be pre/post on the dirty channel, but only pre on the clean. I'll get back to this in a minute. Due to the extra switching and because I have the first one, there was a bit of teething trouble with getting it to work quite right, but Preston is great and was really helpful in sorting this out. I suppose you could argue that this is the "Wolverine signature" preamp, but maybe that's a bit of a stretch even for my own vanity. The clean tone is very, very clean and I'd imagine too clean for even many purists that swear by it. This was why I wanted the effects loop to be active, so that you could say use a preamp pedal with a bit of dirt to jazz it up a bit. I've tried this and it works brilliantly. The dirty channel is a distortion that allows the inherent character of your instrument to come through. My Mk2 Wal sounds like a Wal and my Status Buzzard, still sounds like it always did. Some distortions take over, this doesn't. Moving on then to the Battering Ram EQ. I got this for 2 reasons. Mainly as a stand alone pre pedal for light gigs and also for recording to jazz up my synth setup. So, firstly, the EQ. It's very, very flexible due to the parametric nature of it. As a clean tone, it's fantastic. The overdrive and fuzz are in parallel which has it's added benefits. Firstly, the overdrive. It's not really a distortion per se, it's mainly an overdrive even at max settings. It's quite dark as it retains the lows brilliantly. Now to the fuzz. This adds the juice really. All the mid character you want for a bit of cut. Pile in the octave up fuzz and you have a brutal tone. Like Doom? You'll love this. It actually works immensely well for guitar as well as a mate was recording some guitar for his solo album and used it with a Peavey 5150. He thought it was "the tightest fuzz I've ever played." He was also amazed it wasn't much more expensive. In truth, this is great gear with a unique character of it's own. It has elements of Darkglass, Tech21, Big Muff, Ampeg even, but is of course none of these things and a refreshingly original take on the age old medium of distortion and fuzz. I'm surprised Wounded Paw doesn't get more love per se, but being based in Toronto might have something to do with that for those of us in the UK. If you're after something a bit different, then I'd encourage you to check it out.

That rabbit looks like something from a horror film. It's giving me the fear.....

We find out who was really responsible for JFK's assassination? Westside Distribution to close citing "falling profit margins?" Darkglass to lower prices of pedals? Ashdown to admit that the Geezer Butler head is total pony? Miranda Hart to become the new Gibson CEO? There is so much good news out there, I wait with baited breath.

Andertons and gear4music now suggest between 10th-15th May. Not long now.

No, it's a bass pod.

I tried it at the LBGS and thought it was crap. An ABM with a cheap and somewhat weedy fuzz. You'd get a better deal getting a decent fuzz pedal. I have nothing against Ashdown, but £1400 for that was having a laugh.

Very true Chris. However, if you don't see them as a massive improvement, then it looks like brazen rip off. I'm not saying it is of course. That's a subjective value judgement. The Aguilar cabs I've played were okay, but they are never worth that kind of cash. If I were going high end, it's probably going to be Vanderkley after playing @Al Krow's 2x10 which just killed. At this point @Bill Fitzmaurice will be along to skewer my dream by saying they use cheap drivers in a random sized box....

At the LBGS I looked at their prices and laughed. £1750 for a 4x10?!! Which was 5 times more than the Peavey 4x10 a couple of stalls down. Their pedal prices were beyond stupid as well. It makes Westside Distribution price gouging us on Mesa gear look reasonable. Pfft. Jog on.

Much like @dannybuoy I'm absolutely certain that I'd get this pedal to work for me. However, due to my inquisitive nature, I like to know how stuff works and why it's so. I hasten to say this that I don't actually care if the XLR and 1/4 inch outputs deliver the same signal or not as long as I know whether they're different or not. We asked simply if that was the case or not and an answer wasn't really forthcoming. That was what I found curious. Almost like you don't know the answer. If that's the case, then that's fine, just say so. Neither of us (or anyone on this topic) have criticised the pedal. All of us are really excited. Stoked, for the most part is an accurate description. It sounds brilliant. None of this is in doubt and I've said it many a time. We wouldn't have bought it if we didn't like it would we? As to the point of having played something to be able to criticize it, that's slightly flawed I'm afraid. For example, when Darkglass brought out the M900 amp they left in a design quirk that meant that when you turned the volume control up, the volume of the DI increased as well. I don't need to play that amp to realise that's a problem easily avoided now do I?

No, I don't need it for that. If the outputs aren't the same then I'd use it to figure out where they differ and how to compensate for the fact. I'm not questioning whether the thing has enough high end or if it will be great, of that I have very little doubt that it'll kill, just questioning if the outputs have the same signal coming out of them.

Andertons suggest that they get a delivery on the 30th. We shall see what happens.

My point is "maybe" isnt an answer. It's dependent on the way you read that. It's a non-definitive statement. "Maybe this isn't really, maybe this is." I await the Tech21 response echoing Michael Biehn's interrogation scene in The Terminator when asked about the time travel machine gets very angry and just shouts "I didn't build the f@cking thing!!" I hasten to say, I'm not being belligerent about this. Just the lack of a straight answer seems odd. Ultimately, nobody knows the answer except them and we'll find out soon enough. Even if they are different, hopefully it won't be a problem.

So, they're not the same? This answer reads like the famous Kenny Dalglish reply in a post match interview when he managed Celtic a few years ago. Sick and tired of being asked stupid questions by knucklehead reporters, he simply said "Maybe's aye.... Maybe's no." There were days I would have went spare with the answer of "maybe" to a direct question like this. Now, I just laugh as it always makes me think of that interview. I'll record with this thing the minute I get it and put it through a spectral analyser. Answers will be forthcoming as to whether they're the same or not, by looking at the outputs from both channels.

Exactly. I suspect just like the Geddy it'll be for reasons of "signature authenticity." When we get it we can see how it is. Not in the manual though which is odd.

That's a bit bonkers isn't it? I read that as well and was a bit disappointed. A far cry from getting your tone to the desk. Now, you'd have to decide which one you like best and run a splitter after it. Very unamusing if that turns into a negative thing. Would have been nice if any of this had been mentioned in the manual.

I used to do that all the time with a bass pod xt. The only problem I found was that you had to fill the room with bass. Still, happy days for travelling light though.

Funnily enough, I heard it and thought "Hmm... I don't remember Lemmy using Darkglass." I suppose the Darkglass sound is now being so imitated it's kind of becoming passe in a way.

Well, you saw it round at mine Bas! It's Roland PK6 midi pedals into a Moog Slim Phatty then to a Strymon Mobius and lastly to a Strymon Timeline. I've played bass through this and it sounds great as well. The drawback was the lack of EQ options and dirt. Hence why I got the Battering Ram. That as well as having a fuzz pedal for the studio. It really punches above its price point.

Yeah, it keeps the low end very well. I bought it for my synth setup, but it's brilliant and can be used as an all in one pre-amp due to the EQ. When I was at this I got Preston to make a rack pre of the 701 amp. The one on the website is mine (001). I got a few things tweaked to my own specs and that thing kills as well. I'll do proper reviews when I get a few minutes, but if you like very textured dirt sounds, this is where they can be found.

It's a Wounded Paw Battering Ram Q. https://www.woundedpawaudio.ca/fx/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=29&zenid=99a32393a9736460d2ca46ea79dfc03f I don't even like fuzz pedals and this is genius. Truly. Genius. The parametric EQ is great. The distortion in parallel with the fuzz and octave up fuzz is brilliant. Very flexible and just great. In that respect better than Darkglass, but the sound is very different.

I'm keeping myself busy at the moment with this. Bwahaaahhaaa!!

Plus it's chambered so it'll not weigh more than a dying star.

Couldn't Mike Lull just make a new neck?! Shouldn't be that hard for someone as talented as him should be able to do it rather than just cannibalise a bass.