Fredric Effects Scrambled Brainz...... Review.

[voxpop]

Hi Guys,

I though I would share my thoughts on a new toy the Fredric Effects Scrambled Brainz.

[url="http://www.fredric.co.uk/effects/scrambled-brainz-ampeg-scrambler-clone"]http://www.fredric.co.uk/effects/scrambled...scrambler-clone[/url]

I have been looking for the past 12 months for a sound that is in my head ( no, I'm not going mad ). I play in a chilled female vocal acoustic band in the Sundays / Cranberries mould. The bass sound is very important as there is no competing sound as we play only occasionally with a drummer.

I looked for years for a Chorus that would be my sound but I discovered only in the last few weeks the sound I had in my head came from a simple two stage PHASER the MXR 45 or DOD 201.

Next I needed to add a little and I mean a LITTLE fuzz or overdrive. All pedals I tried simply distorted the signal to hell and back, that was fine in a full on rock / blues setting but not in my subtle and chilled band.

I thought a fuzz with BLEND control would be the best thing, so I started to look around and came across the Scrambled Brainz a copy of the Ampeg Scrambler.

[attachment=78562:DSCN1347.JPG] [attachment=78563:DSCN1348.JPG]

Most fuzz pedals simply lose to much of the bass frequencies that I feel there are unusable. This Scrambled Brainz has no loss of bass when the Texture ( left knob ) is in the 7 o'clock or fully counter clock wise position. As it is turned the bass frequencies start to roll off but the mid and top start to create this very harmonically rich soaring fuzz that is simply mad.

Now blend the fuzz with your dry bass sound using the right hand knob and you can create a subtle back ground fuzz to a full on harmonic overdrive that sustains for days and sound great with chords.

Now, for my tastes this sound is still to rich and fuzzy so I simply wired a cap across the blend control. When the blend is in the 5 o'clock or fully clock wise the fuzz TONE is just like the original sound. As the knob is turned to blend in more or the dry bass sound the fuzz will start to lose most of the top end thus creating a more subtle fuzz with a warm top end.

[attachment=78565:DSCN1349.JPG] [attachment=78564:DSCN1350.JPG]

My sound has suddenly appeared. A subtle warm fuzz over the clean bass sound with a little gentle phase........Heaven.

I can really recommend this pedal from Fredric Effects. The build quality is fantastic and is worth the asking price.

Edited April 28, 2011 by voxpop

[RichF]

great review, thanks. I have these kinds of thoughts the whole time but struggle to explain, you've captured your thoughts really well.

[DanOwens]

Are you going Bass>Phaser>Fuzz?

[DanOwens]

[quote name='voxpop' post='1213600' date='Apr 28 2011, 10:22 AM']I thought the best sound for me is... Bass , fuzz then phaser.[/quote]

I regularly distort post-modulation but never fuzz post-modulation; hence my question (that, had it been spoken rather than typed, would have expressed incredulity).

Its always worth a try, but you might just end up with uneven harmonic distortion that sounds a bit wrong (although that may be your thing even with an acoustic female vocalist).

OT but I used to love Bi-Amping with a country band I used to play with. The singer would say "ok I want this to be a bit bigger" so I'd kick in the Woolly Mammoth. We ended up embracing the unexpected and turn out an amazing electro/alt.country record.

Dan

[voxpop]

I have now tried the phase and fuzz both ways and can say for me it's...... Bass, fuzz, phaser then amp.

[voxpop]

Had a fiddle while the royal wedding was on and replaced the large green .1uf cap with a smaller one. This gives a little more top end and sounds better when playing with other instruments.... the green cap was very dark sounding.

[attachment=78638:DSCN1351.JPG]

Edited April 29, 2011 by voxpop