Stomp box tone change

[Paul S]

I think I know what I want to do, but I am not sure about the best way of going about it or even what the options are.

I have 2 amps - TC Electronic Classic 450 and Genz Benz Streamliner 600. Both are nice, both give me a variety of sounds that I enjoy. But both need fliddling with in order to get the tones I desire. With my band at the moment I need a warm, slightly overdriven tube-y kind of thing for nearly everything, a much-ly overdriven 'Ace of Spades' and a fuzzy Muse-ly 'Hysteria'. At the moment I set the EQ and gain on the amp for the overall warm tone, use an LS-2 with a ODB-3 set up for the Muse-type tone and either just use this for the Lemmy, which isn't really appropriate, or increase the gain and change the eq on the fly, which throws the levels out.

I think I would like to have switchable presets at my disposal - at least 3, more wouldn't hurt. If I had the TC Electronic RH 450 I would use the footswitch for this, but I don't. Plus if I chop and change with the amps it would be kind of nice to be able to get a certain sound from both without spending ages at the controls (within reason). So I am thinking maybe one of the programmable Sansamp footswitches with the EQ and overdrive might work. I default to a scooped sound, which I have read is one of the off-putting aspects of the Sansamp stuff for people who don't. But, if so, which one? I particularly like having control over the mids and the V Bass Deluxe has a 3 band eq and is therefore the one I am drawn to. But would it be the most appropriate? Would I get an overdriven sound that would be fuzzy enough for the Muse-ly Hysteria tone? Are there other makes/pedals that do a similar thing?

Advice please!!

Edited March 15, 2013 by Paul S

[chrismuzz]

The Programmable Sansamp works well for me. I have one big warm sound, one slightly driven clicky 'regular Sansamp sound', and one gnarly overdriven sound on it. You will also be able to mix your clean tone, or any of those three with your ODB-3 which gives you 6 different tones without having to touch anything with your hands

[cheddatom]

Not sure why you're using an LS-2 with the ODB-3 as the ODB-3 has it's own blend control

If I'm right and your LS-2 is redundant, you could switch it out for an EQ pedal or the like to give you an extra switchable tone

But yeh, the programmable sansamp does look ace

[Happy Jack]

I use the Programmable BDDI Deluxe ... not cheap, but it ticks all the boxes.

You can either use two basses and have three pre-programmed stomps for each bass, or use one bass and have six pre-programmed stomps. Given that it is also a true bypass pedal, that actually gives you four and seven respectively.

Each stomp setting can be programmed for Drive + Presence + EQ + Blend.
There's a stompable FX loop.
It's a high-quality DI box.
There's a Tuner Out.
It runs well (and for a long time) on standard AA batteries, so you don't need either a power supply or a pedal board.

Very, very canny piece of kit.

[Paul S]

Thanks chaps.

I got the LS-2 before I got the ODB-3 and just sort of kept it in the chain, really. I would prefer life without effects of any sort and have only really been dragged screaming into the necessity of it. as you can possibly tell, I don't really get it.

HJ - indeed, ticks most of not all the boxes. Do you find enough control over the mids without having a separate mid sweep control? I think the VT Bass Deluxe has this, but also a lot of stuff i don't need such as amp simulation (or is that just 'presence' by another word?) I get confused.

[GarethFlatlands]

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1363363093' post='2011884']
HJ - indeed, ticks most of not all the boxes. Do you find enough control over the mids without having a separate mid sweep control? I think the VT Bass Deluxe has this, but also a lot of stuff i don't need such as amp simulation (or is that just 'presence' by another word?) I get confused.
[/quote]

I didn't like the lack of mid control personally but it was a great piece of kit apart from that. The new Sansamp character series look like they all have a switchable speaker sim so you can stop the pedal being too much of an amp modeller and more of another channel.

[Paul S]

Another thing I wondered about, although it might be a bit clumsy, was to have a number of the Behringer BDI 21 things in line. That would still be cheaper than one of these Sansamp jobs. Any thoughts?

[ahpook]

have you thought about a multi-fx unit ?

something like a zoom b3 or one of the line 6 units might be worth looking into

[Paul S]

I did have a Zoom B2.1u for a while but couldn't get on with programming it. All those 'patches' and 'banks' confused the hell out of me. But in some ways one of those might be a more compact solution.

[ahpook]

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1363433821' post='2012631']
I did have a Zoom B2.1u for a while but couldn't get on with programming it. All those 'patches' and 'banks' confused the hell out of me. But in some ways one of those might be a more compact solution.
[/quote]

well, it' got to work for you. but i would say have a look, or perhaps something like a soundblox pro multiwave distortion as it's mainly eq and distortion you're after.

[Paul S]

I do still have a Zoom BFX-708 pedal, which I realise is one of the earlier ones. No firm idea how it differs from the more recent pedals, but I replaced it with the B2.1u when believing it to be faulty - it transpires it was the lead, not the pedal! Maybe I'll fiddle with that before shelling out cash - I may even have the manual somewhere. It would be nice to rationalise all these extras into one little pedal.

Thanks!

Edited March 16, 2013 by Paul S