If you could only choose one filter pedal

[Dapper Bandit]

If I had to choose one it would be the 3leaf Wonderlove, the effects loop is a massive game changer for me. And this is compared to a 00funk (sadly departed), Xerograph Deluxe (which I still have) and the Robot Factory Meatwad (not so sadly departed) I had years ago.

Filters are massively subjective though, I've seen my favourite at the bottom of a few people's lists over time which just goes to show that one man's funk is another's junk.

[Al Krow]

[quote name='Dapper Bandit' timestamp='1506168322' post='3376832']
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]which just goes to show that [/font][/color]one man's funk is another's junk.
[/quote]

Brilliant!

But you're right, the Wonderlove lasted like 30 mins on Cameron's board before being unceremoniously moved on!

3Leaf stuff is not cheap either, so methinks second hand (or dare I say rental) is definitely the way to go with their stuff in the first instance, and given your axiom of " filter funk / junk" that may be the sensible approach to trying out [i]all [/i]filter pedals?

Edited September 23, 2017 by Al Krow

[Dapper Bandit]

I would certainly say so. I'm at a point on my journey of effects where I'm pretty happy with the stuff that they are renting but if pedal rental had existed earlier in life then it would have been an immense help, for sure!

Plus I don't live on the mainland so everything takes longer when it comes to the postal service but I honestly think the best thing to do would be to rent a couple/few filters at once if you can and set aside a day for a shootout.

Wish I lived on the mainland, I think I would probably end up renting a few myself!

[Al Krow]

Agreed!

Or if you can afford to stump up the cash to buy second hand it actually works out even cheaper - you get to keep for 6 to 12 months for the same or less cost as renting for a fortnight (as you can usually sell on for around the same price as you bought the thing. provided you've looked after it).

And if you're ever in London Cameron assures me there a bunch of stores in and around Denmark street / Tottenham Court Rd which have a bunch of pedals which you can get to try out for free (or just pop round to Cameron's, he seems to have most of them already )

[Al Krow]

Fyi - I added just a touch of pre-amp on my pedal board, with the bass in passive mode, before the Aguilar Filter-Twin and found that it shunts the Agi into an additional level of funky quack (and got a pretty similarly pleasing result with my 2Notes which shifted into a whole additional level of wicked dirt). In both cases whilst keeping the overall volume broadly the same.

I'm guessing this is entirely to be expected and the same result can be got with an active bass - have other folks found this too?

[GisserD]

I just pushed the button on a snow white

[Al Krow]

[quote name='GisserD' timestamp='1506970433' post='3382445']
I just pushed the button on a snow white
[/quote]

Congratulations! Have to 'fess not being familiar with this one, but it does look like a really neat pedal from the description of the [url="https://www.andertons.co.uk/p/SWBAWHW/bass-guitar-fx/mad-professor-snow-white-bass-auto-wah-hand-wired-pedal"]Snow White[/url] on the Anderton's website. When are you expecting it to arrive? Looking forward to your detailed thoughts and A/B comments when it does.

Edited October 3, 2017 by Al Krow

[Bo0tsy]

[quote name='Al Krow' timestamp='1506968506' post='3382422']
Fyi - I added just a touch of pre-amp on my pedal board, with the bass in passive mode, before the Aguilar Filter-Twin and found that it shunts the Agi into an additional level of funky quack (and got a pretty similarly pleasing result with my 2Notes which shifted into a whole additional level of wicked dirt). In both cases whilst keeping the overall volume broadly the same.

I'm guessing this is entirely to be expected and the same result can be got with an active bass - have other folks found this too?
[/quote] that's exactly what I do sometimes with a passive bass. I use an MXR M81 or Mu fx Boostron in front of the filter if I want to add some dirt into the mix. With a higher output bass it still works but a little boost can go a long way.

Edited October 3, 2017 by Bo0tsy

[GisserD]

[quote name='Al Krow' timestamp='1506972423' post='3382475']
Congratulations! Have to 'fess not being familiar with this one, but it does look like a really neat pedal from the description of the [url="https://www.andertons.co.uk/p/SWAWPC/filter-pedals/mad-professor-snow-white-auto-wah-pcb-pedal"]Snow White[/url] on the Anderton's website. When are you expecting it to arrive? Looking forward to your detailed thoughts and A/B comments when it does.
[/quote]

It should arrive tomorrow!

I ordered the bass specific version of the pedal for obvious reasons...not the one on that link.

Im hoping its going to be a more bubbly BEF esque sound. i like what i hear on the demos so i thaught id take a punt!

[Al Krow]

[quote name='GisserD' timestamp='1507033019' post='3382848']
It should arrive tomorrow! I ordered the bass specific version of the pedal for obvious reasons...not the one on that link. Im hoping its going to be a more bubbly BEF esque sound. i like what i hear on the demos so i thaught id take a punt!
[/quote]

I've corrected [url="https://www.andertons.co.uk/p/SWBAWHW/bass-guitar-fx/mad-professor-snow-white-bass-auto-wah-hand-wired-pedal"]the link[/url], thanks for pointing that out. Look forward to hearing your thoughts very soon

[Quatschmacher]

I’ve just become aware of this beast:

https://youtu.be/HYj6gPy1va4

[Sibob]

[quote name='Quatschmacher' timestamp='1507309783' post='3384716']
I’ve just become aware of this beast:

https://youtu.be/HYj6gPy1va4
[/quote]

I probably wouldn't bother with that until they made it a little bigger!

Si

[Quatschmacher]

And this: https://youtu.be/GqHocC6lUxU

They make the Moogerfooger pedals look petite by comparison.

[CameronJ]

Glou-Glou make killer units for sure. Nearly €600 price tag though. I'd be more likely to spend that dough on a Meris Ottobit jr and a Plus Pedal! If you want weird and wonderful filter sounds with plenty of tweakability I'm going to have to be a broken record and suggest getting a Manta.

Edit: just googled the specs and seen that it's an 8-inch x 8-inch enclosure! Good god that's massive. And it's 3 inches tall!

Edited edit: it does sound phenomenal though and there's some tasty playing in that first video too.

Edited October 6, 2017 by CameronJ

[tonyxtiger]

GlouGlou do make killer stuff. Yes it’s expensive but it does a lot, it’s not just a filter, and the tone is really good.
Actually it’s very very good. You’d need to hear it in the flesh.
Given a meatball was around 300 pounds over 15 years ago the GlouGlou stuff these days is possibly comparable but it’s also a lot better/does more.

Not everyone needs one obviously but I’d guess anyone with one on their board will be a happy man/lady.

[Al Krow]

[quote name='CameronJ' timestamp='1507313546' post='3384751']
Glou-Glou make killer units for sure. Nearly €600 price tag though. I'd be more likely to spend that dough on a Meris Ottobit jr and a Plus Pedal! If you want weird and wonderful filter sounds with plenty of tweakability I'm going to have to be a broken record and suggest getting a Manta. Edit: just googled the specs and seen that it's an 8-inch x 8-inch enclosure! Good god that's massive. And it's 3 inches tall! Edited edit: it does sound phenomenal though and there's some tasty playing in that first video too.
[/quote]

Nice clip QM - thanks for sharing.

Cam, wow - you're right that's both massive and v expensive!

TxT - not convinced you would be a happy man/lady, as I'm not sure there would be space for anything else on the pedal board if you had that on it?!

+1 for your suggestion of getting a Manta instead, Cam, much more practical for anyone who is actually thinking of using the thing live.

Speaking about playing live is it fair to say that Daft Punk's Get Lucky was made for octave + filter and playing it with a slap bass thumb rather than plucked just adds [i]vim![/i] to it?

[Cuzzie]

I love a big pedal, that GlouGlou plain kills it!

[Al Krow]

[b]Pedal sequencing - analogue octaver at start for best results[/b]

[quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1506073980' post='3376241']
Depends on the filter and the drive... A filter going into a mild overdrive / amp-sim, or a blended overdrive sounds great, as the peak accentuates the distortion. Like a classic wah into a distorted guitar amp. But if the filter is too extreme sounding it can overwhelm the drive pedal and sound bloated mess, sometime a blend helps there. Filter after drive is generally always good, but after heavy distortion / fuzz it can sound like more like a synth sound that might sound a little bit too electronica if you were going for a rockier sound.
[/quote]
[quote name='Quatschmacher' timestamp='1506073619' post='3376238']
I've found that my MXR Distortion sounds better in front of the filter. Bear in mind, it has a dry knob too, which helps. It's a different story if there's only a distorted signal as it has less bottom end to drive the filter (so probably works better in the filter's loop if it has one).
[/quote]
[quote name='CameronJ' timestamp='1506074203' post='3376243']
After a period of tweaking with my chain in the past, Octave > Dirt > Filter is the most pleasing sound to me. With things like chorus etc after that. I find that the attack and decay envelope of the filter kind of acts like a gate for the dirt, tightening up the end sound and making unruly/noisy dirt pedals quite usable.
[/quote]

Wasting 2 hours rejigging the order of pedals on a pedal board is at one level a daft waste of time but can also be ridiculously satisfying, particularly when you start from a position as I did (see thumbnail showing how full it already looked at the start!) thinking you have a completely full board but by the end of it managing to find space for a whole extra pedal (in my case an incoming GisserD Aggie Chorusaurus) and still routing the pedals in sensible fashion! My board does feel a bit like Hong Kong now in terms of density of pedals per square cm! And it kinda is only possible to squeeze everything on because the COG T16 octaver is such a compact wonder...so unless the TC SubnUp mini is as small (and I can Dood-the-dudify with his "the real Dude" toneprint, I'm going to stick with the COG i) 'cos its tiny and ii) it's such a good clean octave down! I'm thinking I will have to gently let the Reading chef cum bassist / vocalist down who is angling to buy it off me...I'm sure if he puts a "COG T16 wanted" ad up on BC he will have some joy from one of y'all (or just pm me and I'll put you in touch with him).

Anyway the point of all of this is that in terms of pedal ordering, I've taken away what I suspect is already known to you more experienced pedal users, which is that an [u]analogue octave needs to be the first pedal in the chain[/u] (well more precisely in my case after the Smooth Hound - but that is just the same as guitar in) and then how you order things after is up to you. For me: multi-fx, filters and then dirt and finally with compressor at the end of the chain in "classic" compressor fashion. But IMHO it's vital that an analogue (may differ for digital) octaver is at the start so that it has the cleanest possible signal to track. I guess pretty obvious to most, but a useful lesson learned for me today!

Edited October 7, 2017 by Al Krow

[CameronJ]

Looking good. Now get that power supply underneath the board!

[Cuzzie]

Thank you Cameron, I have been telling him for ages to do that!

Al, if you put it under a distortion pedal you can get increased hum, that plus London tube noise would be poo.

Get your drill out!

[CameronJ]

Mounting underneath is the only way you'll be fitting your incoming Chorusaurus on the board...

[Al Krow]

[quote name='CameronJ' timestamp='1507374092' post='3385016']
Looking good. Now get that power supply underneath the board!
[/quote]
[quote name='Cuzzie' timestamp='1507379258' post='3385054']
Thank you Cameron, I have been telling him for ages to do that!Al, if you put it under a distortion pedal you can get increased hum, that plus London tube noise would be poo. Get your drill out!
[/quote]

Superficially good advice. Get thee behind me Cuzzie, Cam (and Dannybuoy no doubt lurking in the background). If I did that there would be space for a couple more pedals which I'd be very tempted to get (don't exactly know what they would be, but they're out there!). And then I'd need to upgrade my DC8 to a DC10. Whereas I can now pretend that my pedal board is completely full and just get on with enjoying and using the kit I have. Full board = GAS deterrent, right?!

[quote name='CameronJ' timestamp='1507381139' post='3385082']
Mounting underneath is the only way you'll be fitting your incoming Chorusaurus on the board...
[/quote]

Haha...you're gonna be pleasantly surprised about that. That was what 2 hours of rejigging was all about. I'll post the updated board with both the power supply and the Chorusaurus on it to prove that it [i]can[/i] be done when it's arrived!

[dannybuoy]

I've had great results putting analog octave after fuzz too, so try that way also. That way you get clean octave under your fuzz, and it didn't negatively affect tracking when I tried it with a Big Muff and OC-2 many moons ago. In fact I thought it sounded better that way!

[CameronJ]

Hmmm...I may need to try that!

[Cuzzie]

I had a lot of fun putting the octave after an MXR, fuzz, distortion, Source Audio Manta and hot hand.

Any combination of the above would be on before the octave, you can get some whacky sounds, especially dub step type wobbles, does not have to be a hot hand, can be an expression pedal.

Pop your drive pedal before the envelope and then octave after that, see what happens.

I did tell you this before though............to hell with perceived pedal order just go for it!