Wolverinebass Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 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. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigwan Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 (edited) Yummy! Prices look really good for hand built kit. I see this seems to have become a standard model on the website now. Started a revolution you have! Edited May 10, 2018 by Bigwan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cuzzie Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 Good work Mr Wolverine. I looked at Wounded Paw very seriously a few years ago, (i was also lookinginto a dUg amp) but didn’t bite, there is a distributor in Exeter I think, but it was a non returnable deposit so I didn’t go for it to my shame. I took a gamble on something else and again I think I have the only one in the country of mine, and that works for me. I have been privileged to hear clips of this thing and it is brutal, but also eloquent. A good signature amp this is, nice work buddy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CameronJ Posted May 11, 2018 Share Posted May 11, 2018 Based on having briefly owned a non-parametric version of the Battering Ram pedal, I can only imagine how great these sound. Nice review, man! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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