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Warming up D class amp


DevonDel

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Some advice please, before I buy and have to sell another wrong pedal.

I’m looking for an always on pedal to go in front of my new Ashdown D class amp to give it some warmth and a little drive but only when I dig in. I’ve tried the Boss OBD-3 and Bass Big Muff both are great but even at their lowest gain settings they cause too much overdrive.

I don’t want to spend a fortune so no Darkglass etc pedals.

Pedals I’m considering -

EHX Bass Soul Food

EHX Hot Tubes

TC Electronics Mojo Mojo

Joyo American

Any observations, suggestions greatly appreciated.

 

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24 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

What did you settle on in the end? 

'Settle' is not a word I'm comfortable with, as I now have a GK MB 800 :D

But while I had the EA (which was a terrific amp in many ways😞

On 08/01/2019 at 11:53, Sharkfinger said:

EDIT 24/04/19: Sold on the Basswitch sonic Spark and bought a Sansamp BDDI.  Sorted. Stopped worrying about it and just got on with my life.

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I have an Eden Glowplug pedal to achieve exactly what you're after - 1x 12AX7 valve to add warmth.

If I remember correctly, @lozkerr got one last year - maybe she has some views.

https://edenamps.net/glowplug-pedal.html

Getting authentic tube tone is now easy with the Eden Glowplug. The Glowplug adds warmth and depth to your sound, bringing out your strings natural harmonics using tone circuitry designed to enhance and compliment your bass sound.

 

In addition to adding tube tone the Glowplug has a built in crossover allowing you to adjust where the tube sound is applied. The Mix control allows further detailing - decide how much tube signal you apply to your overall sound.

 

 

 

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Thanks @Teebs. Aye, the Eden Glowplug does the biz. The crossover and mix controls are quite sensitive, especially with active pickups, but it really does warm the tone nicely. Turn it up a bit more and you can get a very full overdriven sound without losing warmth. I run mine with an Eden Metro, which also has a valve pre-amp, and it adds extra warmth there too.

The only downside is the PSU which is a bit flimsy and runs at 15v. I'm guessing that's an Eden standard, as the 12AX7 data sheet states the heater can run happily at a lower voltage.  But if you can live with two PSU voltages, it's definitely worth thinking about. 

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I used to have an EBS Valve Drive to add 'genuine valve warmth' solid state amps. After I while I just decided that the 'warmth' was barely audible in a mix, either live or recorded and the hassle of taking a pedal with a massive footprint for minimal tonal benefits was just not worth it.  After a couple of years I just stopped using it. 

I have ended up using either an Aguilar Agro or lately, a Darkglass B3K with the gain turned very very low. Both are pretty pricey options, but I ended up preferring them to my old Tech 21 Bass Driver, as I felt that the Bass Driver kind of made all my basses sound the same. If the Aguilar Agro just had the 'grunt' switch and blend option of the Darkglass it would be my ideal pedal. 

 I actually really like Joyo stuff as well. The Sparrow Bass DI will do essentially what a Tech 21 Bass Driver does but for about £65. 

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4 hours ago, DevonDel said:

Some advice please, before I buy and have to sell another wrong pedal.

I’m looking for an always on pedal to go in front of my new Ashdown D class amp to give it some warmth and a little drive but only when I dig in. I’ve tried the Boss OBD-3 and Bass Big Muff both are great but even at their lowest gain settings they cause too much overdrive.

I don’t want to spend a fortune so no Darkglass etc pedals.

Pedals I’m considering -

EHX Bass Soul Food

EHX Hot Tubes

TC Electronics Mojo Mojo

Joyo American

Any observations, suggestions greatly appreciated.

 

Definitely check out the EHX Hot Wax - the blend and basic EQ are useful and the two different sounds are great. Definitely warms up my solid state pick tone. They sound pretty brutal stacked however individually two very usable sounds. The crayon side is very mids focussed with the hot tubes side being the warmer of the two.

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1 hour ago, Teebs said:

I use the Eden WTDI pedal - also 15v - I think all Eden's pedals are 15v. The PSU is flimsy, but I've not had a problem so far - I've been using the WTDI every week for the last 7 months.

Great minds think alike... I have one of those pedals too, as I wanted a DI with decent EQ available without having to cart the Metro everywhere. I've put a four-way mains extension on my pedal board and leave the PSUs permanently plugged in. Seems to work OK.

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6 hours ago, DevonDel said:

Some advice please, before I buy and have to sell another wrong pedal.

I’m looking for an always on pedal to go in front of my new Ashdown D class amp to give it some warmth and a little drive but only when I dig in. I’ve tried the Boss OBD-3 and Bass Big Muff both are great but even at their lowest gain settings they cause too much overdrive.

I don’t want to spend a fortune so no Darkglass etc pedals.

Pedals I’m considering -

EHX Bass Soul Food

EHX Hot Tubes

TC Electronics Mojo Mojo

Joyo American

Any observations, suggestions greatly appreciated.

 

 

I only have experience of the Soul Food and the Mojo Mojo. The Soul Food is better than the Mojo Mojo, but still not fantastic. I would suggest the TC Electronic Spark Booster or the Valeton Tube Refiner. Both are very good at low gain warm sounds, and can get some nice overdrive if pushed.

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Of the pedals you mention my experience is limited to the TC Mojomojo and the Joyo American Sound.

The Mojomojo is ace. Gives a decent amount of grit when cranked but it’s a pretty dark sounding pedal So be aware of that. The really great thing with these is you can pick them up used for pretty much what you’ll sell them for again, which is practically nowt. Think I paid about £25 for mine.

I got some decent enough ‘hair’ out of the American Sound. Not bad at all for the price in that respect but mine was noisy as hell. I may well have just been unfortunate but I guess it’s always the risk with the budget mass produced stuff.

Hope that’s off some use.

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