26 posts
So I got this cool new pedal on a credit exchange for the Uber pedal. It sounds really good and definitely gives the plexi vibe. However, in "snarl" mode, when I get the gain up past 2:30 or so the pedal starts to squeal. It's not a feedback squeal; more of an electronic whistling. I can unplug the input jack and the squealing continues. I have tried it as the only pedal in the chain, same issue. Have tried with battery and power supply, same behavior. However, and this is very odd to me - if I kick on the spark boost in front of it, the squeal stops! And this is actually how I like to run things anyway as I typically leave the SB on all the time - even for my cleans as it adds sort of a nice slightly compressed body to the notes. However I don't want a pedal with something wrong with it, so will have to exchange I guess.
Just found that interaction to be extremely odd.
Exchange sounds like the only reasonable solution. Other than contacting the manufacturer if the exchange process does not go well. The manufacturer will not want you to exchange it at the store where you bought it, so I would hold off on contacting them until you have to.
Interesting because the biggest change between this pedal and a Rockett Blue Note OD is changing the value of that pot! One other resistor change that matters. Also one of two noticeable change between this and a tube screamer. Sometimes changing a value of a part without adjusting other parts can change the stability of the circuit... in this case the opamp seems to be losing stability. However it's possible that it's just a bad component in that particular pedal.
But then the spark boost makes it stable... which sheds a little more light on the situation... because the biggest change between this and the tubescreamer is the removal of the buffer. The spark boost probably gives you that buffer and reduces the stability issues with the opamp.
I'm intrigued by your choice... it seems like you went full circle right back to a tubescreamer!
Hmm. not sure what the circuits say, but a Rockett Animal is not a tubescreamer. It's a MIAB plexi. My tubescreamer does not sound like this, and vice versa. Or do you mean the spark boost?
What's an MIAB Plexi? The marketing says it's a Plexi something, for sure... All the eyes on the circuit say something else. I'm just telling you the two possible causes I see for this problem. One is opamp instability, the other is removal of the buffer circuit. BTW it's no slag on your pedal, a majority of all distortion and overdrive pedals are based on the tubescreamer. The Xotic AC and RC, for example are TS-based, with the addition of Baxandall EQs, and a few modifications, and those are great pedals.
It would be easier if it was a straight JFET Plexi emulation--something like Wampler makes--because those are more prone to oscillation due to an under or over-biased JFET, stray wires, etc. JFETs are touchy but usually rebiasing is simple enough.
Can you test and see if the problem goes away with your Tubescreamer in line, bypassed, AFTER the Rockett pedal?
"Marshall In a Box" - a pedal that's supposed to sound like a Marshall <insert highly desired Marshall of your choice here>.
Wasn't getting defensive, just pointing out that this pedal does not sound like a tubescreamer. It actually does a pretty good job of sounding plexi-ish. I like the pedal a lot, but am not blown away by it. Since it has this issue I will be sending it back and using the opportunity to try out a Catalinbread DLS MK III. If i don't like that i will probably give up, lol...
Thanks for the trouble shooting help. I tried your ts placement experiment - it made no difference.
Question: Have you tried it in front? I think what he's wanting to see is if a buffer cured the squeal. Since the Spark Boost is true bypass, when it's off there is no bugger in front (if I am clear on your pedal chain) but with it on there is. I'd try the TS in front of it, but turned off, to see if the buffer alone fixed the problem.
That wouldn't mean there isn't something wrong with the pedal of course.
I'm thinking DLS III but I want to try before I buy since there won't be any deals on used ones because it's new.
In front it only cures the squeal when it is turned on.
Don't worry Howie, I will be your guinea pig. DLS 3 on its way... :)
DOH! You did it? Are you getting that too, or returning the Rockett for it?
It is separate. The Animal is good, but I keep wishing there was a mids knob on it, which the DLS has. Also think the internal presence setting could be pretty useful in fine tuning the pedal to my clean channel. So since the Animal has the issue it does and is clearly going back, I figured I'd try the DLS since the Animal did not blow me away. The only thing that will suck is if I think the DLS is worse than the animal, LOL. Then I'll just have to flip it I guess. But if it's at least equivalent (minus the squeal issue) I'll be happy.
Actually just checked. proguitarshop.com has a 60 day return policy. So if I don't like it, it goes back.
I like a mids control on pedals. Gives you more ability to dial in your perfect clean tone and still get the mids you want when the pedal is kicked on.
Personally, my next few test will be with my Flashback and Verbzilla in the loop, and with the 10 band MXR EQ in the loop. I'm going to see if I can dial the mids kick of a Marshall into the pushed and vintage channels, just for fun... ;)
Ahh, the DLS III is on my build list in 3rd position right now. My version's got switchable built-in 9/18v, and the internal slider switch changed to 4 external switches, which gives it a ton of control... so here's to hoping it sounds great. There's also the BSIAB, and any of the many JFET emulation pedals, which tend to sound more amp-like to me. There's a JCM800 emulation that I'm interested in, various Boogie/Bogner/Plexi emulations, the Tweed and Black 65 by Wampler, and #4 on my build list, the Dumble emulator...
Charger, I'd love to have a great Dumble pedal, but I can share some info with you. I LOVED my Red Shift when I first got it. No doubt it's a great pedal. Great "woody" tone that is great as a solo pedal with almost any gain level of base tone. Here is what I don't love about it... it doesn't have the gain to do that juicy dumble tone I love. I heard a sample of someone playing one day (think it was Ford) and the tone was just incredible! That sampe was specifically listed as one where he was actually playing a dumble. That tone was exceptionally clear, yet FAT and JUICY. Sustain, singing sweet fat tone, but not grindy type gain. My Jetter does the character but doesn't go quite that far. It sounds great. But I'm still looking for 'that" tone. When I get a chance, I'll find a sample and put it up. I had a Zen and I think I gave up on it to early (might have you build me one for fun) but it didn't have that magic either. I'm probably asking for the moon, wanting a pedal to capture that, but if I find one that does, I will own it.
The Jetter Red 2 pedal is 'amp like' enough that a boost pedal before it works wonders for more gain if I need it. I sometimes use its Helium boost (more low mids but tighter) for this, but honestly, for simply more gain on top of that woody stock tone you mentioned, the RC Booster is the ticket for me (the EP was just as nice for 'more' but obviously not neutral). Have you experimented yet with stacking something before your red shift, DTR? A solid boost before these pedals seems to put the finishing touch on it as opposed to a clean boost after it or maybe in your loop (heh). I've never been a drive pedal guy but these days, between my amps, the Red 2, the Red xtc and and the addition of an RC Booster to help any of those, well, life is all good, lol.
I'm not talking about the Jetter, which is a copy of the Zen drive, opamp with clippers in the negative feedback loop. The Dumble emulator I'm building is in the runoffgroove style, where it's an actual circuit copy, with JFETs replacing the tubes. I am finding that generally that provides a much more realistic clone of the preamp section than the opamp clipping style. When I get the right tweaks built to the dumble emulation circuit, I'm going to build an "uber" pedal with the dumble / ecstasy channels in one box.
I want one!
D, I did hit the Red Shift again last night with some boost/OD pedals. It does sound great with OCD, Gain Changer, Timmy, etc (and different with any of them of course). The closest I got to the tone I was looking for was with the Gain Changer. I'll keep trying til Charger gets his new pedal worked out.
Cool. I'm sure you tried it, but just in case, make sure you keep the Reds gain around 1 or 2 oclock (at most) before boosting. Anything more than that and not only is boosting too much, that base tone loses its character.
I had the gain anywhere from 1:00 to dimed. Level around 10:00 (significant boost in level). If I turn the level up past that I have to turn the amp down because it was fairly loud already and turning level on the Red up to noon makes the amp VERY loud.
I did briefly go level at 2:00 and gain at 10:00 but that wasn't what I was after at all. That gave the character of the pedal plus a pushed V1, but not the gainy Dumble sound I was going for at all.
How's the DLSIII? I'm intrigued. I hear some people saying it's perfect, some saying they liked the II or the I better, but you know, I think they all use the same topology with just more and more options so take it for what it's worth. The Catalinbread guys seem to be actual good guys, and they've done something fairly smart in using the minibooster/FET idea to build an amp model, as opposed to the runoffgroove model. Sounds good too.
I have mixed feelings about it so far, but in fairness have only had limited time with it. The EQ on it is great, it kills the Animal in that regard. Very easy to match up with my clean channel, whereas with the Animal I had to tailor/sacrifice my clean setup to get the best sound out of the pedal. It's also amazingly quiet. However, the character of the drive is not as smooth as the Animal, and it has a sort of fuzziness to it that I am trying to figure out. The Animal sings even at low gain settings. I am missing that vibe so far in the DLS III.
The perfect pedal would combine the 2...
I'm anxious to hear as well. I've had several of their other pedals and they were good.
oh, it does stack very well with the spark boost. will try out the TS and Wylde OD as well.
RTFM to the rescue! They recommend starting out with all tone controls at minimum. Then bring up treble til you have enough, mids to fill out the sound to taste, then bass if you even need any. Much better sounding now, even if my settings look crazy - treble at 2 oclock, mids at a hair above 9 o'clock, bass at 8 o'clock.
I'll do some clips this weekend. Today was just an insane day. We have the dog on shot therapy to try to control his allergies and he had a very bad reaction to today's shot, thought he was gonna die. Rushed him to the vet. He gradually got thru it and we thanked our lucky stars. Brought him home and 30 minutes later his nose swelled up like a balloon - got bit by a spider or stung by a bee, so we rushed him back. While there this time we asked about some sores on his legs and it turned out he has a pretty nasty skin infection going on.
Now he's playing like a madman again so that's good but it was scary when he practically collapsed on the doorstep.
Oh yeah, I had to work today too. lol...
Good to hear. I've always said that having B/M/T on a pedal is THE ticket to making it match multiple setups. I've been through too many pedals that sounded great with one guitar/amp combo and not as good with another, due to the fact that you couldn't dial it in to match them the way they matched the other setup.
So, how is the gain range on it? Does it go from breaking up plexi up to the VH type gain?
Anyway, can't wait to hear more. I've heard some great sounding pedal demos lately and hate to go on another pedal run but this one is already on the short list. Then again, I get caught up in this stuff but the Bogner sounds killer through the Mini Rec or the Superdrive or the Tweaker....
Speaking of pedal crazy, anyone heard the Mad Professor 1 ?
Paul, we've got to talk about these manual things! On music gear, manuals are your friends Its only in kids toys and anything house related that your man card gets revoked if you read the manual. On music gear, it's totally acceptible. ;D (It definitely speeded up my Mini tweaking to read the manual! Those controls are BROAD in range AND in scope!)
Curious: If the treble was fizzy before, and you have it at 2:00 now, where was it the first time?
And, joking aside, that is a bit of an unusual way to start dialing a pedal, but obviously they designed it and know that's the way to start. But who would ever start that way if you didnt.... RTFM first?