Re: Junk Drawah Shenanigans Tourbox?
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 12:16 am
OK, I've spent a fair chunk of time going through the box (about 5 hours over the course of 3 nights), and I wrote down my thoughts after each pedal I played with.
First of all, I just want to say, HOLY SHIT
, I can't believe how many goddamn pedals behndy included in this fucking box. I apologize for how long this post will be, but blame Behndy. This was a blast, and it gave me some pedal GAS, which I really haven't had much of in the last year or so.
Also, my cats must have decided to take a nap in the box at some point, and Behndy decided to include some T-shirts in the box. I went through about 20 sheets with a pet-hair roller and got most of their love fur off, but if any of you are allergic to cats, you should probably wash the shirt before wearing it.
Without further ado, here are my largely unorganized thoughts about each pedal, written right after playing it:
BlackSheep Outlaw - pretty cool medium-to-highish gain OD, didn't really get low-gain enough for me. I'm sure you could get lower gain tones using the dry blend, but I hate dry blends, so I always find the 100% wet setting on that knob and leave it there on pretty much every pedal that has a blend.
SSBS Polygrace - Unbelieveable amount of tones, would take me a month to really explore it. Found some really nice "normalish" tones, as well as some really fucked up fuzz tones with weird resonances. Would be cool to record with, but I'm set-and-forget most of the time live, where it would be kinda a waste.
SSBS Mini OD - Wow, this is probably the best overdrive pedal I've ever played. I am seriously impressed. I had more or less sworn off all pedal-based-overdrive and just used my amps for that, but if I was forced to play through a clean amp or DI'd, this would be the one, bar none.
SSBS TAFM - I've actually owned a TAFM before and also played two others, so I know this one inside and out. Just a great standard fuzz, all the low-end you could ever want, no blend required. The gate stomp is nice to have, I hadn't had one of those before. I usually use it in the smoother, muffier settings, and it just kills.
SSBS Year 4545 - I've played one of these before in a tourbox, but it was the earlier model, and this one definitely seems like it reacts differently. It seems much more stable and it's easier to get a repeatable sound out of it. The first one I played was much more chaotic and almost an instrument that you had to learn to play all by itself. Incredible noisemaker/sonic destruction pedal, I probably would have bought one by now, but I almost feel I can cop some of the same ground with my Orbit (no offense to either Brian or Adam intended)
Dr Scientist Elements - Fuckin WOW. My first time playing one of these, and holy shit, this is a great distortion. It doesn't really do low-gain, per se. I found that the "low gain" mode basically sounded similar to a cranked plexi, and the high-gain mode went well into metal distortion territory. I actually found an awesome Lemmy tone, low-gain mode, no clipping diode, mid selector down, mids cranked, bass and treble at noonish. I also really dug the LED clipping mode, it does a great job copping the Turbo Rat sound (one of my favorites)
Earthquaker Bit Commander - Pretty cool, does the 8-bit video-game sound perfectly. Some of the tones reminded me a lot of my old Glitch Computer. I like the fact that you can basically get 4 stacked octaves if you include the base tone. I don't really have a use for this tone anymore based on the music I'm playing, but definitely cool.
Fairfield Unpleasant Surprise - I played this pedal at ILFNEM and loved it, and I loved it again. Fucking awful, nasty and grating, in the best possible way. This pedal really just sounds sick and terrible and beautiful. I would totally buy one immediately, except I have another pedal in the process of being made that I hope will accomplish the same sonic goal.
Xotic Robotalk - I'd heard tons about this pedal on Talkbass over the years, but somehow never tried one until now. The sample-and-hold mode is really cool, reminds me a bit of the Prometheus, but has a slightly different tone to the filter. The envelope mode was ok, but I couldn't quite get it to do the envelope sound I like. No matter what position I put the range and decay knobs in, I couldn't get it to calm down enough, it was still too quacky and extreme. Probably just due to my setup or my playing, but either way, I'm more of a wah guy now.
Iron Ether Oxide - Second time I've tried one of these, basically just reinforced my existing opinion. It's a good fuzz that I could see being really useful for a lot of people, but just not my thing. I found that I'm not really a fan of sound of the gated synthy fuzz side of the morph knob, so I more or less just leave it on the Brassmaster side all the time. It can do a pretty decent job at the brassmaster, but if I'm gonna do that, I'd honestly rather just use the Malekko. Also, it still just seems a bit thin without the clean blend, and like I said, I hate clean blends.
Dirge Stampede - I actually didn't know what this one was at first because it doesn't have a name on it (but it does have some bitching Contra artwork), I had to ask Behndy what it was. I'm not totally clear on what each knob and switch does, because it's got way more controls on it than a standard Stampede, but I was able to get some good fuzz tones out of it. Nice thick and juicy fuzz, and I at least figured out that one of the switches brings in an octavia mode, and it's actually a really nice sounding octavia. I dig it, and could definitely find a use for it.
Montreal Assembly Goodbye24 - This is a pretty wacky and crazy delay pedal. It can do pseudo-normal sounding delay on one or two specific settings, but otherwise ends up sounding like a slightly more lo-fi crunchy Rainbow Machine. It's quite a cool effect, and I could totally see myself finding at least a few uses for it, especially on our more fucked up songs. Even if I don't end up getting one, it was a blast to play around with and figure out what all the knobs do.
First of all, I just want to say, HOLY SHIT
, I can't believe how many goddamn pedals behndy included in this fucking box. I apologize for how long this post will be, but blame Behndy. This was a blast, and it gave me some pedal GAS, which I really haven't had much of in the last year or so.Also, my cats must have decided to take a nap in the box at some point, and Behndy decided to include some T-shirts in the box. I went through about 20 sheets with a pet-hair roller and got most of their love fur off, but if any of you are allergic to cats, you should probably wash the shirt before wearing it.
Without further ado, here are my largely unorganized thoughts about each pedal, written right after playing it:
BlackSheep Outlaw - pretty cool medium-to-highish gain OD, didn't really get low-gain enough for me. I'm sure you could get lower gain tones using the dry blend, but I hate dry blends, so I always find the 100% wet setting on that knob and leave it there on pretty much every pedal that has a blend.
SSBS Polygrace - Unbelieveable amount of tones, would take me a month to really explore it. Found some really nice "normalish" tones, as well as some really fucked up fuzz tones with weird resonances. Would be cool to record with, but I'm set-and-forget most of the time live, where it would be kinda a waste.
SSBS Mini OD - Wow, this is probably the best overdrive pedal I've ever played. I am seriously impressed. I had more or less sworn off all pedal-based-overdrive and just used my amps for that, but if I was forced to play through a clean amp or DI'd, this would be the one, bar none.
SSBS TAFM - I've actually owned a TAFM before and also played two others, so I know this one inside and out. Just a great standard fuzz, all the low-end you could ever want, no blend required. The gate stomp is nice to have, I hadn't had one of those before. I usually use it in the smoother, muffier settings, and it just kills.
SSBS Year 4545 - I've played one of these before in a tourbox, but it was the earlier model, and this one definitely seems like it reacts differently. It seems much more stable and it's easier to get a repeatable sound out of it. The first one I played was much more chaotic and almost an instrument that you had to learn to play all by itself. Incredible noisemaker/sonic destruction pedal, I probably would have bought one by now, but I almost feel I can cop some of the same ground with my Orbit (no offense to either Brian or Adam intended)
Dr Scientist Elements - Fuckin WOW. My first time playing one of these, and holy shit, this is a great distortion. It doesn't really do low-gain, per se. I found that the "low gain" mode basically sounded similar to a cranked plexi, and the high-gain mode went well into metal distortion territory. I actually found an awesome Lemmy tone, low-gain mode, no clipping diode, mid selector down, mids cranked, bass and treble at noonish. I also really dug the LED clipping mode, it does a great job copping the Turbo Rat sound (one of my favorites)
Earthquaker Bit Commander - Pretty cool, does the 8-bit video-game sound perfectly. Some of the tones reminded me a lot of my old Glitch Computer. I like the fact that you can basically get 4 stacked octaves if you include the base tone. I don't really have a use for this tone anymore based on the music I'm playing, but definitely cool.
Fairfield Unpleasant Surprise - I played this pedal at ILFNEM and loved it, and I loved it again. Fucking awful, nasty and grating, in the best possible way. This pedal really just sounds sick and terrible and beautiful. I would totally buy one immediately, except I have another pedal in the process of being made that I hope will accomplish the same sonic goal.
Xotic Robotalk - I'd heard tons about this pedal on Talkbass over the years, but somehow never tried one until now. The sample-and-hold mode is really cool, reminds me a bit of the Prometheus, but has a slightly different tone to the filter. The envelope mode was ok, but I couldn't quite get it to do the envelope sound I like. No matter what position I put the range and decay knobs in, I couldn't get it to calm down enough, it was still too quacky and extreme. Probably just due to my setup or my playing, but either way, I'm more of a wah guy now.
Iron Ether Oxide - Second time I've tried one of these, basically just reinforced my existing opinion. It's a good fuzz that I could see being really useful for a lot of people, but just not my thing. I found that I'm not really a fan of sound of the gated synthy fuzz side of the morph knob, so I more or less just leave it on the Brassmaster side all the time. It can do a pretty decent job at the brassmaster, but if I'm gonna do that, I'd honestly rather just use the Malekko. Also, it still just seems a bit thin without the clean blend, and like I said, I hate clean blends.
Dirge Stampede - I actually didn't know what this one was at first because it doesn't have a name on it (but it does have some bitching Contra artwork), I had to ask Behndy what it was. I'm not totally clear on what each knob and switch does, because it's got way more controls on it than a standard Stampede, but I was able to get some good fuzz tones out of it. Nice thick and juicy fuzz, and I at least figured out that one of the switches brings in an octavia mode, and it's actually a really nice sounding octavia. I dig it, and could definitely find a use for it.
Montreal Assembly Goodbye24 - This is a pretty wacky and crazy delay pedal. It can do pseudo-normal sounding delay on one or two specific settings, but otherwise ends up sounding like a slightly more lo-fi crunchy Rainbow Machine. It's quite a cool effect, and I could totally see myself finding at least a few uses for it, especially on our more fucked up songs. Even if I don't end up getting one, it was a blast to play around with and figure out what all the knobs do.
