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So I made a video of some examples of three overdrive pedals I've been messing with. My goal is to get a good jazz tone with a little hair on it, a little beans and rice, some of what you hear when Charlie Christian pushes it a little, or Kenny Burrell on blue note
I've been most interested in
Bigtone Music Mosft Overdrive
Nocturne Jr. Barnyard
TC Electronic Mojomojo
I made a video of noodling away casually at Moonglow while trying out different pedals through a Henriksen jazz amp with 1x10 henriksen cab
I don't know if this is interesting or useful or not. I like all three but kind of for different things. The Barnyard is a pretty badass piece of gear but it tends to give a raw 1940s octal preamp tone. The other two are more tame and "prettier."
I probably should have backed the volume off a bit on the Jr. Barnyard
Guitar is a homemade hollow telecaster with Bill Lawrence microcoil pickups. TI Benson flats, 14 on the top
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10-18-2016 12:21 PM
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I can't listen to this just now but will later, promise
the pedal I use (sparingly) at the moment is an MXR Custom Badass Modified OD. I bought it off Reverb for just over 50 bucks, and it is a very nice pedal for that 'just a bit' of push into the preamp tubes. My only issue with it is that I have to put on my reading glasses to adjust it, because it's small LOL
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that's a very convincing 60s archtop tone on the low mid! The high end gives it away a bit but still damn nice. Adding a bit of hair from the pedals certainly gives it character. I'm not hearing a dramatic difference between the three but that's youtube for you. Another candidate might be the J.Rockett Blue Note. Never tried it but on my radar.
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Right on! That's my concept exactly, Im after the same type of tone with or without pedals. I was very happy with ZT Lunchbox amp, where I could get that break up with no pedals. These days I use a pedal with AER alpha, and love the tone, or plugin straight into my 7watts Vintage 47 amp, and it cant get any better!
Originally Posted by PB+J
i think you the first one on this forum who i see searching for a dirty jazz tone. Most are either into Polythone dark warm clean or this modern dreamy super clean drenched in reverb or delay i positively cant stand haha. So im glad im not alone.
And in your video i liked the best the last pedal.
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Oh man, I can't wait to listen to this video as soon as I'm somewhere I can turn the volume up.
I've been after this kind of thing for years, and I still haven't had a chance to try the Junior Barnyard.
Stoked to hear it.
Also, since I haven't picked one of these up yet, I'm stoked I've got a Gibson GA-25 I'm going to get to borrow on my Denver trip this weekend, so I won't need a pedal.
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And in your video i liked the best the last pedal.
+1
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I am most impressed with the sound of your custom Tele. Lots of hollow character that you don't often hear from hollowed out hollow-bodies (The back and sides are from a hollowed out block of wood. I am assuming this is how your is constructed).
Please tell us more about this guitar.
Thanks!
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The last pedal is the cheapest--the mojomojo 50 bucks new. it's a great pedal.
The guitar a cherry body, completely hollow, with a braced spruce top. But it has a conventional tele bridge. i wanted a guitar that looked like a tele but with some of the attack envelope of an archtop
It's described some here: hollow tele version three | Telecaster Guitar Forum
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I tried the Mojomojo with your settings and liked it even in front of a tube amp. Originally Posted by PB+J
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Originally Posted by campusfive
Johnathan Stout you are the man!
The Jr Barnyard pedal is pretty marvelous--I didn't really run it through its paces here. It's got a basic preamp side, which has a octal preamp coloration right away, and some overdrive, and then the "grits" switch which kicks in more drive and volume. I did a little demo at the gear page where I tried to cop the opening tones of Charlie Christian's "air Mail Special
Snail mail special
Here's the same guitar with the pedal set to Tavo's recommended "Jr. Barnard" tone
I don't feel like I've got it totally sussed out yet. But Im very hapy with it, even though it took 16 weeks from order to delivery!
And finally here's some unfortunate noodling over a backing track of Bird's Yardbird suite. First is dry, and then the pedal kicks in on the second chorus--you can hear the click at about 40 secs.
pigeon suiteLast edited by PB+J; 10-19-2016 at 08:20 AM.
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I like that Bigtone pedal alot. Had it awhile, now being appreciated by a good buddy. So many sounds can be had with this one. The MXR I have not tried ... the JR barnyard I'll have too. Sounds like a great pedal.
I've tried some other ODs, not all that many. And many clean boosts. The only one that stays is the TIM pedal. Mainly using just the clean boost side. Enough have come and gone that I now know the deal. For my taste, clean boost is where it's at. And the TIM pedal sounds better - in several different ways - than several other excellent clean boosts I've spent time with.
Aside from the personal taste angle, a big complication in this kind of search is that what sounds best/really good when it comes to pedal drive is as much a product of the guitar and amp combined as anything else. And not just the amp, consider the speaker too. The TIM is the only one that seems to work equally well on almost any guitar/amp combination. One reason is the highly effective, reductive EQ controls on the TIM. Especially the bass knob. The other is how finely tuned the gain knob is. At 9 oclock, with both bass and treble knobs on the pedal rolled back halfway, the clean boosted sound is bigger, somehow better w/o being that much different from non-boosted. For more edge, inch the gain knob up. For actual dirt, put on the second level boost, which itself has a very sensitive gain knob (called Drive). That second level boost is better to my ears that all but a very few of the OD pedals I have tried stacked after the TIM. Regardless of how good it is, I rarely use anything but the clean boost side.
That plus the guitar volume knob gives me all the variation I need. Way short of real dirt though.
md
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I have a Timmy clone and I think it's a great pedal but not for this application, at least not for me. And I'm using a very clean solid state amp, so a boost pedal isn't going to do much at all for me. Yes as you say it's extremely dependent on guitar and amp and playing style.
Also yes that Mosfet overdrive is really versatile and can cover a lot of gourndLast edited by PB+J; 10-18-2016 at 06:35 PM.
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PB:
The Timmy is a good pedal, surprisingly not the same as just the clean boost side of the TIM. Difference is in the voicing of the gain knob. A much narrower sweet spot on the Timmy, hard to get it set just right. BTW, if I did not have two TIM pedals, that Bigtone dual drive probably would have stayed. A lot of knobs, too many maybe, but so many good sounds there.
MD
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This is a great thread! I've also been after a similar concept, looking the for Kenny Burrell "On View at the Five Spot" tone. I have two amps: 1) A 1951 Valco Supreme, which nails the tone perfectly at the right setting, and 2) a 1965 Reissue Fender Princeton, which needs a ton of help to get it there. I did hours of AB testing between the Valco and the Princeton with some pedals in front of it, and I found that the combination of a Honey Bee Overdrive and an AC Booster made a really convincing imitation of the Valco. BigToe has a point when he said this is pretty convincing but the highs give it away. That's why I stacked the OD pedals. My signal goes first into the Honey Bee to give it that warm octal sound, then the signal passes through the AC Booster, smooths out the treble, boosts the mids, and compresses the signal just a hair (making the grit sound rounder). The result is pretty impressive for a Blackface Princeton. When I get a chance, I'd like to post a video and share the comparison.
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Funny, well before anyone had built in OD effects a good friend of mine would lay his marshall cabs face down on a carpeted floor, throw blankets over them and wail away with the grateful approval of neighbors
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I liked your tone - lovely the hollow tele! The pedals sounded somewhat similar but if I had to choose, I would also go with the TC ... interesting!
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When i get a chance I'll maybe redo that video with my Guild Artist award, which is a real archtop with a floating kent Armstrong single coil on it.
One of the frustrating things about doing this is that there are a ton of pedal demos out there, but they all focus on a much much more heavily overdriven sound than you want for a lot of jazz, at least than I want. So they don't tell you much. Also most dirt pedals seem to cut out a lot of bass, to avoid muddy tone at high gain, so you get some overdrive but it's on the frequency range you don't want or at least I don't want. I tried the Jr. Barnyard because it's unique and gets you a very specific tone. The MojoMojo I tried because it's cheap and most of the reviews complained about it having too much bass response. The Bigtone Mosfet I decided to try because it's got such versatile tone controls and in general I'd been impressed with mosfet clipping in other pedals.
Of the three, the MojoMojo has the most "natural" or amp-like feel, and it makes it easy to get a nice tone with just a bit of touch responsive drive. I was very impressed wth it right away. I wanted it to get octal/tweed tones, but it's much better at somethig like a 60s jazz It was like instant Kenny Burrell. The Jr. barnyard is really unique and cool. I haven't tried it on a gig: i feel like it will really shine in a band setting at a little more volume, because the tone is so focused on the swing era sweet spot. The Bigtone has a smoother kind of distortion that makes me think of fusion jazz or yacht-rock more than old school. It's a very good and versatile pedal but of the three in the video it's probably the one i'd sell first
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Here's another video for those interested. This time I'm playing a Guild Artist Award from 1978. It has a Kent Armstrong handwound floating single coil pickup. The pickup has more output, more like a P90, so backed the volume down some, but there is still more overdrive the from the tele.
This time I went with just the Barnyard and the mojomojo since that seemed to be more widely liked.
With the Jr. Barynard I'm switching the preamp in and out with the right switch, then going to the back of the pedal to switch it to "wooly" mode. I do the same thing when the left side, the "grits," is engaged, switching it from "wooly" to normal. On the Mojomojo I switched the little "bass" mini switch on and off.
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Great clips, PB+J. I really like the sound of that mojomojo, especially for $50. I'm attaching a clip I just recorded.
1. The first recording is my 1951 Valco Supreme.
2. The second recording is my 1965 reissue Princeton (no pedals).
3. The third recording is the reissue Princeton again, but with a honey bee overdrive into an AC booster in front of it.
Listen, and then compare 1 and 3. No it's not identical, but with some more tweaking I can get them really close. I think I overdid the overdrive on the pedals a bit.Last edited by omphalopsychos; 10-21-2016 at 09:33 PM.
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Clearly it's all down to individual taste, but.....no. 3 is the sound I would take all day long. Originally Posted by omphalopsychos
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Nice! I think it's especially hard with a fender amp--I always find myself fighting the fender signature tight-bass-mid-scoop sound. It's a great sound, just not what i want, and it took me years to figure out that i just wasn't going to get there with a fender. But that's a very convincing clip
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That Valco sound in the 1. is the winner for me. Very organic. 3. sounds more like playing through a bass amp to me for some reason... But it's not bad. And yeah, I'm not a fan of Fender amps either, unless the 50's variety. Originally Posted by omphalopsychos
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Again, I liked the mojo the best. Originally Posted by PB+J
Interesting, when I was trying to buy a new amp, it was between Henriksen Bud and AER Alpha. I tested them both back to back with a Tech21 pedal I use to dial in dirt, and I liked AER so much better for this. I dunno how Bud is different from yours, but I had an impression Henriksen is not ideal amp for dirt applications. I could be wrong.
In any case, that mojo pedal seems do the trick with your setup. I might try it myself some day.
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I get a good result along the OP's quest using my Wampler Tweed 57 into the clean setting on my MkV:25. Not surprising as it is supposed to emulate a Tweed deluxe
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I recently got an Xotic EP Booster (EP Booster - Effects). I wanted a stand-alone noiseless clean boost of about 6db for solos while playing rock/pop with my Montreal Premiere through my Henriksen JazzAmp 110. It's my only pedal in that context. It's not totally colorless. It adds a bit of tube-like warmth and depth to the signal. In fact, the EP stands for EchoPlex, because it uses an FET circuit to emulate the preamp stage of an old tube EchoPlex tape delay unit. The coloration is subtle, and I like it. It's dead quiet whether on or off. I think that having it always on with little or no boost might be a good way to warm up a sterile sounding ultra clean solid state amp for jazz archtop use.
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