Rest of the 'Foogers

A shipment of two more Moog Moogerfoogers arrived at work yesterday - the Frequency Box and Ring Modulator. After getting them in the signal chain I only spent 10 minutes with them (and I haven't read the manuals yet), the sonic chaos has begun. I can't even accurately describe how they change the signal of my bass, but the results should lead to much fun and creativity. Now just one more Moogerfooger and I'm done with them.

First Of The Moogerfoogers

After selling a couple of bass amps and a speaker cabinet, I've been waiting for some used Moog Moogerfoogers to come onto the market on TalkBass. The plan was to get together a Moog and Eventide or EHX board together using the money form the sales or buy a more powerful tube amp. Eventually I will buy a new tube amp but in the meantime I've purchased three Moogerfoogers, the Bass MuRF, Ring Mod and Frequency Box.

Today the Bass MuRF was the first to arrive. With a 20+ page manual, I have some reading to do but my experiments with it have been good so far. It's quieter and has a better bypass than I anticipated. Hopefully I can get something dialed in that will shop up in a new song - it's been inspiring in the brief time I've had it.

Effects Pedals

Been awhile since I've updated this space. Since the last post I've added a Wilson Effects Bass Q Wah (12 position switch with vintage specs) and a Micro POG from Electro-Harmonix. My Tech 21 Bass Driver DI has been sold and I'm on the wait list for the new Tech 21 VT Bass pedal which is an upgraded Bass Driver but without the DI. I'm also looking to sell my Clone Theory chorus pedal and get a different chorus pedal. I'm also interested in adding an envelope filter to the fix so I can get some funky sounds.

The few weeks I have been buying supplies and components to build some effects pedals. Once I get them in I'll finish up my Woolly Mammoth clone and start on Tone Bender and Brassmaster clones and possible some other types of effects other than fuzz.

At the start of October I have finally started taking lessons which should help me trememdously in coming up with more music compositions.

Another One For The Board

I've been reading a bunch of the TalkBass forums recently and it seems everyone has a SansAmp Bass DI pedal or similar pedal on their board or use it as a pre-amp with a power amp setup. It sounded like a box that would give me that tube amp sound without having to buy a tube amp. So I gave it a spin to see/hear what the hype was all about. Playing into a solid state amp you could definitely dial in that tube sound and then some. Being able to use it for some dirt in your signal chain, as a pre-amp or DI box really seems to give the pedal value for the price.

Having only used the stock strings on my Carvin bass, I decided to try some new strings and picked up a set of DR high beams to see how much different the bass might sound with some aftermarket strings.

DIY Effects Pedal

I ordered the Big Muff Pi clone kit from General Guitar Gadgets after reading some great comments about it. The kit from GGG allows you build six different versions of the class BMP distortion pedal from Electro-Harmonix. I went with GGG Tuned Version and spent four hours soldier and assembling the pedal. Getting the larger enclosure upgrade was a smart decision and made routing easier. I took my time and it worked the first time I fired it up.

I sold my Double Muff pedal after not being thrilled with it so this pedal is going to fill that spot. Compared to the Double Muff, this version of the BMP is of a much higher quality and is very versatile in comparison. With bass it keeps more of the low end in the signal and can still get nasty some nasty tone.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the enclosure. It's still unpainted so perhaps I'll add a sticker to it as paint tends to chip off of molded aluminum. Probably not the best first kit for those who are new to soldiering together electronics, but I'd recommend it for someone who's looking to do an easy DIY project.

New Gear

A couple of new effects pedals and a combo amp have been added to my collection. Although I was only going into Guitar Center to buy some strings I wanted to test out the Jim Kelley Amplifiers' Furr Pedal prototype on some of the amps there. On the rack of small combo amps, I saw something that I didn't know existed, a combo amp from Acoustic called the B20 (it's 2oW amp with a 12" speaker). Some of the forums I'm on have bassists raving about the old Acoustic Control Corp. amps from the lates 60s, early 70s. Jaco Pastorius used an Acoustic 370 back in the day and I've been on the lookout for one if it was a good deal.

I like my big rig but I don't always want to play at that volume so I've had in the back of my mind to get a small combo practice amp. I played the Acoustic, Peavy and Fender combos around the same wattage and price range. But I kept coming back to the Acoustic with it's classic lowercase logo and powder blue piping. I ended leaving with just strings but when I got home to research the combo I found it was $30 cheaper online. So I just had to make an order. I don't know how much the new Acoustic company has to do with the old one, but I hope they start making a reissue of the old Acoustic amps. While being a really cheap amp, I'm surprised by the quality of sound it produces. A real simple, "plug and play" design that works.

For effects I bought a pair of Electro-Harmonix pedals, The Clone Theory Stereo Chorus/Vibrato and the Small Stone Nano (it's a small version of their famous phase shifter). On their own the produce some neat sounds but when working together in series they can produce some really trippy effects. I can't wait to experiment with them in stereo mode and use them on some new recordings.

My Double Muff just isn't working for me so I plan on selling it and getting a new distortion/fuzz pedal or perhaps building one myself. A clone of the Big Muff Pi might an easy project to do.