Very cool pedal, built in compression is always good to see. I use a Darkglass Harmonic Booster at the start of my signal chain to shape it, but this would make a great replacement. Awesome video as always man.
Seems like a pretty versatile pedal for how simple the control layout is. Good thing I'm not super prone to GASing over something I don't actually need! 😂
Great to see you making videos again! As I transition from guitar to bass after 15 years of playing, youve been immensely helpful in getting me up to speed. I bought the tech 21 frank bello pedal recently, and would love to see you demo it.
What do you think of Frank's pedal? I have one waiting for me as a Christmas present so I'll have to wait until then to open it & try it out. I've had several SansAmp's but I do love my current one which is the DP-3X (Dug Pinnick model).
@@jackshittle I absolutely love it! Although a pretty simple layout, it’s very versatile and you can go from a pristine clean tone all the way to doomed out fuzz. I have a spector ns pulse and run everything flat on it, and just slightly bump the bass and cut the treble on the sansamp, with the filth switch always engaged. The filth gives this slight bump in mids (at least to my ears) thats super pleasant and really gives me some extra attack. I don’t use the dirt switch all that much but when engaged even with the gain set fairly low will get you to into geezer territory. I think you’ll really like this pedal and it’ll give you some different tonal options compared to the Dug, so it’s really cool you have both
@@dagiago642 That sounds awesome & I appreciate all the info. I'm glad you love the pedal & didn't tell me that it's not that great or something haha. I guess I'll find out in two days (xmas 2023) for myself. Thanks again!
I saw this before release at the London Guitar & Bass show a few years back and really liked the sound of it. So when the Kickstarter showed up I was straight on it 😊 Love the pedal and it’s a constant in my chain now. I do a bit of tweaking, but everything at 12 o’clock seems to work great for what I want in most things for a solid sound with a bit of sparkle and grit.
@RodneyMcG Just got my pedal in and noticed a fair amount of noise from it without the drive engaged. Reached out to Trondheim and was told "Its analog so you get white noise. More comp, mix, tone, and drive will increase noise. A noise gate is recommended if you need silence when not playing. Remember that mix is balance between hi freq and low freq. Under normal circumstances it mostly will live around noon." Did you experience this with your unit with no drive engaged?
@@RodneyMcG I tested on and off the board. Different power supplies isolated and chained. No difference in any tests. I really wanted this to work out for me to condense my current BC-1X and GEB-7 into one unit since I lightly scoop my mid. One notch down from center. Yes, this pedal did that. But the white noise, even when not in dirt mode, is the deal breaker. I already use the NS-1X on my dirt connected via my LS-2 so there was no way to incorporate the Skarbass in. Connecting my spare NS-2 seemed redundant to me further down the chain. In the end my idea was with good intent but just won't work the way I need it to. Either way great video!
Great Demo Rodney-- I have one of these. I appreciate your explanation of the mid-control. I guess, I thought it was backward to what you explained. It sounds like some sort of a shelf filter, where as the Mix sounds similar to tilt filters I've heard. To me, the compressor is the magic, as its super musical even when squishing the heck out the bass. I recall the designer saying the compressor was based on a famous compressor with the "all 4 buttons in" setting. Personally, I like the fact it doesn't sound like the current crop of bass distortion units. I hope you're doing better.
Great Demo of this pedal. I find the Darkglass stuff to scoop the 500hz too much. This pedal sounds like it can do the same, but it gives you the option to keep the necessary frequencies. Thank you!
Darkglass X7 kinda does similar things. There's a compressor, you can "tilt" and mix your tone between a low and a high band, 4 band eq at the end of the chain (in my experience most useful for controlling the mids and the highs). However, I'd say Trondheim seem to have finetuned these features and perhaps made a more user friendly and versatile pedal. Obviously you can dial many different tones out of X7, but it really just seems to work best for that modern grindy "clean lows, distorted to the max highs" tone. SkarBassOne seems to offer more variety with less dialing. Rodney, if you are reading this, it would be interesting to see what you can get out of the Darkglass X7, if you have a chance to get one of those in your hands 😎
I haven't really done Darkglass as they seemed to be in every demo and I felt it was covered to death.It might be interesting to see what else beside the same typical tone could be gotten from it, though. They don't seem to be the most enthusiastic about getting new demos or reviews, though, so I kinda doubt one wil come through the studio. Thanks for the input, your thoughts on the SkarBass are pretty accurate.
@@RodneyMcG Yeah I figured I'd throw this idea towards you, because with your knowledge and way of making gear demos I felt like you could provide an alternative view and more useful demo than most. That being said I do agree with your points, so I definitely understand why we have not seen a Darkglass demo on your channel 😄. Thanks for the reply and keep up the good work!
I love my Microtubes X7. I've been through a bunch of pedals, MXR, Darkglass etc, and none have replaced my X7. I keep coming back to it. It just has that meaty "wet" basal growl that I haven't found anywhere else or done better yet.
hey Rodney just picked up the bass and I am wondering what my approach to metal bass should be, what should I learn first, what scales do I learn, and do I stay away from tabs and is it better to get lessons I just came across your channel great stuff btw I appreciate you and your channel.
Learn some songs you love to have fun and start understanding what makes them great. Mot metal is based on a few minor scales, so learning them would be a good idea. I definitely recommend getting a teacher as you often can't see your won mistakes, or know where something would really help your progress. I avoid tab as it's usually wrong, and just keeps you from developing your ear which is the best things you can do. Thanks for watching the channel!
Rodney, is this what you would recommend as an ideal "compression" pedal in a pedal chain? Personally, I have no pedals and very limited gear. I'm looking to upgrade my setup with some pedals and to find my sound. From what I've gathered through research it seems like "compression" is the one to start with for pedals? Would this pedal be my compressor-in? Is there a better compression pedal you would recommend?
This has a great compressor, but it is a lot more than that. It is a full preamp. You could defintely just use it as one though. If you are just looking for compression alone though, there are a number of pedals out there. If you're not used to it, maybe starting with a cheap one and learning how it functions before upgrading might be the way to go.
@RodneyMcG Thank you for your reply and very informative videos! Yah this pedal caught my eye after seeing you demonstrate the extra goodies it offers. If this takes care of my compression and offers more, I'm for that. What appealed to me about this is being able to fine tune the frequencies to cut through the mix. I can see this being very useful when playing in a band and tweaking my frequency to cut through.
@RodneyMcG Rodney, are you interested in including afiliate links with the gear you review? If so, I'd totally be ordering gear through you links as a way of supporting your channel.
Hey Rodney! I just realized this and i just wanted to pitch the idea. The SkarBassOne as interesting and different as it is, is very similar to the X7 from Darkglas. I know You have gone on record several times saying why you are not doing Darkglas on you channel. But i think this may be a good head to head comparison. I own both units and have my opinion on them. But you putting them up against each other would be a quite a lesson. Cheers dude!
Brother McG I know this is off topic but I alway dig your opinion. What's your take on the Epiphone Embassy Bass Guitar? I have many basses but I feel for the price and the tone I dig this bass :) And apologies if you have reviewed this bass before.
Can't say i know too much about one, never had it in hand. From what I can see on the pickups you should probably expect a thunderbird style tone from it. I always like the thunderbird humbuckers.
@@RodneyMcG Brother your 100% correct! I have to admit the bass gets a lot of great reviews because of the tone and price. I am diff going to add this to my collection (I have a recording studio) I love the tone. What I like about it, is it gives me the John Entwistle type tone with out spending a couple of grand for a thunderbird. I have 50 basses/guitars, so when I add something to the collection it has to give me a different tone from what I don't already have. I have from Fender, Ibanez, Alembic, Music Man, Yamaha etc. So at this stage of the game if I add something new, it has to give me a tone I don't already have :)
It's really not as complex as it may seem. It's a little different than the usual, but I think that's a good thing, and as always just let your ears be the guide and they'll get you to the sweet spot for tone😉
Haha, the sheer number of gadgets I collected for bass and guitar over the years tells me, my ears shouldn’t be trusted😂… that said, Thomann has it in stock over here in Germany.
