You guys freakin’ ass amaze me (and totally freakin’ ass confuse me) with all this pedal, mixer, compressor, switch, looper, patches, filters, etc… gyromatic-lingo… (if that’s even a word)…
At my age,…
A Pedal: is something you strep on to make a truck, tractor, or mower go faster or stop.
A Mixer: is something that you use to make (for me), concrete, or (for my wife), a cake.
A compressor: is something that makes pressurized air so I can fill the flat tires on my wife’s truck.
A Switch: is something that is used to turn lights on or off - my grandkids only know how to turn them on.
A Looper: well this one has me totally confused, but sounds like a person who gets stuck on a round-about and just keep going around in circles - hey, isn’t that a song? It’s also somewhat of a term (loopy) I refer to my grandkids as being when they’ve hung out at the outdoor bar drinking all my beer.
Patches: material my wife sews on my ripped or torn jeans… Also those little rubber squares that I have to glue onto the insides of her tires when the “compressor” can’t keep up with all the flats…
Filters: what I replace on my trucks and equipment when I change oil in 'em. Also those paper things my wife uses in the coffee machine.
It’s funny, I realized last night that even if I found a killer deal and bought a Darkglass, I’d still keep the Battalion. It’s just a solid preamp with really versatile options.
The other unexpected thing is I can dial in very muff-like fuzz on the Battalion too. It’s not exactly the same but if anything I could see the Battalion overlapping more with the muff than another distortion pedal.
So I’ve been AFK for a bit recently as work picked up a bit. I’ve also been doing research for something I’ll be making a post about soon…
Anyway while I still would love a Zoom B3n, the initial $200 plus the cost of a volume/expression pedal on top. Put it out of the range of money I want to spend at the current time. So I found this oldie but a goldie on FB Marketplace for $30.
At minimum it gives me a floor tuner and volume pedal. The volume pedal is especially useful to me as the entirety of my gigging is playing on the worship team at my church. Worship music it’s self tends to have the bass dropping in and out regularly, plus my own personal style causes that even a bit more. Again either way it fulfills my minimal specific need as well as gives me the opportunity to manage: EQ, compression, & a touch of distortion. Oh and it allows me to lie to myself and believe that I own the amp/cab holy grail of coolness. The Ampeg SVT810. The back massager whose nickname makes you think there are drinks inside.
Side note. In looking online for a list of patches the user community has made, I found this article where a guy rated the top 5 multi-effects pedals for bass in 2020. The BP90 was on it amazingly enough even thought its 10 years old.
pretty cool old treasure you found ! for $30 it’s a no brainer.
old digital gear always has a bad reputation (and it’s true that CPUs were way less powerful than what you find now in a toaster) but some are still really cool. I myself use an exactly 20 year old digital preamp and it works not so bad it’s somewhat like retrogaming
My Microtubes X arrived and of course sounds amazing. I’ll upload some samples later.
The big question is was it worth the hefty price tag given what I already have. And initially I would have to say… probably not in my case since I was already getting close to a Darkglass tone with the Battalion + BDI21, and the Battalion is a lot more versatile.
The Darkglass initially seems to me like it does one thing and does it very, very well. It has a pretty wide variety of tones all along one axis.
One thing I do love and will be nice to have even with a clean signal is its low and high pass filter pots. It’s basically going to pull double duty as a tone-coloring distortion pedal and a filter, which is definitely nice to have.
So, no regrets on buying it (especially at the price I got) but this one was definitely a nice-to-have and not a necessity.
I went back and listened to some of your other samples. All good stuff. All very different sounds to my ears. Just goes to show how hard it’s going to be to find my dirt sound.
Yes. I need a clean sound to come back to after I get all dirty. I really like the EBS MicroBass 3. A ton of connectivity options. Sounds very clean and I’ve never seen a bad review. I like that it’s just one little box that you can use to carry your tone with you. More than a little out of my price range right now (I have to get an amp) but it might be just what you’re looking for.
Yes! If I could afford it. I would start with this as the foundation of my rig and build everything out from there. It’s the only piece of equipment I’ve come across that I can’t imagine ever needing to replace. Largely because it’s so clean and so versatile. It’s like a blank canvas you can come back to and build whatever you want off of it.
You might really like the Battalion. Same concept but not as high-end. Also a quarter the price . I love mine and if I had to choose just one pedal on my board to keep, it would be it.
it’s somewhat like retrogaming 
) to compare the differences between them and gain some understanding.
. I love mine and if I had to choose just one pedal on my board to keep, it would be it.