Fat, Blues Pedal for Meteor II?

[jcshirke]

I'm looking for the perfect blues pedal for my Tone King Meteor II. For me, "perfect" means big, warm, fat, and thick sounding. I want to avoid excessive mids and high end graininess. Now, part of the problem is that the Meteor II is a bright amp to begin with. So certain pedals work well with it and others don't.

I have a BJFE LGW which does sound great. It seems to give up an SRV/Tubescreamer type vibe with this amp fairly easy. But it's definitely a keeper. BJFE Honey Bee also sounds great, but, again, it's very punchy and bright with this amp.

The Zendrive is great with this amp, especially with my Heritage 555. As far as smoooooth tones go, I'm set there.

I still feel like there has to be another pedal out there that can get me a fat, thick, creamy blues tone for even more variety.

The MI Blues Boy Deluxe that's coming in a month or two is one pedal I'm interested in.

Any other suggestions?

Jeff

 

[Brion]

Have you tried a Barber Burn Unit? I haven't played a new one, but the old 4 knob unit I have is very Fat. May have too many mids for you, but you need some mids to acheive Fat IMHO. I have an MI blues boy, they are nice pedals. I'm not sure what the deluxe designation adds, but the regular issue is pretty versatile.

 

[El Jimbo]

The Deluxe BB will have all the pots external and they'll have more smoother adjustment and range in them I believe. It should allow you to adjust the pedal to suit a bright amp.

Michael has made one of the mini pots for 'mids' only so you will be able to dial in the mids no probs.

 

[deeval]

I have a Metero II 2-12 combo, I use a SOV-1 with great blues results,also in conjunction with RC boost

 

[Don Rusk]

another option would be putting an SBEQ at the end, you could trim some treble and bump some bottom to exactly what you want and its good at equalizing any headroom or presence issues

 

[erksin]

Have you considered an EQ pedal?

I'm kind of in the same boat, wanting a thicker OD tone without resorting to another TS type pedal. I think an EQ might help tailor an OD that I already like the basic gain level/tone/response of into a different flavor.

For instance - I love my Timmy's gain level and picking response, but it would be cool to be able to add just a touch more mids to it to fatten it up for certain things.

RE: the Blue Boy - I own one of the older units and it is a GREAT pedal IMO. You might very answer this question with this pedal - extremely flexible tone-wise, even before you get into chip swapping. I've had a few ODs pass through my house lately (Mosferatu, Hot Cake, OCD, AC Booster, Keeley TS-9/808) and the Blue Boy is the one I've held onto...

 

[sanhozay]

I think the Fulltone Fatboost is quite a pedal. It really fattens vintage style single coils and also works great with a vintage style humbucker bridge pickup. I pretty much only use it with my strat & tele, though. I know it's yesterdays news but I love this pedal, especially at the lower, clean boost settings. YMMV

 

[KLB]

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/116034

That's what I use to change the character of my Zendrive going into a TK Meteor II. I sometimes boost the upper mids using the Zendrive voice control for a rougher distortion, then reshape the output with an EQ pedal.

 

[jcshirke]

Thanks for everyone's suggestions.

Burn Unit EQ: Had one, but just sold it to help finance another purchase. The last time I tried it with the Meteor II, it didn't sound so great, but my amp was suffering from a bad preamp tube (I soon discovered). I like the pedal, though. Maybe one day I'll pick one up again.

Fat Boost: I have one, and I definitely like it. Which channel are you using it with? Are you stacking it with any other pedals?

SBEQ: I have one--just need to experiment with it more. I'll try stacking it with the HB or LGW and adjusting from there. Thanks.

Zendrive: I'll experiment with shaping the EQ more. Thanks. This pedal definitely sounds *great*as is with my Heritage and the TK, though.

MI BBD: I'll probably have to spring for one of these when they are available.

Timmy (coming soon): I'm looking forward to trying this out with the TK. Is anyone using one already with my amp? In another thread, someone recommended a chip swap to smooth out the sound a bit. I may try that.

Has anyone tried any of the BD-2 modded pedals maybe?

Jeff

 

[erksin]

If you have a Timmy on the way, you don't need to check out a BD-2 Mod pedal IMO. The Timmy is much more flexible EQ wise, less bright and fizzy when the gain is cranked up, and has much more depth and complexity to the tone. If on first listen you find the Timmy not smooth enough, try the dip switches before you swap the chip.

I'd try stacking the Zendrive into the Timmy when yours arrives - I'd bet those two sound awesome together...

 

[El Jimbo]

Originally posted by erksin
I've had a few ODs pass through my house lately (Mosferatu, Hot Cake, OCD, AC Booster, Keeley TS-9/808) and the Blue Boy is the one I've held onto...

That's some pretty stiff competition.

Good to see a lower priced pedal knock off some of the more highly fancied here.

 

[erksin]

Originally posted by El Jimbo
That's some pretty stiff competition.

Good to see a lower priced pedal knock off some of the more highly fancied here.

It just plain sounded best to my ears with my rig, and shares many of the great attributes of the ones I let go.

What is great about the Blue Boy IMO is the way the notes sound when picked, hard to describe but the OD just seems to grab on to the picked note and has a nice feel/response to it. The Hot Cake and Mosferatu both had a spongier attack, the OCD was too immediate and hard sounding, and the Keeley just sounded too much like a pedal in comparison. Has all of the harmonic stuff going on that the Mos had (my favorite of the ones I let go), but is clearer sounding and has more EQ options.

 

[Don Rusk]

jc well since you have the SBEQ and LGW you could complete the trio with the Pale Green Comp, maybe the fatness you seek is some tasty compression and the LGW was designed to go with the PGC,,, and the SBEQ will finish it nicely.....

also what chip does your LGW have - this is the only BJFE that uses an op-amp btw -and you can swap them in this one too if your into that.........

 

[RvChevron]

Originally posted by jcshirke
I still feel like there has to be another pedal out there that can get me a fat, thick, creamy blues tone for even more variety.

Any other suggestions?

Jeff

Black Cat OD-1, Austone Millenium Overdrive......both are great departure from the TS-thing.

 

[GreenTea]

Try a Burriss Boostier.

 

[TNJ]

I have been experimenting lately with pedals and my Tone King Meteor II head/212 cab rig.
For classic rock overdrive tones (both humbucker and split tones with my PRS Cu24 or Baker RF), I now use the following:

Hermida ZenDrive
M.I. Audio Blue Boy
Klon Centaur

Mostly, I use the ZenDrive...but the Blue Boy is a bit grainier and gainier and works well for harder driven rock.
The Klon I use strictly as a clean boost. Boosted clean solos work well with this pedal,and when I want to go from crunch rhythm to soaring solo's I step on the Klon to boost the ZenDrive up a few notches.
It's like having 2 channels with a boost for each channel. The 2nd channel of the Tone King is sweet as well, especially with humbuckers, but the use of the ZenDrive/Klon allows me more control over stage volume with the tones I'm looking for.
And it works great.

S.
j

 

[marks]

I use a Tim in front of my Meteor and am very happy with the results!

 

[jpagey]

Mosferatu
Eternity with fat chip
Barber LTD

 

[madsr]

the keeley phat modded bd2 is definately worth a try.. probably just what you are looking for. I also have a keeley modded 808 that I love but the bd2 is more geared toward what you are looking for, especially with the switch up, gives more bass and treble but in a smooth way. not muddy or biting.

 

[lv]

The MI Blues Boy Deluxe that's coming in a month or two is one pedal I'm interested in.

Any other suggestions?

Jeff

The Blues Boy standard that I had did not work particularly well with my Meteor. I have a Landgraff Dynamic Overdrive, Xotic BB, AC, and RC, and a couple others on the way and will post some thoughts when they arrive. I'm looking for the exact same thing as you. Have you tried the Barber Burn unit? Mark seems to like that one with the Meteor.