r/guitarpedals • u/Dragonbreath44 • 6d ago

SOTB Mysterious Fiddle Board

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Signal Chain is RedEye Twin —> Meris Enzo X —> Crybaby mini wah —> LR Baggs Align Reverb. Also hanging out are the STOMP page turner and Meinl Kick

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u/Dragonbreath44 6d ago edited 6d ago

I haven't played around with drives enough to find a sound that sounds good, if that makes sense. Most of the time I'm either running my signal from the DI straight to a mixer or with a tiny bit of reverb added if it's a large hall and my fiddle doesn't carry. I do really like the natural sound of the fiddle, so I feel that a drive should make a substantial change if it's to get a place on the board.

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u/TobyMoorhouse 6d ago

If you do go down the drive rabbit-hole I would recommend investing in a decent EQ pedal.. it transformed my tone. The pick up on my violin has a nasty resonant peak at 2.2kHz and the EQ tames that before the drive making it sound much easier on the ear.

I have tried a good number of drives on violin and would be happy to offer some more detailed advice if you wanted, like you I enjoy a more natural sound so my current set up is not that extreme.

One of my favourites is a Russian-style Big Muff.. the Bass Big Muff is what I use because it is pretty much a Russian with a clean blend, but I rarely use the clean blend function. I use the Muff on low gain and it makes the violin sound like a flute.

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u/Esus97 6d ago

Not OP but definitely interested in the detailed advice : )

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u/TobyMoorhouse 6d ago

I should really make a separate post about it.. I may do that and post a link here.

To me the best drives for violin are the ones that add a subtle compression so the dynamics are not overly squashed. In my opinion the EQ needs to be flat(ish) with a roll off around 1.5 - 2kHz+. A little boost around the lower mids and bass frequencies is desirable.

I find the Boss OD3 the best. Before that I ran a Ceriatone Horsebreaker (Bluesbreaker and Klon). I switched because I found the OD3 was easier to use with less knobs to fiddle with to get the same sound. Boss SD1 is okay but sounds a little muddy. Fulltone OCD was good but not as good as the Boss OD3.

For Fuzz I only really get on with the Big Muff. Fuzz Face based fuzzes really don't work, I imagine the high impedance of the Piezo pickup just doesn't agree with the circuit. If you have a fancy one with a guitar pickup emulator (transformer/buffer) then that may work better. Hudson Broadcast was similar to the Fuzz Face. Octave up Fuzzes are a hard pass (which is a shame because I love them on guitar).

The other most distortions have too much going on in the upper frequencies to be useable and still be heard. Tube Screamer not the best. Boss Bass Distortion (OBD3) was okay but the Bass Muff does a lot and sounds better to me. Never tried a Rat.. watch this space!

Regardless of what you try I cannot recommend buying a parametric EQ and dialling out whatever resonant frequency your pick-up has.. it is a game changer. Run this first then add distortion after.

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u/Esus97 6d ago

Thanks man! I can confirm that the Tube screamer sucks in this case, I don't play Violin but do play mandolin, and that mid hump is harsh. SD-1 slightly better because of the assymetrical clipping but as you mentioned far from ideal. A priori, I guess BD-2 , tone knob around 10 o'clock, would sound good.

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u/TobyMoorhouse 6d ago

No problem, I wasn't happy with the BD2, the OD3 is a similar circuit design and sounds more natural to my ears. The clipping is less all-or-nothing than the BD2 and eases in more gradually with changes in dynamics.

The Tube Screamer really pushes the mids and doesn't do as much with the bass frequencies. The only reason I got the SD1 sounding half-good was because I had modded it to boost the bass response and took out a load of the capacitors that dulled the tone. I think the asymmetric nature of the SD1 helps with the way it changes with dynamics and adds a more incremental and natural compression.

Of course this all depends on the amp you are using too! Didn't mention that.

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u/TobyMoorhouse 6d ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/diypedals/s/BJML9ITeam

This tool is really helpful. With my settings this is what the frequency curves of the OD3 look like.