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tallchris wrote: Mon Jun 30, 2025 2:51 pm Okay, I love the sound of my TB2000, but sometimes during parts of a song I'd like to get something like what it sounds like with the tone knob rolled down and/or switched to the neck pickup, but without any volume loss, but then able to get back to the normal sound in an instant. I'm assuming an EQ pedal is the best thing to do this, but I'm open to anything else.

Sometimes I wish I just had a crazy switcher like Steve Von Till where I could control the pickup selection and tone selection from my feet but that seems insane at this point.

Eq pedals are the shit. A bog standard Boss graphic eq can be the most powerful pedal on a board. I set mine to cut highs and overall signal, placed before a drive pedal. It does that rolled off neck pickup semi-dirty thing nicely. I used to use one as a boost.

losthighway wrote: Wed Jul 02, 2025 8:47 am

tallchris wrote: Mon Jun 30, 2025 2:51 pm Okay, I love the sound of my TB2000, but sometimes during parts of a song I'd like to get something like what it sounds like with the tone knob rolled down and/or switched to the neck pickup, but without any volume loss, but then able to get back to the normal sound in an instant. I'm assuming an EQ pedal is the best thing to do this, but I'm open to anything else.

Sometimes I wish I just had a crazy switcher like Steve Von Till where I could control the pickup selection and tone selection from my feet but that seems insane at this point.

Eq pedals are the shit. A bog standard Boss graphic eq can be the most powerful pedal on a board. I set mine to cut highs and overall signal, placed before a drive pedal. It does that rolled off neck pickup semi-dirty thing nicely. I used to use one as a boost.

100%! Using EQs as a clean boost is solid.

losthighway wrote: Wed Jul 02, 2025 8:47 am

tallchris wrote: Mon Jun 30, 2025 2:51 pm Okay, I love the sound of my TB2000, but sometimes during parts of a song I'd like to get something like what it sounds like with the tone knob rolled down and/or switched to the neck pickup, but without any volume loss, but then able to get back to the normal sound in an instant. I'm assuming an EQ pedal is the best thing to do this, but I'm open to anything else.

Sometimes I wish I just had a crazy switcher like Steve Von Till where I could control the pickup selection and tone selection from my feet but that seems insane at this point.

Eq pedals are the shit. A bog standard Boss graphic eq can be the most powerful pedal on a board. I set mine to cut highs and overall signal, placed before a drive pedal. It does that rolled off neck pickup semi-dirty thing nicely. I used to use one as a boost.

Yeah, I got the guitarist in my band to start using an EQ pedal as there's a song where he uses a Harmonic Percolator clone on the the whole time, but wanted the intro to be quieter, and once I suggested using an EQ it did exactly what he wanted. I should just try his out!

losthighway wrote: Wed Jul 02, 2025 8:47 am Eq pedals are the shit. A bog standard Boss graphic eq can be the most powerful pedal on a board.

mmmmm hmmmmm. I used to keep all my high gain pedals on a loop with a Boss bass eq. you can get pretty much any fuzz sound with like a fuzz face and a graphic EQ.

Kniferide wrote: Wed Jul 02, 2025 11:11 am

losthighway wrote: Wed Jul 02, 2025 8:47 am Eq pedals are the shit. A bog standard Boss graphic eq can be the most powerful pedal on a board.

mmmmm hmmmmm. I used to keep all my high gain pedals on a loop with a Boss bass eq. you can get pretty much any fuzz sound with like a fuzz face and a graphic EQ.

This is also true. With an EQ, you could essentially spend less money on pedals and make a few on your board more versatile. A totally underrated pedal.

Not that anyone asked, but I've been kind of dealing with this on my amp modeler. I've been able to use less blocks for OD/Dist by just using an EQ with a boost and learning to use my volume pots better.

Fun gross bass sound - take an EQ and boost/cut alternating frequencies as far as they'll go.

losthighway wrote: Wed Jul 02, 2025 8:47 am

tallchris wrote: Mon Jun 30, 2025 2:51 pm Okay, I love the sound of my TB2000, but sometimes during parts of a song I'd like to get something like what it sounds like with the tone knob rolled down and/or switched to the neck pickup, but without any volume loss, but then able to get back to the normal sound in an instant. I'm assuming an EQ pedal is the best thing to do this, but I'm open to anything else.

Sometimes I wish I just had a crazy switcher like Steve Von Till where I could control the pickup selection and tone selection from my feet but that seems insane at this point.

Eq pedals are the shit. A bog standard Boss graphic eq can be the most powerful pedal on a board. I set mine to cut highs and overall signal, placed before a drive pedal. It does that rolled off neck pickup semi-dirty thing nicely. I used to use one as a boost.

EQ pedal is probably the way to go, but is the problem with using the tone knob the volume loss or the need for instant switching? If the latter, you could probably add a capacitor toggle or push/pull switch.

Speaking of eq and boosts. I need to rummage around for a boost option for my setup. Lately I've been using a Fairfield Barbershop overdrive a lot and love it. It's a jfet based drive that is rather low gain and it's perfect with my humbucker guitars (a little less so with my goldfoil harmony) for cleanish drive sounds.

I've been using it on its own as well as using it to boost some jfet based "pre-amp" drive pedal or another. It is pretty fucking great at that, but I've come prefer the Barbershop to the pedals I boost with it. So now I want to get something to boost the Barbershop into gnarly overdrive mode and just drop the "pre-amp" pedals. Haven't had time to try things I have lying around yet, but I plan to this weekend.

VaticanShotglass wrote: Thu Jul 03, 2025 3:33 pm

losthighway wrote: Wed Jul 02, 2025 8:47 am

tallchris wrote: Mon Jun 30, 2025 2:51 pm Okay, I love the sound of my TB2000, but sometimes during parts of a song I'd like to get something like what it sounds like with the tone knob rolled down and/or switched to the neck pickup, but without any volume loss, but then able to get back to the normal sound in an instant. I'm assuming an EQ pedal is the best thing to do this, but I'm open to anything else.

Sometimes I wish I just had a crazy switcher like Steve Von Till where I could control the pickup selection and tone selection from my feet but that seems insane at this point.

Eq pedals are the shit. A bog standard Boss graphic eq can be the most powerful pedal on a board. I set mine to cut highs and overall signal, placed before a drive pedal. It does that rolled off neck pickup semi-dirty thing nicely. I used to use one as a boost.

EQ pedal is probably the way to go, but is the problem with using the tone knob the volume loss or the need for instant switching? If the latter, you could probably add a capacitor toggle or push/pull switch.

Speaking of eq and boosts. I need to rummage around for a boost option for my setup. Lately I've been using a Fairfield Barbershop overdrive a lot and love it. It's a jfet based drive that is rather low gain and it's perfect with my humbucker guitars (a little less so with my goldfoil harmony) for cleanish drive sounds.

I've been using it on its own as well as using it to boost some jfet based "pre-amp" drive pedal or another. It is pretty fucking great at that, but I've come prefer the Barbershop to the pedals I boost with it. So now I want to get something to boost the Barbershop into gnarly overdrive mode and just drop the "pre-amp" pedals. Haven't had time to try things I have lying around yet, but I plan to this weekend.

Are you looking for a clean boost just to push it? Or, a dirty boost for extra gnarly?

cakes wrote: Thu Jul 03, 2025 4:03 pm

VaticanShotglass wrote: Thu Jul 03, 2025 3:33 pm

losthighway wrote: Wed Jul 02, 2025 8:47 am

Eq pedals are the shit. A bog standard Boss graphic eq can be the most powerful pedal on a board. I set mine to cut highs and overall signal, placed before a drive pedal. It does that rolled off neck pickup semi-dirty thing nicely. I used to use one as a boost.

EQ pedal is probably the way to go, but is the problem with using the tone knob the volume loss or the need for instant switching? If the latter, you could probably add a capacitor toggle or push/pull switch.

Speaking of eq and boosts. I need to rummage around for a boost option for my setup. Lately I've been using a Fairfield Barbershop overdrive a lot and love it. It's a jfet based drive that is rather low gain and it's perfect with my humbucker guitars (a little less so with my goldfoil harmony) for cleanish drive sounds.

I've been using it on its own as well as using it to boost some jfet based "pre-amp" drive pedal or another. It is pretty fucking great at that, but I've come prefer the Barbershop to the pedals I boost with it. So now I want to get something to boost the Barbershop into gnarly overdrive mode and just drop the "pre-amp" pedals. Haven't had time to try things I have lying around yet, but I plan to this weekend.

Are you looking for a clean boost just to push it? Or, a dirty boost for extra gnarly?

Not sure yet. I'm thinking gnarly. I use a Rat for full saturated fuzzy sounds, but stacking these jfet circuits get a different less compressed sort of awesome.

I have a clean boost on my Life Pedal, but I forgot to try it last night when I was playing. I was playing the Model-Fet slightly overdriven and slamming it with the Barbershop--so probably a dirty boost? My DIY sort of version of the Model-T has a built in LPB-1, but I wired it such that you can't bypass the drive pedal. That combo sounds like god's death, but maybe a little boomy for everyday use.

Two Barbershops in a row would probably work, but that is a bit pricier than a simple boost I can likely whip up in the shed. If I find a simple combo I really like, I might wind up building my own pedal with them together.

My problem with most of the jfet preamp designs is that they rarely have enough clean range for edge of breakup territory. My favorite of these is the EQD Monarch, but even with the drive all the way down it can be a little too much with a Les Paul. Not so with the Barbershop, but you also don't get any higher gain option. Just feels like an extra, switchable gain stage would suit the Barbershop really well.

A SHO would probably do the thing nicely.

If you're DIY-inclined, the barbershop schematic is out there, and there are pre-fab PCBs around as well. J201s can be a bit fussy but it's a really simple (great sounding!) circuit so would be a very straightforward home build.