hermanomad's Reviews

Absolute beast

This is my first bass, got it some 20 years ago in my teens from a guy who cleaned up on his wall decorations ;) So for 50 bucks I was a happy fresh bass player! The bass itself?? I have tried and owned many different basses after this one, but not one could beat its sound... The pickups and wood (=HEAVY) really seem to make some magic combination of sorts, because it has growl, twang, and plain honest needs to be tamed like a wild animal! After years of trial and error, I ended up with Rotosound Piano strings on it. Makes it sing. I play on a Klockenklang Tedd 15" + 6", which enabled the Diamond to show it's character well. I though about a 4 star rating coz the neck is rather chunky. I mean, I'm used to it. But when I pick up another bass I'm like "ohhh... ". But really, Jazz basses usually have a less smooth neck compared to other models. If it would twist or break or anything, I'd bring it to a proper luthier for a nice new neck. Maybe I'll do that anyway!!! My final addition to the team is a TC SpectraComp, totally deals with the dynamics without killing it, or the tone. I'm happy!

Serious Play-Doh for bassists

This bass is not the holy grain in any sense, but it is a great platform for customization!! This wood is fine, the sound is way better than you would expect, just the hardware is so so but no issue and do immediately replace the 4 pieces of steel wire. For the money, do yourself a favor and try your favourite color and spice, they are so much fun. Basically a proper beginners bass, but way fun for any bassist to show their skills. Yeah, it's your playing, not your bass... ;) 4 stars go to the value-for-money proposition.

Filthy sounds under your feet!

Worst sell of my life.... Sold my Taurus to pay the rent.... This thing is FUN. Imagine, having these organ foot pedals to play a Moog WHILE you play a guitar.... Yeah, you read that. In a live situation that is just a better use of your limbs :) Snah from Motorpsycho also understood this trick and I was very happy seeing him on stage with it. Simple Moog, Grand sound. 4 stars because it's a part of romance now. These days, I would buy the Moog Mother 32 or something, cheaper and more versatile. Only the pedals... I need to find midi organ pedals ;)

Sleeper with great Tone control

You probably never heard of it... Plastic fantastic from the 80ies, but I very much like the slight coloration it got. Still on my pedalboard, but actually only for the great Tone Button. It is SO DAMN musical. Always just adds to my sound. The button sucks, so don't even try that on stage, or anywhere for that matter :) Just leave on or control remotely.

Pure fun, go Cobain!

It is a staple pedal for a reason. Very undervalued, it is a great pedal you just have to have, just because it is so cheap to get. I bought mine battered like hell for $15. Works like a charm and you need him when you least expect it in a studio environment.

Better than it looks

These days, you'd rather have a THR desktop amp for at home. But if you need a good clean amp for small stages and performances, this little gem won't fail you. It sounds better, less harsh, than a Fender of this size. A killer for the blues.

Copy of the Fender Twin, search no further

For around 200 bucks, you can get yourself the steal of the decade with this solid state twin reverb version from Yamaha. It's a killer amp, awesome cleans, musical eq, shit distortion (get a TC Dark Matter of TC Tube Pilot for it). Sounds wicked!

Excellent Headphones

Have them for 10+ years now and they remain the timeless option you won't regret.

Orgasmic

I played tons of expensive amps and speakers and was just never done tweaking the sound... Untill a friend of mine proposed to do "bass porn" meeting. Sounds weird, but it's just putting all our gear together and mixing everything and jamming along. Then I played my amp over his speaker and I immediately felt at home, like I was done tweaking. I was looking for this sound. The thing is, the Tedd has tons of character, it's gritty, it's edgy, and that's what I wanted!!!

Sweet, Warm, Amazing

This amp is perfect for playing at home. It looks awesome in the livingroom and it sounds great at low volume. The advantage of the weird foam speakers is that you don't need to get loud to make it sound warm and lush. Actually, this amp is not made to go loud at all. The foam speakers are too fragile for that. And then.... the rotating speaker.... like a lesley. It is beyond amazing.... Like the best chorus you have ever heard. Please do use a seperate EQ to add mids, because the amp it built for keys...

Done searching!!

I tried the Diamond Compressor, but this little gem is SOOOOO much more versatile, and did I say BETTER in every way! It is a good VST plugin (via the Toneprint editor) in a box. And Multiband. And small. And uncoloring. And just mindblowing. If you can't dial in your sound on this one, the pedal is not to blame.

Just Amazing

Don't think twice... you can dial in the different categories of reverb right from the pedal and they sound really very good. If not, you didn't take enough time to set the dials right for you. Still not happy? Go tweaking in the Toneprint editor and you must be looking for a very strange and specific sound if you can't dial it in there. Then, try some of the artists toneprints, man it's just INCREDIBLY versatile AND good sounding. Remember when 35mm film was still 'better' than digital. Well, we got over the romantic stuff and it just works better now, same here with TC.

Great Compressor - EDIT - I switched to TC Spectracomp....

After some use I still think that as a more traditional compressor (read: single band), it works very nice. It is a big step up from the old school pumping compressors. I did a very long study on compressors for guitar and bass, because I will use it on both. Knowing I'd use a little compression all the time, I'd surely shouldn't mess up my preciously build sound. The Diamond Bass Comp actually did fade away the nice twang of my bass. But it is smooth as butter and very musical. On low settings, it just gives a little invisible punch to the signal, pulling it into presence. On higher settings it gets more aggressive, but always with smooth character. If you hear any pumping, ensure the volume INTO the pedal is correct. When it's very high, the compression gets a bit strange due to threshold level not being on par with the input signal. I noticed this when my EQ before the compression was pushing the levels a bit to much :) My bass has a hot signal, but the Diamond is not bothered by that much. I was also thinking about the Empress, with more options, but I'm very pleased with the simplicity of this pedal. Less tinkering, but 100% good sound.

EDIT - I finally switched to a TC Electronic Spectracomp and it outperforms the Diamond for sure.. It can do ANYTHING you want. Especially the multiband compression makes it so much more uncoloring and more stable and smooth in compression.

I play a 60s Fender Jazz into a Yamaha G100 head into a Glockenklang Tedd cab. No need for changing this...

Flipped out and gritty

This is rough. When cracked, play no cords, because hell will break loose. When backed up, it's an absolute killer for blues with gnarl.

Put me on an island with this beauty

I use it as an overdrive, as it has a really smooth fuzz character to it when backed up. Totally matched my Fender setup. Must add that I put in a new OP amp some day or age ago. Cleaned it up some bit, but nothing major.