Anyone use a Bandit with an always-on dirt box?

[Rich_S]

Embarrassing though it may be, I'm going to borrow a term from TGP: "foundation pedal". You know, a dirt box that's intended to make a clean amp sound like a bigger, different, dirtier amp.

Anyway, I just made a trade and have incoming a Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret. From what I've read on line, it's a better-than-average "Marshall in a Box" (MIAB) pedal. I'm hoping it will make the clean channel on my Bandit 65 sound like a late '70s JMP or '80s JCM800.

If it does, I could see it being an almost-always-on pedal. I'd could turn it off when I need a really clean channel, but mostly I'd leave the DLS on, control the amount of crunch with the guitar volume control, and boost it with my SD-1 or Rat for solos.

At $80 for the loud-as-hell Bandit, it's a lot more economical than a 30 year old Marshall. The Bandit has reverb and an effects loop, too.

Anybody doing something similar?

 

[LGOberean]

I don't know if this qualifies as the "foundational pedal" concept, but your question reminds me of what I do. I hardly ever plug straight into my Bandit 65 anymore. Instead I go through my Boss ME-70.

My Bandits came through a house fire some time back, and the reverb on my 75 is iffy, and on the 65 it no longer works. It probably would be an easy fix, but I don't gig much anymore with my Bandits, so I never seem to get around to it. Most of my gigs are small venues, and I use one of my Vox Pathfinder 15Rs.

The last time I gigged with my Bandits was 9 months ago, on a good sized outdoor stage, and I used both of them on either side of the stage, sending the signal to both amps via the Boss ME-70. I occasionally will plug into one of them at home, and I go through the ME-70, and get my reverb from that (not to mention tremolo, delay or OD when I need them).

 

[joeford]

i don't own a bandit, but i'm a big fan of the always-on pedal. for me, there's usually a tubescreamer sitting on top of my amp. i'm not much of a pedal stomper... i just like to emulate the sweet spot of an amp with a little dirtbox in the mix. an old fender tube amp and a tubescreamer is a lovely combo.

i'm working on a solid state combo now that is more akin to your setup though. stripping the power amp section out of an old crate head... and running a runoffgroove design into it as a preamp. it'll never be quite as good as a tube amp... but for under $100, 1/3 the weight, and the indestructability of SS... i think it'll sound close enough

speaking of runoffgroove... if you haven't checked their stuff out, you absolutely should! most of their pedals are "amp in a box" type sounds that get really close to the original. click on the sounds tabs to get a feel of what they have to offer

 

[aunchaki]

Many "foundation pedals" are tiny emulators in a box. Try the DLS through the Bandit's FX-Loop Return, bypassing the Bandit's preamp. Maybe a Bandit would be a good power amp for emulator pedals.

(n.b. I do this with my CRATE PowerBlock and BOSS FDR-1 and like it a lot.)

 

[Marky D.]

"foundation pedal"

Never heard of that term, but I like it, and it describes what I've been doing with non-Marshall amps for a while. I typically use this signal path:
Korg Pitch Black Tuner>>Dist Pedal>> Fulltone Fatboost. Using this setup and by working the volume control on the guitar, I can get several sounds:

1. straight into the amp, no pedals on (rarely used)
2. Fatboost only (clean, lots of fat clean volume on tap)
3. Dist box only (clean to crunch)
4. Dist box and Fatboost both on (fat country with guitar volume down, loud sustained sound for lead and volume swells).

This is my core setup - sometimes I'll add a bunch of pedals in a couple of true bypass loops on a larger board if needed.

Your post caught my interest, because though I've got some nice Marshall and Fender amps, I have a couple of Special 130s (similar to Bandit) that sound great using a Boss DS-1 as the foundation pedal. For other amps, it's a Fulltone OCD or Plimsoul, but it's the same concept. For example, the Bassman Reissue sounds good w/an OCD, Deluxe Reverb with Plimsoul, '57 Twin reissue likes the DS-1. With JMP and JCM Marshalls, it's a different ballgame: the core drive sound is already there and just needs to be hit with a fuzz or boost....