New Pedal Day (+review): Banzai Fireball II Overdrive

[Draelyc]

Okay, so my pedal FINALLY showed up (I had to wait for the $$$ to "clear" through Paypal).

First, the good news:

1. It's a GORGEOUS pedal. It looks even better in person than the pix can convey. Just a lovely looking pedal.

2. It's RIDICULOUSLY tweakable. Three different compression settings, and on the inside of the pedal there are additional treble & midrange controls, plus three DIP switches.

3. The overdrive generated by the pedal is very, VERY thick and rich, not plastic-y or pedal-like at all, to my ears.

4. The pedal in its uncompressed setting has a STOOPID amount of volume/output boost on tap. Just STOOPID... :freak:

5. Also in the uncompressed mode, the pedal sounds very amp-like (which I've heard about other pedals, but this is the first one I've tried about which that description actually seems to my ear to be accurate).

Okay, now the bad news:

1. I've found it difficult to get enough treble response out of the pedal, even with the internal control maxed out. It's just a very dark sounding pedal. Depending on your guitar/amp/application, that might be good; for me & my setup, not so much.

2. On the max-compression setting (which allows for the most gain/distortion from the pedal), it's hard to get a huge difference between switching the boost off & then on. So if you're looking for crunch with the basic od and then high gain mayhem with the boost, it ain't gwine happen, imo.

3. The boost seems designed more for soloing/single-note passages than for a secondary gain setting. Indeed, it works pretty well for single-note lines, but I don't find it quite so good for chords, especially heavy chords on the bass strings.

4. The same quality which makes the pedal's overdrive sound so rich and non-pedal-like also seems to prevent the pedal's od from having any hair/fizz/aggressive overtones. That's probably good for a lot of folks, but I like my od a little fizzier/fuzzier, personally.

5. The pedal seems really well-designed for the folks who are primarily blues players, but who may venture into heavier blues/rock type territory. Unfortunately, I'm primarily a rock guy who sometimes plays some blues....


Overall, it's clearly a very, VERY high quality pedal, and its sound is rich and has a lot of character. And it's built like a German tank! Sadly, however, it doesn't look like this pedal's gonna be a good match for me.

Chris

 

[Draelyc]

Actually, the amount of volume the thing puts out makes it a great boost. But it seems to work better into an amp's od channel or hi-gain input w/ the amp gain dialed back than it does into a clean channel or lo-gain input w/ the amp gain cranked.Still don't know yet if I'll be keeping it, but it yields some great boosted crunch & singing lead tones into my Bonneville combo...Fwiw & ymmv...

 

[Draelyc]

Okay, some clispses to add to my review:

{Note Regarding Clips: the playing is extreme wankery to the point of major suckage ~ this whole comparison was recorded "fast & dirty"; hopefully the suckage won't distract from the demos...}

Clip 1: reference sample--Sovtek Mig 50H Tube Midget, just amp & guitar using the high gain input with the amp's gain around 1 o'clock, running into a Crate Blue Voodoo sealed back 1x12 w/ a Celestion V30. Basic rock tone.

Sovtek high gain input, amp only

Clip 2: FBII as distortion pedal--the chain here is guitar --> FBII --> Sovtek low gain input. The pedal is on its "medium compression" setting, with the pedal's gain on about 10 o'clock and the pedal's boost gain around 2 o'clock; pedal volume is a little above unity, I think. This setup uses the FBII as a distortion unit into a relatively clean amp.

FBII as distortion into clean amp

Clip 3: FBII as a boost--Here, I'm running the pedal in its "uncompressed" mode, which gives a LOT more output volume, and with the pedal's volume (output) maxed, running into the Sovtek's high gain input, but with the amp's gain turned way down for a cleaner tone, but with a very sensitive input stage for boosting.

FBII boosting the Sovtek

Clip 4: another reference clip, this time the Trace Elliot Bonneville 1x12 open backed combo loaded with a V30. More basic rock tone, using the Bonneville's 2nd (Marshallesque) preamp voicing with the amp's gain around 2 o'clock.

Bonneville combo

And finally,

Clip 5: similar to clip 3, I rolled the Bonneville's gain back for a cleaner sound and used the FBII as a boost, so you can hear how it sounds boosting a different amp.

FBII boosting the Bonneville


Obviously, this is a "ruff 'n' ready" comparison. I didn't do anything fancy with mic placement, and there is no additional eq'ing at the board or mastering or anything. Just trying to give a quick demo.

Overall, the pedal's just not going to work for my applications. I'm discovering that I'm primarily an "amp" guy -- I just prefer the sound of amp distortion--even if it's low volume preamp distortion--to pedal distortion running into a clean amp. It's disappointing, because I had high hopes that a pedal like this would help me get away from my need for fx loops in my amps (allowing me to run guitar --> od/dist --> chorus & delay --> clean amp).

Then again, if I had better clean amps, like a Twin or something, perhaps I'd change my mind again.

That said, if anyone out there does get your gain primarily from pedals, pm me about the FBII!

Chris

 

[Draelyc]

bump

 

[Draelyc]

One last bump...