Post by freekingprawn on Nov 19, 2015 23:24:07 GMT
The Pedal:
The price in stores is going for 119€. I got mine for 80€ second hand. Being that it is a very recent product I would say it was a good deal with no need to bargain.
It has five knobs: Output, Distortion, Bass, Mids and Treble. I can’t emphasize enough on how having this sort of EQ is important when dealing with distortions [for me that is]. And a great deal of this little box’s’ character comes from being able to manage and tweak the EQ. If it had the ever so elusive “Tone Knob” I wouldn’t even bother considering to buy it.
It seems to be getting unreasonable in this day and age for any company to be selling dirt pedals and some other effects without a 3 band EQ and a Noise Gate built into them [especially due to ever so growing music styles [wink wink to all sorts of metal] one comes across with where these 2 things are extremely important]. Well, at least it comes with half the package, the only other thing it would really be handy is a noise gate built into it [something like MXR did with the Fullbore].
The 9v input jack is on its side sadly, right next to the Guitar’s input. Why? Because they hate you, that’s why.
Of the few pedals I own, this one is rather small. And compared to the Marshall Blues Breaker 2 it looks as if I were to stare at it long enough the MXR would die.
Seriously, it’s well built and all… but for a pedal whose name is “Super Bad Ass” it looks rather wimpy and about to cry when I put it right next to the BB2. But size isn’t what this pedal is about.
Knobs are all good and so is the footswitch.
The Sound:
The MXR site announces it as a pedal that “goes from 70’s rock to more modern metal.” I would dare ask “in which year did you stop listening to metal”, because it can do metal sure… but not that “modern”. For more modern metal it lacks a lot of balls to it [and compression].
And it doesn’t go into Fullbore territory either [thank god MXR had the good sense to avoid it; alongside with the (in)famous Metal Zone, it has to be the most hideous sounding pedal ever produced… and I’m all for Metal].
Basically what we have with the Super Bad Ass [SBA] is a Marshall in a box. Or better yet, a Marshall-ish sounding distortion. But it doesn’t stop there. It can also act as a Booster, a Tube Screamer of sorts, a soft crunch and it does it very well. In fact, the 2 best arguments the SBA has in its favor are
a) Its wide range of gain that goes from clean to boost, to overdrive, to crunch into distortion [except modern metal, but take it with a grain of salt].
b) The 3 band EQ that helps a lot to get practically any sound you so desire
If you happen to own a Marshall amp [let’s say, a JCM 2000] you can skip this pedal altogether because it won’t give you anything new in that department, and chances are you really like to drive your amp to full blast and make the “father of Loud” a proud deceased person. You could always use it for less gain stuff, such as to boost the amp though.
However if you happen to own any other non-Marshall sounding amp, you will be well rewarded.
The SBA is very responsive to pick dynamics and the volume on your guitar on the lower settings of its gain but will lose this quality has you drive it further. Pass 3 o’clock on the gain it doesn’t retain its focus. Instead of a steady compressed wave the overall clipping becomes a bit messy. The EQ helps a lot here. It seems to have a tendency to want to go into “scooped” territory or somewhere between 12 and 2 o’clock on the Mids. Reducing the Lows will also help getting the distortion back into focus. And the Highs will give it the final touch [all this in the higher gain territory of course].
As I said previously, it’s not a dirt box that will make you go Dimmu Borgir or Necrophagist on its own [ie. modern metal]. It lacks balls for that. You can stack another dirt box to it though to drive it further. I tried it with the Marshall BB2 and though it did push the SBA further up the gain, it also increased the noise to absurdity. I think it’s a lesson Companies such MXR should have learned by now: if you are going to sell a product and advertise it as a pedal that goes “from 70’s rock to more modern metal” you better put a Noise Gate in it. After all, they did it with the FullBore, so why wouldn’t they do the same here?
Driving my Deluxe Big Muff with the Super Bad Ass was interesting though [not that the DBM needs it, not by a long shot] but only because the DBM has a Noise Gate of its own. Pairing the two doesn’t produce a considerable amount of noise [thank you Noise Gate].
The Pros:
. A dirt pedal with a 3 band EQ that works
. Very versatile in all its gain range. From clean boost up to high gain anything is possible.
. Lots of volume on tap.
. Small enclosure. Good for either a small pedalboard or a crowded one.
. Good knobs and switch.
. It’s called Super Bad Ass. How Bad Ass is that? It’s Super.
The Cons:
. The location of the 9v input is not that wise.
. No Noise Gate. Stacking with other dirt pedals may be a bit problematic without one.
. It won’t go into “more modern metal” no matter how much MXR advertises it.
. Can get out of focus on higher settings if not EQed properly.
Afterthoughts:
I would be very happy if there was a Noise Gate on this pedal [can you tell?] It’s a must. As I said before, I think it’s unreasonable to sell a distortion unit without a Noise Gate these days, especially due to its advertisement.
It’s a great pedal, don’t misinterpret me, it’s just not that wise without one. Other than that the little box is very good and versatile [just the way I like them].
EQ is key to get as much of a full spectrum of sounds as you can out of it. And believe me, you’ll find a lot of sounds there. But don’t go expecting a super duper metal machine because it isn’t one. It’s capable of producing a good metal-ish high gain sort of dirt if you EQ it by dropping the Lows, the Mids and raising the Highs a fair amount, but it won’t give you anywhere near the palm muting experience of other devices out there. The distortion is of the rather loos kind, not of the tight and focused one.
You may achieve it by driving the pedal with higher output pickups or another dirt pedal before it, but be prepared to keep an external Noise Gate ready if you do so. The pedal by itself won’t achieve it.
Also keep in mind that it has definitely a Marshall-ish character to it. If you already own a Marshall amp it won’t satisfy you as much as having a very different sounding amp altogether, though you can use the box for other stuff than high gain Marshall-like distortion [the EQ is great to sculpt any sound you may think of and the gain is very wide].