Dual Danelctro Rocky Road Biamp Set-up

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wilsonsk
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Post by wilsonsk »

I am a novice organ player and last year some time I picked up a Rocky Road to use as a Leslie simulator. It is the only one of the lower end brands I tried but was for the most part satisfied with the performance, especially for the price. My regular keyboard player plays through a real 147 and while it sounds awesome, it does cause trouble in smaller clubs and with stage volume. My soundman said we should get our regular guy a RR, much more manageable for him (not to mention easier to load in). I had toyed with the idea of using 2 of them, one for highs, and one for lows, just like the horn and bass rotor on a Leslie. I had never got around to getting the second RR and have been gigging some with my freshly chopped C-2 (with AO-29, so I have percussion, basically an A-100 now). I saw a new RR on c-list for $10 locally and ran and scooped it up. My first go at biamping was to split the incoming signal and go to both RRs then return from them to two channels of a little Behringer mixer with 3 band EQ, I took all of the lows and most of the mids out on one and all of the highs and a little of the mids on the other, rigged a DPDT momentary switch to ramp both together, the results are pretty impressive. The ramp speed is a little different on the two units and I have the fast speed set a little slower on the bass RR. I am building a passive crossover to put in the input signal path two crossover at 800Hz. I am fine with the signal loss, the RRs are pretty hot and they do OK with a pad in front of them. I'll let everyone know how it works later in the week.

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JudgeMingus
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Post by JudgeMingus »

I had been thinking of doing the same thing, so I would be interested to see how this goes!

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GuitarlCarl
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Post by GuitarlCarl »

I've run some kind of split signal in almost everything I've done. I have different pedal boards that are always evolving, that I use for different things. Praise band, garage band, Psychedelic Blues band, and multiple one offs. Often I'll split it and use two different Vibe pedals, a Danelectro Chicken Salad, and an old DOD Vibro Thang. You might try that Chicken Salad on your low side, it's similar to a rotary with a little more swirl/thump on it. The other thing I like to split are echoes...
I want it to sound like bees buzzing around in a 55 gallon drum...

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wilsonsk
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Post by wilsonsk »

I built a passive 1st order crossover in to a Y cable, actually a low pass filter in one 1/4 plug and a high pass in the other, I designed it for 800Hz, we'll see tonight if it works or not.

Can anyone tell me why when I disconnect the power supplies to these two pedals, when I reconnect them, one always on and the other is always off? I was hoping they would both be on, they both default to slow if the power is cut then restored. I was banking n being able to hide these in the organ and just remote a momentary DPDT switch to change speeds, cutting power off and on would be a way to make sure they are sync'd up. I can still do it but I need to get to one of them now to turn it on.

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GuitarlCarl
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my favorite amplifier: anything tube
Completed builds: Ds-1 mods, SD-1 mods, Small Clone mods, Muff build, Axis build, various other transistor booster builds... I can build a badaxe harmonic perc, but I can't get a fuzzface to sound worth a crap!
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Post by GuitarlCarl »

wilsonsk wrote:I built a passive 1st order crossover in to a Y cable, actually a low pass filter in one 1/4 plug and a high pass in the other, I designed it for 800Hz, we'll see tonight if it works or not.

Can anyone tell me why when I disconnect the power supplies to these two pedals, when I reconnect them, one always on and the other is always off? I was hoping they would both be on, they both default to slow if the power is cut then restored. I was banking n being able to hide these in the organ and just remote a momentary DPDT switch to change speeds, cutting power off and on would be a way to make sure they are sync'd up. I can still do it but I need to get to one of them now to turn it on.
Are they using fets? They like to default to on when they start up, yet these are supposed to be the same pedal? I'd be curious and look if they have the same board inside, I can understand the speed being a little off but operations should be the same!!! It'd be a hassle to buy a third pedal to get two the same, and then sell one off...
I want it to sound like bees buzzing around in a 55 gallon drum...

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wilsonsk
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Post by wilsonsk »

I guess I don't know if they are using FETs or not. I guess if I find another one for $10-15 I'll take a stab at getting another one that is in the "ON" state when the power is applied, I like them well enough to have an extra laying around at those prices.

I tried my passive crossover last night, it works but the balance between highs and lows is not great, too much lows. I can incorporate a balancing pot but that moves everything into an encloseure where I have it built into a "Y" cable now, very compact. I suppose I could use a pot temporarily and get the blend I like and hard wire it with the corresponding resistor values. I went back to splitting the signal going in to them and returning each to a separate channel on a little mixer with 3 band eq and manipulating the highs an lows for each. I probably should just try running full signal through both once, you never know what may have the best effect.

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wilsonsk
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Post by wilsonsk »

I discovered I had done a mod to my first Rocky Road to lower the gain, this was the one I had for the highs, I disabled the mod and tried it again, it works great. I gigged with it Saturday night, it really has a great effect, you really can hear, especially on the sow speed, the highs at one speed and lows at a slightly different speed. Another unforseen advantage is the ability to bump the drive on either the highs or the lows independently, I found that to be useful on a couple different tunes for effect. I have to say I am really impressed with the sound. My sound man is pleased as well, he has fought with stage volume and real Leslies for years (as well as organ players that insist on having the back face the crowd with the covers off, gets tough to control in a small club). I still wish the RRs ramped up faster, but I am learning to stay ahead enough to start the ramp up early enough so it is close to high speed when I want it to be. It is kind of cool on some tunes on a solo line when the Leslie effect is picking up speed during the solo, pretty transparent until it starts getting close to speed. I can certainly live with it for a bit, well worth the $100 or so I have invested in it.

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