Southampton Fifth Gear question

monkeyfinger

monkeyfinger

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#1
I have a first generation Fifth Gear that I was planning to add to my board. While testing it out last night, I noticed something peculiar. When I ran it by itself, (bass->FG->mixer), it produced a nice mild overdrive tone. More like hair on the note rather than noticeable distortion. When I put it in front of another pedal, it produced a much stronger overdrive sound, more like fuzz. I suspect this has something to do with the input impedance of the next device in the path. Is this normal for this pedal?
 
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#4
BFunk said:
I have a first generation Fifth Gear that I was planning to add to my board. While testing it out last night, I noticed something peculiar. When I ran it by itself, (bass->FG->mixer), it produced a nice mild overdrive tone. More like hair on the note rather than noticeable distortion. When I put it in front of another pedal, it produced a much stronger overdrive sound, more like fuzz. I suspect this has something to do with the input impedance of the next device in the path. Is this normal for this pedal?
Click to expand...

What pedal was after the 5th gear?

It does boost the volume, and the V2 has a volume control to reduce the boost to unity. The drive and heat can balance how much hair you get. There is an EQ shift in it too that may hit some pedals differently, making more drive.

I personally have yet to find a pedal that didn't like the Fifth Gear running into it. It's a great first stage for gain stacking.
 
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#7
I am positive that was not the issue. The Keeley was set up for peak limiting: infinity:1 ratio, threshold -10dB, make up gain ~3dB. The FG was usually set at or slightly above unity gain, about 10 o'clock. The green led on the Bassist never turned red indicating that no compression was taking place. That makes sense since the clipping compresses the signal already.
 
#8
What's the input impedance on the mixer? It sounds like the mixer was loading down the output of the 5th Gear and the other pedals added some buffering before the mixer so you got a fuller range signal. Maybe?

That all depends on the output impedance of the 5th Gear.
 
#10
Sounds weird to me. I would have understood if you had been stacking things INTO the 5th gear. But for two pretty transparent pedals like the bassist and the DSM to change the sound of the 5th gear so drastically when placed after it, seems weird. The mixer impedance idea is worth exploring.
 
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#11
Sounds like the FG is either making another pedal distort or the FG and another gain stage (the pedal added after it) is making something further down the chain distort.

What is the setting on the FG? Even at it's sweet spot, the FGv1 is already giving you a good amount of boost.
 
#14
So I just retested the pedal with bass->FG->Mackie. It is definitely the input impedance of the upstream audio device that makes a difference. This test was with an ACG Uber 5 with active electronics. If I switched the DI off on the mixer the sound was thinner and less distorted. When I engaged the DI, the sound was fuller with a lot more distortion. This video shows the sound I am talking about. The heavier distortion is like what you hear around 0:47. The lighter distortion is more like what you hear around 1:22.
 
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