Damnation Audio MBD-1

It’s been a while since I got the Damnation MBD-2. I tested it early on in my journey, but wrote not that much about it.
Between selling the MDB and starting this website, too much time had passed to edit my notes from memory in any reliable way. So, when someone offered a mint condition MDB-1 in a trade, I jumped on it.

The MDB-1 is a huge pedal. It’s as wide as your standard pedal is long. The knobs are also quite big. It’s not the best choice when real estate is tight, but I actually like the looks. It’s like a normal pedal scaled up. The matte black finish with the sober design works for me, especially since one of the words in bold is “Damnation”.

The controls are:
Volume: Master volume.
Tone: This is a tilt EQ. Noon is as flat as it goes.
Gain: Gain.
Clean: Will inject a gently low passed (1kHz corner) clean signal
Shift: This switch will set the center frequency for the tilt EQ. The up position centers the EQ at 600Hz and applies a gentle dip at that frequency and the down position centers the EQ at 300Hz and applies a much stronger dip.
Depth: Decides how much of the frequency range below 700Hz gets fed into the clipping circuit.

In addition, there is a hidden control on the inside, a pre gain stage where you can up the gain if your bass pickups are weak, or reduce it a little when your bass is super hot.

Fun fact:
In the review of the MBD-2, I wrote that I plugged in with everything at noon, played a bit and liked it, then tweaked knobs and hated it. I tweaked some more and still hated it.
The exact same thing happened with the MBD-1. I plugged it in with everything at noon, played a few notes and liked what I was getting. A beefy, grindy drive with weight in the signal and fuzzy edges.
When I use the terms beef and weight, I’m describing the drive as such. There’s not much EQ going on with the EQ at noon. It sounds slightly scooped, but I don’t really get the impression of a lot of coloring happening from the EQ. It just feels like a muscular and mean drive. Not that kind of bodybuilder muscular. Not that kind of construction worker muscular, either. That kind that is sinewy and does not look impressive at all in a hoody. I don’t think it is based on any popular circuit – and if it is, it’s not recognizable immediately. I think Jeffrey Davis, the guy behind Damnation Audio simply was both
A) fed up with the limited options for bassists who were after a heavy sound
and B) able to hold a soldering iron with the right side and up without hurting anyone, including himself
so he used B) to fix A) and made what he deemed a proper bass drive pedal.

There is a lot of interaction between the knobs and switches and all that does not really work in the way my personal intuition thinks it would – that’s why it sounds good with everything at noon and then I start messing everything up.
Let’s have a closer look at the controls that interact heavily. Volume and Gain are obvious.
The tone knob is something I don’t particularly enjoy. I simply don’t see the real sense in tilt control EQs at all in bass dirt pedals. When having a bit more sparkle in the top end comes at the cost of neutering the lows, I usually try to decide which is better and then simply replace the pedal with one that has separate bass and treble knobs so I don’t have to. It seems, though, that the MBD-1 has a workaround with the Clean blend. I don’t particularly like clean blends in dirt pedals, but this one is low passed and works really well. You can turn it up to get some bottom back, and it does not sound like two signals layered on top of each other but forms a single thing that feels whole.
The depth knob decides how much low end gets fed into the clipping stage. This heavily interacts with both the clean and the gain knob. I found that it works best when you adjust in small increments, trying in a band mix. Operating a bit like you’re in a room so dark you can’t see a thing. One tiny move – does it get better or worse? If better, keep moving. If worse, back up the last step and try something else.
The hard bit is the shift switch. Both the slight cut at 600 and the heavier cut at 300Hz sound good. But flipping the switch teleports you to a new position in the dark room and you will have to restart the fumbling process.
Here’s the good news: Once you gained some experience, the whole thing gets a lot easier.
When you are aiming for a very civilized drive sound, one with a hint of breakup, just hovering on the edge, the MBD pedals give you multiple options to get there. You can either run the clean high, or you can run the depth low, with higher gain settings, or you can run the gain lower. It all adds a slightly fuzzy, serrated edge to your sound. It works in a dynamic fashion where you can keep your playing clean but have your bass growl when you want it to, all on your fingertips.

However, if you ask me, it is a heavy drive for heavy music.

When I say heavy drive, I don’t mean that it has lots of gain. I mean it has lots of gain, but that’s not what I’m after when saying heavy.
Neither do I want to say it has a lot of weight to it, in terms of boosted low end. It does not boost the low end.
What I want to say is that the drive section of the pedal has attitude. The way the dirt is applied is what makes it heavy.
The bass tone gains a hard grind that can be metallic but does not have to.
What I personally settled on is the sound a terracotta jar being smashed by a steamhammer.
It sits extremely well in a mix with heavy guitars. It does not punch through. It does not disappear. It does not neuter the low end. Neither is it boomy. It hangs back a little, but is present. Like a bassist in a band photo.

This is what it’s made for. Heavy drive for a heavy mix. The fact that it also works extremely well as a gentle, low gain drive is more or less a side effect. I mean, you can use either a Land Rover in full expedition configuration or a Ferrari with track tires on a well paved suburban road and drive to the grocery store at 30mph. Both will get you there.

The low gain settings are capable of adding some treble, but it never gets shimmery, pearly or brings a big emphasis on the top end. You do need to use a bit of drive to freshen up your stale tone, because the clean signal is low passed and only the drive path has the higher frequencies, but if you set everything to noon and then dial back a little on the gain (depending on your bass output), you’re nearly there. A gentle drive. Like a hug from a biker. Firm grip. The stubble on his chin chafes a bit on your cheek and there are several points on this leather clad person that have protruding metal studs that do feel a bit like they are pushing into you in a slightly uncomfortable way – but it all adds to the character. After all, it’s a drive with attitude, no matter the settings.