Active bass and a guitar pedal

[bobostein]

My old bass (passive) sounded pritty good with this guitar overdrive pedal but my new bass, an active Rock Bass Corvette sounds like crap why is this? It sounds really thin and fuzzy in a bad way. What do active basses do to pedals that passive dont?

[bongomania]

There are two things that can sometimes happen:
1) Some active basses have higher output levels, and higher signal into the pedal means more extreme clipping (distortion).
2) Active basses have low output impedance, and many fuzz pedals sound nasal and harsh when fed a low-output-impedance signal. This is mostly with fuzzes based on old-school circuit designs, and is not usually a problem with overdrives.

[bobostein]

^ the pedal is a early 80s DOD overdrive

[bongomania]

Then it's probably #1. Try turning down the volume knob on the bass itself. Also, does the pedal need a new battery?