For me to get the Adam Clayton sound I mix clean and dirty signals together.
Here's me playing "New Year's Day" at a summer party ...
http://vids.myspace.com:80/index.cfm...79&n=493055879
And here's the effects that I was using.
First I split the signal into 4 parallel signals with a rolls mixer.
1 - I run one into the Line6 bass pod where I model an acoustic 360 with a rat distortion pedal. I use this to get a retro growlly distorted sound. Or I also model an Ampeg fliptop with the Rat Distortion pedal.
2 - The second signal goes into a Mxr bass di+. I use this pedal to get a clean modern sound. It also has a distortion button that can give a moderate to extreme amount of modern distortion.
3 - The third signal goes into a Marshall Guv'nor. This gives me an old 60s marshall stack sound. This can go from a small amount of distortion to an over the top marshall sound. This effect can give you a Chris Squire Yes sound or a heavy metal sound, or just a subtle amount of distortion.
4 - The fourth signal goes into a Tech21 vt bass pedal. With this effect I get a slightly dirty Ampeg SVT bass amp sound with a tube like growl.
Then I remix the 4 signals back together and run it into a bass amp, or pa, or studio mixer. Because the signals are parallel I can mix clean and overdriven sounds together and still get effect and a sound that punches through the mix.
I was running into an Ampeg B3 and 4 x10s and an xlr out into the PA.
