Any distortion pedals that work with an expression pedal?

[HunterBurgan4Me]

I had a thought the other day that it would be brilliant if you could fade in/out and decrease and increase distortion from a pedal with an expression pedal with no effect on volume. Are there any pedals that allow this?

[heavyfunkmachin]

Line 6 M5/M9/M13 is the only i can think of., that being said I don't really like it's distortions/overdrives...

[zwkoch]

Source Audio MWBD does. You can bet that their OFD Micro modeler will as well when it comes out.

[gavinspoon]

I've not done it on bass, but i've seen guitarists use a stereo volume pedal to pan their signal between a clean and dirty amp. So both amps are allways on, but their sound is mixed by the pedal. You could do something similar without 2 amps by spliting the signal into dirty and clean signal paths (just put one through an OD and one not) and then recombine them before the amp.

[simenandreas]

Why do you really need that? You can blend in how much distortion you want on many pedals from the pedals itself. If you really want to use your foot, you could try doing some homework on a pedal and make the blend button bigger and more easy to adjust with your feet

[rolandm]

Zoom pedals with the X/Y expression pedal allow you to blend the gain in and out, as well as the volume. I found it a handy tool when I did the guitar part to lonely boy on my bass and then needed to roll off the distortion for the bass part. It also allowed me to use the other axis of expression to do the whammy effect and dive the note.

[Gabeja15]

Better yet, how about an expression pedal that will work with any distortion

http://www.musictoyz.com/Merchant2/m...Yes&Quantity=1

[Vic Winters]

Mike Putnam could mod just about any pedal you want to do that.

[gavinspoon]

The idea is to make it easy to do on the fly, so imagine a guitarist holding an extended vibrating note during a solo whilst increasing the distortion with his foot. I don't personaly feel a need to do the same on bass, but i can see how someone with a different style to me might find it useful during solo's and similar.

[zwkoch]

I use this with my SA MWBD and a reverb pedal to create synthy pads. It is nice to use that sound for song transitions, reflective moments, etc. As a church musician, the band is often playing behind the presenter, and this setup works really well in those moments.

[NightCat]

I totally get why you would want to do this. I think the Pan Stereo pedal might have possibilities.
In my case, I am working on a song with a guitarist and for most of the song I am playing fairly clean supportive bass, but there are two passages where we want the song to drift into this cello/ambient cathedral type drone. I am working with my Ebow on this part but what I want do is to increase the distortion/fuzz and chorus for that part. I want is to swell in and out.
Anyway, I am interested in read what comes out of this thread.

[zwkoch]

Here is how I use mine. Pardon the talking, the video was created to help a friend in another state. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TakCDrA4DUE

[NightCat]

Originally Posted by zwkoch

Here is how I use mine. Pardon the talking, the video was created to help a friend in another state. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TakCDrA4DUE

Good job. That was great. The bit @7 min had that Twin Peaks vibe.

[MCS4]

Dr. Scientist's The Elements does this, although I believe the expression function modifies the clean/dirty blend rather than the distortion levels. This may actually be better for the OP, if there is a concern about the volume level -- it seems like changing the blend will be more likely to maintain a similar volume than modifying the gain directly.

[AuntieBeeb]

I know I've already sung its praises on several other threads, but Ibanez's Bass Tubescreamer (TS-9B) responds really well to changes in volume. I've found it responds really well to how hard I play, and mellows nicely if you back off the bass volume control a little - no reason you couldn't achieve the same with a volume pedal!

[DagoMaino]

I was going to attempt a mod of my old bass muff to add expression control to the volume pot (distorted mix on Dry mode) to do just this! Seems cool in my head, anyway!

[Feral Feline]

Originally Posted by HunterBurgan4Me

I had a thought the other day that it would be brilliant if you could fade in/out and decrease and increase distortion from a pedal with an expression pedal with no effect on volume. Are there any pedals that allow this?

Originally Posted by MCS4

Dr. Scientist's The Elements ...

/thread

[Happynoj]

Morley do a bypass looper that is built into an expression pedal casing, with the pedal controlling the blend. Not exactly what you are after, but a very flexible option.

[Dr Greenthumb]

Originally Posted by MCS4

Dr. Scientist's The Elements does this, although I believe the expression function modifies the clean/dirty blend rather than the distortion levels. This may actually be better for the OP, if there is a concern about the volume level -- it seems like changing the blend will be more likely to maintain a similar volume than modifying the gain directly.

+1 to this. The Elements' expression control is indeed for the clean/effected blend and doesn't bump the volume.

[vegas532]

You can get the Malekko B:Assmaster with this. My Silicon has an expression input.