In-bass overdrive of "grind" effect?

[rymiraflores]

I know , from several interviews, that Jack Bruce and Felix Pappalardi had something installed in their basses which helped to create that sound the had. Do any of you guys know of a simple easy to install circuit or "thing" that would give a bit of overdrive or a bit more growl.I don´t want to get an effect simply for such a simple thing if at all possible.

[heavyfunkmachin]

some people used the black dice, or black ice, i cant recall. but they say it sucks on bass due to low pickup signal strenght or some other muble jumble.

you can allways go active and have the effect inside your bass. I met a guy who had a vt bass pedal assembled right into his bass with a passive switch so he could play the regular bass or flip the swithc and have an onboard active preamp with overdrive...

thats as far as my knoledge goes...

[bassbrad]

Some of the older Gibson basses had an actual passive fuzz circuit installed, but I have never actually seen a bass with that circuit.
Black Ice overdrive circuit is one I have installed in guitars and it works pretty well, never installed on in a bass tho. There may be others available.

STEWMAC.COM : Black Ice Overdrive

[MikeBC]

Hope this helps. From jack's website (Jack Bruce - Equipment)

"During the 1960s, Jack plugged his EB-3 into a stack of Marshall amps (Marshall 4x12s with Marshall 100 heads). His desire for greater volume induced him to crank up the volume control, unwittingly producing the heavy, distorted tone that became so popular in the ensuing years. Later, Jack had instrument technician Dan Armstrong install a diode into the EB-3's wiring to produce the same effect without overdriving his amplifiers."

[Indicahound]

They had a clipping diode solder inside the bass to the jack. Well just a diode(one way valve for the signal called, you guessed it, Rectification.)

Its a 2$ and 15 minute mod.

Jack Bruce - Equipment

[dannybuoy]

You could put this circuit in a passive bass easily:

Grunt Pedal - Cave Passive Pedals

[JP Morin]

I have an emg pa2 in one of my bass that do that a bit... (It boost the output, so the amp will overdrive...)

also emg Afterburner would be great cuz of the knob that allow you to control the amount of boost without opening the cavity like the emg-PA2...

An other thing with these device is they transfer a high impedance signal into a low impedance one... which may be good in certain situation

AB | Electric Guitar Pickups & Accessories - EMG Pickups