"Blending" the drive pedal...anyone tried?

[BJTosh]

Hi all,

Just a thought, it might be interesting to use some sort of signal blending devide / pedal and mix the original signal with pedals like Tubescreamer or Blues Driver...this way, perhaps (i'm hoping), we can get a nice grit on high end while retaining the fat bass...

Has anyone tried this? I've done my fair share of search for good drive effect for bass (so far Aguilar Tone Hammer, EBS Multidrive and Fulltone OCD have come up) but I haven't come across anyone using this 'blend' trick. Does that simply mean it's crap and makes no difference?

[xikbastard]

i blend most of my dirty signal with dry signal. To retain the lows

[Ayliffe]

JC from tool does it with a Turbo rat and a Boss Eq Pedal to boost bass after the Rat.

There are plenty of people who do it, but i can't really think of any right now.

[G0rilla]

I do it with Turbo Rat and MXR Blowtorch. Works perfect.

[Nyarlathotep]

Originally Posted by BJTosh

... signal blending devide ... Tubescreamer ...

http://www.voodoolab.com/sparkledrive.htm

[TheWoodShed]

Many effects do this on their own, but for those of use who love their vintage toes it makes it hard. Barge Concepts makes a whole line of pedals that will do this for you.

I want to be able to switch from a blended to to pure fuzz, so I think I will go with the DVB-2. I'll set one side to pure fuzz and the other to the desired blend.

[skulletwhip]

The Fulltone OCD sounds AMAZING in a blend loop.

[derrico1]

I do this the majority of the time when using grit -- sometimes with a Sparkle Drive, but mostly using a Barge VB-jr or VFB.

[BJTosh]

Thanks guys!

Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive appeals to me quite a bit as it blends 808 sound on its own. I prefer to keep things simple...however DVB-2 could be very cool too, as you can (practically) use two different gain stages from a single pedal, though I'm not sure whether there will be a noticeable volume change.

[Nyarlathotep]

If you have the dirt pedal at unity volume then you won't have any problem with volume levels on the barge stuff.

[BJTosh]

Originally Posted by Ayliffe

JC from tool does it with a Turbo rat and a Boss Eq Pedal to boost bass after the Rat.

Taking a bit of advice...I just remembered I had a Boss Bass EQ pedal so I tried plugging my Boss / Analogman Blues Driver and Maxon OD-9, with the EQ boosting the low (50 / 120) and high (10k).

The result was surprisingly pleasant with low-gain setting on drive pedals (trying to emulate co-called SVT sound). Boosting the lows on EQ works well to conceal the thin driven top sound. To my ear Blues Driver sounded a little fatter than OD-9, but both achieved fairly good results.

I'll try Blues Driver + EQ at a gig tonight...might do some sound samples too in the next few days.

Cheers!

[fightthepower]

The Blues Driver is tubescreamer based as well iirc.

The Boss LS-2 is great for blending (among other things), as you can put the desired effects in separate loops, each with volume control, and there are multiple modes allowing for the blending of A and B, switching between the two individual loops, etc. If you plug your bass into the 'return' of one of the loops, instead of the pedals input, you can blend your dry bass with the effect of choice in the opposite loop.

Great pedals, and can be found used for $50+.

[Nyarlathotep]

The Katanasound Super Bass Fuzz and the Tentacle Love Super Fuzz both have blends. Both are octave up fuzzes tho.

On a lower gain side of things, the Way Huge Pork Loin has a blend/clean volume as well. There are prolly a tonne more, but Im just going by memory at this point.

[MakiSupaStar]

I ALWAYS have my clean sound blended in the mix in a seperate channel. I run an Ampeg SVP-BSP which has a clean and a dirty channel. The dirty channel is a built in overdrive distortion channel. Each channel has it's own FX loop. I run my fx loop through my dirty channel. There are only a couple of effects that I have that work better with a "global" setting (before the preamp) and that's delay and flange.

[Low_blow]

I like my Xotic BB Bass preamp very much. I wish it had a 'Blend/Mix' knob. I tried different overdrive pedals, but this one is my favourite. So, I bought Radial Big Spot Mix pedal (the red one). Wow! Finally I got an overdriven sound I had been searching for so long. In my opinion, the 'parallel' method works 100%: it gives you an overdriven sound with tight lows and good notes definition.

[takfar]

Originally Posted by fightthepower

If you plug your bass into the 'return' of one of the loops, instead of the pedals input, you can blend your dry bass with the effect of choice in the opposite loop.

As I posted somewhere else, you can plug your bass into the input normally, and have a a normal SEND-A to RETURN-A loop, and the LS-2 will blend in A+B mode (A being your A loop and B being the clean input, even tho the B send and return inputs are empty).

[stflbn]

At this point I only play overdrive/fuz pedals that has a blend on the pedal itself. Just to much wasted pedalboard space to use specific blender type pedals in my opinion.

But, I only use a pedaltrain mini.

Current favorite: Way Huge Pork Loin
I've been a big proponent of the Sparkle Drive for a few years now, but recently tried a Pork Loin and it definitely will be staying and the SD Going. The Pork Loin has NO problems at all with Low End retention even in the stock internal trim pot position. Twist that trim pot clockwise and you get even more low end. More low end that I want or need. So the trim stays in it's stock position.


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[Sven Olaffson]

I've been doing it for years with my Russian Big Muff in a Boss LS-2. Perfect way to keep the lowend while blasting out the fuzz

[Smurf-o-Deth]

I prefer to use a cross-over, keeping frequencies below 250 Hz clean, and distorting the rest.

[TheMutt]

I'm running my Polish Love (reportedly a Red Llama clone) in the loop of a Barge Concepts VB Jr. and have a Malekko B:Assmaster that has a built in blend. Blending clean with effected is great.