DHA VT-1 or Xotic Bass BB? (or another warm low gain bass OD)

[mcnach]

I am looking to add a "warmer" to my pedal board.

What is a warmer?
Something that will "warm up" the sound a little bit, getting a bit, and I mean a bit only, of overdrive. The type of overdrive that sounds rather clean once mixed in a band context, warm, creamy.
It may stay on all the time, in certain situations (I play in 3 bands, so my board is not very complex but it does contain a few varied elements). Or I may use it as a soft overdrive sometimes bringing the gain a bit higher.

So yes, an overdrive pedal that is able to give me arange of low gain overdriven sounds, reasonably transparent: I don't want it to affect the overall EQ too much, just add overdrive.

I have various noise boxes to deal with "filth" (currently in use: Ashdown Hyperdrive and Darkglass B3K), what I am after now is something low gain, warm and transparent.

I have been reading and listening to soundclips, and I'm in between two boxes right now:

1) DHA VT-1
2) Xotic Bass BB

Both appear to be good at what I want.
The DHA has an attractive price (and a blue led!!! ;-)) but I wish it were smaller, and the power supply is not standard: it appears I can run it at 9V rather than 12V ok, but I need to get a cable to invert the polarity and the plug is smaller than standard. I'd rather not add yet another power supply to my board.
The Xotic is perfect in terms of power requirements for my board, and has a small footprint. The price is twice that of the DHA 'though.

Neither of them come up for sale used very often, so I am going to have to make a decision and buy a new one to try.

I would love to hear from owners of either of these boxes and their experiences. Any reason they prefer one over the other?

I have considered other pedals. The Barber LTD SR looks good, but it's not exactly what I am after, I think. The EBS Valvedrive is very attractive despite its large footprint... but the clips I have heard are quite overdriven, so I am not sure how good it is at low gain sounds. In addition, it seems quite tall and I don't think it will fit in my board. Catalinbread SFT did not sound appealing. Way Huge Pork Loin sounds interesting, but more as a general overdrive than a specific transparentish very low gain overdrive "warmer".

The objective is to get a very creamy fingerstyle funky sound from my Stingray & Jazz (bridge pickup mostly).

Any and all ideas most welcome.

[Lebowsky]

I never had a VT-1. But I have a BB for years and it replaced my long lasting quest for the perfect OD. I think I saw 2 of them in the classifieds this week, probably due to the hype on the Darkglass B3K, which could be your third option (but it's yet another price level)

BB preamp is, imho, the best tubescreamer based clone on the market. It's warm, has all the low end you need and has quite a range of tone from low gain to gritty to full on distortion.

FWIW, when searching, I preferred the BB over the Xotic RC and AC, the Fulltone Bassdrive, the EBS black label ones and the Tubescreamer.

[mcnach]

Originally Posted by Lebowsky

I never had a VT-1. But I have a BB for years and it replaced my long lasting quest for the perfect OD. I think I saw 2 of them in the classifieds this week, probably due to the hype on the Darkglass B3K, which could be your third option (but it's yet another price level)

BB preamp is, imho, the best tubescreamer based clone on the market. It's warm, has all the low end you need and has quite a range of tone from low gain to gritty to full on distortion.

FWIW, when searching, I preferred the BB over the Xotic RC and AC, the Fulltone Bassdrive, the EBS black label ones and the Tubescreamer.

I already have a Darkglass B3K
very very nice.
But I want something else for the low gain OD... I have to say the Xotic BB is starting to look like a real winner

[Bermel]

Originally Posted by mcnach

I am looking to add a "warmer" to my pedal board.

What is a warmer?
Something that will "warm up" the sound a little bit, getting a bit, and I mean a bit only, of overdrive. The type of overdrive that sounds rather clean once mixed in a band context, warm, creamy.
It may stay on all the time, in certain situations (I play in 3 bands, so my board is not very complex but it does contain a few varied elements). Or I may use it as a soft overdrive sometimes bringing the gain a bit higher.

So yes, an overdrive pedal that is able to give me arange of low gain overdriven sounds, reasonably transparent: I don't want it to affect the overall EQ too much, just add overdrive.

I have various noise boxes to deal with "filth" (currently in use: Ashdown Hyperdrive and Darkglass B3K), what I am after now is something low gain, warm and transparent.

I have been reading and listening to soundclips, and I'm in between two boxes right now:

1) DHA VT-1
2) Xotic Bass BB

Both appear to be good at what I want.
The DHA has an attractive price (and a blue led!!! ;-)) but I wish it were smaller, and the power supply is not standard: it appears I can run it at 9V rather than 12V ok, but I need to get a cable to invert the polarity and the plug is smaller than standard. I'd rather not add yet another power supply to my board.
The Xotic is perfect in terms of power requirements for my board, and has a small footprint. The price is twice that of the DHA 'though.

Neither of them come up for sale used very often, so I am going to have to make a decision and buy a new one to try.

I would love to hear from owners of either of these boxes and their experiences. Any reason they prefer one over the other?

I have considered other pedals. The Barber LTD SR looks good, but it's not exactly what I am after, I think. The EBS Valvedrive is very attractive despite its large footprint... but the clips I have heard are quite overdriven, so I am not sure how good it is at low gain sounds. In addition, it seems quite tall and I don't think it will fit in my board. Catalinbread SFT did not sound appealing. Way Huge Pork Loin sounds interesting, but more as a general overdrive than a specific transparentish very low gain overdrive "warmer".

The objective is to get a very creamy fingerstyle funky sound from my Stingray & Jazz (bridge pickup mostly).

Any and all ideas most welcome.

IMO, you have described perfectly how the BB sounds. Seems like your best bet. I have to say that it can lose some of your clean attack when cranking the gain, but you won't have this issue at low gain levels (knob around 8 o'clock).

[pringlw]

Can't speak to the BB but I have the VT-1 and I couldn't be happier. I can get a range of sounds from just a little bit of warmth, to full on vintage fuzz and everything inbetween. It also doubles as a practice amp of sorts. Plug in your ipod - and your headphones - and you can jam away to your music without an amp. I find that comes in handy.

Great box, I love it.

[BassBrass]

I'm now using a Wounded Paw Black Sheep. Independently EQ'd Low, Mid and high overdrives with clean blend! I use it Low- maxed, Mid at noon and high at 9 oclock. Most warmest ever bass overdrive! Youtube has clips.
I had an Xotic BB pre but it was only good as a first pedal because of the sag (muffled attack) when other pedals were in front of it. It seems to specialize in high mids (not surprising being a tubescreemer clone) but the lows are really low, which is great, not some 120hz boominess.

[Bermel]

Originally Posted by BassBrass

I'm now using a Wounded Paw Black Sheep. Independently EQ'd Low, Mid and high overdrives with clean blend! I use it Low- maxed, Mid at noon and high at 9 oclock. Most warmest ever bass overdrive! Youtube has clips.
I had an Xotic BB pre but it was only good as a first pedal because of the sag (muffled attack) when other pedals were in front of it. It seems to specialize in high mids (not surprising being a tubescreemer clone) but the lows are really low, which is great, not some 120hz boominess.

I have a similar experience with the attack loss on the BB. Are you refering to other pedals in front of it and being on, or just in front of the bb, even if they are off?

[Lebowsky]

yeah have an EHX LPB-1 (clean boost) in front of the BB to give it more attack

[MSUsousaphone]

I'm converted to Swell for the time being. Not much talk about it here for some reason, but I got a Swell B-TOD in a trade recently and that thing just knocked all other ODs off. The B-TOD is way too high gain for me....but they have a mid gain (B-PRO) that I'm looking at...and a low gain (B-DRIVE) you might be interested in. A bit pricey. But the one I have is worth it.

[newbold]

I REALLY like the touch sensitivity of my Pigtronix OFO (disnortion) and they've just realeased a 'fat drive' - I know I want to try one. If you get a chance before I do and post some love/distaste then please let us know if it works?

Are you in a hurry?

[bassboysam]

I would avoid the BB, in my opinion it is not warm, it's a tubescreamer clone so it has a lot of presence in the high mids.

Check out pedals like the Fuzzrocious Dark Driving, HBE Hematoma, Mad Prof Blueberry maybe even the Fairfield Barbershop. To me these all have a more natural warm sound character than the BB.

[sillyfabe]

I personally use a T-Rex Bass Juice with gain at 8:30,tone at 9:00, mix at 1:30 and level to unity...sounds really warm, tubey and with just a little break when I dig in with my P-Bass. Plus it doubles as a clean boost

[phatbass]

I have the BB and can't comment on the other, but it's perfect for me because I was looking for a unit which would go down to zero audible distortion so I could dial in EXACTLY the amount of dirt I want, and the BB does this. It can be used as just a clean boost if you want.

[mcnach]

Thank you for all the comments.
I still am curious about the Xotic Bass BB... but I have just ordered a DHA VT-1. The more I listened to clips and read reviews, the more it seemed the VT-1 would be what I was after. And it has the all important blue led, as I mentioned earlier! ;-P
Although the BB still looks interesting so I am going to keep my eye open to see if I can find one used.

[BrandonBass]

I have tried xotic bb bass, hbe hematoma, vt bass and mad professor bbod

xotic bb bass: the most transparent amongst all the ods Ive tried, if want to keep the original sound of your bass but just add abit of dirt then go for this. The high gain setting is not that great though, and it sounds pretty boring to me. But like I said, its transparent. No low end loss, infact you can boost some more.

HBE hematoma: my main od for awhile, its still somewhere in my closet. It sucks abit of the lowest end < 100hz and has a muted treble.Might not be such a bad thing. In other words, its midrange focus. In other words, it cuts through the mix. The low gain setting on this pedal is not that great imo, but the high gain setting kills. You'll have no fear of getting drowned out by your guitarst, infact I have to tame in sometimes to keep my guitarist from getting buried in the mix. Its a pretty unique beast.

Vt bass: one of the most loved pedals on this forum, it really lives up to its hype. It can be pretty transparent if you want it to. Great for low gain tube-sim, the high gain settings doesnt do it for me. Its an always on pedal for me.

MP BBOD: My main od as of now. The clips on youtube doesnt do it justice, most of the demos have the nature knob set to clockwise which makes the bass sound more high mids focus. You need to the that damn knob counter clockwise for earth-shaking bass lava goodness. It shines from low gain to high gain settings, but I tend to keep the knob counter clockwise cause the higher settings can get abit muddy if you play busy. Its not transparent at all, people can tell when you stomp on it. But it rocks. No loss of low end and enough mids to punch through.

[DeltaPhoenix]

You will pleased with the VT-1. I have a VT-2-EQ-STD. I set the blue channel (essentially the VT-1) on a nice low gain setting at all times. I am running it into a tube head and it puts my "clean" tone right at the point of break-up. Sounds so good, the Dynamics of my playing are unaffected. If I knew what I know now, I would have just bought a VT-1, I use Dr. Scientist The Elements for high gain stuff or 1 of my many fuzzes.

[TomB]

Another thumb's up on the DH pedal if you're looking for a wide range of moderately overdriven tones. I'm glad to know the VT-1 is still available, I thought maybe it was discontinued. I use a Mk III that adds a few extra tricks to the VT-1 but each has the same basic personality. Highly recommended.

[mcnach]

Well, the DHA VT-1 has been ordered (3-4 weeks waiting time, as they're made to order), and I located a used Xotic Bass BB, so I am getting that as well so I can check them both.
I should make clips comparing them.