Distortion Pedal/Fuzz for an Active Bass?

xampworshipx · #1 05-14-2009, 01:10 PM

I play an Ernie Ball Stingray, and from my experience a lot of distortions sound kind of lousy with it (the big muff and all it's variations and the zvex mammoth immediately come to mind, which bums me out cause I love them with my passive bass!). Does anyone have any recommendations?

Also just to give people a rough idea I play mostly "extreme" metal (black/doom/death/drone/stoner etc) and hardcore. I have a sunn 300t (which actually has pretty decent distortion to begin with but I want something more!) into a mesa roadready 2x15 as my main rig. Thanks!

rratajski · #2 05-14-2009, 01:12 PM

Have you tried the Boss HM-2?

Vintage Proco RAT?

lsimy · #3 05-14-2009, 01:17 PM

I've been dealing with the active + distortion/OD pedal issue for a while and I get the same results. Passives sound great with drives but actives (at least my 3) sound lousy. First off thank goodness you don't have tweeters in your cab as that just makes things more fizzy IMHO.

Many here have turned me onto the Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive. A great suggestion by a number of TB'ers. It's an overdrive but may be just what you need to push the front end of your 300T even further. It's a GREAT pedal and even better once it's been modified by Keeley !!

Keep us posted with your results.

rcubed · #4 05-14-2009, 02:05 PM

My active has no problems with Big Muffs. Look into the Valnott for black metal.

ScottB. · #5 05-14-2009, 02:31 PM

Anyone know how the black russian muffs are with active basses? Does it still sound the same?

xampworshipx · #6 05-14-2009, 02:34 PM

I have a built in valnott on my old peavey practice combo, the tone is pure ****ing armageddon (it sounds like poop).

I think the big muff works with certain amps and active basses, but I've had a lot of trouble dialing in the tone I want, and even then it's still not exactly what I was looking for (though the "bluebeard" style one I have works pretty well, just again, not really a whole song kind of bite yknow?)

I have a rat, I sort of have mixed feelings about it's response. It takes out a lot of low end. I also have a lot of DIY experience so i'm leaning towards building a brassmaster or a bazz fuss or whatever and possibly a blender box type deal so I can just mix in a bit of distortion with my clean signal. I think that's the really brilliant part of the dirt channel on the 300t/bassman 300, the fact that there's a blend control for the channels.

xampworshipx · #7 05-14-2009, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottB.

Anyone know how the black russian muffs are with active basses? Does it still sound the same?

that's the one i'm not too keen on. If you mod it you can get it more responsive for bass, but it still leaves a bit to be desired.

Has anyone tried the supercollider for actives? I really love the way that pedal sounds but don't have access to one to try.

ScottB. · #8 05-14-2009, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xampworshipx

that's the one i'm not too keen on. If you mod it you can get it more responsive for bass, but it still leaves a bit to be desired.

Has anyone tried the supercollider for actives? I really love the way that pedal sounds but don't have access to one to try.

Yeah Im thinking of getting one modded for me, but I just want to know if it responds well with active basses because I know that some fuzzes dont work well with active basses

xjeremiahx · #9 05-14-2009, 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xampworshipx

I play an Ernie Ball Stingray, and from my experience a lot of distortions sound kind of lousy with it (the big muff and all it's variations and the zvex mammoth immediately come to mind, which bums me out cause I love them with my passive bass!). Does anyone have any recommendations?

Also just to give people a rough idea I play mostly "extreme" metal (black/doom/death/drone/stoner etc) and hardcore. I have a sunn 300t (which actually has pretty decent distortion to begin with but I want something more!) into a mesa roadready 2x15 as my main rig. Thanks!

funny...i've got the EXACT same setup as you...
i paired the big muff w/ a sonic stop with both nobs turned all the way to the right, and it came out sounding GREAT, but now i just use the CH2 distortion on the amp(i crank the gain to 10

)

rcubed · #10 05-14-2009, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xampworshipx

that's the one i'm not too keen on. If you mod it you can get it more responsive for bass, but it still leaves a bit to be desired.

Has anyone tried the supercollider for actives? I really love the way that pedal sounds but don't have access to one to try.

The Supercollider is a Big Muff clone.

Crystalman85 · #11 05-14-2009, 11:51 PM

If it's a fizzy but heavy sounding distortion you're looking for, I would recommend either the digitech xbd bass overdrive/distortion pedal or the tech 21 xxl bass edition distortion pedal. both pedals work well on active basses and they're good choices for metal.

phatbass30 · #12 05-15-2009, 12:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xampworshipx

Has anyone tried the supercollider for actives? I really love the way that pedal sounds but don't have access to one to try.

i have a Supercollider for almost a year now. i use it with my Sadowsky MS5 active. works great and no issues at all.

gab3739 · #13 05-15-2009, 02:18 AM

I have a supercollider and use an active bass; no problems.

**TheMutt** · #14 05-15-2009, 02:20 AM

Malekko Heavy Industry B:Assmaster silicon version. Wall. Of. Fuzz. Works great with actives (EBMM SR5)

**grygrx** · #15 05-15-2009, 08:03 AM

I think there might be some confusion by the OP between 'active' and 'high output'. MY experience is that muffs work fine with active instruments, but some don't fair well with high output instruments (they will eat big low notes).

kirkm24 · #16 05-15-2009, 09:43 AM

Zvex has a new fuzz pedal with an adjustable input buffer so it is active friendly. It's also only $150 so it's a lot cheaper than the Mammoth. on eBay there are a bunch of buffered bass fuzzes available from Music Electronix.

smo · #17 05-15-2009, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xampworshipx

Has anyone tried the supercollider for actives? I really love the way that pedal sounds but don't have access to one to try.

Yes.
It's great.
So much better than a Russian Big muff for active & passive it's not funny.

And yeah - grygrx you called it dude. It's mainly about the intensity of the signal.

Personally, I also like the MI Audio dirt pedals. They actually have a "load" control for 'tuning' the pedal to the impedance you feed it. Really useful if you feed it a killer signal.

eyvindwa · #18 05-15-2009, 09:58 AM

My hot ouput active's don't like the muffs either (or the other way around

))

Check out the MXR Blowtorch.

xampworshipx · #19 05-15-2009, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grygrx

I think there might be some confusion by the OP between 'active' and 'high output'. MY experience is that muffs work fine with active instruments, but some don't fair well with high output instruments (they will eat big low notes).

point taken. This was more just because I have two passive basses that get very different results, so I simplified a bit. I have a guitar with an emg 81 in it that sounds excellent with the aforementioned stuff.

and rcubed, I know it's a muff clone. But it's also a different one than the ones I've played with.

thanks for all the advice guys! i'm gonna look around and see what I have access to trying!

thedude77md · #20 05-15-2009, 10:16 AM

I seem to be pretty alone but I dig the Bass Big Muff... seems that model doesn't get much love here. I've run several active basses through mine and it sounds killer in the bass boost mode w/ the right tone setting on the pedal.