Good overdrive pedal for fingerstyle playing?

[AlexanderB]

A while ago I decided to get an overdrive pedal and with support from TB I decided to look at a couple of products.
What I forgot to mention is that I play strictly fingerstyle - no pick.

I have a serious problem finding any sound clips or youtube videos with overdrive pedals + fingerstyle playing... Everyone is grinding away with a pick, leaving me wondering what the fantastic pedal "X" will sound like if I use it? MI shops around here stock very little bass O/D pedals so it is much easier to do your homework by the desktop, IMHO.

My intention is to add low or moderate levels of overdrive for songs like "Living on a prayer", "Bad craziness", "Highway to hell" etc. I have a clean sounding rig and mostly use my good Precision with rounds for that kind of songs. If it could work with my Jazz (passive, with rounds) and fretless too it would be great.

At this point the following pedals are on my list:
EBS Multi Drive (flexible, retains bottom end but maybe not aggresive enough?)
EBS Valve Drive (very good but cumbersome and expensive)
VT Bass (flexible, tone controls but can become "clanky")

Any comments from fingerstyle players?

[tdub0199]

I like the OD I get out of my VT Deluxe playing finger style...

[alec]

Me too.

[frank migliore]

My 2 favorite OD for finger style is the Aguilar Tone Hammer ( more of a preamp w/ balls ) and the new Eden pedal.

[casio]

I'm primarily a finger style player and I've been quite satisfied using the Sansamp Leeds character pedal for my OD sounds! Hope it helps

[jgroh]

i had a DHA VT1-MK3 OD that was very good, but it was expensive, on the big side, and only ran on its own power supply. I traded it for something else. I also had the VT Bass and didnt love it so I sold it. Now I have a Pork Loin and I really do like it.

[AlexanderB]

Fantastic - 6 views, 5 replies!

Thanks alot - I will look into your suggestions! TB is great!

[emjazz]

I'm a fingerstyle player. I've been thought A LOT of overdrive pedals. The best one I've found, by far, is the VFE Palehorse. It's a small company that not many people talk about on here. I have the Palehorse and the Alphadog. Amazing company. You should be able to find a clip or two on youtube.

Home

[nsh50a]

I will second the pork loin. Right now it and a SFT clone that I made are the only OD/Distortion pedals on my board. As GC was clearing out the pork loin earlier in the year, you can usually find used ones pretty cheap right now as a bonus.

[SoonerMatt]

And another +1 for the Pork Loin. The clean knob makes it awesome for finger style.

[gjbassist]

[RickenBoogie]

I play 90% fingers, and my favs are, (in no particular order) EBS Valve Drive, T Rex Bass Juice, Fulltone OCD, Xotic BB, and Fulltone BassDrive mosfet.

[gregormendel]

I play primarily fingerstyle, and have both a Fulltone OCD and a Barber LTD Special Recipe on my board.

My amp is also very clean, and I play a Jazz and Stingray.

The Barber does low to mid gain very well, and I leave it on most of the time on a low gain setting. There is no low end loss, and the pedal provides a little hair around the edges and slightly emphasizes mids to help cut through loud guitars. When pushed more it can pull off a natural sounding mid-gain drive.

The OCD is very much a balls-to-the-wall pedal, and can get very heavy very quickly. For your purposes it would probably be a little much, and I find that I like it much more when stacked with the Barber for a borderline fuzz effect.

Otherwise, the Pork Loin comes highly recommended, as well as the Xotic BB Bass preamp.

Choices abound for you, but I wholeheartedly recommend the Barber. It more than satisfied my low-gain itch, and my goals were very similar to what yours are now.

Best of luck and feel free to ask me any questions you might have

[crapusername]

i also play 100% fingers.
I'm currently using the hardwire cm2 for low gain/ sparkle/grit, and the markbass bass tube marker for more Rarrrrrrr!
I've tried many(Pork loin, multidrive, agro, vt, oxford, odb3, older dod things, danelectro tod, various muffs, SAMBD) but not really stuck with anything until i found this combination

[cybersnyder]

Originally Posted by crapusername

i also play 100% fingers.
I'm currently using the hardwire cm2 for low gain/ sparkle/grit, and the markbass bass tube marker for more Rarrrrrrr!
I've tried many(Pork loin, multidrive, agro, vt, oxford, odb3, older dod things, danelectro tod, various muffs, SAMBD) but not really stuck with anything until i found this combination

+1 on the Hardwire CM-2

[BassIsFun17]

xotic bass bb preamp

[Jammin'ForJesus]

The best sounding BASS specific overdrive on the market currently is the DarkGlass Electronics B3K and the B7K. Fingerstyle or picking, they're freaking awesome. I use my B3K for light grit on my tone basically 100% of the time and I can also kick it up for heavier effect when needed.

Check them out! Lots of sound samples on youtube also.

Products « Darkglass Electronics

[markkoelsch]

The Frequency Central Bass Overdrive Deluxe. I got mine, which is custom, and it kicks butt. I strongly recommend it.

Overdrive for Bass | frequencycentral

[sloppy_phil]

MXR Zakk Wylde OD. It does a great sound, and also keeps a very pleasing amount of low-end in the signal. I tried a bunch of pedals at the time, including a couple Boss ODs, the bass Rat (Juggernaut), and Bass Big Muff. This was for sure the best sound; felt organic and could be subtle, or add some serious growl. Even my flat-wound P-Bass sounded angry as hell. Worth a look, even though it sounds like a ridiculous suggestion

[codethechode]

About time someone mention Darkglass, B3K all the way