Grindy Distortion out of the VTBass?

[Nyarlathotep]

Honestly, I don't feel like searching thru the freaking VTBass thread

Anyone got any settings for a real crunchy/grinding distortion?

[Honk'n_down-low]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr8kdWpB3U4

[varunkapahi]

dial the drive knob upto 3 oc and the volume knob down to 7 oc
eq to your taste

[dannybuoy]

To my ears, I can't get a decent distortion out of the VT Bass by itself. If you turn up the gain it sounds far too woolly and your notes are so compressed they have no attack. I set mine for subtle breakup on the attack, then use a Badder Monkey for a bit of extra grunt, and a Boss HM-2 for full on distortion. Both of those pedals sound weedy by themselves through my Markbass amp, but sound incredible when put through the VT!

[rcubed]

Originally Posted by DanielTulip

Honestly, I don't feel like searching thru the freaking VTBass thread

Anyone got any settings for a real crunchy/grinding distortion?

I haven't tried to do that yet. But my guess would be to crank the gain and character knobs.

[Nyarlathotep]

Ok, so I found some pretty good settings:

Gain - 2 o'clock
Character - 11 o'clock
Mid - 1 o'clock
Treble - 12 o'clock
Bass - 12 o'clock
Level - 9 o'clock

On its own it sux. I can admit that, but running it thru channel B on the MicroBass with low gain, edge @ around 11 o'clock, mid freq @ 800Hz, and the mids @ 11 o'clock yeilds a nice grind.

Still messing around a bit tho...

Oh and cranking the character knob much past 11 o'clock just adds way to much hiss

[bass-shy]

I haven't been able to test drive a VT Bass, but I always wondered if it would react to other drive pedals the way that a BDDI does. For example, the XXL on it's own sounds awesome, but when run into a BDDI, it adds a lot of punch, presence and badassitude. Does the VT Bass react like that?

Sorry for the derail.

[DosiYanarchy]

in my experience with the VT i actually cant really get to grips with its overdrive facility, i cant get the same type of grind i could out of the BDDI, but i still much prefer the VT.
Also im finding that i want that john entwistle kranked marshall/hiwatt sound from my overdrives, that i cant seem to get out of the VTbass. I wish I still had one of my Muff'ns.
but then again i dont use the VT as an overdrive, its just a preamp for me that makes me general tone sound better to my ears. (i keep amp eq flat)


the beauty with the VT bass is that it seems to liven up some of my other pedals: take, for example, my Green Stache:
for max low end retention, i keep the tone at minimum, its not too exciting with the tone down straight to amp, but into the VT the tone brightens up and makes it into a fuzz pedal that i just cant argue with.

Also running my micropog into it dirtys it up a little, removing a little of digi-sound.

By the way - i never tried XXL into a BDDI, but its sounding pretty suh-weet into my VT.

[rcubed]

Well Dan, I have no idea if this is what you are looking for but I wanted to try out my new TASCAM DS-1 so I did a clip for you: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7316720

5-string in passive mode, clean then VT Bass going direct into said TASCAM.

[paganjack]

dunno if this helps, but i usually run mine for solos w/ char at 1'oclock and gain at 230pm, low @ 3, mids @2 and treble @ 10 (cuts the hiss a bit).

i also run it through the FX loop on my head, which has both a crossover and a blend, so it only hits the higher end of the signal, and leaves a lot of the low punch intact. It allows for a nice grind without a super compressed sound. if you have a way to run like that it is da bomb

[Nyarlathotep]

Originally Posted by bass-shy

I haven't been able to test drive a VT Bass, but I always wondered if it would react to other drive pedals the way that a BDDI does. For example, the XXL on it's own sounds awesome, but when run into a BDDI, it adds a lot of punch, presence and badassitude. Does the VT Bass react like that?

Sorry for the derail.

I run my Muff'n into the VT in this clip:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...songID=7304347

I didn't do any with the VT off, but here is a gain comparison that should give you some idea of what the muff'n sounds like with out the SCP boosting into it:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...songID=7304338

Settings are flat, except for the gain. Pretty close to the settings I used in the VT clip (gain = max on the Muff'n)

I actually really like the VT as a tone shaper. Unfortunately for it, the MicroBass has replaced it because it does more of what I need/want out of a pedal pre at the moment.

Originally Posted by rcubed

Well Dan, I have no idea if this is what you are looking for but I wanted to try out my new TASCAM DS-1 so I did a clip for you: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7316720

5-string in passive mode, clean then VT Bass going direct into said TASCAM.

Nice. I'm getting something similar. I'm finding that it stays relatively clean unless the gain is past 2 o'clock. Anyone else find this?

Originally Posted by paganjack

dunno if this helps, but i usually run mine for solos w/ char at 1'oclock and gain at 230pm, low @ 3, mids @2 and treble @ 10 (cuts the hiss a bit).

i also run it through the FX loop on my head, which has both a crossover and a blend, so it only hits the higher end of the signal, and leaves a lot of the low punch intact. It allows for a nice grind without a super compressed sound. if you have a way to run like that it is da bomb

Sounds a little complicated for me I might try those settings tho

I've got a couple of clips that I gotta upload and want to get some opinions on.....

[rcubed]

Originally Posted by DanielTulip

Nice. I'm getting something similar. I'm finding that it stays relatively clean unless the gain is past 2 o'clock. Anyone else find this?

Depends on my bass (active or passive) and how hot the pickups are.