how to boost the distortion of my BB preamp

[Lebowsky]

hey guys, long time no written here!


after a few months of playing, I am now totally in love with my Ripper. I used to play it together with my Bongo for various stuff, but I am thinking of using almost only the ripper in the future. I've had some eq'ing issues when playing both basses into the same amp, and had bought a Boss EQ to resolve this (amp flat, eq pedal for the ripper, and onboard eq for the Bongo, see this thread).

since I am now only going to use the Ripper on this amp, I want to ditch the Boss EQ. I managed to get myself a much better clean tone by eqing the GK directly than with the pedal. However when engaging my overdrive (xotic BB preamp)... well it's tiny, not punchy, and bad sounding. I suppose it used to be good with EQ pedal because it was boosting not only some frequencies but also the input level. I was also very please with the BB when playing my Bongo. The output of the Ripper seems to be really low volume.. but maybe I have been too much used to the Bongo's 18v crazyness.

So the question.. what would be the best way to get my BB to sound nasty again? a clean boost? use the EQ anyway?

thanks in advance for the suggestions

[Bryan R. Tyler]

I'd go clean boost. I noticed the same reduction in awesomeness when running my bass' preamp gain all the way down into my BB.

[Ray man]

Originally Posted by Bryan R. Tyler

I'd go clean boost. I noticed the same reduction in awesomeness when running my bass' preamp gain all the way down into my BB.

I Agree.

[dannybuoy]

Or you might be able to mod the pedal with an input gain trimpot. Would be cheaper and take up less space, but only if you (or someone you know) knows what they are doing! The schematics are over at freestompboxes.org if any electronics gurus want to take a look...

[Lebowsky]

I've put a clean boost in my signal chain (EHX LPB-1). However when engaged, even without distortion on and not even loud (almost no boost, or even the at lowered volume), it seems to overload my preamp. even if the gain of my amp is turned low and with the pad engaged, I get a distorted clean sound. anyone had this problem before with the LPB-1? am I doing something totally stupid?

[dune2k]

How about just using your Boss EQ as a boost?

[Lebowsky]

I dont want to render it that useless.. could be useful for something else