light distortion

[marco1977]

Hi,

I'm looking for a nice distortion. My setup includes a P bass > SVT 2PRO, and (among others) a Bass Big Muff.

So basically I'm looking for a light distortion, since the Muff already can do full fuzz. I've been looking at the ctalinbread SFT, and like the sound, but have been reading here that it doesn't match tube amps well.

I did a search but all results turned out to be non-specific. If there is a thread already please say so, I'll remove this one.

Thanks

Marco

[12bass]

VT Bass might be worth a try....

[marco1977]

Offcourse the VT pedal, thanks.

Anyone else got good ideas?

Thanks again!

[lowregister]

Electronix is a popular company around here. Check out the Crossdrive and some of the others. They've got a good spectrum of bass OD's

http://zeibek.com/bass-pedals/crossdrive

At the bottom there's a sample with a P-bass

[Bassist4Life]

I second the VT Bass pedal. You might be able to find a used one on here since a Deluxe version is available (or coming soon).

[marco1977]

Ok, just to clarify a bit:
The GeminiDrive is what I was looking for, especially sample no.2. The CrossDrive, is more a Fuzz, and I can cover parts of that with the Bass Big Muff.

But does this pedal work well in combination with an all tube amp?

Thanks Again!

[Chadderz]

Also, you might want to try an Xotic Bass BB Preamp. I bought one recently and love it to bits. I actually prefer it over my VT Bass.

[rockstarbassist]

Just got both the Xotic BB and the Fulltone OCD. Both are great at what you want.

[wetzelman1]

I have the exact same setup (spector-svt2pro-BBM) and am in the same exact position searching for an od. In my searching, it's come back to two options, ODB3 and sansamp. Some people love them, some people hate them, but they are both tried and true pedals used by many professionals and gigging musicians. You could obviously do better, but it might take you 4 or 5 different $150 pedals before you find what you like. I think most people hate the odb3 because it kindof sounds like trash on its own, but in a band mix it sounds great. Both the odb and sansamp have the always useful blend.

the only other one that seems to regularly get recommended, especially for bass overdrive, is the DOD 250.

I love boutique pedals, but they aren't really practical if you're a gigging/touring band.

[geezerjpj]

Way Huge Pork Loin- does the light grit very well and is highly tweakable.

[lowmid]

I'd say some kind of dirty/clean boost: Fulltone fatboost, Fulltone bassdrive in compcut, RC booster. You need to set it up this way: Turn your input gain in order to have the minimal amount of crunch on your highest (HIGHEST) attacks and let the boosts do their magic! It'll maybe sound a bit harsh alone but will shine in a band!! I'ts what I do on my mesa walkabout and it sounds brilliant!

[MicG]

I have also been on this search lately. Here are some of my experiences:

The Tech 21 VT bass pedal worked great on its own through a PA, but it didn't play nice with my amp. Essentially it colored my tone too much. Apparently this is a common trait with all Tech 21 Sansamp products. I'm a huge fan of Geddy Lee and THAT sound, but unfortunately I just couldn't work with the 'scooped mids' that are inherently present in the pedal. The VT might be interesting to try out with a blender pedal and would definitely work as a solo preamp pedal driving a poweramp (as would most other Tech 21 products I suspect).

I also tried the Fulltone MOSFET Bass Driver. It sucked way too much of my low end to be useful although I never tried running it in 18V. Again, maybe a blender pedal would work great here.

Long time ago I tried a BOSS ODB-3. I remember achieving a slightly overdriven sound with minimum settings. I have been debating going back to this pedal with my new rig but my personal taste in tone and distortion has changed a bit from last time I used this pedal. Even with a blend knob and plenty of low end, this pedal just might not be transparent enough for me anymore. I will agree that it is probably one of the most well known OD/Distortion pedals but even so, it may not work for your needs.

[Bassist4Life]

Honestly, you don't need anything fancy to get a little dirt in your signal. You can find a used drive pedal. If it loses low-end you can have Mike Putnam do a capacitor mod on it.

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/member.php?u=160546

Mike has been doing a lot of mods/repairs/custom builds for TB members. He built a dirt pedal for me, we called it the "Joe Fuzz". I use it for every gig.

Joe

[Mark Latimour]

I recently picked up the SFX Micro-RD (Red Dragon) pedal from Max at SFX for exactly this kind of thing. I wanted a light to med overdrive sound without anything else that would let my tone get through. It is bang on what I was after. Its a very cool pedal and its tiny! Highly recommended!

http://www.sfxsound.co.uk/mainpage.a...cro_red_dragon

It won't do high gain distrotion though, its limited to either a clean boost or a warm tubey overdrive sound.

[bongomania]

Everybody has a different idea of what "light distortion" means. For some people it's a warm furry tone; for others it's the clippy sound of a tube preamp being pushed; for others it's grindy gritty distortion but blended with the clean signal; for others it's the smooth dirt of a tubescreamer-type OD.

Just based on what you had written in the first post, I was going to recommend the Gemini Drive--and then I saw you found it already and liked the sound! It's a great pedal, and it absolutely should sound great with your tube amp. My one caution is that there is a huge volume jump, going from the lighter dirt sounds to the heavier distortions, with the Gemini.

[billphreets]

xotic BB

[jetofuj]

Originally Posted by marco1977

I've been looking at the ctalinbread SFT, and like the sound, but have been reading here that it doesn't match tube amps well.

Never heard anything like that. I have tube amp and I used SFT with it without any problems. In fact SFT on low gain setting sounds more like tube amp than my tube amp (Mesa Buster)

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by marco1977

Hi,

I'm looking for a nice distortion. My setup includes a P bass > SVT 2PRO, and (among others) a Bass Big Muff.

So basically I'm looking for a light distortion, since the Muff already can do full fuzz. I've been looking at the ctalinbread SFT, and like the sound, but have been reading here that it doesn't match tube amps well.

nonsense! that has been floated by spec readers and those who have zero respect for tube amps, and it's a load of crap. i use character pedals with tube amps all the time, and they work as well or even better than using a solid state amp.

[Laurent]

Homebrew Electronic Hematoma is a very nice pedal. It sounds a lot like the Pork Loin.

[Deluge Of Sound]