Need some honest experience-based advice

[mellowgerman]

i'm looking into getting a nice bass overdrive pedal and I really dig the oldschool overdriven tube sound (Grand Funk Railroad, Jefferson Airplane, Sly & The Family Stone, etc.)
I know i'm not gonna get those exact sounds without most of their gear but I'm just asking to see with what pedal I'd be able to get a fairly close crunchy gooey goodness.
Currently, because I'm at college, I'm limited to my smaller amp, a Fender bxr300c(which is a great 300 watt solid state 1x15 combo)
Looking to stay under the $150 mark.
what do you guys think?

[tumpinjahosafat]

fulltone bass drive. Its 200 new i think but you can find em on ebay for around 150 used. its probably the best overdrive ive ever heard for bass.

[RickenBoogie]

EBS Valve Drive. Also, probably a bit over buget, but honestly, I've gone through about 15 different od pedals, and this one rocks.

[jpark369]

search for some overdrives on here, theres a ton of stuff.

i would reccomend the ebs multidrive, its around $200 new, i found a used one for $145. these pedals give some great, mild, tubey, overdriven sounds. its nothing too crazy, but i think its the most vintage sounding OD ive used. i was also looking for a softer, old school type OD, kind of that jack bruce, geezer, and jefferson airplane fat tubey sound. the ebs does that great all IMO, of course.
for sly and the fam stone, you'll probably want a fuzz blended with a clean signal. hope this helps

[mellowgerman]

thanks so much guys please keep the tips coming!

[Jared Lash]

My first thought would be that perhaps saving your money for a better amp is the way to go.

But if you really want a pedal, I would second the ValveDrive and also recommend the SansAmp. And while I have no experience with it personally, another pedal that gets a lot of love around TB is the English Muff'n. If you are patient you should be able to find any of them used at around your price limit.

Hope that helps.

[40Hz_of_Love]

Recently I kinda nailed that Jefferson Airplane overdrive sound totally by accident and the pedal used was... EBS WahOne.

It's got this tubism switch which I have on all the time, it gives this mild saturation to the tone. I left the pedal in an almost 100% toe up position (so it was bumping very low mids) and... voila - Crown of Creation.

[bassman314]

I just got an HBE Hematoma a few weeks ago. I love it, dearly.

It does the tubey OD nicely. Really smooth and creamy in the lower gain settings.. but when you crank the gain, it can do some almost full on, teeth gnashing, distortion.

[TheMutt]

+1 for the Hematoma!
I've got one of these things and I love it! It's got a great sound that can go from very mellow saturation with lots of mids, to all-out borderline fuzzy chaos!
Definitely worth a look into, and you can find em used for around $100.

[rodl2005]

I use a big muff Russian version.....gives a good 70's dirty fuzz

[The BurgerMeister]

MI Audio Neo Fuzz!

[73jbass]

Ibanez Turbo Tube Screamer.Great od pedal for bass.

[Lebowsky]

get a used bassdrive, I got mine for 120$ or so here in the classifieds

[roflol]

creampie!

[dannybuoy]

DHA VT1 or VT2. Totally nails the creamy vintagey tubey Sabbathy tones.

[Toasted]

It might be worth you digging out the larry graham FX DVD (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pbhxB7cGbw). He talks extensively about his basses / amps / effects / tones here

[Swimming Bird]

EHX English Muff'n.

If you can find one, Tube Works 301s are great. I'd never heard of it, picked one up used for about $60 and have used it as my OD tone ever since.

[one]

DHA VT-1 Std Bass