Overdrive: yet another thread. With some specific criteria!

ishouldbeking · #1 07-16-2010, 04:37 PM

Hola. I've searched, and I've previously posted along similar lines, but it's been a while and only now can i afford something... the way things change in pedal-land I figured I should ask again. All the buzz about the Catalinbread SFT had me almost convinced to get it, but since then some of the negative posts have quashed my interest. Gotta love this board!

Anyway, I used to use a Fulltone Bass-Driver, but the loss of low-end was pretty obnoxious. Looking to replace it with something that is ideally: closer to "normal" sized (re: smaller than the fulltone); not stupid expensive; can do a good bright OD tone without losing low-end; and is of general high quality (built to last, true bypass, etc). I play a Rick into a VT bass that's always on, so my stock tone is already pretty grindy; an OD pedal for me is a boost for leads and to bring out some extra grind to cut through the rest of the band. Think the intro to Blowin Cool by Swervedriver:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ2Da2ozCKc

From my past research, these are some of the pedals I'm considering.
-Xotic BB bass preamp
-Voodoo Sparkle Drive
-Barber LTD
-Maxon OD820

The first three have been recommended to me, and the bottom one is more of a wild card. It looks fantastic, and I know how much guitarists love it, but I haven't seen much on it here. Any recommendations or advice is much appreciated!

coolrunner989 · #2 07-16-2010, 04:45 PM

I've owned and compared directly the Xotic and the Barber, and I picked the Xotic. It's sonically more like a tube amp (or what I think of as a tube amp) than the LTD, which is more like a tubescreamer pedal: lots of high mids and treble, although the tilt-style EQ was coo and could get pretty dark. All the distortion was still way up in the high end it seemed to me.

The Xotic was "darker" in comparison, but not dark at all in it's own right. I also really like the bass EQ on the Xotic, even for a clean preamp tone. Can't comment on the other two.

Smurf-o-Deth · #3 07-16-2010, 05:40 PM

FWIW, the AGRO will totally do that kind of sound.

OlSkewl56 · #4 07-16-2010, 05:47 PM

My 2 cents.
I've got the VT, but have been intrigued by the thread on the amptweaker bass tightdrive. Sounds pretty good on the clips posted. Has a pre/post loop built in for additional pedal(s).

dannybuoy · #5 07-16-2010, 05:53 PM

I find what you say strange Coolrunner, the BB is basically a tubescreamer with baxandall eq and I've heard that the LTD is really amp like.

Anyway, while I don't have a Ric, I do have a T-40 that can cop similar sounds, and (out of my gear selection at least) it sounds at it's absolute best when going into an Xotic Bass BB into the VT Bass. These 2 pedals work really great together, and if you want the Fulltone Bassdrive in a smaller package with more low end, the BB is IT.

ishouldbeking · #6 07-16-2010, 07:27 PM

will have to add the AGRO to the list of those to try... do the Aguilar pedals still come in that stupid pedal-board resistant enclosure or have they changed that yet?

Smurf-o-Deth · #7 07-16-2010, 07:37 PM

Same enclosure, but they come with two neoprene foam pads and a low-profile screw to make them pedalboard ready, and it's a non-issue now.

fitz420 · #8 07-16-2010, 08:08 PM

alright, i've owned the xotic bb, sparkle drive, and LTD SR. if you get the barber ltd, get the SR if you're looking for transparency. loved all 3. the sparkle drive kicked the other two out for a year until i bought a dredgetone angler....the angler is excellent at cutting through a live mix. either of the 1st three you mentioned are EXCELLENT choices, however.

ishouldbeking · #9 07-16-2010, 10:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fitz420

alright, i've owned the xotic bb, sparkle drive, and LTD SR. if you get the barber ltd, get the SR if you're looking for transparency. loved all 3. the sparkle drive kicked the other two out for a year until i bought a dredgetone angler....the angler is excellent at cutting through a live mix. either of the 1st three you mentioned are EXCELLENT choices, however.

out of genuine curiosity, what does transparency mean in this situation? i see the word used a lot but I don't know if I'd know the difference between a transparent and a colored-sounding pedal without a better understanding of the tonal differences.

bongomania · #10 07-16-2010, 11:23 PM

FTR, people use it in a veeery wide range of meanings. Technically, transparency should mean input = output, no change whatsoever. But obviously we want a certain amount of change, or else why use a pedal?

So then it comes down to different peoples' ideas about how much coloration or dirt is allowable in the land of transparency.

IMO the biggest issues are EQ, and what I think of as "smearing" the signal. If the signal is heavily EQ'ed, then people will say it is not transparent. And if the signal gets shoved through some components that load it down, alter its phase, dissipate it, or otherwise knock the wave shapes into a mess, then it sounds "smeared", and not transparent.

Deluge Of Sound · #11 07-16-2010, 11:27 PM

If you smear something enough, it almost becomes transparent.

Matt Dean · #12 07-17-2010, 12:04 AM

If you're looking for something transparent, I'd go with the Xotic. However, I wouldn't drop the SFT from your list. It's (IMO) the best at adding low gain color/bounce.

gnasher1993 · #13 07-17-2010, 04:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Dean

However, I wouldn't drop the SFT from your list. It's (IMO) the best at adding low gain color/bounce.

The SFT s a great sounding pedal, it's really amp-like. I wouldn't really describe it as transparent though.

fitz420 · #14 07-17-2010, 09:32 AM

when i refer to transparency, i refer to the eq staying the same, with just the added effect. in this case OD. in my personal opinion, the most transparent i've used is the barber ltd sr. with the tone knob around 10-11, if i remember, there was little to no change in my eq with the pedal engaged.

scotch · #15 07-17-2010, 09:38 AM

9 times out of 10, it seems, that when bassists like their Fulltone Bass-Drive - but feel like they are losing low end - they end up falling in love with the Xotic BB. If I were a betting man (and I am), I'd wager you'd love the BB!

ishouldbeking · #16 07-17-2010, 07:04 PM

Made it out to Truetone this afternoon, demo'd a slew of these pedals... with some interesting results. Unfortunately my Ric is tied up at my rehearsal space on the other side of town, but I made do with a very nice sounding/playing MIM 70's Jazz into an Eden 300T. I've demo'd thru this rig quite a bit, and this was by far my favorite starting tone.

I was disappointed they didn't carry the Barber stuff, but I made do with lots of the other things you guys mentioned. I'm no tone-pro, but i'll give my impression of each that I tried. Please keep in mind: I rarely like pedals when I try them. Its the rare pedal that actually impresses me enough to make the purchase. I'm probably just picky, but I've also come to realize how subjective overdrive and fuzz tones are. Anyway, here ya go:

Xotic BB Bass - Not for me. I've seen several video demos of this before playing it myself, and there was always a strange quality to the breakup... more akin to (what I imagine would be) distortion instead of overdrive. In person it was more pronounced, and just didn't feel "real" or pleasing to me. The controls were all quite powerful, but the tone wasn't there for me. I'd be curious to try it through a different rig, in an environment where I could hear a bit better.

Catalinbread SFT - Did not like. With the EQ set flat it sounded really thin. I was surprised how little gain there was (at least after watching their vidz), until I maxed the treble and bass... honestly their "doom" tone that they show in a video feels like a misrepresentation of what this thing does. Not that I'm even looking for that sound, but when I got it into that place it didn't sound all that great, and you couldn't even tweak the sound since it required the EQ to be maxed. This might work fine as an always on Ampeg emulator, but as a grit-box I didn't really care for it. The gain in general felt a little gross, and the EQ felt funny... I couldn't find the sweet spot.

Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive - Best of the bunch! I think I understand the meaning of transparent now... cuz this one nails it, with the clean blend control, which was infinitely useful. Of all the pedals this had the sweetest drive tone, despite a low amount of overall gain and the blend control made it incredibly useful. This pedal came the closest to the sound in my head, though it wasn't as versatile as some of the others.

Way Huge Pork Loin - Very good! I can't say I fully understand the controls (the clean and curve knobs made definite changes to the tone, but i couldn't say what either really did), but there are some great tones in here. This is definitely on the low-gain side of things, but there's some really sweet grit to be had with the gain set fairly high. This is probably a toss up tonally with the Sparkle Drive, but this seems quite a bit more versatile, while the Sparkle Drive seems much easier to find a good tone on the fly.

Maxon OD820 This one was hard to judge... I suspect there was some loss of low end, though it was tough to tell in a loud music store. I've never read reports of folks using this on bass, though I know this is a studio favorite for guitarists. What drew me to it is the mention of clean signal blended in as you turn up the gain. I couldn't necessarily tell how well it worked to retain bass, though the drive sounds themselves were pretty darn good. This would need a proper test at rehearsal (or by someone with a better/more-trained ear than me) before I could justify a purchase... and it's pretty pricey at $220.

And the just-for-fun one:
Malekko Germanium B:assmaster Yes, this is a fuzz. No, I can't afford it. But it was pretty awesome for what it does! Having a seperate bass and "ass" knob made it very easy to get usable yet gnarly fuzz tones. I wanna try the silicon and double germanium variants someday, cuz this pedal seems like fun.

Overall, I'm really itching to play a Barber LTD SR before I make a purchase. Then I'd like to play my Ric through the Sparkle Drive and Pork Loin again for a better comparison. Thanks for all the help so far guys!

iamdenialNJ · #17 07-17-2010, 07:22 PM

go for the pork loin!
I used to have one and now I'm using a xx bb bass preamp and I'm gonna go back to the pork loin soon.
Just trying out different overdrives as well.

Robertron · #18 07-17-2010, 07:54 PM

Having owned it and played with the knobs and internal trims enough I've grown to love the Pork Loin as an always-on subtle grind at low overdrive settings and love it for a good overdrive with higher overdrive settings. I'd love to suggest the Pork Loin to you, it's become one of my favorite pedals, but after listening to the tone reference you gave with that song I think I'd suggest the VooDoolabs. It comes closer to the tone you're looking for. It also sounds like you liked the Sparkle Drive a little more than the Pork Loin when you tried them both out.

I say you try both with your gear and do an overdrive shoot out.

Matt Dean · #19 07-18-2010, 12:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gnasher1993

The SFT s a great sounding pedal, it's really amp-like. I wouldn't really describe it as transparent though.

I thought that's what I said... BB=transparent; SFT=color.

ishouldbeking · #20 07-18-2010, 02:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Dean

I thought that's what I said... BB=transparent; SFT=color.

After playing the SFT I think I understand the difference between transparent and colored tones MUCH better. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing to have some coloration, but when I switched the SFT on it felt like I was playing a different bass through a different amp. The sparkle drive, pork loin, and BB all maintained much more of the instrument's natural tone, and I'm beginning to see why people seek out transparency so much. Now I've got to try that darn Barber LTD, and hopefully a Danelectro Transparent Overdrive as well. Got a good feeling about that Barber, though...

BTW (DERAIL): I know it's nothing fancy, but that MIM '70s Jazz sounded ridiculously good through that Eden tube head. Reminded me I need to pick up decent jazz when I have the chance, and it's nice I won't have to shell out a fortune to find a good one.