SansAmp Bass Driver VS Fulltone Bass Driver

[LowEnder2112]

Hey anyone know the way they compare? I have the Sansamp, and i love it, but my brother (fulltone fanatic) insists the fulltone can do all the sansamp does and more.

Help appreciated

[Hoss]

Its Apples and Oranges.

The Sansamp does imitate an SVTish Sound with a nice compression and a pleasant fattening of the Overall sound. The Overdrive sounds rather harsh and hefty which is unusable for my taste. So when I use the Sansamp I avoid too much gain and I use it for beefing up a clean signal.

The Fulltone is a true to the game overdrive Pedal. Keeps the color of your original Signal (not so does the sansamp) and delivers everything from smooth overdrive to High Gain Fizz. Built rocksolid and worth EVERY penny. Has a nice boosting function.

I have both the Sansamp Paradriver and the Bassdriver Mosfet and combine them. Sometimes Apples and Oranges mix up VERY well. Though beeing different on its own.

[Valerus]

get both

[Hoss]

Originally Posted by Valerus

get both

Im with you...

Precision -> SansAmp -> Fulltone -> Hiwatt DR405 clone -> Ampeg Fidge.

[syciprider]

Apple to oranges indeed. The Sansamp is more a pre than a distortion pedal.

[Jazz Ad]

I used them together for a very long time and was really happy of the result.
They're very different and complement each other just fine.

[thejohnkim]

Yep, both are great, and both do different sounds. I've owned both, still own a Sansamp, but the Bassdriver is excellent as well.

[Crabby]

Originally Posted by Richard747

hey, i really cant decide between the fulltone bass drive and the sansamp bass driver, and really cant afford both.
im looking for a really punchy raw heavy sound that is not fuzzy or heavily distorted, i play in a band that plays hardcore/tech/metal. thanks.

Do yourself a huge favor and try the Fulltone OCD before you decide. Its less money then the Bassdrive, retains much better low end, has a nicer overall sounding overdrive, and can go from very mild breakup to full on distortion with everything in between.

I compared the OCD side by side with my Bassdrive and it was no contest. The OCD just works better on bass. There is a loss of low end with the Bassdrive that cannot be denied and the tone control gores from too muddy to too fizzy in my opinion. The tone control on the OCD is much sweeter and useable in any position.

As for the Sans Amp, think of it more as an actual bass pre amp then a stomp box overdrive. It works exceptionally well as a DI box for live or recording use and can help a less then steller amp sound a lot better.

I have bought and sold several of them because every time I by another one, I realize that I like the sound of my amp better and bypassing the Sans amp. I think its a great tool to have in the event that you need a DI, but it isn't the nicest sounding overdrive and I don't think it plays well with other pedals due to the fact that it's really a pre amp with amp and speaker emulation circuitry going on.

[1009]

I'm really curious to try the OCD on bass after reading Crabby's endorsement (non-paying, I assume) in a number of places. But I have to add here that I love my Bass Drive, notice no loss in low-end, and find the tone control extremely useful (not at all "muddy" to "fizzy"). I'm not sure where this distinction is coming from, but I will say that I use the Bass Drive for my J, which is my primary bass. On my P I've had a really hard time getting a usable tone out of the Bass Drive. But then again I very rarely pull out the P, and in those situations I never have need for OD, so I haven't worked too hard to find a setting that will work.

Just FWIW, and in defense of a pedal that I really enjoy & use regularly.

[Crabby]

I was a huge fan of my Bassdrive until I compared it to the OCD which of course was not marketed to bass players. I lived with the low end loss which is not so bad as to make the pedal unusable but was noticable to everyone that heard it.

It never hit me exactly what bugged me about the Bassdrive until i was able to directly A/B it to the OCD. The tone control works differently on the OCD and does not provide such a drastic change in high end as the control on the Bassdrive.

I still think the Bassdrive is a great pedal but I was also looking for something smaller so the OCD really fit the bill for me.

[Jateca]

Originally Posted by Hoss

Its Apples and Oranges.

The Sansamp does imitate an SVTish Sound with a nice compression and a pleasant fattening of the Overall sound. The Overdrive sounds rather harsh and hefty which is unusable for my taste. So when I use the Sansamp I avoid too much gain and I use it for beefing up a clean signal.

The Fulltone is a true to the game overdrive Pedal. Keeps the color of your original Signal (not so does the sansamp) and delivers everything from smooth overdrive to High Gain Fizz. Built rocksolid and worth EVERY penny. Has a nice boosting function.

I have both the Sansamp Paradriver and the Bassdriver Mosfet and combine them. Sometimes Apples and Oranges mix up VERY well. Though beeing different on its own.

+1, this is almost exactly my opinion on using these two, though I use the BDDI instead of the para.

[bassguy57]

To my ears there is a loss of low end when using the bassdrive. And I agree about cons of the tone control too.

I am not really a fan of the sansamp either though...I guess I am not going to be much help.

[RickenBoogie]

This is no real help, but I wanted to +1 the OCD, it's a marvelous distortion pedal, and I too prefer it over the BassDrives.

[DaveAceofBass]

I don't notice any loss of low end with the BassDrive, except that your entire signal is overdriven, including the low end, so that may result in what the other guys are saying is a "loss", but I disagree. I used to have a Chunk Brown Dog, which I had only gotten to use with their envelope filter. Turned out that I hated their envelope filter, but the Brown Dog was pretty cool. Although it was a fuzz and not an overdrive, with a low gain setting I could get a sort of overdriven tone. The best part was you could blend in your clean signal with the effected signal with no gain loss, so you could retain that low end. However, I sold it because the effect didn't sound as good as the Fulltone BassDrive, although I do miss that blending feature.

The Sansamp is good but it's not as warm to my ears. For my money, the Fulltone BassDrive is everything you'd want or need in an overdrive/distortion for the bass. I'm not much of a effects guy at the moment, although I was when I played in one of my previous bands. Personally I think all bass players should limit the amount of distortion/overdrive they use and play clean most of the time. The music rarely calls for an overdriven low end, usually a clean sound is more supportive.

[Unrepresented]

I own a BDDI and Bass Drive.

I don't use the BDDI for anything other than a DI, if that answers anything.

[SchecterC4]

Anyone know how the OCD compares to the Tech 21 XXLB? I searched for quite a while and couldn't find a direct comparison.

thanks!

[Nikoubis]

Originally Posted by SchecterC4

Anyone know how the OCD compares to the Tech 21 XXLB? I searched for quite a while and couldn't find a direct comparison.

thanks!

That's probably because even at its lowest gain settings, the XXL provides far more distortion than the OCD does at its highest gain settings. Completely different pedals.

[firmlybassed]

I have used both. I just returned the FT Bass Driver because it lost too much bottom end except for the comp mode. Other wise I found it useless. I like a very low warm bottom end tone simular to John Paul Jones. The sansamps are awesome. I have the RBI and the deluxe on my pedal board. I use the RBI for my warm tone and the deluxe for OD. I also use a Boss OD-3 and a bass Big muff and Digitech Bass Driver. All keep the bottom end or loose very little.