VT Bass or MXR M-80
 

I play some metal songs like Megadeth,Iron maiden and Metallica.
I want to buy a pedal which combine preamp and overdrive(distortion) for my first pedal.

Now,i consider VT Bass or MXR M-80.

VT Bass has nice overdrive sound but w/o blend knob.
It maybe lose some bottom?

M-80 w/ blend knob but somebody doesn't like its distortion sound.

which one should I get?

I'd go m80 especially given your song choice as it can get those sounds for definite and all in all I prefer it I think it's sounds a lot better

Check out my demos of it

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f36/my-pedalboard-demo-932168/

I'd go m80. I love me. 2 channels, noise gate, and it can get pretty nasty. You can blend in some clean tone to add weight.

I'd go VT if you want a more vintage ampeg like tone with great tube like breakup. I use mine to warm up my GK amp. You don't need a blend knob on your preamp, you have enough tone control on vt bass with bass mids treble and character. My vote goes for VT v2.

Somebody use the M80 distortion?

Yeah, I use it in my metal band. Cuts through the mix perfectly, despite the scooped distortion character.
I actually made a quick sample of it yesterday for another TBer, it might be of some use to you too.

I like M-80 clean tone. Color knob is very good , sounds more powerful and more bottom.
I like VT bass overdrive tone more than m80 distortion tone.
How about VT bass clean tone?

Darkglass B3K =)

justin meldal-johnson does

VT Bass, especially the new version with the speaker sim button. It's what i use.

The M80 is cool, but you lose ALL your mids on the distortion channel even with the Mids knob turned all the way up. That might be OK for some people (even metal players) but it completely ruined what, to me, would otherwise have been an excellent pedal.

I just played a gig where a guy lent me his b3k. It went into my vt bass. It's not a bad OD but it's not all that imo. I prefer the breakup tone of my vt and I get more dirt out of my tc electronic vintage bass distortion. But it's definitely a great pedal.

VT...I have the deluxe and love it. No speaker sim toggle on it, but with 6 channels to choose from you can get whatever you want out of it.

. . . except for the tone of having the speaker sim off, which makes the pedal sound much better IMO :p :ninja:

But I can only get second hand VT Bass V1.
Is there no speaker sim on it or just can't turn off speaker sim?
I don't kown what's the different.

Can't turn it off.

I've been debating this for weeks. One day I'm convinced I need the VT because of its excellent vintage sounds. The next day I'm convinced I need the M80 because any analog grit plus a scooped EQ is going to get that sound--plus it's two channel, has a good DI and is way cheaper!

Today I'm M80. Tomorrow, who knows.

Dude, Arctic Monkeys, and Lower than Atlantis? You've got some rad taste my friend.

OP
I have a VT Bass and absolutely love it, and have no problem with losing bottom with drive up. If you dig the tone of a cranked SVT, its definitely the pedal to get, but if you don't, go with the MXR or maybe even the Sansamp Bass Driver DI (which I personally prefer over the MXR)

I'm listening to this again (thanks by the way!) and I'm thinking... Clip #10 of the M80 demo (starting at 2:32) is the one that really interests me and I think it sounds pretty good. I like it. I'd probably want less of it most of the time, but it's a good sound. And since you have both the blend and drive up pretty high, I think the chances are good that I could indeed have that sound but less of it if I twisted 'em a bit counter clockwise.

That sound is as close as I need to get to a retro breakup sound. I'm not joining a Led Zeppelin or The Who tribute band. And even if I was, I think that sound out of the M80 would fly.

+1000