what a difference a clean blend makes!

[runmikeyrun]

I've been running a heavily modified DS-1 into a boss EQ to my preamp, and while i really liked the growl i got out of it i felt something was lacking- that punch and bottom end of a clean bass sound.

I rigged up a Y adapter to the input of the preamp and ran my MXR M-80 in parallel to my DS-1, and injected the clean sound into the Y adapter. I adjusted the M-80 to roll off all the treble and about half the mids. It sounds great! Huge bottom end that's subtle, but definitely adds punch and great low end, exactly what was missing from the DS-1's compressed high gain and low end loss.

Now, my next quest- to use a dedicated XLR from the M-80 into the preamp (it has a 1/4" and XLR); that should be a little more "proper" for the preamp to see the right impedances.

I highly recommend spending the time and/or money to do this for anyone using distortion pedals. All these years and i could have been having better tone!

[cheapbasslovin]

I strongly suggest picking up a parallel looper of some sort to aid in your blending needs.

Boss LS-2, Badger Schism, Xotic X-blender, Wounded Paw, or SFX has a few (Crossover and Mix - X&M - sounds like it is up your alley). The results should sound better than a simple y cable.

There are other technical problems with a Y cable that I am not eloquent enough to state. Perhaps someone else can help me out.

Blending is without question, very useful and fun to play with.