Please Help! Problems getting good distortion

[Riv]

[I play a Fender U.S. Zone with active 18 volt soapbar pickups
to an Aguilar DB 924 preamp through a Messa M-pulse 600.
Cabs- Messa 4x10-SWR 1x18.
This set-up gives me the sound I want(When playing clean)but whenever I try various distortions pedals I usually loose my bottem end, and/or get this electronic noisey high end, not to mention a horrible high-pitch (not to be confused with good metal feedback).I'm trying to get a heavy grinding crunch.
I have tried- Boss ODB, MXR Blowtorch, ProCo Rat,BlueTube Bass Driver.
Am I running into this problem because of the active picups?
If someone can lend me some good advice I would really appricate it!
THANX!
-Riv

[markjazzbassist]

this should be moved to the effects forum, MOD.

Most distortion pedals lose high end. That's why there are a lot of modifications that can be done to certain pedals (EHX Big Muff PI comes to mind) to retain more low end.

Also, look into distortion pedals that are made specifically for bass not guitar. ususally the bass pedals with have more low end.

[Riv]

Thanx for the tip.

[Riv]

also, all the pedals I mentioned were "Bass" Pedals.
I have not tried any EHX pedals except for a bass synth.

[Dragonlord]

I've also had the ODB, which was crap. I had great luck with the fulltone bassdrive.