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Help Me Decide on an Overdrive!

Which overdrive would you buy?

  • Total voters
    78
T

TheMutt

Guest
Apr 28, 2007
3,254
15
#1
So much like the reverb thread that I started (I'm going to try to snag a Dr. Scientist RRR/RR(mini)R when I get the cash or find one used), I need some help deciding which overdrive to try.
I play mainly Contemporary Christian (yes, we do use pedals :rolleyes:) and need something that pulls better duty for overdrive than running a VT Bass at higher gain (I liked it for lower gain stuff and to use as a vintage tone emulator, but got rid of it because I could do both with my amp) or running my amp at high gain (necessitates me to have to change settings for the slow songs). I'd also like something that can be very transparent (doesn't change my tone too much) but also can be used as a tone shaper if the need arises. As such, I am trying to find a pedal that is able to give me anything from a slight boost to mid-gain almost distortion levels, but not quite. A big plus would be if it were small enough to fill the space of my VT or better yet even smaller (sorry, I'm not going to be able to fit a Fulltone Bassdrive on my Pedaltrain Mini).
 
#2
TheMutt said:
I'd also like something that can be very transparent (doesn't change my tone too much) but also can be used as a tone shaper if the need arises. As such, I am trying to find a pedal that is able to give me anything from a slight boost to mid-gain almost distortion levels, but not quite.
Click to expand...

I'd avoid the Catalinbread SFT for this purpose. It sounds really great but it's not all that transparent.

See if you can find a Paul Cochrane Timmy to try (or a Tim if you want a separate boost), I think it'd be perfect for your needs. I really loved mine. It's really transparent, and maintains the character of your bass and your amp. It's got a fair amount of gain in it without too much EQ change/compression.

At the moment, I'm using a Crowther Hotcake into a Catalinbread SFT - sounds like a Tubescreamer into a Flip-top to me which is exactly the sound I want.

What sort of higher gain sound do you want (EQ-wise, I mean)?
 
#3
gnasher1993 said:
I'd avoid the Catalinbread SFT for this purpose. It sounds really great but it's not all that transparent.
Click to expand...
Good to know. That's what I disliked the most about the VT Bass.

gnasher1993 said:
See if you can find a Paul Cochrane Timmy to try (or a Tim if you want a separate boost), I think it'd be perfect for your needs. I really loved mine. It's really transparent, and maintains the character of your bass and your amp. It's got a fair amount of gain in it without too much EQ change/compression.
Click to expand...
Does it cut any bass? I've heard the same about the Fulltone OCD, but when I tried mine on bass there was a noticeable drop in the low end when it was engaged. I'm sure I could find a Timmy used on TGP, but I am a bit weary of trying guitar pedals on bass. They all generally need a clean blend in my opinion, which wouldn't fit on my board in addition to everything else.

gnasher1993 said:
What sort of higher gain sound do you want (EQ-wise, I mean)?
Click to expand...
I'm looking for something that is faithful to the sound of my bass and doesn't mask it under a bunch of filters/eq, but could if I needed it to. Ideally, I'd like something that is very much like the front end of my Markbass Little Mark Tube 800 amp with the preamp gain cranked up. If it didn't come with eq options that would even still be alright as I could just use the onboard eq on my bass for that purpose. The only real important features are that it needs to be the same size or smaller than a VT Bass, and also that it needs to be 1Spot/daisy chain friendly as that is how I power this board (although I don't know of any bass overdrive pedals that are not).
 
#4
Sounds like you would really like the Way Huge Pork Loin. It does light to medium OD really well and it can even get into distortion territory. The PL is super transparent, I use it as an "always on" pedal. A huge benefit of this pedal is the clean blend, plus it's really tweakable.
 
#5
TheMutt said:
Good to know. That's what I disliked the most about the VT Bass.
Click to expand...

The Catalinbread overdrives are very (convincingly!) amp like. Great in certain situations but I'm not sure any of them would be right for you.

TheMutt said:
Does it cut any bass? I've heard the same about the Fulltone OCD, but when I tried mine on bass there was a noticeable drop in the low end when it was engaged. I'm sure I could find a Timmy used on TGP, but I am a bit weary of trying guitar pedals on bass. They all generally need a clean blend in my opinion, which wouldn't fit on my board in addition to everything else.
Click to expand...

It doesn't cut any low end that I could hear. I wouldn't really call it a 'guitar pedal'. There's no doubt that it's most popular with guitarists but I don't think it's been discovered by bass players yet. I think Grygrx has a demo video of the Tim.

You could try a Danelectro Transparent Overdrive (v1) if you're unsure. It's supposedly a clone of the Timmy; definitely sounds very similar... much cheaper :bassist:.

TheMutt said:
I've heard the same about the Fulltone OCD, but when I tried mine on bass there was a noticeable drop in the low end when it was engaged.
Click to expand...

I didn't really like the way the OCD was voiced but I definitely agree about the low end loss. I found it better for higher gain overdrive sounds.

TheMutt said:
I'm looking for something that is faithful to the sound of my bass and doesn't mask it under a bunch of filters/eq, but could if I needed it to. Ideally, I'd like something that is very much like the front end of my Markbass Little Mark Tube 800 amp with the preamp gain cranked up. If it didn't come with eq options that would even still be alright as I could just use the onboard eq on my bass for that purpose. The only real important features are that it needs to be the same size or smaller than a VT Bass, and also that it needs to be 1Spot/daisy chain friendly as that is how I power this board (although I don't know of any bass overdrive pedals that are not).
Click to expand...

I think the Geminidrive would be worth a look. I've not personally tried one but from the clips I've heard it sounds fairly transparent. The clean blend would probably be useful for getting the character of your bass. I don't like clean blended overdrive but I could definitely see it being useful for transparency.

Another one that I forgot to mention in my other post is the Barber LTD (the SR is the most transparent). The LTD's are very responsive to input signal.

The Nobels ODR-1 is worth checking out as well.





There... that's my overdrive knowledge exhausted :p.
 
#6
gnasher1993 said:
You could try a Danelectro Transparent Overdrive (v1) if you're unsure. It's supposedly a clone of the Timmy; definitely sounds very similar... much cheaper :bassist:.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, they had to change the design of them after a lawsuit was filed along with some other pedal companies that also had their pedal designs infringed upon. FWIW, I have heard that the Dano didn't do the Tim/Timmy justice.

gnasher1993 said:
I think the Geminidrive would be worth a look. I've not personally tried one but from the clips I've heard it sounds fairly transparent. The clean blend would probably be useful for getting the character of your bass. I don't like clean blended overdrive but I could definitely see it being useful for transparency.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm leaning the most towards that one right now. Trying to see if I'm just crazy or not. :D

gnasher1993 said:
Another one that I forgot to mention in my other post is the Barber LTD (the SR is the most transparent). The LTD's are very responsive to input signal.
Click to expand...
Interesting. I have an LTD Silver, which sits between the standard LTD and the SR in transparency, sitting right here on my guitar pedalboard. I'll have to give it a try on bass and maybe get the SR if I like it enough.

gnasher1993 said:
The Nobels ODR-1 is worth checking out as well.
Click to expand...
Hmm... Makes me curious about the Wampler Underdog. It's a Nobels ODR-S clone that had separate bass/mids/treble controls on it. However, it's $200 from a few different dealers and I have yet to see one pop up used. There's also the Rocket Pedals Chicken Soup OD which is a clone of the Nobels ODR-1. Both of which I do not see being all that great on bass as they were not made with bass in mind when they were created. Mind you, this is without having heard either one with a bass played through it.
 
#7
MK1 said:
Sounds like you would really like the Way Huge Pork Loin. It does light to medium OD really well and it can even get into distortion territory. The PL is super transparent, I use it as an "always on" pedal. A huge benefit of this pedal is the clean blend, plus it's really tweakable.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I was going to say.

The Pork Loin is very transparent with no loss of bass. It can go from full and saturated to quite nasty.

I've gone from not using any overdrive (because I couldn't find one that didn't screw with my tone) to keeping this one on for more than half the songs I play.

It's just that musical.
 
#18
KarateKid25 said:
I noticed the Blueberry on your list. I have one and can say it isn't what you're looking for if you want transparency. They are dark and doomy and colour your tone in a big tube power section way. They sound excellent, but not going to fit what you're after.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I've never actually heard the BBBOD. I just stuck it on there because everyone who owns one says that they are the bees knees. I personally hope that they are with their steep price and ridiculously annoying build times.
 

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