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80's Retro Distortion/Overdrive Effect?

A

AKJ

Jun 30, 2011
10
0
#1
Hey guys. I've been playing bass for about 15 years now, but to be honest I've always tried to keep it super simple effects-wise. I count myself in the Carlos D school of bass in terms of less is sometimes more (for my playing style anyways)...

I use a compressor/sustainer and an eq and that's it, which means knowledge of other effects pedals is pretty limited. I'm interested in playing around with some 80's style overdrive but haven't been able to find a pedal that can give me the sound I want. Here's an example of what I'm kinda looking for:

Invalid Link Removed

If anyone can suggest a pedal or combination of effects that could help my get something like this sound, I would really appreciate it. I play a Fender Jazz with an Ampeg SVT4 Pro. Thx!
 
#2
AKJ said:
Hey guys. I've been playing bass for about 15 years now, but to be honest I've always tried to keep it super simple effects-wise. I count myself in the Carlos D school of bass in terms of less is sometimes more (for my playing style anyways)...

I use a compressor/sustainer and an eq and that's it, which means knowledge of other effects pedals is pretty limited. I'm interested in playing around with some 80's style overdrive but haven't been able to find a pedal that can give me the sound I want. Here's an example of what I'm kinda looking for:

Invalid Link Removed

If anyone can suggest a pedal or combination of effects that could help my get something like this sound, I would really appreciate it. I play a Fender Jazz with an Ampeg SVT4 Pro. Thx!
Click to expand...


That 'Slow' tone is my go-to sound. Pretty much P-Bass (J-Bass works too - fully open tone and pups) into a bass big muff pi blending in the fuzz signal to about 45% into a Sansamp bass driver DI mixed with a little more soft OD and EQ then I throw on a bit of CE-2. A vintage SVT or Musicman HD130 would be the ideal end game.
 
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#5
The sound in that video was about my sound in the early 90's lol
What i used back then was mainly guitarpedals, because that's all i could find at the time. And i played with a jazz bass through different amps(ampeg, hartke, peavey, trace-elliot)but it always sounded about the same. Lots of mids and less bass and treble.
Pedals then was Boss sd-1 or Ibanez mt-10(mosfet distortion!).
So pretty far from any tubesound but it sure did the trick!
Oh and some chorus to it sure helps too.
 

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