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A very natural, rich sounding, subtle overdrive.

J

jmjbassplayer

Justin Meldal-Johnsen
Gold Supporting Member
Mar 25, 2005
4,014
3,599
#1
Hi all,

I've been following recent, similar threads and thought I'd ask for more specific recommendations as it pertains to me.

I'm looking for some more subtle overdrive flavors, more on the warm side of things, and not particularly gain-y. Tone controls would be great, and I'm always down if it has a blend, though that's not mandatory. The best pedal I already have that do what I'm after are the Xotic BB Preamp and the Solid Gold Beta. Also maybe the Tronographic Rusty Box, and the old Tubeworks Blue Tube. Those are all cool, I'm just always looking for other similar flavors to those.

Any recommends?

Thanks,
Justin
 
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#4
jmjbassplayer said:
I'm looking for some more subtle overdrive flavors, more on the warm side of things, and not particularly gain-y. Tone controls would be great, and I'm always down if it has a blend, though that's not mandatory.
Click to expand...

For me it's the Creation Audio Labs Grizzly Bass. It does not have a blend, but it does not need one IMHO because it's so easy to dial in subtle, transparent tube warmth. It does happen to have very useful tone controls: a hi-cut filter, and also a mid cut that keeps overall volume the same as the mids are dialed down (with most mid cuts you have to raise gain/output to compensate).

The Grizzly can do fairly high levels of distortion as well, but the best attribute for me is that it stays subtle and transparent -- and can easily do so with active as well as passive basses.

I was also looking at the Lehle Sonic Spark and others in that vein, but the Grizzly gave me exactly what I wanted so I stopped looking.
 
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#5
Fuzzbass said:
For me it's the Creation Audio Labs Grizzly Bass. It does not have a blend, but it does not need one IMHO because it's so easy to dial in subtle, transparent tube warmth. It does happen to have very useful tone controls: a hi-cut filter, and also a mid cut that keeps overall volume the same as the mids are dialed down (with most mid cuts you have to raise gain/output to compensate).

The Grizzly can do fairly high levels of distortion as well, but the best attribute for me is that it stays subtle and transparent -- and can easily do so with active as well as passive basses.

I was also looking at the Lehle Sonic Spark and others in that vein, but the Grizzly gave me exactly what I wanted so I stopped looking.
Click to expand...

Listened to some samples, sounds pretty cool, thank you. A solid contender.
 
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#9
Fuzzbass said:
For me it's the Creation Audio Labs Grizzly Bass. It does not have a blend, but it does not need one IMHO because it's so easy to dial in subtle, transparent tube warmth. It does happen to have very useful tone controls: a hi-cut filter, and also a mid cut that keeps overall volume the same as the mids are dialed down (with most mid cuts you have to raise gain/output to compensate).

The Grizzly can do fairly high levels of distortion as well, but the best attribute for me is that it stays subtle and transparent -- and can easily do so with active as well as passive basses.

I was also looking at the Lehle Sonic Spark and others in that vein, but the Grizzly gave me exactly what I wanted so I stopped looking.
Click to expand...

+1, saves me a bunch of writing ☺
 
#11
I've never tried one, but the Fairfield barbershop seems to fit this description to a T from what I've read about it. Very transparent.

I also think the pork loin can do this. I use one and I absolutely love it. I did a capacitor swap out mod to mine though. It added quite a bit of brightness to it. But you may like it stock. Pretty transparent.

The blue tube would be great too. Def warms it up and gives that tube sound. Adds its own character.

Then there's the DOD 250. The reissue and or the original would be the way I'd go. It most def warms your signal up but still holds clarity. And you can set to a really subtle OD. One of my favs too. Somewhat transparent yet adds its own character.

The one control green hookers bass machine is also great for this, warm, slight gain, fat OD. Adds its own character.


Every last one of those does what you're wanting. Just in slightly different ways.
 
#12
Contact our local @Azure Skies about his Azure Drive. It's a seriously versatile drive that can go from barely there, warm boost all the way to raging overdrive. It replaced a Barbershop clone on my own board, and is based on the Blueberry Bass OD, but with some tweaks by Josh to make it one of the best OD pedals out there IMO.
 
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#18
When I view a thread like this (a topic that interests me) I just get frustrated by the fact that everyone has a different answer so I stick with what I have - a VT Bass and a Big Muff.

One thing I would like is a drive knob that is very insensitive - starting with almost no drive and maxing out with a still fairly subtle effect - so that the knob range/travel is very forgiving. My son's tube screamer (for guitar) is along those lines.
 
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#19
I just got my second (first one was v1) Barbershop this week. I think it's exactly what you are after. The tone switch on the v2 is well worth it, I always have it on in the right position. In a mix, it's amazing how much drive you can get away with and it still sounding "clean". My recording signal chain is P bass to Barbershop to Reddi and it is my favorite bass sound I have ever had.

Good luck!
 
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