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Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

My dirt levels have gone all over the shop over the years...
I’ve had that many and sold that many that I can’t recall them all...
From memory
- Ibanez pd7 - used for ages in overdrive mode
Devi ever
(Legend of bit, aenima, hyperion) - used hyperion in a ls2 for blend for some time...
- bassfuzz.com tentacle love super fuzz
- subdecay noise box and flying tomato fuzz
- mastotron
-source audio OFD
- source audio aftershock
- catalinbread v8 fuzz
- 3 leaf You’re doom v1
- Broughton bass box fuzz
- Proco turbo rat
- dod boneshaker
- Guyatone tz2 fuzz
- earthbound audio supercollider
current board
Cog mini 66 - overdrive with blend as my “usual tone” for most songs
Mxr bass distortion - one song just needed that turbo rat sound and this just works so well
Mbd1 - have it set as a ultra low thick overdrive that just sounds so mean and when I need more I can run the mini 66 into it and gives a nice transparent grind
Bead fuzz - used mostly with wah for a very few sections... it’s a chainsaw in a pedal with blend... just does octave up cutting fuzz through any mix! And works so well with wah!
Stomp under foot sonic generator -super thick Russian muff with mids and tone knob that can go super low to super treble... never really liked muff sound in my bands mix, just never fit... however one song called for it and this is just the most perfect muff I’ve found - can sit back in the mix or cut through depending where you put the mids and tone.
 
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One of the guys from EF just sent me a Rad to compare to my Germ. They are totally different animals, more so than I thought. The Rad is brighter and meaner. Think Lemmy...hahaha. Perfect for a more aggressive tone. I'll eventually grab a Rad for myself. It would be the perfect roundwound, aggressive, rocker.

I keep trying to avoid falling into their rat hole, but I'm a sucker for dirt...
 
I've had an MBD-1 on my board for the past ~3 years, and it completely satiated my Dirt GAS...

...which is not to say I don't have other dirt pedals :)

My big pedalboard has on original Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer right next to the MBD-1. The TS9 is set up for the complete opposite sound of the MBD: No bottom end, all top end fizz, a razor-fence of incisive cutting "RZZZZZZZ!!!!" Plus, the two pedals in combination = instant caterwauling feedback!

My small pedalboard used to have a JHS Angry Charlie V2, but I replaced that with a Bananana Matryoshka...which, admittedly, isn't really a "dirt" pedal, but it does have that wacky synthetic Distortion [sic] mode, so it achieves the same ends (see previous post re: exaggerated harmonic content, providing a forward voice for melodies/countermelodies, emulating chainsaws, and triggering the That's Not Jazz! response). The Angry Charlie now resides in my Quarantine Pedalboard, which is to say, my home office, so it's actually getting the most use these days. It kinda splits the difference between the Tube Screamer and the MBD-1. Wouldn't be my first choice as the only dirt pedal for bass, but it's a nice flavor to have in your arsenal.

Sitting on a shelf here I also have a ProCo Rat, an original (circa 1980) Electro-Harmonix Talking Pedal with its totally unique/idiosyncratic Overdrive circuit, and a Line6 POD Pro, all of which have been put to use as bass dirt in various contexts over the years.

It's good to have options.
 
You guys aren’t helping at all with all this MBD talk.

(Looks over again at thin wallet that just paid for brakes on all 4 wheels of his %^&^%^ piece of crap car)

I had an MBD-1 and sold it. Does that help? It wasn't bad, but I had all the dirt I needed, and it was the one I blindly threw a dart at for selling... Actually, I had all sorts of Dunwich dirt. If I had waited about a year or two, I could've made a few extra $$$ selling after Nick retired.
 
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I keep trying to avoid falling into their rat hole, but I'm a sucker for dirt...

I'm pretty sure I'm getting rid of my pigpile btw haha


I didn't care for the mbd1 much and didnt keep it terribly long; the upper frequencies and couldnt figure out how to get rid of that mid cut. That, and i enjoy my eae and dunwich stuff a bunch.
 
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You guys aren’t helping at all with all this MBD talk.

(Looks over again at thin wallet that just paid for brakes on all 4 wheels of his %^&^%^ piece of crap car)

My main reason for me is at the time I found so many things didn’t like my active 5 string bass or didn’t have a decent clean blend... I followed damnation audio since before they even had a prototype...some guy making a bass pedal specifically for Downtuned active bass with clean blend built in I was allll over that!
 
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Been hearing so much buzz about electrofoods lately. Which ones are worth checking out?
Depends what kind of dirt you like. They have something for everyone. I love everything that they make. The Nepenthes that goes on sale tomorrow is the best "Rat" for bass that I've ever played. The Pig Pile is a perculator circuit, so a bit more wild with plenty of harmonic content. Has an amazing blend circuit as well. The Rad and the Germ are lighter on the dirt. More useful for boosting other dirt, as an always on, or to add some interest at the end of your chain.
 
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I have an MBD-1 - figured out a while after I bought it that there's something wrong with it, never managed to get it fixed, so it's all boxed up. It worked really well for me too. It replaced my old Fulltone Bass Drive, whose distortion I loved but too much of a low-frequency cut. The Budda PhatBass was my secret weapon, mine lives across the country at my friend's studio, thought I would buy another if one came up but can't justify it right now - two did come up on Reverb that looked in pretty good shape, but I let them go. All I want right now is a Subharmonicon...

If we're allowed to talk about fuzz, then the Woolly Mammoth through a filter is one of my favorite sounds. But basically any distortion through some kind of frequency modulation like phaser or whatever - one of my all-time favorite sounds is Jon Lord playing his Hammond through Leslie cabinets but in Deep Purple Mk. IV he played it through a phaser too, maybe those are kind of what I hear in my head for my bass...
 
Depends what kind of dirt you like. They have something for everyone. I love everything that they make. The Nepenthes that goes on sale tomorrow is the best "Rat" for bass that I've ever played. The Pig Pile is a perculator circuit, so a bit more wild with plenty of harmonic content. Has an amazing blend circuit as well. The Rad and the Germ are lighter on the dirt. More useful for boosting other dirt, as an always on, or to add some interest at the end of your chain.

Sounds like the pig pile might be the best for me to check out. I've been busy blowing my budget lately so might have to sit on the sidelines for a few minutes (at least until I sell off some other nonsense I have to replenish fun money). I just wiped the last of my budget with a Vongon Paragraphs that's enroute and a package deal for a few dirts I've been wanting to check out that's also on the way. Pladask is also doing a drop pretty soon...last batch of BAKFRAM (I think they are doing a lotter on that one or something). Supposedly some b-stock matrise and other odds and ends that might be gettable at a big discount. Just too much great stuff out there.
 

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