Another distortion thread

[Joey lewis]

I know it’s been covered day and night, but I’m specific. I need a distortion pedal for my rig, which is an ltd 206sm running into my board and then into my ampeg svt-2 tube head. Lots of gain in the head, but I’m looking for a gritty full distortion that will work well with my active 6 string. I have a boost pedal and a fuzz, and some tube screamers (which I hate), but I need something to retain the low end. I do have an mxr bass di with distortion, but I’m not super fond of that distortion circuit either. I went cheap instead of buying a darkglass pedal, but maybe I should just sell the mxr and get a darkglass equivalent? Or do you guys have any suggestions for a heavy, Grindy while still full and war, sounding distortion? Any help and or questions are appreciated, trying to nail this down as it’s been eluding me for years. Cheers y’all!

 

[jbybj]

I know it’s become a cliche, but based on your description, Damnation MBD-1/2.

 

[Joey lewis]

I know it’s become a cliche, but based on your description, Damnation MBD-1/2.

Never heard of it, I’ll check it out

 

[rjovin]

I know it’s become a cliche, but based on your description, Damnation MBD-1/2.

I've used my MBD-2 at two band practices now and it sounds glorious.

 

[jbybj]

I've used my MBD-2 at two band practices now and it sounds glorious.

My MBD-1 just came back on the board after a brief exile, and yes, glorious is an appropriate description. Such a wide range of sound, none of it bad.

 

[jbybj]

Never heard of it, I’ll check it out

Search Damnation Audio.

 

[Stevorebob]

Damnation Audio MBD-2 is all you need to know.

 

[Killing Floor]

Sushi Box Lab Rat.

 

[MattZilla]

Darkglass ADAM

 

[Joey lewis]

Darkglass ADAM

I have never paid 500 for a pedal, don’t plan in starting now. Whatever I buy will be used and below 200. Gotta pay for preschool coming up too, ya dig

 

[Joey lewis]

There’s a mbd1 early prototype on reverb for cheap. Only catch is the box is blank with no knobs. Might grab it, it’s only 120

 

[jbybj]

There’s a mbd1 early prototype on reverb for cheap. Only catch is the box is blank with no knobs. Might grab it, it’s only 120

Let me offer my hearty and enthusiastic unsolicited encouragement.

 

[REV]

I'm really pleased with my Bearfoot Blueberry. I keep trying others but nothing has ever moved it off my pedal board. I must admit I am curious about the Genzler 4 on the floor.

 

[GMC]

In my experience, active basses tend to do odd things to analogue dirt. The active bass electrics have a totally different line levels and impedance to passive instruments, which is what most analogue pedals were designed for. So you may find any light overdrive pedal becomes a heavy shredding Fuzz with your active bass. It’s also why you get so many opinions about the same dirt pedals, they are very rig / player / bass sensitive. It’s one of the many reasons I went digital dirt, it’s a lot more consistent.
If I was going to choose just one dirt pedal it would either be the Source Audio Aftershock or the Ultrawave.
With analogue dirt you get what you get, like it or lump it. You have a few controls, but the pedal is what it is. If it’s not right, flip it and try another until you get one that works. Change your bass (or other things in your early chain) and it all starts over again.
With really good digital dirt, the sounds can be a little vanilla and need tweaking in an editor. Usually there’s way more settings and options, plus patches to save / recall. The dirt sound is a lot less dependant on your bass and early pedal chain. I would say that good digital dirt is choice for consistency, controls, versatility, stereo routing and patches…plus midi, let’s not go there…midi is a whole different thread!

 

[Bassinga]

Check out the Fuzzrocious Cat Tail!

 

[A Bass And Its Boy]

DSM Noisemaker Subatomic.

 

[smeet]

Just in case one strikes your fancy, I’m selling a few really good distortions in the classifieds, including an MBD-1 and a Rusty Box.

 

[bassbrad]

@GMC has the right idea with the Source Audio Aftershock or better yet the [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] . Both pedals give you many ways to find your perfect sound. Aftershock offers multiple engines to start designing your own pedal and the tools to perfect it and there are hundreds of creations in the Neuro Cloud you can sample, load and customize.
The Bass Ultrawave is a powerful distortion.toolbox that goes far beyond simple distortion exploring the exotic to industrial and synth and adds compression, tremolo and EQ to your arsenal.

The Aftershock ended my long search for the "right" distortion because I could create the sound, any sound, I needed with Neuro. Over the years I've owned and tried hundreds of distortion pedals, consulted on the development of several and burned my fingers trying to build some. The tools in the Neuro App are so much easier than trying to actually circuit bend.

 

[Gearhead17]

Lots of good advice already. For me, the key to using distortion with bass is to have a clean tone blended in. Don't count on the distortion pedal retaining the low end. This works well for recording and live work.

 

[groovaholic]

Dirt is an incredibly individual choice, and the quest starts with a notion of what you want to hear…
Then there are some variables:
1) how your fingers attack the strings,
2) how you have the electronics on your bass set
3) how your amp is EQed
4) what your speaker is

It’s impossible for any of us to guess that because there’s no way we can know all those variables.

I bought dozens of dirt pedals in my search, then ended up building about a dozen too - because nothing was “just right” for me.

But one that I tried along the way has already been mentioned: the Source Audio Aftershock

That one will let you play with a TON of variables and try them with your bass, your hands, your rig, and your ears…

If you’d prefer to have a pedal that’s hardware (not software) based, the Aftershock will certainly narrow your search and point you in the right direction.