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Any pedals that cop speaker breakup distortion?

jj4001

jj4001

Dec 27, 2010
1,385
1,219
Providence, RI
#1
I tried searching this topic but no luck.

Anyway, are there any pedals out there known to sound like a cab being pushed too hard, with it's speakers crying for help?

I ask because of a tone I was able to get in a recording studio recently. A P-bass with Geezers > Acoustic 370 > ancient looking Ampeg SVT 8X10, not a flat back, but with the silver grill cloth and weathered as hell. The volume and tone settings used are clean through my Acoustic cabs, but through the studio's beat up warhorse SVT cab, it was very distorted in such a trashy and nasty way. Very musical. Sounded much better than any dirt pedals I've gotten my hands on.

Obviously, there's no way I can play my live rig loud enough to achieve this sound. (I wouldn't want to put 38 year old speakers in very good shape through that torture anyway, as good as it may sound. :smug::bassist:) Though I generally like the dirt pedals I do have, none of them sound anything like this.

Any suggestions for a pedal that may come close or is the whole concept of copping speaker distortion tone just crazy?
 
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#5
jj4001 said:
I tried searching this topic but no luck.

Anyway, are there any pedals out there known to sound like a cab being pushed too hard, with it's speakers crying for help?

I ask because of a tone I was able to get in a recording studio recently. A P-bass with Geezers > Acoustic 370 > ancient looking Ampeg SVT 8X10, not a flat back, but with the silver grill cloth and weathered as hell. The volume and tone settings used are clean through my Acoustic cabs, but through the studio's beat up warhorse SVT cab, it was very distorted in such a trashy and nasty way. Very musical. Sounded much better than any dirt pedals I've gotten my hands on.

Obviously, there's no way I can play my live rig loud enough to achieve this sound. (I wouldn't want to put 38 year old speakers in very good shape through that torture anyway, as good as it may sound. :smug::bassist:) Though I generally like the dirt pedals I do have, none of them sound anything like this.

Any suggestions for a pedal that may come close or is the whole concept of copping speaker distortion tone just crazy?
Click to expand...

Hello. The concept is not crazy. Many pursued it before. In my experience the question is this:

Is there a processor (pedal, etc.) that, when amplified through a clean instrument amp with speakers not overdriven yields a sound that is credibly like that of an instrument amp with head and speakers overdriven, wherein in both cases the net volume (sound pressure level or perceived volume) is the same.

That last term is important since most players will judge the authenticity of a sound relative to its volume. For a bass player, that can make all the difference if they hear and feel the reference sound at a high volume.

If true, then with that in mind you should be able to either
  1. test the drive pedals at the same high volume (as described above), or

  2. record the reference sound, then test the drive pedals at a low volume, comparing their sound to a low volume playback of the reference sound, or

  3. have fantastic powers of auditory memory plus considerable objectivity, simply testing the drive pedals and comparing their sound at any volume to your unaided recollection of the reference sound.
For real. :thumbsup:

I think that any number of drive pedals can get you in the ballpark; that it depends on the particular "driven speaker" sound you have in mind (they aren't all the same, after all). Of those I own, these might do it:
  • Barber Electronics Deep Fryer ver. 2
  • Bearfoot FX Blueberry Overdrive or Model G
  • Dunwich Amplification Volt Thrower
  • Frantone Brooklyn Overdrive
  • Fulltone Bass-Drive ver. 1 or ver. 2
  • Fuzzrocious Rat/Cat King
  • Lumpy's Tone Shop Class A Overdrive
  • Menatone Kar Krash, Ms. Foxy Brown, Pig, Workingman's Blue 8-knob, or Wreck'T 4-knob
Some of those correctly will sound like the small amp they were meant to emulate (Model G, Class A Overdrive, Ms. Foxy Brown) or simply will be bass shy (Brooklyn Overdrive). With those, if you want the sound of a bigger amp, or to at least not lose your low frequencies with bass guitar, first get your basic sound then add bass EQ downstream.

Someone mentioned the Devi Ever Torn's Peaker. I used to own and like a Devi Ever Shoe Gazer, which is a Torn's Peaker in line with a Soda Meiser. Freaking great pedal with bass guitar; so musical and inspiring. One side was a bass robber, though I can't remember which. But you may want to try the Devi Ever TP or SG.
 
Last edited:
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#6
I'm not exactly sure what the sound you seek is, but maybe SSBS Fu** Drive with the "crackle" switch on, I get this sound also from a Fuzzhugger Arc Flash but that's not a new pedal. As a child I poked a hole into the old RCA TV speaker and the resulting buzz on bass sounds was close to these pedals. Bass as in Raymond Burr speaking.
 
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#8
Snaxster said:
Hello. The concept is not crazy. Many pursued it before. In my experience the question is this:

Is there a processor (pedal, etc.) that, when amplified through a clean instrument amp with speakers not overdriven yields a sound that is credibly like that of an instrument amp with head and speakers overdriven, wherein in both cases the net volume (sound pressure level or perceived volume) is the same.

That last term is important since most players will judge the authenticity of a sound relative to its volume. For a bass player, that can make all the difference if they hear and feel the reference sound at a high volume.

If true, then with that in mind you should be able to either
  1. test the drive pedals at the same high volume (as described above), or

  2. record the reference sound, then test the drive pedals at a low volume, comparing their sound to a low volume playback of the reference sound, or

  3. have fantastic powers of auditory memory plus considerable objectivity, simply testing the drive pedals and comparing their sound at any volume to your unaided recollection of the reference sound.
For real. :thumbsup:

I think that any number of drive pedals can get you in the ballpark; that it depends on the particular "driven speaker" sound you have in mind (they aren't all the same, after all). Of those I own, these might do it:
  • Barber Electronics Deep Fryer ver. 2
  • Bearfoot FX Blueberry Overdrive or Model G
  • Dunwich Amplification Volt Thrower
  • Frantone Brooklyn Overdrive
  • Fulltone Bass-Drive ver. 1 or ver. 2
  • Fuzzrocious Rat/Cat King
  • Lumpy's Tone Shop Class A Overdrive
  • Menatone Kar Krash, Ms. Foxy Brown, Pig, Workingman's Blue 8-knob, or Wreck'T 4-knob
Some of those correctly will sound like the small amp they were meant to emulate (Model G, Class A Overdrive, Ms. Foxy Brown) or simply will be bass shy (Brooklyn Overdrive). With those, if you want the sound of a bigger amp, or to at least not lose your low frequencies with bass guitar, first get your basic sound then add bass EQ downstream.

Someone mentioned the Devi Ever Torn's Peaker. I used to own and like a Devi Ever Shoe Gazer, which is a Torn's Peaker in line with a Soda Meiser. Freaking great pedal with bass guitar; so musical and inspiring. One side was a bass robber, though I can't remember which. But you may want to try the Devi Ever TP or SG.
Click to expand...

I think I'll be going the #2 route since the as of now rough mixes is my reference. I guess it's a matter of finding a pedal that does a good imitation of that grit when we play live. Thanks for the suggestions. Sounds like a good place to start looking.

The sick irony is that my live rig as is could do it but there's no way I can turn up anywhere near that loud in any real world gigs. If I really wanted to get crazy, I could get a splitter and use one channel of my amp to mimic the scooped, clean DI tone and then use the other channel for all the mic'd amp/cab distortion on the reference recording. Kinda defeats the purpose of switching to a P bass, though!
 
#10
Jazz Ad said:
The original SansAmp reproduced it when selecting the speaker edge mic position and pushing drive way up.
The warp setting on their XXL pedal also did it on extreme settings.
Click to expand...

You know, I use a Dr. J Sparrow pedal which I think is Joyo's take on the SansAmp. When I cranked the drive and mix knobs, it came by far the closest of any of my own pedals. I love this pedal the way I set it now though so I'd hate to give it a different job. Maybe I should just buy another since they're so cheap. :smug:
 
#11
BassBrass said:
I'm not exactly sure what the sound you seek is, but maybe SSBS Fu** Drive with the "crackle" switch on, I get this sound also from a Fuzzhugger Arc Flash but that's not a new pedal. As a child I poked a hole into the old RCA TV speaker and the resulting buzz on bass sounds was close to these pedals. Bass as in Raymond Burr speaking.
Click to expand...


The lower gain setting when he first clicks this thing on is pretty close. Thanks for the suggestion!
 

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