Hey guys I recently started playing bass for a local band and they want me to use a distortion, fuzz, or overdrive. I've been using my Fuzzrocious 420 Fuzz but its too much for bass. What I am looking for is something that will have some clean signal + dirt or at the very least some distortion with note definition. I'm more of a guitarist and when I play bass I prefer not to use any effects but I want to give them the sound they are looking for. I was looking at the MXR M85 or maybe even trying to go OCD or Rat but I figured I would ask you guys for suggestions.
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Bass distortion help
- Thread starter CN2667
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Get a Source Audio Aftershock, play with the engines. You can play with all kinds of dirt sounds and blend to your heart's content. Even if you don't like the Aftershock format, you will at least have gotten to know what you like in dirt sounds without spending money on many different boxes.
This is a great suggestion and I vote you try the Aftershock as well if you aren't sure what dirt tone you want to use. If you don't want to deal with the trial and error of trying out different distortion pedals this is the best way to go especially if you don't plan to use lots of effects on bass.
The Aftershock has settings for basically every prominent bass fuzz, distortion, and overdrive tone you can find. You will definitely find a tone that pleases the band. If you're used to dialing in different distortion tones the learning curve on using the Neuro editor isnt bad and it's a lot of fun to tweak.
rratajski
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420 FUZZ is definitely too much (and a fuzz) if you're looking for distortion. I helped work on the MXB Bass Distortion, so if you have questions, I can help.
I use a Behringer GDI21, which is a clone of the Tech 21 GT2 as my high gain distortion set flat on the California/Clean/Off Axis setting.
Intended as a guitar preamp but works excellently as a bass distortion as well, and with all the possible different settings and a 2 band EQ it gives you a lot of tone options.
Justin Chancellor from Tool use it as part of his dirt chain too.
Here's a bass demo of the original Tech 21 pedal, used as a distortion effect, but really the Behringer is almost an exact clone and much cheaper:
Intended as a guitar preamp but works excellently as a bass distortion as well, and with all the possible different settings and a 2 band EQ it gives you a lot of tone options.
Justin Chancellor from Tool use it as part of his dirt chain too.
Here's a bass demo of the original Tech 21 pedal, used as a distortion effect, but really the Behringer is almost an exact clone and much cheaper:
Yeah Sansamps are nice, useful for the DI features too. And they come in so many flavors.
Aside from the Behringer clones Joyo also makes the American/Brit/etc Sound pedals though they don't have clean blends or DI outputs.
Aside from the Behringer clones Joyo also makes the American/Brit/etc Sound pedals though they don't have clean blends or DI outputs.
+1 on the source audio aftershock. I've recently bought one once again and it sounds pretty killer.
Yeah I didnt have any bass pedals so I pulled it off my guitar rig hoping to get by. Its a great pedal though.
I grabbed the Source Audio since I dont want to keep buying pedals until I find something that both the band and I agree on. They have been playing awhile and have a sound already in mind that is a bit different than what I would go for.
These two have knocked all other drive pedals off my board... highly recommended.
I’m a big fan of the Amptweaker TightRock Jr. Gives you a couple different tonal options without being overboard with knobs and switches, plus it has a built-in clean blend so you don’t lose all the low end. You can dial in anything from a little bite to full-on grind. I’m a David Wm Sims wannabe, and I can nail the Jesus Lizard bass tone with it.
I'm curious about the MXR distortion unit. I have the Bass Overdrive M89 & a few others. The M89 is a little too warm for me. Too much low end overdrive. I'd rather have something that goes more into guitar frequencies, if that makes any sense. Any information you have on the MXR distortion is appreciated. THANKS!!
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