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Bass Overdrive, what pedal?

#21
The bass players in this house like the DOD Bass Overdrive a lot for its warm and somewhat dark coloration; but we don't put any high freqs into the pedal (tone controls DOWN) and we don't max the drive control. YMMV.
 
#24
Chris_NR said:
I'm currently planning to purchase a bass overdrive pedal. I'm not after a full out distorted sound, more of a slightly overdriven warm bass sound; similar to A Wilhelm Scream and older Rise Against material. Has anyone had much experience with overdrive pedals? What would you recommend from your own experience?

I've been told that the Boss ODB 3 is one of the best available, any opinions?
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so surprised no one yet mentioned t-rex bass-juice: it could be your best buy

Michele
 
#27
MXR Blow Torch

The thing has so many faces. The 3 position mid-shift can take it from crackling highs to warm bumpy lows. The gain knob covers quite a bit of range, along with the Torch switch. The blend will also give you plenty of control over how much of the fuzz you do dial in will come through the speakers vs. your clean tone. I've found that the blend is interesting when you have an amp with good dynamic response as you can play around with your attack and hear how the clean signal yeilds one response and the fuzz yeilds a different one depending on the settings and the pluck intensity. It isn't the most natural tube overdrive I've ever heard, but bringing back the highs and moving the mid focus to the lower frequencies helps.
 
#28
Chris_NR said:
I'm not after a full out distorted sound, more of a slightly overdriven warm bass sound
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Chris_NR said:
My budget would be about $200
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Given these characteristics I would look into the Fulltone Bass-Drive and Homebrew Hematoma. The Fulltone is going to be more subtle, but the Hematoma will sound warmer. Many threads and many clips can be found 'round these parts.

The much-loved yet no longer as trendy Polish Love does subtle better than anything I have heard, but if you want it to do warm you'll have to have a warm tone coming from your bass or other pedals in front of it. While it can sound harsh as left to its own devices, it responds extremely well to the signal you feed into it.

Also, while I have not tried one myself, if I were looking for Subtle + Warm I would be looking at the Barber LTD.
 
#30
"Last edited by Crystalman85 : Today at 12:38 AM. Reason: correting my sentences on my posted reply."

lol

I have an English Muffn and a Sansamp Paradriver- The paradriver is more versatile, but I much prefer the Muffn despite the large size and AC power requirements. It does a nice warm tube sound (has two tubes in it) and can do subtle to not-so-subtle very well. Nice glassy breakup and responds very well to playing dynamics, and you can find one for $100+ I'm looking for something smaller and 9vdc to replace it, but in the mean time, I have it squeezed in on my board for the few songs I use an OD in, because it sounds great- very amp-like in my opinion.
 
#33
fightthepower said:
"Last edited by Crystalman85 : Today at 12:38 AM. Reason: correting my sentences on my posted reply."

lol

I have an English Muffn and a Sansamp Paradriver- The paradriver is more versatile, but I much prefer the Muffn despite the large size and AC power requirements. It does a nice warm tube sound (has two tubes in it) and can do subtle to not-so-subtle very well. Nice glassy breakup and responds very well to playing dynamics, and you can find one for $100+ I'm looking for something smaller and 9vdc to replace it, but in the mean time, I have it squeezed in on my board for the few songs I use an OD in, because it sounds great- very amp-like in my opinion.
Click to expand...

I was meant to say proofreading because I did mess up my sentence a little bit...my bad.:p

but other than that, do you ever combine the english muffn with the sansamp paradriver?...I'll bet they sound awesome together.:)
 
#34
Up to now I had tried Blowtorch, XXL, Valve Drive, SansAmp BDDI, Boss Drive pedals that I don't remember the models, and such.. None of them fully satisfied me for THAT drive tone. I own ValveDrive and SansAmp.. SansAmp turned out to be a complete mistake for my taste... I had to purchase ValveDrive without trying. Due to my tube sound obsession I bought the pedal.. There aren't any good tube heads or amps of anysort here where I live.. So thought I could dial in the tubiness in somewhere in my signal path. I also own the XXL and sometimes use it together with the ValvDrive...

All in all, I am never fully satisfied with what I hear. The XXL is a gift from a friend of mine. And to be honest I like the agressive grit and growl coming out of it. Really disturbs my guitard person and I quite like to disturb him. Although it is truly agressive, the XXL kills the low end. The full bottom is no longer there what ever I do. It's the bass edition but there's still the low end loss.

SansAmp is taking away the mids.. A very good DI box though, not my taste for overdrive

ValveDrive is ok if I don't crank the gain anywhere past noon... I keep it at 10 o'clock mostly... the vintage mode adds some more fuzziness while compressing the signal more..

The only pedal that approached to my taste was a boutique one made bay ADD+. The guy who handcrafts those is a friend of mine. He's used a mosfet circuit in one of his drive boxes and that one gave me the punch, growl, grit and full solid low end.

All the above means my search for MY overdrive tone continues.. the muff pedals will be my next quest.. I'll see what happens..

One last thing: IME the overall sound no matter what effect I use depends on the amp and cab.. Like when ever I run my setup in a 4x10 cab or 4x12 cab the overdriven tones sound way different than what I get through the PA.. .. tough issue this is....
 
#36
Here's a dark horse candidate: The Hartke Bass Attack.

Just crank the "harmonics" knob (which is rather like a gain) and dial the "shape" knob in for all the low end you want.

Check out minute 1:30-2:30 for what it sounds like. It's basically the same circuit that's in this amp but in a stand alone box.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCiu5YJa-1g

I traded it for an echo pedal, but I missed it when it was gone so this one goes in the "pedals I wish I would have kept" category.
 
#39
Considering budget and the sound you are looking for-
Humph's Digitech 'Badder' Monkey does all that. Can't say enough about it fo a nice OD. Another inexpensive alt is a Art Studio MP and crank the input to saturate the tube - only $29 at MF if you will not have to stomp it on or off all the time.
David
 

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