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Best bass distortion/overdrive pedal's?

bill_banwell

bill_banwell

Oct 19, 2002
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England
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#1
Hi Guy's, i've recently got back into using effects (its been around 7-8 years since i've touched an effects pedal) and i'm doing a project which would really suit some synth sounds so i've bought a BOSS SYB-5 (i know its not the greatest synth pedal out there but i have a budget and it will be a good start)

I used to have a BOSS ODB-3 but i'm pretty sure i sold it a few years back or it's lost in my old house somewhere.. either way, i didnt really dig it that much, i'm sure some of you will know what i mean..

so, back to the point, what pedal's would you recommend to get a nice fuzz/distortion on a bass to mix with synth!

Thanks!
 
#3
There's a ton of of bass distortion pedals out there, man. And more than a few that are really good. But if you're a guy who's building synthy sounds and who's in the market for a distortion pedal... surely you know bout the Source Audio Multiwave Bass Distortion? It gets some pretty synthy sounds just on its own. I love mine.
 
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#7
Havent heard a synth effect pedal for bass that I thought was any good. partly I'm sure from being a synth player player. Lol. Anyway, I typically use a little bit of ring mod effect set for low tone to give a little bit of synth bass like char. Along with overdrive. And multi band eq to restore low bass. My zoom B9.iut does very good with this. Though I gotta say the ring mod abd better done 8band eq of the old Zoom player2000 was even better for the ring mod effect and eq voice wants.

Anyway I'd look at effects like ring mod, maybe filter with programable envelope. Rather then synth pedal effect for bass. They all sound like garbage to me comapred to real synths. O I know, plug your bass into the aux input of your fave hardware synth and use its envelopes oscilators etc. Maudio venom and Novation ks3 do the trick for me when wanting such. Later on you could add midi convertor pup to a bass to use it as keyboard for yer real synths.
 
#10
There is a problem with what "good" means because it's completely subjective. There is also a BIG difference between a gain/OD pedal like a Pork Loin and the all out fuzz insanity of a B:assmaster, with everything in between.
Maybe start with a price point in mind and work from there. You can easily spend up to $300 on boutique pedals that do some amazing stuff, if you have the cash.
www.bassfuzz.com has more reviews of fuzz pedals than you'll know what to do with. It is a good start.
 
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#12
Does a pedal exist that provides a variable amount of grind, variable level, and true bypass?
The Tech21 VT Bass comes to mind, but might be overkill in capability and price?
I'm not looking for radical fuzz, but more grind and more volume when stomped.

The intent is using the pedal for more moxie during solos and buildups. Think 'freebird' during the solo.
 
#13
I think I've decided. I've got my Source Audio Multiwave Pro for high levels of distortion, synthy effects and crazy interactions with my envelope filter. The only thing it lacks is a setting for an always on, retro, slightly tubey, rock bass tone. So I've decided to augment the SA Multiwave with a Tech 21 VT Bass. It seems to be the tubiest non-tube pedal out there.
 
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#15
OD
Modded pork loin (check the JohnK mod thread here on TB)
Big game bedlam (ocd based)
Darkglass B3K or VMT

Dist
Fuzzrocious rat/cat tail (rat varient)
Idiot box blower box (another rat varient)

Fuzz
Definitely get a muff. They have grown in greatness over the last 5 to 6 years. Builders have just been killin it with them adding mids knobs n stuff. A few I really like are
Stomp under foot civil unrest
Abonimadle hail Satan
Big game EAND

Darkglass duality
Malekko diobolik or b:assmaster
Earthbound audio pale mare

There is a TON of really great stuff out there now since you've been out of it @Redhotbassist. There has been an explosion of awesome indie builder and a lot of the larger companies have really given us pedal heads more than we could ever have dreamed of. For the most part. It's a wonderful time to be into pedals and effects. Just amazing. I haven't even scratched the surface with what I named. Literally. There are is a ton of great stuff out there right now. Seriously. Ask a lot of questions. Be patient and look around. Because odds are, if you can think of it, it's out there waiting for you.
 
#16
I feel like I need a cut & paste answer to this question. Anyway:

OD:
CA Grizzly -- Transparent, touch-sensitive, covers all levels of tubey gain, I use mine for medium to high
TAFM (smallsound/bigsound Team Awesome Fuzz Machine) -- sounds great at low gain
Barbershop -- Transparent, touch sensitive, primarly for low gain (higher gains start to sound farty), this is my always-on low gainer
Cog Knightfall 66 -- OCD clone with a clean blend. Just got this, it's a disgusting pedal if you dig the OCD thing. The 66 is a two channel pedal that can be run at 18v, but he sells a single channel version too (9v only, as far as I know). Downside is that they're pricey if you're in the US...although not as pricey as they were a week ago (thanks Brexit :wacky:). A US alternative would be the Big Game Bedlam, but last I checked he's sold out and is in development on a new version.

Fuzz:
The TAFM (smallsound/bigsound Team Awesome Fuzz Machine) does all kinds of fuzz, including gated, in addition to the juicy low gain.

Distortion:
CA Grizzly -- can get pretty nasty at high gains, seperate pot to bring in distortion on top of OD. Very tubey sounding -- not a rat or an OCD sound.
Knightfall -- Crazy OCD distortion with sick low end -- just check out this demo.
Idiot Box Blower Box -- rat variant.
 
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#19
I've been using a Blackstone distortion pedal for a long time and I love the sound, but it doesn't produce much low end. Not a problem in the studio as we blend it with the clean tone in post. To solve this, we tried giving the bass direct to the board with a DI, and mixing that with the wet/distortion coming out of the amp's DI. The bass distortion sounded HUGE! Kinda silly to give the board 2 bass inputs, but since we're a trio its no big deal.
 

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