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Best Bass Overdrive
- Thread starter alfonce
- Start date
If you want a warm, vintage, wooly tone, definitely check out the Hematoma. It sounds amazing and will be right up your alley!bigtexashonk said:
Planet Boulder
Hey, this is a private residence...man
- Nov 10, 2001
- 4,014
- 65
- Disclosures
- I once had impure thoughts. Oh, and I pluck my ear hair.
I currently own the Sansamp BDDI, the Fulltone Bass-Drive and the Digitech Bad Monkey. I have owned the Boss ODB, the DOD 250 and the MXR Bass DI+.
Of those, I would rank them as such:
1. (tie) Fulltone Bass-Drive and Digitech Bad Monkey
2. Sansamp BDDI
3. DOD 250
4. MXR
5. Boss
The reason I rank the Digitech in a dead heat with the Fulltone is because, simply put, the Digitech is an incredible value at $39.00. Like the Fulltone, it allows you to adjust your tone and maintain the low end. It offers subtle to buzz and lots in between. Is it as "well made" as the Fulltone? Probably not, but I've had no problems with either. What it lacks (comp-cut, boost), it makes up for in value. It also possesses a smaller footprint than the Fulltone. I use the Bad Monkey as a backup, and would gladly gig with it.
I bought the Bad Monkey first and loved the hell out of it. So why did i buy the Fulltone? To be honest, I thought it would offer "more" of everything I liked about the Bad Monkey. Does it? Not to the tune of $100.00+ more, to be completely honest. That's NOT to say that I don't love the Fulltone. Just suggesting that you try both out and see if the difference is really worth the extra expense to you. To many, it is. To ME (and ME only!), it isn't.
As for the rest, The DOD is also cheap and the Sansamp has a nice drive as well. I hated the MXR in every way, though it is well made (as are all MXR pedals). It was simply a case of tonal preference. The Boss was useless to me.
Just to add:
What was I looking for in an OD? Basically, I was looking for something which would let me vaguely mimic Claypool's subtle and dynamic OD tone, but in pedal format (since I'm not going to buy a CT or his entire setup). I needed something which would allow me to maintain the low end, and add a little high end to the OD tone and NOT force me to have to play with all-out distortion or nothing, as it were. Since I like to use the delay for solos, ala Les, I didnt want a "muddy" OD - I needed clarity and I also needed something which could compliment my envelope filters (again, ala Les).
For the purposes stated above, the Fulltone and the Digitech filled the bill perfectly for me (play "Southbound Pachyderm" or "My Friend Fats" through one and you'll know what I'm talking about).
Of those, I would rank them as such:
1. (tie) Fulltone Bass-Drive and Digitech Bad Monkey
2. Sansamp BDDI
3. DOD 250
4. MXR
5. Boss
The reason I rank the Digitech in a dead heat with the Fulltone is because, simply put, the Digitech is an incredible value at $39.00. Like the Fulltone, it allows you to adjust your tone and maintain the low end. It offers subtle to buzz and lots in between. Is it as "well made" as the Fulltone? Probably not, but I've had no problems with either. What it lacks (comp-cut, boost), it makes up for in value. It also possesses a smaller footprint than the Fulltone. I use the Bad Monkey as a backup, and would gladly gig with it.
I bought the Bad Monkey first and loved the hell out of it. So why did i buy the Fulltone? To be honest, I thought it would offer "more" of everything I liked about the Bad Monkey. Does it? Not to the tune of $100.00+ more, to be completely honest. That's NOT to say that I don't love the Fulltone. Just suggesting that you try both out and see if the difference is really worth the extra expense to you. To many, it is. To ME (and ME only!), it isn't.
As for the rest, The DOD is also cheap and the Sansamp has a nice drive as well. I hated the MXR in every way, though it is well made (as are all MXR pedals). It was simply a case of tonal preference. The Boss was useless to me.
Just to add:
What was I looking for in an OD? Basically, I was looking for something which would let me vaguely mimic Claypool's subtle and dynamic OD tone, but in pedal format (since I'm not going to buy a CT or his entire setup). I needed something which would allow me to maintain the low end, and add a little high end to the OD tone and NOT force me to have to play with all-out distortion or nothing, as it were. Since I like to use the delay for solos, ala Les, I didnt want a "muddy" OD - I needed clarity and I also needed something which could compliment my envelope filters (again, ala Les).
For the purposes stated above, the Fulltone and the Digitech filled the bill perfectly for me (play "Southbound Pachyderm" or "My Friend Fats" through one and you'll know what I'm talking about).
Planet Boulder said:
interesting, very interesting. Do you use passive or active basses with these pedals? What kind of amp? How about the sounds DI to the board? SOrry for sounding like a pest, I'm always looking for nice budget items and the Digitech is one that's on my list.
Planet Boulder
Hey, this is a private residence...man
- Nov 10, 2001
- 4,014
- 65
- Disclosures
- I once had impure thoughts. Oh, and I pluck my ear hair.
ihateusernames said:
No problem at all - glad to help!
I play both active and passive, though, 90% of my fretted playing is through an active bass while both of my fretless basses are passive (I prefer passive fretlesses).
Amp-wise, I typically play through an Eden Navigator pre->E&W power amp or my G-K 700RB-II. Both are set to flat for EQ, though the G-K's treble is rolled off a little. I LOVE mids!
Both have DI out, but I only DI to a board in larger venues.
Cab-wise, I prefer my 4x10 with *slight* tweeter.
I totally dig the digitech bad monkey. it sounds good. don't own any distortion pedals because distortion was never really part of my sound. the digitech bp200's distortion is pretty good. i'm getting a digitech bp200 in a few months for delay, octave, and distortion. i miss those effects and they sound awesome on the bp200.
The HAO Rustide is a nest pedal but it seems to be marketed as an overdrive. I bought one and spent a good week with it before returning it and purchasing a Fulltone Bassdrive.
The Rustride has only one level of overdrive, and its more like a hardcore distortion. The single knob is a volume control. I really liked the tone of this pedal but it did suck out too much low end and was not going to be evry useabe to be. It was also damm expensive at $180.00 Canadian!
I got my Fulltone for $200.00 Canadian, which is still a lot of cake for an overdrive. I just love it though. Each of the three modes have great tone and the extra channel is pretty cool. I don't think you can go wrong with it. Its the only overdrive I have tried where I can still hear the subtle nuances of my instrument's tone when using an overdrive.
Crabby
The Rustride has only one level of overdrive, and its more like a hardcore distortion. The single knob is a volume control. I really liked the tone of this pedal but it did suck out too much low end and was not going to be evry useabe to be. It was also damm expensive at $180.00 Canadian!
I got my Fulltone for $200.00 Canadian, which is still a lot of cake for an overdrive. I just love it though. Each of the three modes have great tone and the extra channel is pretty cool. I don't think you can go wrong with it. Its the only overdrive I have tried where I can still hear the subtle nuances of my instrument's tone when using an overdrive.
Crabby
Price not being an issue, if you're looking for an overdrive pedal, my experience points to the Fulltone BassDrive. There are three levels of compression, with CompCut being very little (if any) compression noticeable in your tone. Preserving the lows is one of the brilliant features of this cool pedal. It handles my passive Lakland DJ5 as nicely as my very hot US Spector NS-4, an added bonus, since so many pedals seem to favor passive electronics.
If you're looking for over-the-top distortion, you can achieve it in vintage mode, but you'll get a ton more compression than in CompCut mode. But, the flexibility is definitely there.
That said, as much as this pedal rawks, it's not as nice as the overdrive I get from my all-tube Read Purity preamp.
If you're looking for a pedal that'll meet your requirements, I promise you the Fulltone keeps the quality of your tone intact while adding grit, as if you're plugging into a top-notch preamp.
If you're looking for over-the-top distortion, you can achieve it in vintage mode, but you'll get a ton more compression than in CompCut mode. But, the flexibility is definitely there.
That said, as much as this pedal rawks, it's not as nice as the overdrive I get from my all-tube Read Purity preamp.
If you're looking for a pedal that'll meet your requirements, I promise you the Fulltone keeps the quality of your tone intact while adding grit, as if you're plugging into a top-notch preamp.
I do have to wonder, everyone's saying how expensive the Fulltone is... I got mine used for $140, which I don't consider that bad of a price, especially for how great this unit is (and it's not *that* much more then plenty of Boss pedals as well). How much are most people paying for these? 
-Dash
-Dash
Dash Rantic said:
Regards this pedal that pretty much everybody seems to rate - is there really a massive jump when you hit the boost switch in comp cut mode? Some even say this jump is so big it renders the pedal unusable in comp cut mode... Shame as I like the sound of two levels of gain - I wanted to use comp cut mode and then use the first drive level to be a smallish amount of boost on turning the pedal on and then into overdrive territory when I hit the boost.
There's a Boost knob that allows you to dial in the amount of boost you want. You can have zero, if you want it that way.alfonce said:
I'm surprised that noone has suggested the Ibanez PD-7. I have one and the overdrive and distortion on it sound amazing and the clean boost sounds very good as well. As far as I'm concerned it has all the things you're looking for and is much more affordable than other suggestions.
Mine cost £30 second hand. About 5 times cheaper than that silverstone overdrive at 250 dollars.
Mine cost £30 second hand. About 5 times cheaper than that silverstone overdrive at 250 dollars.
Unfortunately, not quite. Boost only works when the overdrive is engaged. If you want strictly a clean boost, Fulltone also makes a Fat Boost pedal [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]. I've tried this pedal and found it was as transparent as any Fulltone product I've tried (which have been several), but didn't see a need for it on my board. Some bassists love this pedal, however.alfonce said:
For clean boost I've heard very, very good things about the [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]. It is completly clean without any tone-shaping going on whatsoever.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
With a tube amp it might just satisfy your overdrive needs as well. They also have the super-duper, which is two Hard-On's in one, which can also be used as a distortion pedal. I don't know much about that one though.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
With a tube amp it might just satisfy your overdrive needs as well. They also have the super-duper, which is two Hard-On's in one, which can also be used as a distortion pedal. I don't know much about that one though.
