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Best Bass Overdrive

#41
I've been largely satisfied with my EH Big Muff pi, but I have to use my Boss LS-3 (line switch) pedal to mix a dry signal in with the wet - convenient for me as I already the LS-3. Alone, I found the Big Muff sounded nice, I could preserve the bottom end. But in a full band setting, I felt like it was getting lost. The Big Muff is also pretty much full-on at it's lowest setting.

My favorite distortion at the moment is my 80's era Polytone Minibrute IV. It has treble/bass, a tone color switch, reverb and an overdrive level control that's stacked with the volume. You can mix the overdrive with the dry signal (the foot switch just turns on the OD, adding it to the dry signal). It's a great jagged, grindy sound, unlike the smoother, more consistent sound of the Big Muff.

The Polytone isn't always the amp I want to use, though, so I can't always have it's distorion.

I think I need to check out the Bad Monkey and the Fulltone after reading so many favorable comments.
 
#42
Aidos 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.
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(Max OD and max Dist,the last part is a Pandora Fuzz for comparison)
 
#43
Technical query.
I was trying some overdrive boxes with my BBE BMAX T last night and while they where guitar pedals of varying sorts I couldnt quite work out how best to use them - I did this as the same will apply to whatever bass overdrive I end up with.

I don't particularly want to drive the input of the BBE as its got such a lovely clean tone - doesn't sound to hot driven. So that being said I think I was driving the input of the BBE when the stomp was on - but if I turn the stomp down I'm not getting the clean boost or crunch I desire or alternatively if I turn the input gain down on the BBE then my clean settings will be too quiet.

I also tried the effect in the loop - not sure if its good practice to place an overdrive in the loop but it did sound ok - but again the same applied - I think I was making the unit break up as I was getting two sounds of overdrive or so it seemed.

Note I wasnt using much overdrive on my pedal at all.

I thought about balancing the over driven sounds volue from the the true bypass volume - this would sort one ting I guess but then I also need a boost to step my over all volumes up.

What to do please?
 
#44
BFunk said:
I suggest either the Xotic RC Booster or Xotic BB Preamp. The first is a pure clean boost. The second is clean boost into mild overdrive. I have the second one and love it. I am seriously considering buying the first one too.
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+ 1 on this

I had the Xotic RC Bass Booster and have the Xotic Bass BB Preamp.

Both leave your tone intact and have lots of headroom. I got rid of the RC because I don't have any use for a clean boost. And if I ever will I could just set the gain on my BB to zero. The BB wil go from clean boost to overdrive to distortion and to almost fuzz if you have a bass with a hot output and an active tone pot cranked which will clip the mofo which I really like. But even at such an extreme setting it will preserve your tone, but it will also compress. The EQ on both pedals is very strong and gives you a lot of options. I really like Xotic pedals and am pretty sure the guitar versions will work fine on bass. (I've tried the BB preamp for guitar with bass and it sounded pretty much the same as the bass version. There was a week in between, no AB comparison.) I think you should give them a try, but beware they're as expensive as the Fulltone stuff.
 
#46
I use a passive bass and need the preamp to be always on. As most preamps don't have a separate OD/dist channel, I can't switch to OD/dist on the spot (I actually use an MXR M80 that can do this but I don't like the dist on it, so I'm going to get an EWS tri-logic instead). Thus, I can't use the preamp for OD. Right?

So, I need another pedal for OD. I'm thinking about the bad monkey but there is mod by humphrey audio for bass. So the question is, is the mod worth it, since some of you guys in this thread have already complemented the bad monkey without the mod.
 
#50
Blowtorch is a gated/synthy type fuzz. If you're looking for overdrive, steer clear. In fact, in my opinion, steer clear of that pedal for anything - but I digress.

I own the Agro, and I love the tone by itself, but I feel it's pretty anemic in low end in a mix. It's got more of a high-end sizzly type of distortion at its higher gain settings, and IMO - other pedals do low gain tones better. I'm still looking for a proper place for this one, it's kind of a love/hate relationship I have with it.

So this all depends on what you're looking for. Overdrive, fuzz, distortion? These are all different tones (people don't seem to understand that concept at times).
 
#51
P-oddz said:
I own the Agro, and I love the tone by itself, but I feel it's pretty anemic in low end in a mix. It's got more of a high-end sizzly type of distortion at its higher gain settings, and IMO - other pedals do low gain tones better. I'm still looking for a proper place for this one, it's kind of a love/hate relationship I have with it.
QUOTE]

Thanks Poddz, I'll keep that in mind ;)
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