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Can the OCD Replace The Bassdrive?

Crabby

Crabby

Dec 22, 2004
4,404
410
#1
I tried out a Version4 OCD last night at a music shop and was very impressed. I didn't hear any low end loss but I was not using my own gear and music stores are not the best environment for testing new gear.

I was really impressed with how the controls work and found that the OCD sounded warm and smooth no matter how I set it. There was no gritty fizzyness, just warm smooth overdrive. I was really liking it.

I had a buddy at the store with me, he went and grabbed a Bassdrive mosfet off the shelf and we compared them. After playing the OCD for awhile, as soon as I plugged in the Bassdrive and set it up to a mild overdrive, my buddy immediately stated that the OCD was light years better sounding.

I switched back and forth a dew times and noticed that the Bassdrive's tone control can bring out a lot more gritty high end and sounds kind of muddy when turned down. I have never been completely happy with the tone sweep on my non mosfet version at home either.

My goal is to replace the Bassdrive with a smaller pedal that provides a nice light overdrive with no low end loss and has the same tonal qualities as the bassdrive.

So is the OCD going to cut it with the low end? I would like to hear from people that have used the OCD. is it a keeper? Are you satisfisfied with the low end retention when using it? Is it a suitable alternative to the Bassdrive.

I really like my Bassdrive but do notice a low end loss.
 
#2
I currently have an OCD and like it much better than the Bassdrive. The Bassdrive never did it for me - kind of sloppy sounding, not enough edge. The OCD is nice and tight and can do from mild OD to almost fuzz tones very well, and I think the HP/LP switch is also very effective at giving you more dynamic range/compression. Also works great on guitar. I believe I have a V2 - I would imagine all of the version changes are fairly subtle.
 
#3
Cool. The only version available to me is V4 which i have read has less low end then the others. This is of course, a concern. I'm not sure what the exact difference is in the versions but if an older version has more low end, I may be smarter to try and find a used one rather then drop $180 Canadian on a new version.
 
#5
The OCD does indeed sound great on bass, I preferred running it at 18 volts I think for some great headroom and clarity. Plenty of distortion is still available though.

But, I would mainly only recommend the OCD over the Bass-Drive Mosfet, especially the Version 4, if you plan on using your guitar's volume knob to control the amount of distortion (or of course if you want full on distortion at all times). In my experience with the OCD it loses a lot of low end oomph and power when the drive knob is not cranked, causing a very guitarlike sound, which could be good or bad depending on your needs, but not good for the average bassist. But if you change up your volume knob with it, the OCD is very dynamic and will clean up when you roll off your guitar's volume, and retain a nice punch to it and enhance the natural growl of your bass.

Other than that the only negative thing I have to say about the OCD is, despite the fact that it can really enhance the natural growl of your guitar in a very pleasing way, I wish it had more character of it's own. If your guitar is in any way flat sounding (not that mine are) the OCD is liable to leave you a little flat, which is something I'd worry about if I were going to plug a bass with a hi fi sound into it. Of course I find the sound of a hi fi bass into any effect displeasing 99% of the time, but to me that'd sound especially bad with the OCD.
 
#7
The Xotic BB is also tempting but its expensive and I have no way of trying one out. I have heard good things about it though.

I was really impressed with the OCD I tried yesterday but the fact that its not designed for bass and some have complained of it lacking some lows, make me wonder if i should just buck up and order an Xotic instead.
 
#8
I've owned like four Bass-Drives as well as the Xotic BB, and though I've heard countless times on here that the Xotic is a Tubescreamer clone, in my experience it has a completely different tonal color than any tubescreamer I've ever tried, including the Bass-Drive. And all of the other Tubescreamers I've tried all had very similar tonal color, despite what other differences they've had.

Not that comparisons can't be made between them, but the biggest difference between the two for me in choosing one over the other is just what kind of tonal color you prefer. It's kind of like the differences between a Marshall and a Fender amp.
 
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#9
Thanks Mark. I am still torn as its going to cost me some cash to switch from my Bassdrive to the OCD and I quite like my Bassdrive except for the low end loss and the size.

From what you're saying, it sounds like there is still a significant low end loss with the OCD unless the gain is cranked. Thats a bummer, I may still prefer the tone of the OCD over the Bassdrive but now I feel like I need to hear a BB before taking the plunge on an OCD.
 
#10
Yeah, I've got the version 4, and run it at 9 volts, but I use a clean boost in front, and I think that gets it more like it would sound at 18 volts. There is some low end loss, but not very much. I can compare it to my Valve Drive, which if anything, adds bottom, but the 2 are similar in the natural-ness of the drive overall. I like it better than any other Fulltone pedal I've tried to date, (Bass Drives, MOSFET and not).
 
#11
I'm very happy with my v1.4 OCD pedal. I just sold a Bass Mosfet pedal and I greatly prefer the OCD. What I like is that as you turn the gain up there are a lot of useful range in between clean and all out distortion. Too many pedals go from clean to distortion right away. There may be better pedals out there, but I no longer have a desire to search. OCD!!
 
#12
cybersnyder said:
I'm very happy with my v1.4 OCD pedal. I just sold a Bass Mosfet pedal and I greatly prefer the OCD. What I like is that as you turn the gain up there are a lot of useful range in between clean and all out distortion. Too many pedals go from clean to distortion right away. There may be better pedals out there, but I no longer have a desire to search. OCD!!
Click to expand...

Great to hear. Any issues with low end loss?
 
#17
Ok I have been comparing these two pedals for the past few hours and have come to a conclusion:

The OCD will be replacing my Bassdrive and here's why:

My Fulltone Bassdrive is a non Mosfet version from 2006. I bought it new and have used it extensively ever since. I have always tried to tweak it to minimize the low end loss but there is no doubt that when engaging the pedal, you lose the punch and deep low end of your tone. Its replaced by a nice mid focused overdrive that works wonderfully with other effects but the loss of low end is quite obvious.

The tone control has always bothered me. The tone goes from too muddy to fizzy bright without ever finding a sweet spot to me ears. And I am realizing now what others have said, that the low end is quite flabby and mushy and actually kind of messy sounding even with a moderate amount of overdrive.

I have lived with the Bassdrive for a long time as I still really liked the overall tone of the overdrive and how well it worked when trying to add some grit and grind live without getting lost in the mix.

Now lets get to the OCD. First off the low end is clearly much more present. In LP mode, there is no noticable loss of low end and the sound is wonderfully transparent with no added mids. I played around in this mode for quite some time and was delighted with how it sounded.

In HP mode, there is actually a noticable low end boost as well as a sweet mid boost. This mode really retains the thump and punch of the low end and brings in some very sweet mids that help I imagine would help to cut through a band mix with distorted guitars. In HP mode I simply had to turn the volume down a bit to retain unity gain but the added lows and mids are simply fantastic.

Next up is the tone control. It is so sweet. According to the manual, the tone control only effects the high end and this is apparent as the tone of the pedal is completely usable for the full range of the tone control. The overall sound remains the same but some brightness and sparkle are added when turned up. No fizzyness or noise when the tone is cranked. best tone pot I have ever used!

My goal was to find a mild to medium overdrive that retained better lows then the Bassdrive, was smaller and had better control over the highs and the OCD has so far met all of these challenges and sounds better overall then the Bassdrive ever did.

I am astounded that the OCD is not marketed for bass by Fulltone. So far, there is nothing I don't like about it. Both LP and HP modes sound gorgeous and are both very usable on bass. The OCD oozes top notch build quality and its so simple to set up. I couldn't make it sound bad at any setting! I was testing it using the battery that came with the pedal and I compared that with using a 9v lead from my Pedal Power 2 and could not notice any difference. I will have to try it at 18v to see if there is a difference in tone.

So for anyone out there that has wondered about trying an OCD on bass, I don't think you could go wrong. I wish I could compare it to the Xotic BB Bass preamp but at this point, i am so delighted with the OCD that it will be going on my board and replacing the Bassdrive without hesitation. And for me that is significant as I really liked the Bassdrive and was almost hoping that it would fare better in this comparison.

Hope this is useful info for anyone contemplating trying out an OCD.
 
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#19
Crabby said:
Ok I have been comparing these two pedals for the past few hours and have come to a conclusion:

The OCD will be replacing my Bassdrive and here's why:

My Fulltone Bassdrive is a non Mosfet version from 2006. I bought it new and have used it extensively ever since. I have always tried to tweak it to minimize the low end loss but there is no doubt that when engaging the pedal, you lose the punch and deep low end of your tone. Its replaced by a nice mid focused overdrive that works wonderfully with other effects but the loss of low end is quite obvious.

The tone control has always bothered me. The tone goes from too muddy to fizzy bright without ever finding a sweet spot to me ears. And I am realizing now what others have said, that the low end is quite flabby and mushy and actually kind of messy sounding even with a moderate amount of overdrive.

I have lived with the Bassdrive for a long time as I still really liked the overall tone of the overdrive and how well it worked when trying to add some grit and grind live without getting lost in the mix.

Now lets get to the OCD. First off the low end is clearly much more present. In LP mode, there is no noticable loss of low end and the sound is wonderfully transparent with no added mids. I played around in this mode for quite some time and was delighted with how it sounded.

In HP mode, there is actually a noticable low end boost as well as a sweet mid boost. This mode really retains the thump and punch of the low end and brings in some very sweet mids that help I imagine would help to cut through a band mix with distorted guitars. In HP mode I simply had to turn the volume down a bit to retain unity gain but the added lows and mids are simply fantastic.

Next up is the tone control. It is so sweet. According to the manual, the tone control only effects the high end and this is apparent as the tone of the pedal is completely usable for the full range of the tone control. The overall sound remains the same but some brightness and sparkle are added when turned up. No fizzyness or noise when the tone is cranked. best tone pot I have ever used!

My goal was to find a mild to medium overdrive that retained better lows then the Bassdrive, was smaller and had better control over the highs and the OCD has so far met all of these challenges and sounds better overall then the Bassdrive ever did.

I am astounded that the OCD is not marketed for bass by Fulltone. So far, there is nothing I don't like about it. Both LP and HP modes sound gorgeous and are both very usable on bass. The OCD oozes top notch build quality and its so simple to set up. I couldn't make it sound bad at any setting! I was testing it using the battery that came with the pedal and I compared that with using a 9v lead from my Pedal Power 2 and could not notice any difference. I will have to try it at 18v to see if there is a difference in tone.

So for anyone out there that has wondered about trying an OCD on bass, I don't think you could go wrong. I wish I could compare it to the Xotic BB Bass preamp but at this point, i am so delighted with the OCD that it will be going on my board and replacing the Bassdrive without hesitation. And for me that is significant as I really liked the Bassdrive and was almost hoping that it would fare better in this comparison.

Hope this is useful info for anyone contemplating trying out an OCD.
Click to expand...

I played one today as well (the OCD that is) and I couldnt agree more. Ill be picking one up tomorrow!
 

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