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Clear , guitar-like distortion pedal

BassOutcast

BassOutcast

Guest
Oct 8, 2011
34
1
Israel
#1
Hey guys.
Been searching for a decent distortion pedal for my bass , and all I've seen so far are fuzz-like pedals , even pedals classified as "overdrive" are pretty fuzzy to me ... I'm looking for a clear tone , a guitar distortion tone. I plug my bass through my guitar's little Line 6 Spider IV practice amp to Guitar Rig and that's pretty much the sound I'm looking for ...
Here's the closest example that I could find on YouTube :



Around 0:28 ... something in that realm , and not too expensive ... maybe 100$ tops ...
 
#2
A BOss OBD3?...... If you wanted your bass to sound like a distorted guitar, why dont you just get a guitar? Im not trying to be a smart a**, but in that YouTube video, the dude may as well be playing a guitar, because that is exactly what it sounds like. Im sure someone will refer you to something, I cant think of anything. Maybe a Source Audio OFD for guitar..... Try that. Or maybe even some of the other Boss dist, an SD1 or a Metal Zone...
 
#5
gregmon79 said:
A BOss OBD3?...... If you wanted your bass to sound like a distorted guitar, why dont you just get a guitar? Im not trying to be a smart a**, but in that YouTube video, the dude may as well be playing a guitar, because that is exactly what it sounds like. Im sure someone will refer you to something, I cant think of anything. Maybe a Source Audio OFD for guitar..... Try that. Or maybe even some of the other Boss dist, an SD1 or a Metal Zone...
Click to expand...
I need a clear solo tone to punch through my band's noise , I'm not a conventional bass player in any way and I want to experiment with sound.
So what you're saying is maybe to try our GUITAR distortion pedals for BASS ? won't it sound like s**t ? I used to plug my VOX wah pedal to my overdriven bass amp and it didn't fit it tonally at all ... it was basically swallowing the frequency ...
 
#6
BassOutcast said:
I need a clear solo tone to punch through my band's noise , I'm not a conventional bass player in any way and I want to experiment with sound.
So what you're saying is maybe to try our GUITAR distortion pedals for BASS ? won't it sound like s**t ? I used to plug my VOX wah pedal to my overdriven bass amp and it didn't fit it tonally at all ... it was basically swallowing the frequency ...
Click to expand...

I can relate, Im in a 3 piece and I too love a dirty bass tone. Almost guitar like. But, I have to say I still try my best to keep the low end in tact. I use a Fulltone OCD. Its an OD but it can get very hairy and I really dig the character and taste of the pedal/OD. Look into the Brimstone Audio XD2. Its a crossover dist and you can literally sculpt any OD to dist you want on a guitar or a bass. If you want your bass to sound like a gnarly distorted guitar, the XD2 can do it. I guarantee it. I had the XD1 and I could accomplish anything I wanted with that pedal. Def look into that one.
 
#7
gregmon79 said:
I can relate, Im in a 3 piece and I too love a dirty bass tone. Almost guitar like. But, I have to say I still try my best to keep the low end in tact. I use a Fulltone OCD. Its an OD but it can get very hairy and I really dig the character and taste of the pedal/OD. Look into the Brimstone Audio XD2. Its a crossover dist and you can literally sculpt any OD to dist you want on a guitar or a bass. If you want your bass to sound like a gnarly distorted guitar, the XD2 can do it. I guarantee it. I had the XD1 and I could accomplish anything I wanted with that pedal. Def look into that one.
Click to expand...
Looked the Brimstone XD-2 up on YouTube , sounds good , but It's about 300$ ... shipping not included ... Any place that sells 'em cheaper than eBay and ships worldwide ?
 
#8
BassOutcast said:
Hey guys.
Been searching for a decent distortion pedal for my bass , and all I've seen so far are fuzz-like pedals , even pedals classified as "overdrive" are pretty fuzzy to me ... I'm looking for a clear tone , a guitar distortion tone. I plug my bass through my guitar's little Line 6 Spider IV practice amp to Guitar Rig and that's pretty much the sound I'm looking for ...
Here's the closest example that I could find on YouTube :



Around 0:28 ... something in that realm , and not too expensive ... maybe 100$ tops ...
Click to expand...

The MSD Silverstone would be my suggestion, or the Blowerbox from idiotbox effects.
or a Rat.
 
#9
BassOutcast said:
So what you're saying is maybe to try our GUITAR distortion pedals for BASS ? won't it sound like s**t ?
Click to expand...

lol

The clip you posted above essentially has no low end in it. You won't be losing anything by using guitar pedals to get that sound as the main gripe bassists have with them is a loss of low end. Besides, there are plenty of pedals that are designed for guitar that work great on bass.
 
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#13
Well I just came up with another idea. Father of flies pretty much just said it. It's all about the tone knob. Well, the bass helps too. I have a squier P/J and I plugged that into the joyo UD and soloed the J pup, dimed the drive and tone fully CW and bam! Instant bass into a distorted guitar. With a tad low end ;)
 
#14
BassOutcast said:
Looked the Brimstone XD-2 up on YouTube , sounds good , but It's about 300$ ... shipping not included ... Any place that sells 'em cheaper than eBay and ships worldwide ?
Click to expand...
Another option would be to get a stand-alone crossover and run any distortion you want with it. Buying a used Rane crossover would probably be the cheapest way to go (30-100€ on Ebay). I use a custom [sfx] 3-band crossover and I can pretty much tweak any OD/Fuzz/Distortion to sound like a guitar. [sfx] also makes 2-band crossover pedals, pricier than a used Rane rack unit, but what you get will definitely not disappoint!
 
#15
I JUST got a Fulltone OCD yesterday (technically for guitar I think, but works well for bass) for tube-style overdrive, and it sounds awesome for distortion too once you crank up the gain knob. I prefer it at about 9-10 o'clock so it's really breaking up when I play harder, but if you twist it to noon or 3 it gets pretty heavy; might be a bit more fuzz than distortion though I'm not sure. Note it has to go before a compressor to allow dynamics to affect how much drive you get! I saw a couple of youtube videos today recommending the compressor first, but that doesn't sound anywhere near as good in my opinion for so many reasons - but I digress. I imagine any good drive/distortion pedal would allow dynamics to affect it.

There is a little loss of low frequencies as with any distortion, so the only option would be something that blends a clean signal back in, but that doesn't always sound good. Other times you really want it, so it completely depends on taste, the song, etc. You might really like the Bass Overdrive from BYOC if you can solder...
 
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#17
Tech 21 sans amp gt2 is my choice for trying to sound more like a guitar. It's a guitar sans amp.

I can actually get pretty darn close to the guitar tone from meshuggahs album "nothing" buy using the California (Mesa) setting.

Only thing is I'm not a huge fan of using it in front of my bass rig. You can use a blender to mix with your bass signal and that helps a little, but really the best way to run it IMO is parellel to your bass rig running direct to a powered speaker or floor monitor. I just use a cheap imp2 DI box to send its signal to the board. And my boss ls2 split the signal and kick the gt2 in an out.
 
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Reactions: TerribleLiar23
#18
As someone already said a BOSS Metal Zone (and a buttload of reverb) should get you close to the sound in the video.

Personally I love my Cmatmods Signa Drive on bass. I set it for more of a Motörhead type of sound, but it is an extremely versatile pedal and keeps the low end intact even though it is made for guitar.
 

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