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decent distortion pedal

H

hardikbhatia94

Jun 27, 2013
9
0
Hardik Bhatia
#1
I have been playing bass for over a year now without any effects with it. Now im looking for something that increases gain. I looked at many forums here but all people suggest are fuzz pedals. I want that crunchy tone with a little dirt. Would be my first pedal so excuse my lack of knowledge about the subject. I bit of research has helped me narrow down to
1) digitech bass driver
2) boss odb-3 ( though thats too much dirt)
3) digitech bad monkey
could anyone suggest a few more? Thanks :help:
 
#3
hardikbhatia94 said:
I have been playing bass for over a year now without any effects with it. Now im looking for something that increases gain. I looked at many forums here but all people suggest are fuzz pedals. I want that crunchy tone with a little dirt. Would be my first pedal so excuse my lack of knowledge about the subject. I bit of research has helped me narrow down to
1) digitech bass driver
2) boss odb-3 ( though thats too much dirt)
3) digitech bad monkey
could anyone suggest a few more? Thanks :help:
Click to expand...

the best I have heard is the silverstone from:
<http://musiciansounddesign.de/>
 
#4
Out of the 3 pedals you mention, the Bad Monkey would probably do best for low and medium gain overdrive/distortion.
If you got more cash to spend, here are some more suggestions: Fuzzrocious Rat Tail or OSD, Aguilar Agro, Darglass B3K, Zvex Basstortion, EBS Multidrive, Wampler Euphoria.
 
#5
Low Sound Love said:
Out of the 3 pedals you mention, the Bad Monkey would probably do best for low and medium gain overdrive/distortion.
Click to expand...

I have owned all 3 of your mentioned choices and agree with the above sentiment.

The Bad Monkey handles that just on the edge of drive sound very well. Very natural sounding and doesn't mask the bass's tone too much.

The Boss isn't an overdrive pedal, it's a distortion pedal. Aside from it's polarising opinions from TBers of whether it's a good pedal or not, it's too high gain for what you want.

The Bass Driver sounds quite good if you're new to effects, but you quickly realise how digital it sounds compared to even an inexpensive OD pedal. Although versatile it seems to lack any dynamics or subtlety - it's either driven hard or bypassed, it can't do that on the edge of distortion sound. I think that this is partly because the pedal they modelled the overdrive part of the sound on is the afore mentioned Boss, which isn't an overdrive!

PS, if you go for the Bad Monkey, look into modding it for better bass extension. Well worth it.
 
#6
Firstly, of those three the Bad Monkey will probably be the best.

Secondly, the Bad Monkey is a heap of crap compared to the Hardwire CM-2 which is a very similar pedal but with no low end loss, 10 times better quality, true bypass, and handles high output basses. Basically it's a high end Bad Monkey that costs about the same and fixes all the flaws of the Bad Monkey. Actually it will cost you less than a Monkey by the time you get the Monkey modded, and it still won't sound as good as the Hardwire.
 
#7
I can't comment on the quality of the Hardwire, but whilst it's no doubt a great pedal at good price point, a quick google reveals that the Bad Monkey can be found brand new for about half the price of the Hardwire.

I still maintain that the BM offers huge bang for buck if you pick it up cheaply.

So I guess to conclude, if you want cheap, go BM, if you want better quality and inexpensive, go Hardwire.
 
#8
mmbongo said:
Firstly, of those three the Bad Monkey will probably be the best.

Secondly, the Bad Monkey is a heap of crap compared to the Hardwire CM-2 which is a very similar pedal but with no low end loss, 10 times better quality, true bypass, and handles high output basses. Basically it's a high end Bad Monkey that costs about the same and fixes all the flaws of the Bad Monkey. Actually it will cost you less than a Monkey by the time you get the Monkey modded, and it still won't sound as good as the Hardwire.
Click to expand...

I have to agree here with mm, the CM2 rocks. It is an awesome low gain to pretty hairy raunch/dirt pedal and it sounds pretty natural IMO. And it only costs $100 brand spankin new. Def worth the cash. I have one myself. I like my ODB3 but thats becasue its running through a B7K by Darkglass so it sounds like a completely different pedal. I would also follow the suggestions on the fuzzrocious stuff named above if you can afford it, a Rat king or demon. I really like my Fulltone OCD, it sort of my main dirt pedal but is quickly being battles out with a rat king and soon a tall font russian and the CM2 I named above. I love dirt pedals if you couldnt tell. There are SO many alternatives out there than the ones you have named so if you can hold out and go with some of the more suggested ones that come up in this thread I would advise that. In the end you will be the final judge as to what you get and like. What sounds awesome to me may sound like crap to someone else. But if you can spend anywhere from $100 to $150, you will be happy I think. Hope you find what youre looking for!
 
#9
ga_edwards said:
I have owned all 3 of your mentioned choices and agree with the above sentiment.

The Bad Monkey handles that just on the edge of drive sound very well. Very natural sounding and doesn't mask the bass's tone too much.

The Boss isn't an overdrive pedal, it's a distortion pedal. Aside from it's polarising opinions from TBers of whether it's a good pedal or not, it's too high gain for what you want.

The Bass Driver sounds quite good if you're new to effects, but you quickly realise how digital it sounds compared to even an inexpensive OD pedal. Although versatile it seems to lack any dynamics or subtlety - it's either driven hard or bypassed, it can't do that on the edge of distortion sound. I think that this is partly because the pedal they modelled the overdrive part of the sound on is the afore mentioned Boss, which isn't an overdrive!

PS, if you go for the Bad Monkey, look into modding it for better bass extension. Well worth it.
Click to expand...
Could you explain what are the mods done to the BM? And how does a modded differ from the normal one?
 
#11
I might just add, when you hear a bass tone in a mix that sounds the way you described, it's probably a LOT more distorted than you think.

Here's one of my bands songs, my tone on its own was really distorted, running through a VT bass and then driving the preamp tubes in my head pretty hard as well. But in the mix it doesn't sound anywhere near as dirty.
 
#13
tom once dead said:
I might just add, when you hear a bass tone in a mix that sounds the way you described, it's probably a LOT more distorted than you think.

Here's one of my bands songs, my tone on its own was really distorted, running through a VT bass and then driving the preamp tubes in my head pretty hard as well. But in the mix it doesn't sound anywhere near as dirty.
Click to expand...

yeah you're right. Doesn sound quite distorted when played in the mix. Any particular reasons?
 
#15
ga_edwards said:
I can't comment on the quality of the Hardwire, but whilst it's no doubt a great pedal at good price point, a quick google reveals that the Bad Monkey can be found brand new for about half the price of the Hardwire.
Click to expand...

Yeah maybe, but by the time you mod the Bad Monkey so it does not suck you might as well buy a pedal that does not suck in the first place.

Plus, they sell for about the same used...look on ebay.
 

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