Dirt Order - a progression of 3 grinders

I personally would do b3k, OCD, tallfont.

 

Always put them in order from highest gain fuzz to lowest gain distortion/OD. I'm not sure what those pedal sound like but i assume you do so do it in that order.

 

I'm genuinely curious, why? I've had them in an opposite order this whole time. I assumed driving a fuzz with an overdrive would yield heavier effects. I'm going to my board to reverse my path now...

 

I always put OD before fuzz/ miscellaneous distortion. The OCD is medium gain distortion, right? If so, b3k first, then OCD, then tall font. My Okko basstard doesn't like a couple of my fuzzes. For example, using my stuff, I would do Okko then Dr scientist elements, then Monster Fuzz. To me, adding overdrive to fuzz sounds better than fuzz to overdrive.

 

That's what I do too. I go B7K->B3K->EBA Beast, but I've only been replacing pedals without trying new combinations. Before, I had a Fuzzro BDPG->Okko Basstard->EBA Supercollider and that was by far my best combination. But I've since only replaced the latter pedals with the former in their respective order one at a time and haven't changed it up yet, I just plugged whatever I got into whatever I was replacing's place. Just curious if their was a technical reason to do Fuzz->Distortion->OD, skipping all the " whatever works for you man" comments

 

+1

I run rusty box>b3k>vintage microtubes>tfr in that order... I go low gain to high gain.

 

The reason for this is how heavily those distortions clip and modify your signal. If you put an OD before a Fuzz, the fuzz will nearly cancel out the sound from your OD because it is clipping it at a lower point, making it look more like a square wave than a sine wave. When you put Fuzz -> Dist -> OD, you can clip the already clipped signal to avoid that cancelling out.

 

I had VMT - TFR and it was nice, vmt added some mids to it, but it felt slightly less balanced. Now I'm using TFR - VMT and the tone is awesome (had to change the TFR settings though). It cuts some high end off the fuzz but it's so focused and mid rich. Sounds a lot fuller. I like it!

 

+1
That's the way I do it too

 

Woah, I had always assumed people did it in the opposite order- OD, distortion, then fuzz, which is the way I do it.

 

DO you mean low to high as in, from amp/low to bass/high, or amp/high to bass/low??? Im curious about this as well. I have a total of 5 dirt pedals on my board and Im thinking maybe there is a better order for them. Mine goes, from bass to amp:

OBD3
Fuzzrocious Dark Driving
Fuzzrocious Rat King
Harwire CM2
OCD

I had an MXR BFD but took it off and put the ODB3 back on. Im thiking I can get a usable fuzz type tone from it. And the MXR is possibly getting traded. I also will add a fuzzrocious Demonking eventually and my take the DD off.

 

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f36/fuzz-distortion-overdrive-what-order-979908/

here is what is needed. I need to experiment with my gain order a little more. Really like this explanation:

 

Yep, that's how I'd set it up too.

The OCD is overdriving the TFR, making it clip a bit more, and B3K is altering the fuzzed out signal to give it a different voice.

I've tried a few combinations, but I've found the B3K to sound best AFTER the TFR. I've used a BMC (mid-boost) before the TFR to overdrive it, but found that a selective boost (around 1kHz) kinda un-muffles the TFR and makes it more mid focused. Not a lot, but enough to give it another flavor of crushing awesomeness if I want, which I usually do.

But of course, it's a YMMV kinda thing as we all are going for different flavors of bass with our gear. Good to see you experimented with the order, it's the best way to get to know your instruments, and your bass tastes. It's also good to see a lot of us going different routs and with good results. I like variety!

 

Right on mang, that makes sense. I'll give it whirl when my new amp comes in. Thanks. The OP confirmed this with a slight variation of driving the fuzz a *wee* bit harder with the OCD and adding whipped cream with the B3K last. I'm glad this got brought up, I needed to look at what I was overlooking.

 

I'm going bass-Rat Tail-B3k-amp at the moment.

Keep the B3K on all the time, and kick the Rat Tail on when needed. The Fuzzrocious having two distortion settings gives me 3 pretty distinct tones, and really, the Darkglass makes everything sound better. Those two together are pretty much a perfect sound for me.

 

Shuffled my dirt pedals around because of this thread, very helpful!
Thank you all.

 

Just did some shuffling too. I have a Rusty Box, ss/bs Mini, Bass Big Muff Pi, and a nasty little fuzz called the Gloom drive. I originally had my chain going Mini, Muff, Gloom, Rusty. I switched it all around and landed pretty much back where I started, so I guess different strokes for different folks. I just found that my muff sounds better in the dry setting with my Mini before it for more grit. My rusty box is always on and last in my chain to give everything that Rusty Box clank.

 

Loving all the discussion and feedback in this thread.

I currently am running Demon > Rat Tail > TFR > VMT > B7K > BDPG on my board. In short, I have too much dirt. The Demon, TFR, and BDPG are on the hot seat, and the VMT will (hopefully) soon be replaced by a VMT Deluxe.