Dirt pedals with flats?

[Jazzdogg]

I have used all types of dirt with flats. The flats in question are Thomastik-Infeld and Sadowsky. These are very bright for flats. They are very close to nickel RW in brightness and attack. I can tell you with great confidence that this sounds very good. These flats have a very bold mid-range which works very well with distortion. The resulting sound has great grit and definition without harshness.

+1 I actually prefer distortion with flats. When I used to play with rounds, I had to reduce the tweeter output to prevent HF components from being annoying when using distortion.

 

[War Pig]

Here's my Jazz Bass with Chromes with an Earthquaker Devices Dream Crusher fuzz pedal. First clean, then the pedal. This pedal is pretty bright, actually may work better with flats.

 

[Groove Doctor]

I've experimented with this quite a bit, and I've found that adding tube distortion to flats, up to a certain point, does not make the bass sound distorted in the mix, but rather the added harmonics enhances it and creates a presence while still sounding round. And with the distortion I can play at lower volumes while being more present in the mix.

I've found a sweet spot on the overdrive in my Bassman 100T with my G&L/flats that sounds beautifully round and full in ensemble, but anytime guitar drops out a great grindy growly grit in the bass is revealed. Almost like an auto-effect.

^ THIS. There's a sweet spot that just works....