Distorted Fender Jazz Bass

[JGbassman]

snansamp bass driver does the modern Geddy if that is the sound you are looking for. And by that I mean the 2000 to the present. Alot of guys dont dig that tone of his. I had the sanamp bass driver for years, its good, but not for the classic geddy.
The VT pedal will get you there. After all, Geddys live rig back in the seventies, included a direct signal to the house, and you will notice in pics, an Ampeg V4 Mic'd up(probably his overdriven tone).
on this link, im playing the VT pedal on the various pages.check it out.
Am I in the Geddy Lee ballpark with this sound?

I also have the Vintage Microtubes pedal. Its a cool pedal, but I think the VT does the early Geddy Lee better.

If you are looking for the geddy sound, it stops with the ged2112 preamp by tech 21.
You won’t get any closer than that.

 

[Karlson541]

Have you checked for dirt goblins in the control cavity?

They seem to thrive in dark places filled with audio related electronics and might have gotten in from exposed routings.

Much smaller than regular goblins and not green but light brown skinned with silver freckles, their heads featuring unruly ruffled hair in all kind of pastel colors.

They are mostly harmless but whenever they burst out in song, which they tend to do frequently, it might cause momentary electrical interference which can manifest as distortion.

Note that you might need a magnifying glass to identify them.

 

[grouse789]

If you are looking for the geddy sound, it stops with the ged2112 preamp by tech 21.
You won’t get any closer than that.

While it is true what you say, there are other avenues. You can run a Boss LS-2 line splitter. Gives you two channels then brings them back to one line. I run for example the tech 21 bass driver for my clean tone. On the other line I run the VT for overdrive and blend both signals to taste.
The downside is three pedals , but the plus side is a wider pallet of tones, as well as being able to separate the pedals for other uses. Plus no rack!

 

[armyadarkness]

Have you checked for dirt goblins in the control cavity?

They seem to thrive in dark places filled with audio related electronics and might have gotten in from exposed routings.

Much smaller than regular goblins and not green but light brown skinned with silver freckles, their heads featuring unruly ruffled hair in all kind of pastel colors.

They are mostly harmless but whenever they burst out in song, which they tend to do frequently, it might cause momentary electrical interference which can manifest as distortion.

Note that you might need a magnifying glass to identify them.

Now I see it!

 

[bassmanrocke]

There really area bunch of things this could be. Corrosion on the output Jack, cold solder joints, dirt it the pots. Probably the least likely is a bad pickup. I would do the easiest fixes first. I would get some contact cleaner and spray out the pots, then use some fine sandpaper rolled up to spin inside the jack to clean any corrosion, and if that didn't work I'd reflow all the solder joints. If none of these worked I would replace the pots and jack, and finally I'd replace pickups.

 

[kazukiyokoyama]

Hello guys!
Thank you very much for the hint.
My 2007 MIM J Bass was distorting eventually too.
Pulled out the control plate and with my own nail cleaned the jack conector, in which was oscillating the ohm value.

Now the sound is fine!