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Distortion Box...

McHack

McHack

Jul 29, 2003
5,630
6
62
Central Ohio!
#1
Some may recall, I experiemented w/ an EHX Little Big Muff Pi, but ultimately decided not to keep it.

But, this leaves me wanting for a distortion box.

Here's what I want.

-- Adjustibility of drive. I may want mild over drive, I may want heavy distortion, but never full on fuzz. A rotary control which lets you vary the intensity would be great!

-- Blend of drive. I want to be able to dial it into the signal. The EHX box just replaced my signal w/ fuzz, you couldnt back it off at all. The volume knob was just another gain know of the effect. BLEH!

-- I dont really care about EQ here, but I see some,,, if not all of the more prominant boxes have it, as thier drive feature tend to need some EQ'ing to get the tone yer after.

-- TRUE bypass - When its off, I want my clean signal coming thru. That's all.

-- Reasonable Price Point - I'm not going to buy a $300 effects module. Sansamp PDDI is the ceiling.

-- DI? eh, not a must have... I'd rather have the first the functions nailed down. Nice to have.

I'll be running my bass --> Punch Factory --> Dist on/off --> amp!
 
#3
guy n. cognito said:
EHX English Muff'n seems like it would fit the bill. True bypass (I think), adjustable gain, onboard EQ. Tube driven, so you get a good organic distortion. They are a bit price, but can be purchased for under $200
Click to expand...

Sounds exactly what you are looking for. It can get fuzzy if you dime the boost, but back it off and its great. Find one used on ebay, I got mine for about $125 i do believe. You can also change the tubes out and around to get the tone you're looking for.
 
#6
guy n. cognito said:
EHX English Muff'n seems like it would fit the bill. True bypass (I think), adjustable gain, onboard EQ. Tube driven, so you get a good organic distortion. They are a bit price, but can be purchased for under $200
Click to expand...
+1. It has everything you want except the blend. Try one out at least! Then decide from there...

Oh, and check out the Sample Megathread for my EM samples. Some mild, some extream. Just keep in mind that it'll sound better/different thround different amps (I recorded the EM direct...). If your amp's really punchy it should sound great!

EDIT #2: If you do try it out, try it with the Punch Factory before and after it. My PF after the EM sounds awesome IMO!
 
#7
guy n. cognito said:
EHX English Muff'n seems like it would fit the bill. True bypass (I think), adjustable gain, onboard EQ. Tube driven, so you get a good organic distortion. They are a bit price, but can be purchased for under $200
Click to expand...

Well...I own these:

Boss ODB-3 - nice in front of a tube preamp to get over-the-top buzzy distortion, but otherwise....no, subtle grind is useless to try for on this pedal

BDDI - a good pedal for milder OD, but the Para-Driver seems to garner even more praise..

Tech 21 Comptortion - not really a bad pedal, but just seems a little "off" - too buzzy in the lower settings(can't get rid of it...always there)

EH English Muff'n - I am an English Muff'n convert now...my Mesa sounds great by itself(all tube), but my GK 800RB just seemed like it was begging for a nice warm pedal - enter this one....I really noticed the difference after I turned it off, if you know what I mean...it added nice harmonics, and could go from mild to wild - plus cascading distortion through two tubes just sounds like a good idea

I tried Digitech's Bass Driver, and it reminded me of my Boss ODB-3..

And Ibanez's PD7 pedal....I spent over an hour with that thing, and never found one sound I liked....like a bee in a can(if you like that tone, go for it!)
 
#8
Hmm I have an RB800 too and have tried many things to warm it up. I would love to try a Muffin but have no more room on my pedal board and am trying to only use pedals that can be powered by my Godlyke Powerall as it's so cool to only have a single power adaptor leaving the board.

The Muffin is only $230 Candian and it looks fantastic. I can't keep up with all the great new pedals coming out. I suspect the MXR Blowtorch is gonna be huge if they ever start shipping them. Lots of hype for it anyway.
 
#9
Crabby said:
Hmm I have an RB800 too and have tried many things to warm it up. I would love to try a Muffin but have no more room on my pedal board and am trying to only use pedals that can be powered by my Godlyke Powerall as it's so cool to only have a single power adaptor leaving the board.
Click to expand...

You have hit on the two most annoying parts of the Muff'n. It's HUGE, and takes up alot of space on an average pedalboard. The dedicated style power converter that exits the side of the pedal, meaning it takes up even more room. Plus, I don't think any pedal power supply box can power it, because it has an unusual coupling between the cord and the pedal. I had to do alot or rearranging on my board to make my Muff'n fit, but it was worth it.
 
#11
Wow, I wasnt expecting this.

I expected I'd get told either Fulltone Bass Drive, or Sansamp PDDI, or MXR M-80. But, the English Muff'n seems pretty unanimous at this point.

I use an Ashdown RPM-1, which has a single 12AX7 which you can dial into the signal for a bit of grit. I keep it maxed, & find I want more dirt sometimes. But, I want it to sound natural...which the Little Big Muff Pi I messed with did NOT.
 
#12
I love my Mesa Boogie Bottle Rocket distortion. Its a great tube overdrive unit that doesn't swallow the bottom end. I'm able to get singing sustain like on a nice guitar amp. They don't make them anymore, but you can find good deals on them on E-Bay if you look around a bit.
 
#14
I have to say tho, My Fulltone Bassdrive is damm sweet! It doesn't take up too much room and sounds great powered by my Powerall. I hear it sounds better with an 18v power supply but at this point its very transparant. The two channels are really cool and the three ways selector switch gives you a bunch more options.

I found that if you run the input volume level at just a tad over halfway, the unity gain is just a tad higher than when the pedal is off but there is virtually no low end loss. Its a great option if you just can't deal with the size and power requirements of the English Muffin.

By the way, I too bought the Little Big Muff and running it after the Fulltone set to the mild overdrive, yields a fantastic clear ringing fuzztone that is to die for. The Muff by itself sounds muddled and too fuzzy.
 
#15
Another option that you might want to check out is the Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive.

It has Gain, Blend, and it's True Bypass: The 3 Things you really wanted. Plus it operates at 9VDC and I belive they're less $$$ than the Muff'n (though I think you should still check out the Muff'n!)

Quick EDIT: I don't own one BTW, but I did stumble upon it while searching for a boost pedal with true bypass...
 
#16
Well, I've decided to take the Punch Factory back & see if GC has any English Muff'ns in stock...

On a side note, I was getting alot more tubey grind outta my preamp today, which left me wondering if I really need one. On way home, I was just wonder,,, damn, I just want my rig, in a DI box, rahter than have to lug it all around.
 
#18
McHack said:
Wow, I wasnt expecting this.

I expected I'd get told either Fulltone Bass Drive, or Sansamp PDDI, or MXR M-80. But, the English Muff'n seems pretty unanimous at this point.
Click to expand...
You said you might want heavy distortion. The bass driver, BDDI, and MXR M-80 are all mld to medium ODs. None of them do distortion. So they are all out of the running.
 
#19
I will suggest a pedal I just got. It does a HUGE range of stuff. It has one tube (which can be changed out for lower gain). Problem is, any tube based pedal will be somewhat large. The pedal I am talking about is the Rocktron Silver Dragon.

Oh, and it is a true bypass. The dual gain channel feature is really nice to have.
 
#20
2 more pedals for you to check out.....

Prescription Electronics Depth Charge. About $220 brand new but they can be found for much less used. It has all the requirements you are looking for.

Homebrew Electronics Big D. KILLER pedal with all your requirements and more. It is a guitar pedal but works wonders when used with bass.
 

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