Distortion or OD First

[jufros]

I've been playing around with the order of my effects and have noticed that when I run OD and Distortion at the same time, I get much different results depending on the signal chain. I'm wondering what most of you multi-dirt users out there prefer and what you have found to be the advantages/disadvantages of each setup.

 

[Mark Olson]

Personally I never combine dirtboxes because I HATE HATE HATE a multiple filtered sound. No matter how good my bass sounds it sounds terrible when it's EQ'd to hell. So in that case, the only thing that matters is if one pedal has a buffered bypass and if that's going to mess with my fuzz. General rule of thumb, fuzzes don't respond musically to having a buffer in front of them, they can for example get very spitty/transistory, though there are the occasional exceptions that sound better with a buffer in front of them.

 

[excane]

I tend to put overdrive before distortion, but fuzz is a different story.

I used to put fuzz first, but lately I've been putting it AFTER the overdrive and distortion to keep the "raspy, sizzly" quality layered on top of the overdrive.

 

[EskimoBassist]

General rule of thumb, fuzzes don't respond musically to having a buffer in front of them, they can for example get very spitty/transistory, though there are the occasional exceptions that sound better with a buffer in front of them.

Well to be honest, I think my Boss ODB-3 running into my EHX Bass Big Muff sounds fantastic!

 

[bassman1185]

My general rule of thumb is to go low-gain into high-gain. High gain into low-gain tends to sound really muffled and choked to me.

 

[Bassenstien]

My general rule of thumb is to go low-gain into high-gain. High gain into low-gain tends to sound really muffled and choked to me.

I feel the same way. I have never heard a Fuzz/Dist into OD that I liked.

 

[dannybuoy]

I quite like Boss HM-2 on high gain into Badder Monkey though. The high EQ on the HM-2 is rubbish, doing it this way lets you control the highs better and it also adds a nice growly midrange to it.

 

[jufros]

I'm pretty much on board with the general consensus here so far. I'm running OD->distortion (Sparkle Drive -> ODB-3) at the moment but just snagged a Gemini Drive as a second OD. I'm thinking my dirt chain will probably be Sparkle Drive -> Gemini Drive -> ODB-3, despite the fact that the ODB isn't really geared towards extensive synergistic use. I run the Sparkle Drive with a 50/50 OD/clean setting. From what I can tell, the Sparkle Drive is inherently much milder than the Gemini (as well as totally different sounding) so this configuration makes logical sense to me. I'd probably use the SD and Gemini in series if I was going for a super high gain OD under the rationale that tube screamers excel at overdriving dirty amps.

 

[Jared Lash]

I've come to feel the same way as Mark Olson in that I don't really like stacked dirt pedals - not to mention that I don't use OD or distortion anymore, just fuzz.

That said, when I did have multiple dirt boxes on my board I cascaded overdrive>>distortion>>fuzz.

The only exception to this (for me) was to run other dirt into the SansAmp BDDI, but I would consider that a preamp or tone shaper rather than an overdrive. XXLB into BDDI is still the most aggressive distortion tone I've ever achieved.

 

[gnasher1993]

My general rule of thumb is to go low-gain into high-gain. High gain into low-gain tends to sound really muffled and choked to me.

Agreed...

 

[Unrepresented]

I find I get a greater deal of satisfaction running my fuzz into the light overdrive/boost of the first channel of my BassDrive.

Adds some organic grind.