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EHX Nano Bass Big Muff?

Depends on what you mean by "original".

This is a guitar demo, but if you correlate this with the EHX demo video, I think you get a nice indication of what it is capable of ... or at least an explanation of why I have this on my GAS list.

Big Muff shoot-out | Nano Bass Big Muff vs Green …:
 
My opinion is this:
- assuming you are not heavily heavily relying on muff for your sound, any reputable muff pedal is fine.

Even if you are heavily relying on muff, the difference between reputable pedals will be style.

I fretted over it, got the big muff, and my life is fine. My life is fine because I have stopped thinking about it, not because the big muff is the best of the best.

I can't believe Boss would put out a bad pedal. If you are concerned though, grab the medium big muff - the deluxe is for pedal geeks and hardcore professionals.
 
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I guess I have some very specific sound demands, that the Nano Bass Big Muff addresses: 1) The ability to dial in not too much distortion, and specifically not much high frequency distortion. 2) The ability to blend in the dry signal. 3) Keeping the deep bass.

If you listen to comparisons between the Green Big Muff (which the Nano Bass Big Muff is based on) and other Big Muffs, you'll find that there is a significant switch to higher frequencies in the others, while the Green Big Muff better retains the bass from the original tone. And with the addition of the dry switch, I find a gritty tone that looks like it is hard to accomplish equally well with the other Muffs.

This is my preference, and my view of things. Of course other preferences will make other choices.
 
I guess I have some very specific sound demands, that the Nano Bass Big Muff addresses: 1) The ability to dial in not too much distortion, and specifically not much high frequency distortion. 2) The ability to blend in the dry signal. 3) Keeping the deep bass.

If you listen to comparisons between the Green Big Muff (which the Nano Bass Big Muff is based on) and other Big Muffs, you'll find that there is a significant switch to higher frequencies in the others, while the Green Big Muff better retains the bass from the original tone. And with the addition of the dry switch, I find a gritty tone that looks like it is hard to accomplish equally well with the other Muffs.

This is my preference, and my view of things. Of course other preferences will make other choices.
Mate, fortunately you want what everyone wants - fuzz, without the loss of sound quality + the ability to adjust levels of fuzz. Pretty standard requirements.

The Deluxe muff starts getting into the niche requirements.
 
The Deluxe Muff is nice, but too big, too expensive and I use distortion/overdrive/fuzz too rarely to warrant a selection of pedals or expensive products.

Besides, I do have a Zoom MS-60B, so any additional pedals is about one of two things:
1) Sounds I can not get with the MS-60B.
2) Sounds that I need to be able to switch easily on/off while playing.

The need for such a pedal is to me mostly about 2). I need one gritty pedal that I can turn on and off. We have some songs that start out with a clean bass tone, then goes to rock city and back. That is what I need it for.
 
The Deluxe Muff is nice, but too big, too expensive and I use distortion/overdrive/fuzz too rarely to warrant a selection of pedals or expensive products.

Besides, I do have a Zoom MS-60B, so any additional pedals is about one of two things:
1) Sounds I can not get with the MS-60B.
2) Sounds that I need to be able to switch easily on/off while playing.

The need for such a pedal is to me mostly about 2). I need one gritty pedal that I can turn on and off. We have some songs that start out with a clean bass tone, then goes to rock city and back. That is what I need it for.
I considered the muff deluxe and am so glad I didn't get it.

Big muff pi is plenty for me - I have a long way to go before the big muff pi is my limiting factor.
 
I have a Boss ODB3 and I love it. It's definitely more of a fuzz than overdrive and has a lot of tonal options as well as the clean blend. Some say it's a bit fizzy and I could agree with that, but it is a fuzz and you can tame it by bringing down the high end. Check out the band Daylight's new record Jar for an example of this pedal in the mix.

Though, as I have a serious problem with pedal acquisition and GAS, I am interested in giving the nano a shot.
 
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I'm really considering the EHX Nano Bass Big Muff. It sounds great in the demos. Then someone suggested a Boss ODB-3 Bass Overdrive. Now I'm a bit on the fence. I really love the size and price of the EHX, but the Boss has that blend knob... I am not getting the larger EHX pedals.

Did anyone out there get around to compare the Nano Bass Big Muff with the ODB-3?
The Boss overdrive doesn't have any "overdrive" at all, it sounds just like a muddy distortion to my taste. The Big Muff has that special sound I can't describe but sounds much better to me. Remember that fuzz, overdrive and distortion are not the same beast :)
 
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I have both the ODB-3 and the Nano Bass Muff! They really aren't similar at all. However I like both of them. The ODB for me is used as a slight overdrive and is used on a different pedal board than my Nano muff. The nano muff is a fuzz! I use it like I used all my other muffs. I normally run it in regular mode and do my blending with a Boss LS-2. As I've already stated the dry mode works fine too and there is not a volume issue. You can dial just a little fuzz if you'd like but you'll have a hard time hearing that in a band setting. I use both pedals weekly live on stage. The muff cuts through, sounds great. its a freaking big muff in a nano package! get it!
 
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I have both the ODB-3 and the Nano Bass Muff! They really aren't similar at all. However I like both of them. The ODB for me is used as a slight overdrive and is used on a different pedal board than my Nano muff. The nano muff is a fuzz! I use it like I used all my other muffs. I normally run it in regular mode and do my blending with a Boss LS-2. As I've already stated the dry mode works fine too and there is not a volume issue. You can dial just a little fuzz if you'd like but you'll have a hard time hearing that in a band setting. I use both pedals weekly live on stage. The muff cuts through, sounds great. its a freaking big muff in a nano package! get it!
This is what I wanted to hear! I'm going to get one in a couple months :D

Now I'm intrigued about the ODB-3, you use it as a slight overdrive? I've seen many youtube clips and even tried one (was a very quick try) once and it always sounded too distorted for me. What settings are you using?
 
ImageUploadedByTalkBass1410313390.211461.jpg
 
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I have an odb, mid sized bass muff, deluxe bass muff, and several hm2s

The odb has specific uses for me due to the inherent high end it emphasises. I found the best place to use an odb is in to the front of an all valve amp. It does tend to tame the high end a little.

The bass muffs are good at what they do. The blend switch works well for me, giving a medium gain sound.
If I want more gain I use the Dlx model, and the variable blend really makes the pedal work for me in my situation.
 
The nano sounds pretty much identical to the original BBM, with the same volume boost. I think I will be modding it soon.

Bass Big Muff can get similar high gain tones to the ODB-3 (where I have it set at least) if you boost into it with an overdrive to bring out more high mid snarl. Because the Muff only has a single tone control, if you open that up to make it really bright, it filters out the lows. The ODB-3 has separate bass and treble knobs which gives you more control.

As crapusername says above, an ODB-3 into an all valve amp kills. I used to look down my nose at this pedal until I heard one live with a Jazz bass into an SVT and 8x10 at high volume!
 
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