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Fulltone Bass drive issues

mactac

mactac

Nov 28, 2005
1,754
189
Victoria, BC, Canada
www.orange-records.com
#1
OK, so i've had one of these for about 2 months, and although I like the tone, it almost seems unusable for a number of reasons. Maybe someone could jump in and comment on these things because perhaps i'm missing something:

1. it has 3 modes, 2 are compressed & 1 is not. The compressed modes are much more distorted than the first, but a total loss of low end. does anyone use these 2 modes? they seem like they are unusable unless you want to plug in a guitar

2. THe "boost". what's the point? it increases the volume...big deal.

3. this is the biggie. in the non-compressed mode, the tone is actually really good. a nice breakup, similar to an overdriven svt. BUT I have to crank my bass all the way, turn distortion to 100% & play HARD just to get it to break up. ANything less, and it's not driving it hard enough. now, my bass is pretty hot (warwick thumb 5), so what's the deal? this is pretty much unusable too because it's useable range is about 1%.

am i missing something here? i like it's tone, but it seems to be functionally crippled...
 
#2
Honestly and seriously, I wonder if your Bassdrive is faulty? I've never experienced or heard of the issues you're describing with the Bassdrive.

As far as the "point" of boost, many people like a switchable volume boost when they solo, or during louder passages of a song, or to switchably overdrive the input of their tube amp.
 
#3
yeah my bassdrive is not like that at all, the boost stage has more gain than the first drive stage, a very obvious amount. I do not lose low end, if anything the treble is accentuated, but that is what the tone knob is for. What cab are you using? Certain mainstream cabs do not have the clarity to let effects pedals be heard at their best. If i use my bassdrive with SWR cabinets, i can hear overdrive with t he controls at 9 o'clock easily, if i use my Eden XST, i can't really hear it unless i max the drive on the first stage, or dial my boost past 10 o'clock, because of the 'muff' factor. even then i do not play hard at all. If i play hard, i can make the sound break up with lower gain settings.

i'm pretty sure something is wrong with your unit if it is doing all that.
 
#4
I have 4 cabs (eden,swr,scroeder,hartke)

I think you might have misunderstood what i was saying.. "the boost stage has more gain than the first drive stage, a very obvious amount".... well mine does too.

My 2 biggest issues are with the first stage, and are not volume related. let me re-state:

1. the point at which the non-compressed setting distorts is way too high. ie i have to send it an extremely hot signal to get any distortion at all, even with the distrtion knob all the way up. it almost seems like it should be driven by an fx loop.

2. The other 2 settings suck out a ton of low end. the fisrt setting does not.
 
#6
mactac said:
1. the point at which the non-compressed setting distorts is way too high. ie i have to send it an extremely hot signal to get any distortion at all, even with the distrtion knob all the way up. it almost seems like it should be driven by an fx loop.
Click to expand...

I have the same experience with my bassdrive. I emailed Fulltone about this, thinking that my unit was faulty. But Mr Fuller replied that there should not be ANY overdrive in comp-cut mode. :confused: And so I mainly use the 'vintage' mode for overdrive.

Regarding the loss of low end in the vintage and FM mode. I have that too. You can try to compensate this with the tone knob, but I still don't get the same amount of low end. Funny thing is, yesterday I had a gig. Experiencing the same things with my bassdrive as you did, especially a little less low end in Vintage mode. But the bass player in the band that played after my band, had the exact same tone. Only this time by overdriving an ancient Vox amp. And it really didn't seem to bother me, in fact it sounded great. Maybe the perspective if you play the bass yourself is that there is not enough low end, but if you just hear the music in the audience it might be fine. That's just my experience from yesterday.
 
#7
Phyrexian said:
Try using an 18V power supply. Imho the Bassdrive sounds better and hotter with that. Try it!
Click to expand...
Wow...I never heard of that. Will that damage the pedal?

I don't use the boost or the comp/cut modes. I don't use this pedal for all out distortion either. I find it works best for milder overdrive. With my vol at 3:00, tone at 2:00 and gain at 11:00 I get a beautifull warm tube overdriven tone. No loss of low end.

For all out distortion I use a Tech21 XXL. Give that a try if you can. Might be more like what your looking for.
 
#11
DarkHarted said:
1) Do you have the bass version?

2) Are you and would you be able to post sound clips?
Click to expand...
No, I have the original guitar version. Sorry, I'm not set up for sound clips. But it works suprisingly well with bass. I'm a big hater of low-end sucker od/dist pedals too. I'd imagine the bass version is even better.

Jazz Ad said:
I use mine in 18 V.It tends to even the 2 modes (I have the older version) but not completely.
Soundwise, there's a bit more clarity in the low end.
It isn't a strong difference but it's there, especially on extreme settings.
Click to expand...
Sweet. I'm going to have to try that. Thanks guys.
 
#14
There is overdrive although way less in that mode (compared to FM and Vintage).
Click to expand...

I don't think you read my post. here it is again:

" I emailed Fulltone about this, thinking that my unit was faulty. But Mr Fuller replied that there should not be ANY overdrive in comp-cut mode "

MR FULLER said that there should be no overdrive in this mode.

my question is "what is this mode for then?"

your reply of "There is overdrive although way less in that mode (compared to FM and Vintage)." doesn't really make sense...

does anyone know what this mode is for based on mr fuller's comment?
 
#16
Phyrexian said:
I did read what you and Mr.Fuller wrote. I just said that there is a tiny bit of overdrive in the CompCut mode in my unit.
Click to expand...

as there is in mine .. that's the reason i started this thread

If there wouldn't be ANY overdrive at all you could use this mode for boosting purposes...
Click to expand...

i think that's what the boost channel is for? :)

so, anyways, my question remains... something on this pedal doesn't make sense... does anyone have any answers, or is the comp cut mode just useless?
 
#20
the boost channel is for boost.

the comp cut mode does *not* do heavy distortion... that's what i've been saying. it hardly does any distotion at all.

fm & vintage modes suck out the low end like crazy

my question was, and still is.... what's the deal with the comp-cut mode... i can only get distortion with my bass cranked & playing really hard. there is almost no useable range. what's the deal?
 

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