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guitar distortion pedals on bass

B

BAW

Aug 1, 2008
305
1
Long Island
#1
i was wondering if anyone here uses distortion/overdrive pedals that are meant for guitar in there bass set up?

i use a boss ds-1 in my set up and i do loose a bit of low end but after a few minutes of fiddling with the EQ and the high and low pass filters on my hartke head i was able to find a good distorted bassy sound. ive seen one other person i know one other person who uses the ds-1.

does anyone else use guitar pedals in their effects line ups?
 
#3
Most pedals aren't specifically for bass, so my answer would be, yes, many many people have guitar pedals on their board. The Micro-Pog for example is originally for guitar, but it does WONDERS on bass (there are clubs for it even). Another example would be multiple wahs. I don't know of one that is bass specific. And just a warn, your gonna get FLAMED for posting this thread :hiding:
 
#4
the stock ds-1 sucks. get the keeley mod. you will crap your pants once you hear the difference.

and all of my effects are guitar pedals, because im also a guitar PLAYER. so i get bored and try my stuff with bass. i am currently using an h&k warp factor as my overdrive.
 
#6
I bought a Boss OS-2 (overdrive/distortion) to use with my strat, but i found it gets some good sounds for bass too. Unfortunately you cant get any real deep tones out of it since it was designed for guitar, but it gets some great sounds, really funky overdrive (when I want to give the tubes a rest :p) and some good grindy distortion.

You can always use pedals designed for guitar with bass, but some dont affect the low lows as much as you would want for a bass effect. :bassist: I really need to try myself out an English Muff'n...
 
#15
lots of people have discovered the joys of the HM2 with bass. If you use the search, you'll find a couple of threads talking about it.
the most common problem with using guitar pedals with a bass (particularly distortion) is that there tends to be a bottom end roll off - normally cured with the use of a blending pedal like the LS2.
there are dist. pedals that already have the blend built in, the Sparkle drive IIRC being one.
at the end of the day Distortion is probably the most personal effect choice you'll make, and what sounds crappy to one person will sound awesome to another.
 
#17
I've used a marshall guv'nor II as my main distortion ever since they came out a few years back. i went through a lot of pedals before settling on it, including the boss bass od, rat, big muff and others. the guvnor was the only one that allowed me to dial ack the low end and still have a nice crunch.
 

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