I Don't Get Bass Distortion/OD

[Ostie]

I don’t get them either. Back in the eighties I had a comp and a chorus pedal (like every other bass player) but I haven’t used one in years.

 

[DaveParker39]

I like to dial my amp in to have just a touch of break up, which I do by pushing the front end of a tube/hybrid amp with my compressor pedal gain. A lot of bassists get that just from turning up their amps. Listening to isolated bass recordings on classic records, you will find a lot of "slightly dirty" bass tones that are just volume and cranking an amp to distort slightly.

When you talk about the classic really distorted bass tones, it tends to fall into one of two camps:
1) Cranked loud tube amp (Marshall, Hiwatt, Orange AD, Ampeg SVT, etc.)
2) Fuzz/distortion pedal that is well suited to a bass amp (Russian Big Muff, Tubescreamer)

Your classic Lemmy, John Entwistle, Geddy Lee, Geezer Butler tones fall into category 1.
Your Cliff Burton type tones fall into category 2.

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

I use a TC Electronic Spark boost pedal (overdrive?) to goose the signal about 7 or 8 dB before it goes into a Noble tube preamp. It's a clean preamp and the boost gives it a "clean tube amp" feel. Basically extra saturation of the tube without having to dial up the preamp volume. Very effective!

The boost is also useful for a solo passage or a song segment that needs an extra dash of bass.

 

[noahw1]

I love all the examples given in this thread.

 

[RJ]

I love all the examples given in this thread.

Me too!

I love seeing examples in unfamiliar with.

 

[Standalone]

Try something that’s a little more fuzzed out and synthy. I have a little cheap EHX Hot Tubes that I use in some improvised sections. It is just the thing — regular distortion or OD would be too muddy for my needs. There are many other ways and tones

 

[dbsfgyd1]

In a lot of cases it’s a slotting into the mix thing, like above with Robert Deleo.

I’m a big fan of running a relatively low gain OD all the time with my Barbershop. It’s essentially used as a clean boost, tightening things up. If I dig in it gets dirtier. In any case, it makes my bass sit a little forward in the mix. I’m in a power trio so that’s a good thing to my ears.

Amen on a power trio. When I had my Rick O Sound Rig back in the 70's, my bridge pick up always had some dirt to it.

 

[bherman]

Listen to some isolated bass tracks of famous songs that have what might be considered "clean" bass. It can be surprising how much grunt is actually in the tone. From Motown to Reggae to Soul......it can really help the bass speak in the mix, but not so much as to sound "distorted". Here's one example: Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter”: Bill Wyman’s Isolated Bass

Funny, to me that actually sounds pretty clean.

 

[Hasty]

99.99999% of my playing is in a jazz context and 75% of that is double bass. However my electric bass always has a little grit in it.

I’ve got a couple of pedal boards of varying sizes. One of them has a Wampler Tumnus, another has a HanTaun from Idiotbox Effects. The third is a Valvecaster.

They’re all set the same. Just in the edge of breakup and if I want dirtier I turn up the volume on the bass.

To my ears, it sounds surprisingly good in the mix. So glad I didn’t sell those pedals during the early days of the pandemic.

 

[fourstr00]

John Taylor is so next level. I never knew his tone had that dirt to it. As an aside, Mrs. Rich67 just walked by and said "That's Duran Duran!" Even isolated...

My wife said literally the same thing.

 

[leegreenman]

Listen to some isolated bass tracks of famous songs that have what might be considered "clean" bass. It can be surprising how much grunt is actually in the tone. From Motown to Reggae to Soul......it can really help the bass speak in the mix, but not so much as to sound "distorted". Here's one example: Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter”: Bill Wyman’s Isolated Bass

I was about to say the same thing.

 

[DJ Bebop]

Iconic

And a P bass and Rotosounds no less.

 

[antfarm]

 

[definenredefine]

I kinda love a good, gnarly distorted bass tone (like Dave from Unsane or Lou from Dinosaur Jr) but I don't really go that way myself. When I decide to use a pedal, it's a BBE Green Screamer (a Tube Screamer clone), but usually I just up the gain and boost sections on my amps (both GKs, which have switchable boost controls.) I find that enough dirt for my signal to cut through but still sounds relatively clean.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

Every time I've tried adding some distortion or overdrive to my bass it just sounds terrible.

Obviously it's user error....

Please enlighten me with some links to songs that use bass distortion/OD.

Thanks!

It makes you dissappear.

People like to call it "blending"

 

[Kendescending]

Some great bass distortion tones here:

 

[DJ Bebop]

Dis guy...

 

[BklynKen]

 

[Grinderman]

 

[Grinderman]

Depending on what I want, I generally set the gain on my Broughton SV-Pre to between 50% to 75% into a MB WD-800 (tube pre-amp) with the input/gain stage on the head set to between 50% to 75%.