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I need a new 'screamer style overdrive.
- Thread starter Faderoktopus
- Start date
Out of the pedals listed, I have tried the Ibanez TSB9 and did not like that pedal at all. It really sounded terrible.
I owned a EBS multi drive for a while and liked it but many pedals can do what this pedal does as well or better.
I have never tried the Mad Professor pedal.
For tube screamer type pedals a modded Badder Monkey is very good and so is the Fulltone Bass Drive, the HEB Hematoma (my favorite), the Green Rhino (great bass thanks to the 100 hz boost). The Pork Loin is also a tube screamer and the pedal offers a lot of flexibility from overdrive to light fuzz.
I have tried the Xotic BB bass and did not liked it. The guitar version (the orange colored) BB for guitar sounds better to my ears.
I don't think the Bass Juice is a tube screamer type circuit but it sounds very good. It's a very unique sounding pedal.
Also the Hoa Rust Ride is a great pedal. There is no tweaking but the three tone offered are perfect and it's nice to have a pedal that's plug and play once in a while. Hope these ideas help you in your quest.
I owned a EBS multi drive for a while and liked it but many pedals can do what this pedal does as well or better.
I have never tried the Mad Professor pedal.
For tube screamer type pedals a modded Badder Monkey is very good and so is the Fulltone Bass Drive, the HEB Hematoma (my favorite), the Green Rhino (great bass thanks to the 100 hz boost). The Pork Loin is also a tube screamer and the pedal offers a lot of flexibility from overdrive to light fuzz.
I have tried the Xotic BB bass and did not liked it. The guitar version (the orange colored) BB for guitar sounds better to my ears.
I don't think the Bass Juice is a tube screamer type circuit but it sounds very good. It's a very unique sounding pedal.
Also the Hoa Rust Ride is a great pedal. There is no tweaking but the three tone offered are perfect and it's nice to have a pedal that's plug and play once in a while. Hope these ideas help you in your quest.
Hmm, what about T Rex Mudhoney? It has a tube screamer meets big muff type of thing going. Sounds fuller to me than Green Rhino did with ability to go from light OD to almost fuzz teritory. I'm gonna test it live tomorrow but it sounds like it doesn't lose the low end.
This is interesting. As it has been said earlier, overdrive is a very individual thing. Of all the overdrives I have tried, the Bass Juice and Fulltone Bass Drive were probably the ones that did not even get close to a sound I liked. What is the difference between a Pork Loin and Pork Pie? The Pork Pie wasn't quite where I wanted it, either.
Oh, and my short encounter with the Ibby was a pretty pleasant experience. What didn't you like about it?
As for modding the Monkey, from what I understand the two mods available are for eliminating the mid hump and increasing the bass. But I find that it has plenty of bass and a moderate mid hump that I actually like, but just doesn't clip in a way that I particularly enjoy.
Funny how different sonic preferences can be. The Rust Ride looks interesting, though.
Martin
Yes sonic preferences are highly personal.
The other very important factor other than your ear in the sonic chain is the gear.
How you play (finger, pick, slap), your strings, your bass, other pedals, amp and cabinet all have a huge impact on what works and what does not. A pedal might sound amazing in some configuration and terrible with other gear. I use several amps and several cabs and I see this all the time.
What makes pedal an expensive proposition is the fact that you never quite know what will work with what. Short of trying it with your gear, and trying it "in the mix" with other instruments, you don't know what will work. Be prepare to go through several pedals before you find your nirvana.
The other very important factor other than your ear in the sonic chain is the gear.
How you play (finger, pick, slap), your strings, your bass, other pedals, amp and cabinet all have a huge impact on what works and what does not. A pedal might sound amazing in some configuration and terrible with other gear. I use several amps and several cabs and I see this all the time.
What makes pedal an expensive proposition is the fact that you never quite know what will work with what. Short of trying it with your gear, and trying it "in the mix" with other instruments, you don't know what will work. Be prepare to go through several pedals before you find your nirvana.
Gotcha. And I guess I am searching for something quite specific. To some extent, AGS cures GAS, but not for this application.
Aside from not liking it
, did you notice anything about the FET bypass of the TS9b? I am still curious to give it a proper test run with the rest of my pedals, my bass and an amp I am familiar with. Probably a Markbass or something. I would always prefer to have my booster in front of an OD, but with the Bad Monkey this doesn't work too well when I engage boost and disengage the OD."Never disengage the monkey while the signal is hot, it causes nasty hissing!"
Martin
Xotic Bass BB - I LOVE mine for a preamp pedal to add a bit of touch sensitive grind to my overall sound. It does NOT sound dark (I like a lot of high end, and I actually have the treble dialed back a touch on the BB). I don't really use it as an OD, and didn't totally love it in that role. It sounded good, but it sounded like a pedal.
Way Huge Green Rhino - I think this is exactly what you're looking for, though as you said it's a bit bigger than you wanted. If you can manage the size, it's definitely worthwhile.
Way Huge Pork Loin - I don't think this is a screamer circuit. I do think it sounds fantastic, but I think it's a little smoother than you seem to be looking for.
Modded Bad Monkey - My impression is that you wouldn't like it any more than a stock monkey...
Aguilar Agro - You might like this one a lot (LOVE mine). I don't think it's screamer-related, but can do those types of sounds well, IMO...
Hardwire CM-2 - This I wouldn't have thought of, but from what I remember of it, it may be right up your alley...
-JV
Way Huge Green Rhino - I think this is exactly what you're looking for, though as you said it's a bit bigger than you wanted. If you can manage the size, it's definitely worthwhile.
Way Huge Pork Loin - I don't think this is a screamer circuit. I do think it sounds fantastic, but I think it's a little smoother than you seem to be looking for.
Modded Bad Monkey - My impression is that you wouldn't like it any more than a stock monkey...
Aguilar Agro - You might like this one a lot (LOVE mine). I don't think it's screamer-related, but can do those types of sounds well, IMO...
Hardwire CM-2 - This I wouldn't have thought of, but from what I remember of it, it may be right up your alley...
-JV
If you like the Ibanez, but prefer true bypass, you can always install a [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] for about $25.00. I use one on an Ibanez TS9DX Turbo Tube Screamer and it works beautifully. You can also send them your pedal and have the switch installed for a very reasonable fee. The pedal looks totally stock (no ugly extra stomp switch sticking out) and the bypass is seamless.
BTW, I really like the Turbo Tube Screamer on bass. It doesn't have the wet/dry mix option found on the TS9B, but the Mode switch gives you the option to dial in more bottom than a regular TS9.
BTW, I really like the Turbo Tube Screamer on bass. It doesn't have the wet/dry mix option found on the TS9B, but the Mode switch gives you the option to dial in more bottom than a regular TS9.
Hey guys, thanks for all the input.
I have realized a few things about effects pedals since I started building my board a few years ago. This thread has further shown me just how much individual preferences mean in a discussion of effects.
I went to the store today to try out the two 'screamers that I had initially considered. I have been intrigued by some of your suggestions, especially the Xotic BB bass preamp, but it is sufficiently more expensive and less accessible for me to pass. For now. Someday I might very well revisit this thread and try out many of your suggestions, but that will have to wait for the next, much larger board that I will inevitably put together in the future.
I brought my board and my L1500, grabbed the LGW and TS9b and locked myself in the amp room for a good hour with a Markbass Tube 800 and a pair of GK cabs (212's, I don't know the model). I removed my modulator and switched the three (Bad Monkey for reference) overdrives around for a while, always being able to A/B two of them at any time and compare them to my Tonehammer and booster. I had my compressor engaged and my EQ set to boost treble, heavy cut below 30hz, boost 125hz a little and cut slightly at 500hz. This is how I usually set my frequencies, depending on the room and amp. With a clean sound, clean boost or Tonehammer, this worked well with the Markbass set pretty much flat. Here is a sort of double review of the two pedals.
Ibanez Bass Tubescreamer
Despite my previous good experience, all the negative comments about the TS9b had left me wary. I had tried it once before, but that is almost a year ago now. However, while the rest of the bass playing world seems to agree that this thing blows donkeys for wooden money, I immediately liked the sounds that I got from it, and had to go to ridiculous lengths to make it sound decidedly 'bad'. With some tweaking it could do everything from heavy fuzz to very subtle overdrive. Funny, since many complaints that I have heard had to do with the pedal being all or nothing, either ineffective or full on distortion.
The boosted mids seem to be centred at a lower frequency than on a guitar pedal, and act like a natural extension of my bass' mid heavy voice. The EQ's were unsurprising. There is plenty of bass to boost from, more than I'll need anyway, and since it boosts below 100hz, and I cut below 30hz, the bottom end is very tight and puncy. Note that while the treble control doesn't do as much as some might like, it appears to be integral to the nature of the clipping, especially at lower drive settings.
Volume is volume, and lowering it doesn't have as big an effect on the clipping as with the Bad Monkey. In general, my experience with gain and volume controls on anything that produces overdrive has been that you get slightly harsher clipping when lowering volume, whether you raise the gain or not, but with the TS9b I feel like I can adjust to match levels with my clean-boosted sound and my Tonehammer sounds.
The drive knob is a little tricky to work. As I said, I enjoyed most of what the pedal gave me, but deliberately controlling what it gave me wasn't always easy. Most importantly, it should be understood that the drive and the mix knobs work together, that turning the level completely counterclockwise does not completely remove the drive but doing so to the drive knob will, and that their interaction doesn't seem to be quite 'linear', if that makes any kind of sense. Anyhow, I managed to get some nice, soft clipping and some harsher tones from it, and even downright fuzz with the bass knob at full throttle. The pedal is very dynamically responsive, and I could easily see myself playing a whole set with this thing on a mild setting, pushing it into overdrive when necessary. I think the tweaky-tweaky nature of those two knobs might be responsible for much of the bad rep this pedal has. Silly, silly Ibanez for their practically nonexistent manual.
I think the dark green color on this pedal looks damn good, it is pretty heavy and definitely seems solid enough. The knobs arent gonna turn by themselves, but you don't have to struggle either. I tested the bypass by putting my booster in front of it and gaining up a quite bit more than I would do live, with the 'screamer bypassed. Sure enough, there was a bit of trebly noise. Then I reversed the positions and there was just as much noise with the booster after the 'screamer. It was fairly subtle and only audible with the booster awfully loud, and my theory is that it actually comes from my EQ, with its 12db boost at 8khz and 16khz. So I am not concerned about the buffering. Doing this little experiment with the Bad monkey is quite another story.
Mad Professor Little Green Wonder
This pedal really is a screamer, almost a whiner, actually. I plugged it in with all knobs set at about noon and was blown back by the volume it produced. It had no bass loss that I could hear, a high-mid boost from hell, very cool, grinding overdrive and was ridiculously loud. I adjusted it a bit and matched levels with my other pedals, then began to fiddle with the drive knob.
This pedal is very easy to use, the drive drives, the volume volumes and the body controls the mids (more below). The drive is aggressive, but can be tamed and become really smooth and very pleasant. Of course, one must consider that this was designed for a guitars input level, so it should come as no surprise that it distorts at low levels of gain. However, the clipping sounded so good that I found myself turning the knob back into distortion territory a few times, just to enjoy the harmonics it produced.
The body knob can increase or decrease, and actually reverse, a tubescreamer's natural mid-hump. When turned clockwise, it increases the high mids and treble frequencies to get a whole lot of clarity and character in ones playing. I suddenly got the urge to play Still Got the Blues in the upper register, but even though it does induce a lead-guitar like quality, the low end stays pretty solid. Not bad for a guitar pedal. When the knob is turned counterclockwise, the high mids are cut and lower mids and treble are boosted. This seems to me to be exactly the same as many 'scoop' knobs on bass equipment, like enhance, contour, shape and so on, but centered at a much higher frequency. Once again, the low end seems to be unaffected. Unlike a mid-boost, and unlike 'scoop' knobs, this single knob controls the nature of the mids all by itself. This might seem less flexible than a couple of EQ knobs, but it sounds really good with this pedal and is dead simple to use. In a long line of effects, I can easily see how further EQ options might be more trouble than fun, and this knob controls the pedal in exactly the way I might be likely to need it, without changing the low end. If I said this pedal has a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?
I think this pedal might be the ultimate solo boost/drive effect for me, and with some separate EQ it might work well as an always-on dirt pedal, too. It has true bypass, looks good and is easy to use. Note that the model I tried was hand wired, not the factory made pcb model that I had planned on trying, but from what I understand the difference lies in the price tag and nothing more.
Verdict
I think that overdrive is the one effect that is most dependent on exactly which instrument you play, how you play it and what else is in your signal path. Without being anything near an expert, I assume that clipping happens at the strongest harmonics first, and these will depend on things such as EQ'ing and pickup placement as well as innumerable other things. So, as some of you have pointed out, preferences in overdrive will be very individual even before we get to using our ears.
I guess I must have done something right by deciding to test these two units, 'cause they both dazzled me, which is weird since I am pretty picky with OD and have written of many respected models. If I had room on my board and could afford it, I definitely would get them both, as they do sort of the same thing, but in drastically different ways. In my setup, however, with the philosophy of having a few, flexible pedals that I can keep on tweaking and learning to use better, I had to go with the TS9b. It does all that a good bass overdrive should do, and it does it with power, distortion and low-end to spare. Mostly, I really dig it as a subtle crunch over a strong and present tone. Sure, I went against the advice of most TB posters in the TS9b thread, as well as quite a few reviewers, but at least I kept true to the principle of using my own ears and judging for myself. The LGW gave me a serious lust for juicy solo tones, and I might eventually give it another go, but I fear that without additional EQ'ing, its tone is too different from my other sounds for it to work well in a live-friendly setup.
Note: I just changed my strings a few days ago, so all of my impressions are based on the sound of fresh strings and sparkly highs. Also, my preference for cutting ultra-lows might disguise possible low-end loss in those frequencies.
Thanks for the input guys, I'm a happy boy today. I will be keeping the 'Monkey as a spare, since it is a flexible and very decent overdrive, and since I couldn't get a lot of cash for it anyway.
Martin
I have realized a few things about effects pedals since I started building my board a few years ago. This thread has further shown me just how much individual preferences mean in a discussion of effects.
I went to the store today to try out the two 'screamers that I had initially considered. I have been intrigued by some of your suggestions, especially the Xotic BB bass preamp, but it is sufficiently more expensive and less accessible for me to pass. For now. Someday I might very well revisit this thread and try out many of your suggestions, but that will have to wait for the next, much larger board that I will inevitably put together in the future.
I brought my board and my L1500, grabbed the LGW and TS9b and locked myself in the amp room for a good hour with a Markbass Tube 800 and a pair of GK cabs (212's, I don't know the model). I removed my modulator and switched the three (Bad Monkey for reference) overdrives around for a while, always being able to A/B two of them at any time and compare them to my Tonehammer and booster. I had my compressor engaged and my EQ set to boost treble, heavy cut below 30hz, boost 125hz a little and cut slightly at 500hz. This is how I usually set my frequencies, depending on the room and amp. With a clean sound, clean boost or Tonehammer, this worked well with the Markbass set pretty much flat. Here is a sort of double review of the two pedals.
Ibanez Bass Tubescreamer
Despite my previous good experience, all the negative comments about the TS9b had left me wary. I had tried it once before, but that is almost a year ago now. However, while the rest of the bass playing world seems to agree that this thing blows donkeys for wooden money, I immediately liked the sounds that I got from it, and had to go to ridiculous lengths to make it sound decidedly 'bad'. With some tweaking it could do everything from heavy fuzz to very subtle overdrive. Funny, since many complaints that I have heard had to do with the pedal being all or nothing, either ineffective or full on distortion.
The boosted mids seem to be centred at a lower frequency than on a guitar pedal, and act like a natural extension of my bass' mid heavy voice. The EQ's were unsurprising. There is plenty of bass to boost from, more than I'll need anyway, and since it boosts below 100hz, and I cut below 30hz, the bottom end is very tight and puncy. Note that while the treble control doesn't do as much as some might like, it appears to be integral to the nature of the clipping, especially at lower drive settings.
Volume is volume, and lowering it doesn't have as big an effect on the clipping as with the Bad Monkey. In general, my experience with gain and volume controls on anything that produces overdrive has been that you get slightly harsher clipping when lowering volume, whether you raise the gain or not, but with the TS9b I feel like I can adjust to match levels with my clean-boosted sound and my Tonehammer sounds.
The drive knob is a little tricky to work. As I said, I enjoyed most of what the pedal gave me, but deliberately controlling what it gave me wasn't always easy. Most importantly, it should be understood that the drive and the mix knobs work together, that turning the level completely counterclockwise does not completely remove the drive but doing so to the drive knob will, and that their interaction doesn't seem to be quite 'linear', if that makes any kind of sense. Anyhow, I managed to get some nice, soft clipping and some harsher tones from it, and even downright fuzz with the bass knob at full throttle. The pedal is very dynamically responsive, and I could easily see myself playing a whole set with this thing on a mild setting, pushing it into overdrive when necessary. I think the tweaky-tweaky nature of those two knobs might be responsible for much of the bad rep this pedal has. Silly, silly Ibanez for their practically nonexistent manual.
I think the dark green color on this pedal looks damn good, it is pretty heavy and definitely seems solid enough. The knobs arent gonna turn by themselves, but you don't have to struggle either. I tested the bypass by putting my booster in front of it and gaining up a quite bit more than I would do live, with the 'screamer bypassed. Sure enough, there was a bit of trebly noise. Then I reversed the positions and there was just as much noise with the booster after the 'screamer. It was fairly subtle and only audible with the booster awfully loud, and my theory is that it actually comes from my EQ, with its 12db boost at 8khz and 16khz. So I am not concerned about the buffering. Doing this little experiment with the Bad monkey is quite another story.
Mad Professor Little Green Wonder
This pedal really is a screamer, almost a whiner, actually. I plugged it in with all knobs set at about noon and was blown back by the volume it produced. It had no bass loss that I could hear, a high-mid boost from hell, very cool, grinding overdrive and was ridiculously loud. I adjusted it a bit and matched levels with my other pedals, then began to fiddle with the drive knob.
This pedal is very easy to use, the drive drives, the volume volumes and the body controls the mids (more below). The drive is aggressive, but can be tamed and become really smooth and very pleasant. Of course, one must consider that this was designed for a guitars input level, so it should come as no surprise that it distorts at low levels of gain. However, the clipping sounded so good that I found myself turning the knob back into distortion territory a few times, just to enjoy the harmonics it produced.
The body knob can increase or decrease, and actually reverse, a tubescreamer's natural mid-hump. When turned clockwise, it increases the high mids and treble frequencies to get a whole lot of clarity and character in ones playing. I suddenly got the urge to play Still Got the Blues in the upper register, but even though it does induce a lead-guitar like quality, the low end stays pretty solid. Not bad for a guitar pedal. When the knob is turned counterclockwise, the high mids are cut and lower mids and treble are boosted. This seems to me to be exactly the same as many 'scoop' knobs on bass equipment, like enhance, contour, shape and so on, but centered at a much higher frequency. Once again, the low end seems to be unaffected. Unlike a mid-boost, and unlike 'scoop' knobs, this single knob controls the nature of the mids all by itself. This might seem less flexible than a couple of EQ knobs, but it sounds really good with this pedal and is dead simple to use. In a long line of effects, I can easily see how further EQ options might be more trouble than fun, and this knob controls the pedal in exactly the way I might be likely to need it, without changing the low end. If I said this pedal has a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?
I think this pedal might be the ultimate solo boost/drive effect for me, and with some separate EQ it might work well as an always-on dirt pedal, too. It has true bypass, looks good and is easy to use. Note that the model I tried was hand wired, not the factory made pcb model that I had planned on trying, but from what I understand the difference lies in the price tag and nothing more.
Verdict
I think that overdrive is the one effect that is most dependent on exactly which instrument you play, how you play it and what else is in your signal path. Without being anything near an expert, I assume that clipping happens at the strongest harmonics first, and these will depend on things such as EQ'ing and pickup placement as well as innumerable other things. So, as some of you have pointed out, preferences in overdrive will be very individual even before we get to using our ears.
I guess I must have done something right by deciding to test these two units, 'cause they both dazzled me, which is weird since I am pretty picky with OD and have written of many respected models. If I had room on my board and could afford it, I definitely would get them both, as they do sort of the same thing, but in drastically different ways. In my setup, however, with the philosophy of having a few, flexible pedals that I can keep on tweaking and learning to use better, I had to go with the TS9b. It does all that a good bass overdrive should do, and it does it with power, distortion and low-end to spare. Mostly, I really dig it as a subtle crunch over a strong and present tone. Sure, I went against the advice of most TB posters in the TS9b thread, as well as quite a few reviewers, but at least I kept true to the principle of using my own ears and judging for myself. The LGW gave me a serious lust for juicy solo tones, and I might eventually give it another go, but I fear that without additional EQ'ing, its tone is too different from my other sounds for it to work well in a live-friendly setup.
Note: I just changed my strings a few days ago, so all of my impressions are based on the sound of fresh strings and sparkly highs. Also, my preference for cutting ultra-lows might disguise possible low-end loss in those frequencies.
Thanks for the input guys, I'm a happy boy today. I will be keeping the 'Monkey as a spare, since it is a flexible and very decent overdrive, and since I couldn't get a lot of cash for it anyway.
Martin
