If I sold the MXR M80...

Tech 21 VT Bass, Tronographic Rust Box my good sir.

 

You say that you never needed the EQ on the M-80, but always had the colour button engaged - that in itself is a pretty hefty midscoop.

If you don't need the XLR out then any eq pedal would do for you, to deliver that midscoop you like. Or you could just boost your lows and highs and cut your mids on your amp.

I'm a bit confused in what you want in a pedal, you say that you're "not picky about your tone", don't need an EQ or an XLR, so it begs the question - couldn't you just play without it and buy a separate gain pedal?

 

Hartke Bass Attack

Hartke VXL Bass Attack | Sweetwater.com

 

It beefs up the tone because it is doing EQing, gain and level things to your signal.

 

It is possible that you might get the same results with a simple EQ pedal, yes. Or maybe some other results that you might like even better. If you pick up an MXR M108 EQ, with those 10-bands, you will have plenty of things to test and try out.

I don't have the stats in front of me on the M80, but many pedals with a balanced out have a "speaker simulation" feature to cut the highs like a bass amp speaker would do. You can buy an XLR-to-1/4" cable if you want to use it. The presence of speaker simulation is purely a preferential thing. Some players don't care, others care very much.

 

The magic is in the configuration of transistors, opamps and diodes that are doing the modifying and how it does it. That is why there are a bajillion overdrive/distortion/fuzz pedals out there.

As for preamps being glorified EQs, that is partially true. Think about it in terms of your amp. You plug in and the signal has to be preamplified for the next step of the chain to use the signal. The preamp control might be a simple volume knob, or many knobs, that then feed the power stage, which sends the signal to speaker.

 

why not just keep the M80?

 

It sounds like the OP has sonic wanderlust. The grass appears to be greener in another affect's yard.

 

Giving up something that works for something that "might" is not good sense. Saving up for more and different things is.

 

The M80 shouldn't affect your sound much if you aren't using the EQ or color. Try running it flat, no color, and match the on level with the bypass level. You shouldn't hear much of a difference.

You're probably boosting the level going to your amp, which will sound beefier for two reasons. One, you're hitting the amp's input harder, probably slightly overdriving it a little, which adds even-order harmonics that are pleasing to the ear. Two, our brains interpret louder as better, partially because of something called the Fletcher-Munson Equal Loudness Curve. In layman's terms this means that our ears are more sensitive to mid range at lower volumes, and as volume rises our ears frequency response begins to flatten out.

 

I've had a M-80 for going on 15 years and the same things happen in the same order, anytime I think about getting rid of it.

First) I play bass, by myself without drums and guitars in the room for an extended period of time.

Second) I tweek a bunch of knobs on my amp or other pedals and decide that I like something better than the M-80.

Third) I go shopping for something else

Fourth) I go to practice with drums and guitars and end up dumping the other pedals and back with the M-80.

P.S. I NEVER use the distortion channel

 

You're asking a question on a free and open forum. We can reply how we please. I like to give people what I consider my best advice, based on over 35 yrs of playing experience. If you don't like what I said, that's your prerogative, but don't try to tell me how to answer a question. Now, go do as you please, and maybe learn a bit of internet etiquette, and be thankful anyone at all cares enough to respond to your questions.

 

If you're not fussy about your tone then a simple EQ pedal like the Boss GEB-7 should be enough. You could get a mid-scoop similar to the M-80 colour switch and a bunch of other sounds.