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Latest and Greatest in Overdrive?

spector_boogie

spector_boogie

No Limit Honky
Apr 15, 2012
1,569
696
The Woodlands, TX
#1
Been out of the game for about 7 years now. I am looking for a do it all OD pedal. I'm not sure if the Darkglass stuff is a great fit as that's more distortion than anything. I had an Xotic Bass Driver BB for many years that I loved. They still around?? Borrowing my guitarist's BDDI for now but I always felt the Sansamp stuff sounded a tad artificial IMO.
Looking for something that keeps the chunk and low end, think mid 2000s Chevelle, that keeps the attack and heavy bass.
Any input appreciated!
 
#2
spector_boogie said:
Been out of the game for about 7 years now. I am looking for a do it all OD pedal. I'm not sure if the Darkglass stuff is a great fit as that's more distortion than anything. I had an Xotic Bass Driver BB for many years that I loved. They still around?? Borrowing my guitarist's BDDI for now but I always felt the Sansamp stuff sounded a tad artificial IMO.
Looking for something that keeps the chunk and low end, think mid 2000s Chevelle, that keeps the attack and heavy bass.
Any input appreciated!
Click to expand...

Check out a Damnation Audio MBD-2 (or a MBD-1 same with a slightly larger enclosure)

It can do everything from overdrive to pretty heavy distortion.

Stays super thick on the lows if you want them.
 
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#3
this is more of a fuzz than an overdrive, but if you're looking to play REALLY heavy death/doom, check out the Blackhawk Amps Asgard pedal. Cascading gain stages with selectable diode or mosfet clipping, a big mid boost footswitch and a clean blend.

ÅSGARD BASS FUZZ/DISTORTION V2

I have a blackhawk valkyrie, which is like a vintage Rat pedal on drugs and I love it. I bought it mainly for guitar, but it's works great for bass if you work the gain and clean blend right.

Also, the Orange Bass Butler looks promising. i haven't played one myself, but it looks like a super powerful preamp, especially if you're looking to record with it. it has a bunch of built in cab sims that i don't quite understand, but can at least appreciate.

take my advice with a grain of salt though, because i love the sansamp. i haven't played live without one in ten years.
 
#5
The BB is still around, not so common as it once was due to the number of bass pedals that have come onto the market in recent years, but still a solid performer for low gain OD. If you liked and after a warm natural drive then you might also dig the SolidGoldFX Beta and TC MojoMojo.

There are a few variations of the Sansamp nowadays, I'm a fan of the DP-3X. It has a crossover that sends clean lows to a compressor that's dialled in with a really punchy attack, and the highs to a Sansamp style drive. It probably sounds even more 'artificial' than the BDDI as a result, but it's a great sound, especially when you hear it in the mix. There are a few pedals that do this trick now, including the Darkglass X7 and Orange Bass Butler.
 
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#10
so, the number one reason I keep the sansamp on my board is strictly for that presence knob. for me, the heaviest, most brutal bass tones have less to do with the actual distortion and more to do with the transient attack. you can have multiple high end cascading gain stages into a wall of speakers and it won't do anything for me if you don't have that massive punch at the very beginning of the note. this is all very subjective, but if you've ever seen Cave In or Old Man Gloom before Caleb Scofield passed away, he had the most CRUSHING tone. last time i saw him he just had a P bass, a sansamp and a GK rb800. not a ton of grit, just a massive amount of punch.



this is getting long winded, but I'm curious to hear what others are doing to get that aggressive attack.
 
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#11
danbones said:
so, the number one reason I keep the sansamp on my board is strictly for that presence knob. for me, the heaviest, most brutal bass tones have less to do with the actual distortion and more to do with the transient attack. you can have multiple high end cascading gain stages into a wall of speakers and it won't do anything for me if you don't have that massive punch at the very beginning of the note. this is all very subjective, but if you've ever seen Cave In or Old Man Gloom before Caleb Scofield passed away, he had the most CRUSHING tone. last time i saw him he just had a P bass, a sansamp and a GK rb800. not a ton of grit, just a massive amount of punch.



this is getting long winded, but I'm curious to hear what others are doing to get that aggressive attack.
Click to expand...


Great OMG clip. RIP Caleb.

Totally agree. Especially if you're in a loud 2-guitar band with the guitarists using distortion and maybe humbuckers and dowtuning through large cabs, you'd better get some high mids in your bass tone or you will not be heard with any definition or punch at all once it gets to live volumes and rooms, but not really in a recorded mix either.

Think of the popularity of SansAmp and Darkglass, or pick players an a Precision through an SVT - it's all about the mids and that "clank".

Depending on strings, pickups, finger/pick, vocalist's range, etc. boost 1kHz - 4KHz. Forget about what sounds good at low volume through a tiny practice combo for 5 minutes before posting "best pedal ever" and listen to recordings of your actual live sound.

Forget the low-lows too, especially the louder you get unless you want a room full of mud. Ampeg 8x10 cabs aren't ported and they start rolling off steep at 80 Hz.
 
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#12
agree on all fronts. there are so many things i don't miss about my old 8x10" but my live tone is not one of them. i picked up an svt410hlf a few years later and truly hated it.

definitely a big fan of rolling off the low lows to keep things from getting woofy, boosting the high mids and carving out space for the guitars to take the low mids. especially playing in drop C or lower tunings.

otherwise the best route is to go full KEN Mode, have two bassists and get engineered by Steve Albini.

 
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#15
Another vote for the Aftershock. Between the variety of distortion engines, the clean blend with an adjustable low-pass filter, and the crazy multichannel routing options, it can do pretty much everything. And it sounds good. And you can sometimes find used ones under $100!

I was under the impression that the guy from Chevelle used a Digitech Bass Driver, at least circa "This Type of Thinking." Those particular pedals had a reputation for getting microphonic on loud stages around that same time if I'm remembering right. I could be wrong on either/both counts as that was like 15 years ago...
 
#16
IronSpatula said:
I was under the impression that the guy from Chevelle used a Digitech Bass Driver, at least circa "This Type of Thinking." Those particular pedals had a reputation for getting microphonic on loud stages around that same time if I'm remembering right. I could be wrong on either/both counts as that was like 15 years ago...
Click to expand...

This rings a bell. Maybe he switched to the BOSS? Or very possibly I'm getting it wrong.

I just checked out some demos of the Digitech. To me it sounds somewhat congested and the BOSS sounds better, but I don't think they're radically different. There weren't many bass-specific effects at the time, much less great variations in sound and function among the mass-market offerings.

I've read good things about the Digitech Hardwire series, but never tried one. Most of the effect boxes from back then are quite noisy, which I can't tolerate.
 
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#17
I always found stacking two overdrives to give me the best tone. And nothing sounds more amplike than pedals that either emulate amps, or ARE actual preamps from an amp in the form of a pedal.

JohnK Centurion preamp into a Tech21 Oxford. I replaced the Oxford with an Orange Getaway Driver, but that Orange flavor combined with the old Mark-style Peavey flavor is my tone. The Mesa Bass 400 they are going through doesn't hurt either. Even though I can't put it loud enough at home to distort, it enhances that attack and warmth.
RicCenturion moregain by Centaurus A

I've used the Boss ODB-3 as an effect, but never got anything "amplike" out of mine. I know modded ones can sound more like that, though. I've always tried to make my bass sound like an angry piano. The Damnation pedals and Darkglass Vintage models can sound VERY amplike as well.

Centurion-01_no_logo.jpg
 
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#18
spector_boogie said:
I'm not sure if the Darkglass stuff is a great fit as that's more distortion than anything.

Borrowing my guitarist's BDDI for now but I always felt the Sansamp stuff sounded a tad artificial IMO.
Any input appreciated!
Click to expand...

As it pertains to Darkglass, yes they mostly do distortion, but the VMT is a definitely an OD pedal, and the B3k can do it's own version of OD as well. I own them both, and they run into the front end of my Sansamp BDDI, which brings me to my next point. Use both brands, it sounds amazing lol.
 
#19
Although I too am in FaithNoMan's camp and love my JohnK Centurion and Century pedals, for an off the shelf, easy to find OD I'd look into the Shift Line Buzz. I always come back to that one for my main OD sound since it has a very edgy sound, but doesn't mask your bass's essential tone. Really great pedal. V1 is better than V2. The V2 version, although more versatile (more knobs) doesn't sound quite as thick as the V1. I've never played an OD pedal that sounds like my bass more than the Shift Line. Almost every other pedal I've tried is just too overpowering.

 
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#20
Thanks for all the input here there is a lot to go through. I didn't know Boss had what seems like an updated ODB-3 in that BBX-1 pedal. I always liked the yellow pedal for what it did. Still has a good thick crunch when you dial it in right. I've always wanted to find someone to make one true bypass and clean up the noise some.

That Damnation pedal just sounds, wow. I found a similar thread to mine and saw a Creation Audio Grizzly that too sounds ridiculous. Which both should at their price points lol.

Totally agree on needing those high mids with punch and attack and that's really what I'm hoping to get. Tbh I probably will end up with a few of these as sometimes I need that over the top thickness from the Boss or a Sansamp but other times just want that crunch without overpowering everyone else.

If anyone has experience modding an ODB-3 PM me I'd definitely like to see if I could get a better version made. I have a Boss bass flanger that I had tricked out and been using it 15+ years and still sounds excellent.
 

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