Let's make a list: Magic tone sweetener pedals.

[knumbskull]

Fuzzrocious BDPG

kind of an odd duck on its own, but adds a ton of weight to your signal when used with other dirt pedals.

 

[Stubb]

Diamond Bass Comp Jr.
Wren and Cuff Phat Phuk B, though it didn't work for me.
Southampton Fifth Gear.

The real thing is a tube preamp. I've had the Sushi Slampegg X, Shift Line Olympic, and now the Arkham Oracle. Each its own flavor of awesome.

 

[jmlee]

He meant “je ne sais pas”. From Fr. “I know not what”. French idiom for “something special that I can’t quite quite define.”

OK, here comes the Canadian. “Je ne sais pas” means “I don’t know”. A certain “je ne sais quoi” means something special in an elusive sort of way—a French idiom borrowed into English but not correctly or meaning quite the same thing. For instance if you want to say “I don’t know what you’re talking about”, you’d say “Je ne sais pas de quoi tu parles.” Note the complete “ne pas” construction to form the negative as well as the “de quoi” construction which means “of what”.

 

[Phaidrus]

Diamond Bass Comp Jr.
Wren and Cuff Phat Phuk B, though it didn't work for me.
Southampton Fifth Gear.

The real thing is a tube preamp. I've had the Sushi Slampegg X, Shift Line Olympic, and now the Arkham Oracle. Each its own flavor of awesome.

Tried the AMT A-Bass tube drive/preamp before my Markbass Little Mark Vintage head for extra tube goodness but didn't work for me. It just made the sound murky but not in a particularly pleasant / useful way.

 

[frankie5string]

The JHS IME adds the sound of an overdriven Neve console if done right. From what I understand it adds that O/D capability, and I like that it can do clean and OD, and I think it does a better job nailing those old OD console recordings (a la The Beatles) than a lot of other boxes. It might not be everyone's boat, and that's cool.

The Beatles never recorded through any Neve console... There was a Helios at Apple, but I don't think they ever got to record through it. Trident had a Sound Techniques, which was kind-of like an API, tonally - agressive.
The last console they used was a transistorized REDD and Geoff Emerick complained he could never get the drum sound he really wanted out of them.
The REDD tube consoles were completely different from later Neves. Neves were much more open sounding - the REDD tube consoles had a kind-of "pinched" low-midrange with a bright top-end, which I blame on the preamps. I have a couple V72 preamps that sound just like it when driven moderately hard.

Maybe it sounds like some console, but to say it sounds like an OD'ed Neve is a bit of a stretch.
The MCI 400 series had a squishy sound when overdriven, maybe that.

 

[dedpool1052]

Maybe it sounds like some console, but to say it sounds like an OD'ed Neve is a bit of a stretch.

Just jumping in for a second here,

From what I've seen, the Neve based pedals/preamps seem to all be based specifically on the 1073.

No experience with one, so I can't compare.

Just putting a pinpoint on the "Neve in a pedal" discussion.

 

[moon-bass]

The Beatles never recorded through any Neve console... There was a Helios at Apple, but I don't think they ever got to record through it. Trident had a Sound Techniques, which was kind-of like an API, tonally - agressive.
The last console they used was a transistorized REDD and Geoff Emerick complained he could never get the drum sound he really wanted out of them.
The REDD tube consoles were completely different from later Neves. Neves were much more open sounding - the REDD tube consoles had a kind-of "pinched" low-midrange with a bright top-end, which I blame on the preamps. I have a couple V72 preamps that sound just like it when driven moderately hard.

Maybe it sounds like some console, but to say it sounds like an OD'ed Neve is a bit of a stretch.
The MCI 400 series had a squishy sound when overdriven, maybe that.

Cool, thanks for the info. The JHS sounds like and OD console in certain settings, that's what I was going for. To me, a Neve strip sounds a lot like the older console strips, but admittedly it's been awhile since I've used any of it in person, and certainly not since I have had a JHS. I doubt that I could tell the difference between a Neve and an API, etc in a recording anyways.

In any event, I like the JHS, it's tone shaping capabilities pair great with a Fender TMB preamps, it does the OD console sounds very well, and it may or may not sound like a Neve to some ppl. Also, there are lots of ways with flexible a lot of gear to get a lot of sounds.

 

[tb-player]

 

[frankie5string]

C
In any event, I like the JHS, it's tone shaping capabilities pair great with a Fender TMB preamps, it does the OD console sounds very well, and it may or may not sound like a Neve to some ppl. Also, there are lots of ways with flexible a lot of gear to get a lot of sounds.

I've always wanted to try running keyboards through it... The way the JHS saturates makes me think it would be a killer keyboard di!

 

[jam.majors]

It's not a simple pedal, but I use Source Audio Ultrawave as this sort of thing.
It has a compressor (or two in stereo), hpf, lpf, 3 band EQ and another 10 band EQ. (And a bunch of other stuff)
I like to use all of the above for clean, but for "sweetening", I'll add one of the distortions to the preset and get just enough dirt to make some magic. (And usually add some lpf)
Another feature is using the expression pedal to add more dirt/fuzz/whatever is in the second channel.

 

[Rocker80]

Chase Tone Secret Preamp
Jam Pedals Lucy Dreamer

Just personal opinion and I have yet to try out some of the nice stuff posted in this thread but these two seem to have some of that good juice in them for me...

 

[TTPbass1]

Sushi Box Space Heather, use one on each of my PBs

 

[Thebiggestjerk]

I promise you’ll sound amazing if you use this type of pedal. It’s a game changer for sounding good.

 

[LowActionHero]

Honestly, my always on pedal is a SVT Sim in my B6, since I'm playing ampless right now.

Just realized I bought an Always On Barbershop awhile back, never even tried it.

 

[Sugarbear08]

Broughton hpf.

Sushi box MORE.

 

[mmbongo]

My ideal....

View attachment 4967146

 

[InkCow]

OK, here comes the Canadian. “Je ne sais pas” means “I don’t know”. A certain “je ne sais quoi” means something special in an elusive sort of way—a French idiom borrowed into English but not correctly or meaning quite the same thing. For instance if you want to say “I don’t know what you’re talking about”, you’d say “Je ne sais pas de quoi tu parles.” Note the complete “ne pas” construction to form the negative as well as the “de quoi” construction which means “of what”.

Thank you. I have nothing to add regarding tone sweeteners, I’m just here to pounce on the Frenchsplaining. You thankfully jumped in much earlier and more knowledgeable than me!

 

[arepa_funk]

Have used these as always-on tone sweetening pedals:

Xotic RC Bass Booster
Wren & Cuff Phat Phuk B
Sushi Box Particle Accelerator mini
Sushi Box Finally
Barber Linden
Broughton SV-PRE
Analog Alien Bass Station (compressor & amp sim)
OvniFX Opto Smoothie

The current ones on my board are Smoothie to start, followed by Xotic or PPB near the front, Analog Alien at the end, followed by the Finally. With a whole bunch of other stuff in between. This changes very frequently, with the Barber Linden and Particle Accelerator being common visitors.

 

[mdalamond]

Chase Tone Secret preamp:
Secret Preamp

Had to check it out. Just ordered the 1970s' grey era. Looking forward to its arrival.

 

[getBAK]

I’ve now done 2 shows with nothing but a passive bass into Keeley Bassist Compressor into a Khan VTDI into
The PA
The Khan has no adjustments, just a magic box