Light overdrive for jazz single coils?

[Ritter667]

An EHX English Muff'n with the original 12AYX tubes installed.

I personally prefer 12AX7 tubes in both positions though, but the lower gain stock 12AYX tubes will give a warmer tone, and make much lower gain settings possible, and you could replace one of the tubes, forget which one you are supposed to change for changing overdrive gain range, there are 2 tubes in this pedal, for an even lower gain 12AUX tube, to be able to basically use it as a clean preamp at lowest input gain settings.

One specific one of the two tubes determines the clean output volume at tap, whereas the other tube determines the input gain at tap, aka drive, forget which is which.

Also note that lower gain tube types generally got an inherent warmer/softer character.

This pedal has been out of production for year, but is a fairly common find on the used market, and for quite reasonable prices too.

It's NOT Big Muff based, despite its name, but rather based on a Marshall preamp from a real tube amp, with a passive 3 band tone stack, and is a genuine tube preamp/overdrive, with the tubes operation at proper high 300V plate voltage.

The size and the fact that it needs a dedicated power supply might be a turn off though, but this pedal sounds no short of amazing, and is capable of everything between a light tube breakup overdrive, up to full on distortion, and everything in between.

 

[el murdoque]

The aforementioned ODR-1, or the smaller Wampler version, the Belle work fine.
The Xotic BB Bass Preamp is also a great, natural drive for low gain.
The Fairfield Barbershop / Modèle B is another great choice.
The SolidgoldFX Beta Series has a few good ones if you like the flavor.
The Origin DCX Bass is incredibly touch sensitive and has multiple settings that work extremely well in your regard, because it can mellow down dynamically as drive increases.
The Origin Bassrig is somewhat large and feature packed if you're only using it as a low gain drive, but it works great - both models actually
The Heather Brown The Blessed Mother is also a great drive for a more brown than red tone.
The Blackstone Appliances Mosfet Drive is a super stylish little pedal that has not one, but two drives, neither is too harsh on the ear.


Enough for a first haul or should I countinue?

 

[BarfanyShart]

I bought the original mini odr because it doesn't have the bass cut option. I can't find anywhere stating that it has a baked in bass cut, nor can I hear that when on off, how did you find that out?

I guess I am basing this entire statement on the mini odr I tried 2-3 years ago, where it didn't have a bass cut switch, but it sounded to me like the bass cut mode on the full size. At the time, I thought that made sense, because I think the bass cut mode is more popular with guitarists. So my ears could have been totally wrong, and I have been moving through the world on a wrong assumption.

 

[vvvmmm]

Other possibilities include the Barber Linden (it makes my living-room 20w. Rumble much better) and the EBS drive (the green one, or the blue), altho' I think the Blumes is so flexible (and as a TS variant it's mid-accentuated) that you might could try again to get that working ...

Another two-for-1 option is the Ampeg opto-compressor.

Or, the bigger TC Spark.

I also love the Green Russian and the related Bass Muff's with the sustain at +1; even tho' Muffs are mid-scooped, I think they can sound great with a Jazz-like - that big blue & white Muff also works well - I know you already said "no", but there are different ones ...

Finally, I am kinda unsure why we don't hear more about the various EQD pedals like the Euphoria, The Pantheon - or like the Wampler Sovereign - mebbe because they are so flexible and at least half of their sounds are more guitar-oriented, but they have extensive EQ options and all sound really good on various basses.

After alla that, I been using the Darkglass VMT lately, me, for every bass.

 

[skydivingninja]

I really liked the Darkglass VMT for light, tubey drive on my jazz bass, but I got a YYZ preamp for more clank and now I'm jonesing for a tubey drive again. I'm personally looking at rebuying a VMT or trying a Pork and Pickle.

 

[nonohmic]

TC spark booster, the full version, sounds great to me with the Jaco sig.

 

[TonyP-]

The EXH Soul Food lets you control the treble and blend...Its also on the lighter side.
I love it...

 

[OnlyFlats]

I guess I am basing this entire statement on the mini odr I tried 2-3 years ago, where it didn't have a bass cut switch, but it sounded to me like the bass cut mode on the full size. At the time, I thought that made sense, because I think the bass cut mode is more popular with guitarists. So my ears could have been totally wrong, and I have been moving through the world on a wrong assumption.

I appreciate your reply and honesty.

Here's my summary of some more digging I did which I'll leave here as an fyi:
I found contrasting info on the web about the bass on the odr mini v01. The most relevant info is this, a direct quote from the Nobels knowledge base on their site

"The ODR-mini a little bit tighter than is big brother and have a different frequency range in the bass.
But the DNA is the same and the basic sound very close."
(Note the conversion from German to English)

I conclude we should keep using our ears to decide!