Looking for a drive/preamp that only clips the (upper) midrange?

[H3R3T1K]

Lots of drives for bass are too muffled/boomy for my taste because the lowend becomes mushy and if you boost midrange it lacks fundamental. I want a heavily overdriven high midrange edge or grind but keep my fundamental. I only know of the Darkglass X(7) which is very pricey. Could I use a Boss LS-2 and a drive pedal with mid boost in a loop to get a similar effect? I have a TC Spark which has a mid boost and EHX Hot Tubes which is my fav guitar OD on bass because it's most amp-like.

 

[Krisfield]

The Ashdown Triple Shot is a multi band drive pedal that might be able to do what you want.

 

[dannybuoy]

You could definitely use the LS-2 and one or more EQ pedals to get what you want. You'd be best off chopping off the lows before hitting the drive circuit to keep things tight. You'd need to watch out for phase inversions though, any pedal that inverts phase would make life difficult!

However there are a few one-box solutions:

Tech 21 DP-3X has a crossover and compressor like the Darkglass X7.

Tech 21 YYZ has a dark/deep clean channel and a parallel drive side with a 'tight' switch that chops off the low end going into the drive, and a 3 band EQ on the drive signal, with the mids placed before the gain stage so that cranking the mids makes the drive nastier.

Tech 21 VTDI can work like this if you crank the character knob to the 3 o'clock region - this adds a large high mid boost before the clipping so that the distortion is all focussed around the high mids, then you can back off the blend and adjust the EQ to balance it.

EBS Billy Sheehan Deluxe and Ashdown James Lomenzo can both focus the drive around the midrange only also.

Orange Bass Butler has a compressor on the cleans, and separate 3-band EQs for the parallel clean and drive channels, so you can roll off the clean highs and distorted lows.

 

[Snaxster]

I only know of the Darkglass X(7) which is very pricey.

Hello. What is your budget for this pedal?

 

[Peaveylover]

JohnK XO does this exact thing, but good luck finding one.

 

[FaithNoMan]

Lots of drives for bass are too muffled/boomy for my taste because the lowend becomes mushy and if you boost midrange it lacks fundamental. I want a heavily overdriven high midrange edge or grind but keep my fundamental. I only know of the Darkglass X(7) which is very pricey. Could I use a Boss LS-2 and a drive pedal with mid boost in a loop to get a similar effect? I have a TC Spark which has a mid boost and EHX Hot Tubes which is my fav guitar OD on bass because it's most amp-like.

What you're looking for, but cheaper:

A mint-condition used Darkglass X can be found on Reverb for less than 150.

 

[scubaduba]

The Mozztronics Bass Fuzz BF-1 should do that for you.

Don't let the name fool you. It has dry and wet blend plus control for grind plus phase switch plus tone control.

 

[TodaysTomSawyer]

Lots of drives for bass are too muffled/boomy for my taste because the lowend becomes mushy and if you boost midrange it lacks fundamental. I want a heavily overdriven high midrange edge or grind but keep my fundamental. I only know of the Darkglass X(7) which is very pricey. Could I use a Boss LS-2 and a drive pedal with mid boost in a loop to get a similar effect? I have a TC Spark which has a mid boost and EHX Hot Tubes which is my fav guitar OD on bass because it's most amp-like.

The Damnation Audio Loop Blender would be my suggestion. It blends clean unaffected lows in parallel to your fav dirt/distortion. Your fundamentals will always be there

 

[bass.slinger]

If you are ok with the highs also being distorted, a Brimstone XL-2 or BL-1 crossover distortion pedal will do the job nicely. Or a Byte Heaven Sugar Britches crossover with a dirt pedal in the effect loop. Not sure if Brimstone Audio is still in business.

Link Removed

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[extreme]

I have the johnk XO #1 if you're interested...awesome pedal, but I'm not currently using it. It solves all the issues with doing what you want and the EQ is super flexible.

XO-Crossover-Bass-Distortion

 

[Wasnex]

Lots of drives for bass are too muffled/boomy for my taste because the lowend becomes mushy and if you boost midrange it lacks fundamental. I want a heavily overdriven high midrange edge or grind but keep my fundamental. I only know of the Darkglass X(7) which is very pricey. Could I use a Boss LS-2 and a drive pedal with mid boost in a loop to get a similar effect? I have a TC Spark which has a mid boost and EHX Hot Tubes which is my fav guitar OD on bass because it's most amp-like.

If you have the pedals and means to separate and combine the signals, parallel processing should be able to give you what you want.

Consider splitting the audio into two channels. In one channel you have EQ and your highest gain OD/distortion. Try the EQ before and after the OD. When you put the EQ before the OD, try boosting the frequency range you want to distort.

In channel, two try a low gain OD that does not mush up the lows and/or a compressor. The idea here is distortion typically results in compression, so you need to compress your clean channel a bit so it integrates better with the naturally compressed high gain channel. Also if you use a low gain OD that is just barely breaking over in one channel and a higher gain OD in another channel you tend to get a more complex sound with better touch sensitivity.

 

[matante]

Looks like good advice so far. Also consider the Maxon Bass Driver, new version which is white with black letters. It has a clean blend, and hi and lo EQ knobs that only effect the distorted tone. From what I've read the hi and lo knobs actually control lo mids and hi mids.

 

[uwrossl]

Amptweaker Bass Tight Fuzz...Does exactly that in spades. Tons of adjustability. I went through a bunch of drive pedals because of the issues you mentioned. This thing actually fattens up the low end with the dry low. There's a bunch of other magic in this pedal too. Always stayed away from Fuzz pedals because I thought they would all be way to over the top for what I was looking for. I was wrong. Everything from from warm tube break up(legit) to full on fuzz...all with fat punchy low end. I had high hopes for the Darkglass VM and it wasn't even close to natural sounding IMO. Just sat on my board mostly unused. The Ampteaker is ALWAYS on. They also make a junior version too with a smaller foot print and price tag.

Bass TightFuzz | Amptweaker

• True Bypass switch

• Fuzz control automatically adjusts bias – more range

• Master Volume Control

• Dry Low knob adds dry lowend to blend with distortion

• Tight and Tone help tame the fuzz

• Germanium/Silicon transistor switch for different gain and tone

• 60’s/70’s Tone switch

• Edge switch smooths out the high frequency range

• EFX Loop with Pre/Post switch..tracks On/Off Ftsw

• LED lit knobs when using a power supply

 

[keatz]

Their fuzz has already been mentioned, but the Mozztronics BOD-1 Bass overdrive is also another great option. The dirty side has lows rolled off and there is a dry volume to blend in accordingly. Sounds magnificent and no mushy lows.

 

[Nephilymbass]

Lots of drives for bass are too muffled/boomy for my taste because the lowend becomes mushy and if you boost midrange it lacks fundamental. I want a heavily overdriven high midrange edge or grind but keep my fundamental. I only know of the Darkglass X(7) which is very pricey. Could I use a Boss LS-2 and a drive pedal with mid boost in a loop to get a similar effect? I have a TC Spark which has a mid boost and EHX Hot Tubes which is my fav guitar OD on bass because it's most amp-like.

I use the darkglass microtubes X. It’s the smallest version of the x7 and x ultra and it’s less expensive. Still has the crossover features of its big brothers. I like it because I can high pass the dirty part of the sound so the lows stay clean and tight. I can also use a lot more gain and still behaves very well. It’s almost like there’s a gate in it or something but most other pedals running that dirty you get a lot of noise and feedback issues.

 

[SamPerdisian]

I know that price is an issue in regards to the X7 but I highly recommend looking for one used or saving up a little longer for one new. I wouldn't be without mine and can't see myself needing any other "always on" drive/overdrive pedal... Unless Darkglass puts it into an amp!

 

[DeepThoughts]

If i was trying to achieve your goal, I would check out the EHX Deluxe Bass Big Muff Pi. The crossover it has may give you the control over which frequencies are being affected ( effected?)
Cool little demo vid by the GREAT and super cool Tony Levin.

 

[ObsessiveArcher]

The Damnation Audio Loop Blender would be my suggestion. It blends clean unaffected lows in parallel to your fav dirt/distortion. Your fundamentals will always be there

+1 This!

 

[Metallicity]

I have a VFE Triumvirate I'm trying to sell that does exactly this.

 

[sifrancis]

The Ashdown LoMenzo Hyperdrive does exactly what you're looking for - the Freq control lets you hone in the exact midrange you want to drive (you can even use the "q" switch to broaden or focus this frequency range). You can then blend it with your clean.
I imagine the EBS Sheehan pedals might be able to achieve something similar, as both pedals where designed to replicate the sound of the old Pearce preamps.
Importantly the Hyperdrive does it's EQing pre-drive with band-pass filtering, which is different to an HPF pre-drive (like in most crossover drive pedals) and then a post-drive tone, treble, or LPF control.

If however, you just want to control how much low end is being distorted then there are a number of options:

- COG 66 (the "voice" control is a pre-drive HPF)
- Darkglass Microtubes X
- Darkglass Alpha Omicron ("growl" & "bite" switches control how much low or high end enter the drive)
- Darkglass B3K V1 ("grunt" switch can cut low end into the drive and the "attack" switch gives control over the highs)
- Amptweaker Tight Drive (the "tight" control is a pre-drive HPF)
- Hamstead Subspace (the EQ can be moved to be pre-drive allowing you to control the clipping of lows/highs)
- Damnation MBD-2 ("depth" control lows into the drive)
- Shift Line A+ Buzz V.2 (all tone controls effect the associated frequencies hitting the drive circuit).

I am sure there are many more that are slipping my mind, but those pedals will all facilitate good control over the low end hitting the drive stage of the pedals, and also have a clean blend of some description to keep a clean and punchy low end at all times.