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Looking for my first OD pedal

#81
vivaknoxvegas said:
Broughton Terraformer, they pop up used in the classifieds here all the time for $110-$125

Others to consider:
Broughton Azure Drive
Fairfield Circuitry Barbershop
EHX Hot Wax
TC Electronics Spark (full size)
TC Electronics MojoMojo
Digitech Hardwire CM-2
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I love the Spark. I loved it on guitar (even going so far as using it in an FX loop for a clean boost) and I love it on bass. Only 2 knob EQ and no blend, but there is SO MUCH range in those 2 knobs, I can get anywhere I want to be. Gain - no grit at 1/4, a little at 1/2 up, and a fair amount of soft tubey (unless you crank the treble) overdrive if you get it 60%+ up. Has a 3 position toggle for emphasis, clean-low-mid, I keep it low. Bass knob up around 2 o'clock, treble noonish - but it's still a usable sound with treble higher or lower. Plays well with other pedals.

The CM-2 I like EXCEPT the stupid click knobs, I always need to be right in between 2 clicks for volume.

Maynjo said:
There are a million bass overdrive pedals out there, but from what I’ve seen, for a nice tubey overdrive, the Darkglass Vintage Microtubes does a really good job, and it can do a subtle overdrive. My other pick would be a Way Huge Pork and Pickle.
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I cannot get rid of high end artificial sounding ugly artifacts with either the VM, or the AO, which I own and like. I end up low passing around 4K to get rid of them. The AO does really good low gain. It could be because I use active basses and a rock sound with a healthy but not overwhelming high end, the DG stuff just takes the highs to an unattractive place.

ruju said:
That or TC spark booster...full size pedal,not mini..
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Spark. Spark. Spark. Readily available and not expensive. Not the mini, you want the big one.
 
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#84
Here's what I can add.

I've been searching for a decent overdrive tone for a long time and tried many pedal, boutique, production, well known, obscure. I've pretty much ran the gambit and only recently have I settled on 3 pedals which are really working well for me. For subtle tube-like grit the Mad Professor Blueberry has been great, distortion is the Aguilar Agro, Lots of demo's you'll see make this pedal sound like a frying pan effect but it actually does subtle grit exceptionally well. The presences and contour knobs are where the magic happens with this pedal. It also had great low-end preservation. Finally, and this one was a shock but there is a cheap rat clone called a Little Bear R.Attack II and it's great on bass. It has 3 modes and can achieve a nice nasty fuzz all the way down to subtle drive. I like all three of these pedals for their versatility, preservation of lows and I actually like that there is no blend. Anytime I used a drive with a blend it sounded like I was running two parallel signals not a single over-driven bass. It's hard to describe much beyond that but these pedals offer a single sound path which I like.
 
#85
My search for my first OD pedal sounds very similar to yours; I was looking for something natural and subtle, preferably with a clean blend, and found the ODB-3 to be rather harsh and scratchy sounding.

I bought a Bass Soul Food and really wanted to like it, but in the end I couldn’t get over its loss of low end and small range of decent drive settings. It’s definitely better than the ODB-3 but the sweep of usable drive is from around 2 to 4 o’clock, going from a tiny bit of hair to starting to get a bit harsh. I tried to counteract the loss of low end end with the clean blend, but then it’s even harder to get the right amount of drive coming through.

So, I gave up on the BSF and picked up an Aftershock, and I’m very glad I did. It’s ideal for an OD newbie like myself because you have all the time you want to try different drive engines and see which sort of sound you like the best. Unsurprisingly its stock tube drive is the main one I use, but have been pleasantly surprised with how much I like its gated fuzz too! Yes, the software settings have the potential to be overwhelming, but if you just start off by switching between drive engines you can’t go wrong.
 
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#86
+1 vote for the Aftershock.

The manual on the website does a great job of explaining how each parameter in the software/app editor changes your tone. After you take some time to sit down with the manual and experiment with the parameters in one engine you'll have no problem selecting another engine and dialing in another great tone. The Aftershock is overwhelming at first so you really have to sit down and take the time to learn what the pedal does.

Once you've learned what it does you can use the Aftershock as a programmable Parametric EQ, programmable Noise Gate, programmable LPF/HPF, programmable frequency splitter, each in any combination, in addition to programmable dirt presets.

I used to use a WH Porkloin for subtle, tuby overdrive. That pedal will absolutely do what you described in your first post. I've recently dialed in a patch on my Aftershock that pretty faithfully emulates the Porkloin so after almost a decade I've finally taken the Porkloin off of my board. Also because I have an MBD-1 on the way so I need space
 
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#87
I also own a Pork Loin, and did the johnk mod (easy and fast). I like the sound a lot, but still find that *in my rig and hands* it does lose some low end. Maybe it's low mids rather than truly bass, but I just don't like what it does for me.

I was an Aftershock early adapter, and it sounded OK high gain in stock form. But if, like me, you're not much of a software dabbler, don't bother if you're looking for low gain and unwilling to dive in and fiddle with the programming of the thing.
 
#88
A more dark horse option that works really well is the Earthquaker Acapulco Gold. You can use the volume knob on your bass to get a huge range of dirt. With your bass volume at about 30% you get the most awesome and authentic warm tube overdrive sound. Like suddenly it's 1970 and you're Glenn Cornick at the Isle of Wight. It just feels like you're moving a ton of air, and it doesn't have that feeling of laying a harsh distorted high freq on top of a basically clean low end. Your whole sound is being transformed but in the mightiest way possible. I do run mine into a full-sized TC Spark to add some low end. The Spark is a marvel of low gain dirt in its own right. It's great for a James Jamerson-digging-in-too-hard kind of sound. The AG is like I said, early Jethro Tull savagery. Together they are an always-on base sound for me.
 
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#89
IronLung1986 said:
A more dark horse option that works really well is the Earthquaker Acapulco Gold. You can use the volume knob on your bass to get a huge range of dirt. With your bass volume at about 30% you get the most awesome and authentic warm tube overdrive sound. Like suddenly it's 1970 and you're Glenn Cornick at the Isle of Wight. It just feels like you're moving a ton of air, and it doesn't have that feeling of laying a harsh distorted high freq on top of a basically clean low end. Your whole sound is being transformed but in the mightiest way possible. I do run mine into a full-sized TC Spark to add some low end. The Spark is a marvel of low gain dirt in its own right. It's great for a James Jamerson-digging-in-too-hard kind of sound. The AG is like I said, early Jethro Tull savagery. Together they are an always-on base sound for me.
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Interesting. I tried the Acapulco Gold in the store and immediately dismissed it because even at it's lowest setting it was still adding a ton of dirt. I never tried backing off the bass volume though. Sounds nice the way you describe it :).

The Earthquaker Speaker Cranker is also a viable option.
 
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#90
NKBassman said:
Interesting. I tried the Acapulco Gold in the store and immediately dismissed it because even at it's lowest setting it was still adding a ton of dirt. I never tried backing off the bass volume though. Sounds nice the way you describe it :).

The Earthquaker Speaker Cranker is also a viable option.
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Yea the big knob on the AG is nothing more than output volume. It doesn't really affect the amount of distortion. That's determined by the volume knob on your bass, which acts as the gain knob for the pedal. So you just turn down your bass and use the knob on the pedal to compensate the overall volume. Like you said, if you give it 100% of your bass volume it'll be a crazy fuzz! But that means you can go from a rock solid, meat and potatoes overdrive sound to Vangelis synth swells just by turning the volume knob.
 
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#91
IronLung1986 said:
Yea the big knob on the AG is nothing more than output volume. It doesn't really affect the amount of distortion. That's determined by the volume knob on your bass, which acts as the gain knob for the pedal. So you just turn down your bass and use the knob on the pedal to compensate the overall volume. Like you said, if you give it 100% of your bass volume it'll be a crazy fuzz! But that means you can go from a rock solid, meat and potatoes overdrive sound to Vangelis synth swells just by turning the volume knob.
Click to expand...

I for one compulsively keep the volume on my bass maxed at all times, so that pedal didn't work for me. :p
 

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