Loosing low ends with distortions

[micguy]

In my experiance, if a pedal has a heavy low cut (HPF) built into the last stage of the pedal, it's far more preferable to either mod the pedal or flip it for a more bass friendly unit.

A technicality, but most guitar dirt pedals have high pass (aka low cut) filters built into their first stage - it's there so you don't distort the fundamentals so much - if you don't filter before you distort, it sounds "farty".

 

[Phreaky Phriday]

Can you buy a bass overdrive pedal on Amazon and return it if you dont like it? There is a good chance you would enjoy it more than your guitar pedals and its less complicated than adding blends and stuff to your existing signal chain

 

[FullumMusic]

For the most part, without getting into the finer points, most distortion is essentially just adding harmonic content, which boosts the partials in your signal, which even if it doesn't reduce the level of the fundamental, it's making all the other harmonics higher in comparison making the fundamental a smaller portion of the overall signal.

That plus a lot of distortion pedals are designed for guitars and have some circuitry to do some sort of mid/high boost or low cut when on.

- Either gotta find a distortion specifically made for bass guitar that maintains low end when you turn on the distortion;
- gotta find a distortion pedal with a blend function so you can mix the distortion with the clean signal;
- find a distortion with an EQ so you can bring back the lows you lose;
- find a distortion with a crossover that only distorts the high band and leaves the lows clean. (or get a crossover pedal that splits the signal into Hi and Low, put your distortion on the hi path, and then get some sort of ABY or Mixer pedal to bring the two signals back together).
- or use a lighter distortion setting, or an overdrive, or a saturator... something that helps the bass growl without washing it out. A lot of the really filthy distortions you hear on albums are actually fairly clean if you heard the track in isolation. But in a band setting, just a little bit sounds massive.

Too much distortion won't cut through warm butter.

 

[slowjam98]

Use a tweeter.

I need someone with more technical expertise to tell me if this is good or bad advice.

I have cabs with and without tweeters. Distorted sounds are always better when played through a cab with a tweeter enabled.

 

[BaltBass5]

As many folks here have mentioned, using a "blender" pedal is the easiest way to ensure you are keeping the fundamental. However, doing so will change the characteristics of the OD/Dist's you are using. I spent a LOT of time looking for dirt pedals and if you are open to new options there are plenty that allow you to keep the low end and dial in some dirt....for example anything Darkglass makes.

 

[micguy]

Use a tweeter.

I need someone with more technical expertise to tell me if this is good or bad advice.

I have cabs with and without tweeters. Distorted sounds are always better when played through a cab with a tweeter enabled.

I have a lot of technical expertise, but the question you ask doesn’t require that to answer. Tweeters are a matter of taste. I can’t stand dirt through tweeters - to my ears, distorted sounds are always worse with a tweeter.

 

[gonzkal]

i haven't tried the broughton yet. Why do you prefer it over the Bloop?

1. The blend knob of the Bloop I used for a while ranged from 100% wet to 50/50 wet/dry. The FFXL has two independent level knobs, so allowing for ratios like 10% wet / 90% dry, with possibility to boost if needed.
2. Variable cut-off frequency for the low pass filter on the dry signal on the FFXL, vs. fixed frequency for the Bloop.
3. Top jacks for the FFXL.

 

[Gervais Cote]

I just ordered a Tech 21 Geddy Lee YYZ SansAmp pedal because I like its "grinding" sound, does someone here knows if I risk to lose some bottom end out of my jazz bass with this specific pedal ?

 

[SC Bassboy]

Hi everyone!
I'm wondering what would be the best way to avoid the loose of low ends while switching on the distortions. My board has one Boss Ds1 and a proco Rat and since they're guitar pedals, they cut a lot of low frequencies and there is a big difference between the clean sound freqs and the distorted ones.
Since i don't won't to change pedals cause i like them, i was thinking about a switcher/line selector: do i have to split the pedalboard in two chains? So one chain for the clean with is own eq set on the amp and the other one with the distortions+equalizer? I also have two channels input and the S/R on my head...so what would be the best and easy solutions?

Thanks to those who'll help me

Yes, split your signal either with a pedal or something. Some overdrives/distortion have circuitry that pass part of the uncolored signal through, but most of them are actual bass effects pedals. My signal splits after the compressor and one channel goes through all my effects then meets the other signal before going into the amp. The Geddy Lee Sansamp rack mount preamp will split the signal for you. I do all my recording the same way: two simultaneous tracks, one clean and one with some overdrive.

 

[waveman]

If you insist on using your pedals, A Boss LS-2 will do the trick to combine an uneffected sound with effected sound. Run you bass and any pre-dirt pedals into the input, run the dirt pedals in loop A or B and setup for option A+B mix and set levels. You will loose some dirt and gain some bass.

Otherwise, get some similar dirt pedals with clean blend like the MXR M85, since it is a Rat based pedal.

 

[smogg]

A) Use bass specific dirt pedals
B) Add a clean blend pedal
On a budget? Boss LS-2
Want something better? Damnation Audio Dirt Fixer
Plus many other options depending on budget

As always IMO/IME and YMMV

 

[slowjam98]

Tweeters are a matter of taste.

Yeah, you’re 100% right. I shouldn’t have said “sounds better”. I meant that I can get a distorted sound without losing the low end easier when using a tweeter.

 

[YourGuitarist]

The problem with a parallel blend is that it can sound like two different bass sounds morphed together. Some Fuzz pedals are already out of phase and you can get weird cancellation with some blend circuits.
Another issue with blended dirt is that you need to go heavier with the dirt side because you are dilluting the drive / grit with the blend. The better way is a low pass filter that allows you to dial in just the low end clean and leave the mids and highs for the dirt to affect.
In my experiance, if a pedal has a heavy low cut (HPF) built into the last stage of the pedal, it's far more preferable to either mod the pedal or flip it for a more bass friendly unit.

I was pretty happy with my bass big muff deluxe for this reason. Their blend circuit was quite nice.

 

[bassboysam]

Look at the Mountainking Electronics pedals, they have very little low end loss, if any, and don't require a blend.
I have a Behemoth II and a Megalith, and will be ordering a Magnetar and/or an Avelanche fuzz...

 

[6-3-2]

Easiest solution is definitely a blender pedal. I've also seen bassists put an EQ pedal after effects to get some low-end back.

Ultimately, distortion is one of those effects where bass-specific pedals really matter. Jam makes a RAT for bass and I've only heard people praise their pedals.

 

[whoismarykelly]

The crossover part of the circuitry in the Bloop/dirt fixer is fixed - with different overdrives, which have different high pass filter configurations (the Bloop/Dirtfixer doesn't high pass the dirty signal, it depends on the other pedal to do that), if the high pass in the overdrive pedal lines up with the low pass in the Bloop/Dirtfixer, you're good, but if it doesn't, you've got no knob to twist to line it up.

FWIW the contour on the blend in Dirtmixer and Dirtfixer is substantially more complex than a simple crossover that uses high and low shelves to split a signal. Even if we had a control to move the filter around it wouldn't function like you are thinking. What is critical about our blend products is that they do not interfere with your instrument signal going directly into the loop pedal. We want to give users the flexibility to shape what comes out of the pedal to make the user interface as simple and intuitive as possible. In practice the EQ on Dirtfixer gives users a LOT of room to shape the wet signal in a way they gives them any amount of lows/highs/mids they want.

We'll keep this thought in mind going forward though. High pass on the input of the loop is not something Jeff or I have ever really needed if the pedal in the loop is something we're trying to 'fix' in general. We usually just want more low and subtle tweaks.

 

[Zbysek]

l

Thoughts on the Sugar Britches?

1 is available here in NZ

It's great-I love it. I use it to mix clean lows with overdriven mids and highs...

Is there anything specific about the Sugar Britches you want me to address?

 

[Zbysek]

Basically...get a bass focussed or bass friendly dirt pedal.

The OP stated he didn't want to hange his pedals as he likes them...

 

[Zbysek]

As many folks here have mentioned, using a "blender" pedal is the easiest way to ensure you are keeping the fundamental. However, doing so will change the characteristics of the OD/Dist's you are using.

Not neccessarily. It depends on particular pedal and on the way one uses it. Characteristics of the distortion does not need to change when one use pedals like DA BLOOP or Broughton FFXL...

 

[micguy]

FWIW the contour on the blend in Dirtmixer and Dirtfixer is substantially more complex than a simple crossover that uses high and low shelves to split a signal. Even if we had a control to move the filter around it wouldn't function like you are thinking. What is critical about our blend products is that they do not interfere with your instrument signal going directly into the loop pedal. We want to give users the flexibility to shape what comes out of the pedal to make the user interface as simple and intuitive as possible. In practice the EQ on Dirtfixer gives users a LOT of room to shape the wet signal in a way they gives them any amount of lows/highs/mids they want.

We'll keep this thought in mind going forward though. High pass on the input of the loop is not something Jeff or I have ever really needed if the pedal in the loop is something we're trying to 'fix' in general. We usually just want more low and subtle tweaks.

I'd be thinking more of a high pass in the return, not in the send, though either would probably work OK. I do understand that the contoured blend in the Dirtfixer isn't a simple low pass/crossover. I think it might work better if it was, actually - it doesn't give enough mids or highs to be clearly present in the resultant mix, but it is there - I hear it as being a bit in the way of things, but not enough to cause major problems.

Anyway, if you want to experiment with what I've run into, try running a Tumnus (little one) versus an MXR Sugar drive. both are Klones, but the Tumnus has a different low end (more extended) than most. With The Tumnus, you try the polarity swtich (aka phase) - flipped vs non flipped, and there isn't a clear winner. One sounds a bit better, but it's subtle. With the Sugar drive, one polarity sucks out quite clearly, and the other is solid - there is a position that works. It's all a crapshoot - whatever phase and amplitude response there is between circuits may work together, it may not - it's two filtered half systems married together in a bit of a shotgun wedding. If you have a sweepable crossover point (or two), you have a knob where you can line up the phase response better (likely not perfectly, but better).