Love your amp(s) overdriven tone?

[Tommy Sparks]

Fender Bassman 100t.
Great OD on 25 watt and 100 watt settings. I don’t need a pedal to get me where I want to go. However I do experiment with pedals and I always go back to just the amp OD.

 

[Stylee Mousse]

For I number of years I played guitar in bands and my wife played bass through my vintage V-4b.

She would run a big muff, which can sound interesting: at some setting with the filter control dialed back it almost makes the bass sound smoother when on.

I also engineered a parallel drive scheme where her signal split after the bass and one channel went to my modified rangemaster clone for dirt and into the second input on the amp. When she activated this loop she would still have the main path keeping all the lows then an added “crunch” channel. Worked really well.

running tubes hard but within design parameters doesn’t use them significantly faster than “normal” use. At least in the amps I have used for a long time.

 

[Ggaa]

Figuring out(still)the best way to use onboard od(Magellan 800 and Rumble 800 heads). Both sound good for solo but the more od is cranked, the more the eq changes(and my ability to hear it). No onboard blend etc for either. Thinking onboard gonna be best for mild od and Nano Batallion for the heavier stuff.
I did observe that active basses make the onboard od drive harder...

 

[2saddleslab]

When playing live I don't use OD because it gets lost in the mix. A NightOwl Edison is added to give some tubeiness w/ a slight edge, but not full on OD. In the studio I will use an Ampeg SGT-DI to add some grit.

 

[Standalone]

GK RB Series. My 700RBii absolutely SINGS when pushed with just the right amount of growl. Drummers and bandmates love it, and I get so many compliments on my tone. I've never had that happen with any other gear.

GK ad copy and manual copy talks about how the amp is designed to do this -- "hitting the rails" they call it. It's not warm tube distortion, it's an '80's growl that dynamically responds to the attack on the string. I love it and need no other hair on my sound than that, although it's nice to have a fuzz pedal for flavor in certain moments.

I miss that tone in smaller gigs when the amp isn't being pushed, like at a brewery. Often, though, second set comes up in volume a bit and boom there it is again.

 

[2thAche]

MB800 Fusion, the tube OD is OK for a vintage sound, but is more Jack Brucey (tuba/farty) than I like, so I don't use it. Easier to dial in with a pedal / pedals.

 

[Swizzledoop]

Genz Benz Streamliner. IYKYK.

 

[Pdaddy1978]

The beauty of playing through an old Ampeg tube head, for me anyway, is that all the dirt I ever need lives right above 5 on the volume knob.
0-5 ......Country and western
5-10 ....Punk Rock
Its 2...2....2 amps in 1!!

 

[Geri O]

Okay, I'll be that guy that provides a completely useless answer, making me scratch my own head in wonder....

My feelings about distortion with bass is that I worked for years and spent a lot of money trying to get a great clean tone with a lot of volume, until modern PAs came along (two SVT 810 rigs did that quite nicely back then!....).

I later tried to warn up to the idea of controlled overdrive and grit. But I....just....can't....

I still want a clean, warm bass tone. No grit. No overdrive.

I guess I'm still in the Old School. For several reasons. And glad about it!...

(let the head-scratching begin....)

 

[Nebadon2000]

Okay, I'll be that guy that provides a completely useless answer, making me scratch my own head in wonder....

My feelings about distortion with bass is that I worked for years and spent a lot of money trying to get a great clean tone with a lot of volume, until modern PAs came along (two SVT 810 rigs did that quite nicely back then!....).

I later tried to warn up to the idea of controlled overdrive and grit. But I....just....can't....

I still want a clean, warm bass tone. No grit. No overdrive.

I guess I'm still in the Old School. For several reasons. And glad about it!...

(let the head-scratching begin....)

I agree and only use overdrive when Song has obvious and standout overdrive such as a couple Muse songs I played.

Even when playing Jack Bruce [Cream] covers I prefer clean and yes had same experience with my SVT Amp-810

But I do like to play around with OD at home for my own entertainment

PS; Not a useless post to me but maybe somewhat for this thread but relevant

 

[FunkHead]

I been meaning to build another pedalboard for my master effects super 300 as the amp.. use my yerasov SCS OD-10B for the overdrive in front..

Hello, Is there a USA dealer for Yerasov?

Thanks,
Funkhead

 

[Jefenator]

This vintage Sunn 200s goes from a big, round supportive tone to in-your-face fuzz lava just from responding to my touch.
There is no other way to do distortion AFAIC.

 

[skycruiser]

I'm working on a project that requires some OD - first time to need this kind of tone. I thought I needed a pedal to get there because the SGT grit option on my Ampeg Rocketbass seemed like way too much distortion. But I figured out that you can really dial it back by cutting the input signal to the amp to low volumes. By dialing back the input level, I can get just enough dirt to keep the bass tone coming through now. Pretty happy with it, for recording at least.

 

[noahw1]

I didn’t use the OD channel on my Genzler Magellan 800 for years because I “ had pedals for that” until one day there was something wrong with my board and, damn!, was I surprised at how good it sounds. It can get a really nice Chris Swuire-esque grind if needed. It’s really dynamic. The more you crank the drive the more the love end is rolled (not in a bad way) to maintain the grind and stay away from flub territory.
Now I have no problem leaving the OD pedals at home if I don’t want to schlep my board. I just bring a foot switch allowing me to kick it on when needed.

 

[Sushi Box FX]

The first bass distortion tone I heard that I actually liked was out of a GK Backline combo, and it was so good it made me get the Backline 600 head, which I still keep around for testing and casual playing. The distortion channel can get really aggressive while staying smooth, and it keeps the low end oomph really nicely.

But my main amp now is the Genz Benz Streamliner, and that has a very different sounding but completely delightful breakup sound from the tube preamp. Tubes are kind of my thing.

 

[agedhorse]

You might consider one of these.


Although I’m not a big pedal person and pretty much rely on the amp’s gain structure (SVT, Mesa Carbine, Mesa TT 800) for drive. I occasionally use an EH Big Muff Pi for specific tones.

There’s also the Crash Box 4 bass distortion pedal which is even more heavy overdrive/distortion oriented than the 4 on the Floor.

 

[Vincent Van Low]

I have an Ampeg PF-50T (which breaks up nicely) and a Mesa D-350. I own a bass deluxe Big Muff, and a Ratt pedal. I admittedly have not read the threads that must be out there. I am looking for more of an overdrive, I guess, that would add a mellower grind, that is good for bass. I had a Timmy pedal that I liked during the short period I played guitar. My son really liked that pedal, so I gave it to him.

If you happen to have any ideas about a relatively inexpensive pedal you think would be nice using those two amps, I would love to hear it. Thanks!

I am just piping in because the PF50T grind when pushed is as distorted as I would ever need to hear a bass signal distort... Tube distortion that is....I have the Ampeg DI SCR and I can dial that grind in very softly...but all I have read on TB many people dont even consider that distorted enough? Maybe that would be the "mellower grind" you are after....it seems there is a very, very fine line between pleasant and unpleasant "tube" or "tube-like" distortion...all is the ear of the beholder. I like the v4b grind I can get as well as the grind off of the SVT-CL...so I am crazy biased on Ampeg tube sound..and the tube breakup of those amps is what many people here consider to be a standard of some sorts. Just my 2 cents, hope you find a cool pedal or combo that gives you the sound in your head you are after.

 

[Bag of Lazers]

I have 2 tube heads from the 70s, a Bassman and a Plush. They sound fantastic when cranked up. Unfortunately they're pretty delicate, so my pedal drives will have to do at most gigs.

 

[JimmyM]

I love it but I always need a clean sound as a base on gigs. So pedals.

 

[Obese Chess]

I have a '78 Peavey Centurion that sounds pretty much fine to my ears - I ended up selling my distortion pedals recently because they just weren't cutting it compared to what I was getting out of the amp. I might try a clean boost in front of it for a little more "oomph," but it sounds great to me as-is.