Make all your guitar drives work with bass for ~$100

[Makten]

The main problem with 99% of all drive/distortion pedals for guitar, when used with a bass, is the lack of.....bass. You could modify the electronics by cutting less bass, but that requires some skill and it also often leads to a muddy sound because the low frequencies are now distorted.

There are "one box" solutions for this, but they generally costs a fortune. But, when researching the issue I found a reasonably cheap alternative:
You combine a twin parallell loop stomp pedal, with an EQ pedal. Note that it must be parallell, because that allows you to split the frequencies and join the distorted highs with clean lows.

I chose the Sonicake Portal: https://www.amazon.se/-/en/dp/B0DCNJG9X8?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title
...and the Amuzik bass EQ: https://www.amazon.se/-/en/dp/B09HC5JRVQ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

I know, I know. Chinese crap. But I'm not paying four-five times these prices for european or american products, that most likely have internals made in China anyway. They also sound really good. I mean really.

Now, you simply connect the EQ to one of the loops and cut treble and mids to taste. Then you connect whatever distortion pedal you want to the other loop. You could use an additional EQ here, but in most cases it's not necessary thanks to distortion pedals cutting the low end anyway.
Now mix them together with the levels of both loops in parallell mode. And voila, you got a fat, nice distorted sound that is not muddy, because the low end is clean. And you didn't have to break the bank.

My personal favourite in this setup is the MXR Timmy, just to make a sterile clean sound, less sterile. Sounds better than any dedicated bass overdrive I've ever tried or heard.

Oh, and you can of course experiment with other types of pedals in each loop. As with the synth in the image.

Edit: And yes, they are both true bypass, and yes, you can activate the distorted sound with only one stomp: Keep the EQ and drive on at all times, and hit both channel buttons at the same time on the looper with your foot. They are close enough to each other for that to work.

The third channel is not a loop, but you can use it either to mix in even more clean sound, or on its own as a boost for when that is needed.

 

[gtirard]

The main problem with 99% of all drive/distortion pedals for guitar, when used with a bass, is the lack of.....bass. You could modify the electronics by cutting less bass, but that requires some skill and it also often leads to a muddy sound because the low frequencies are now distorted.

There are "one box" solutions for this, but they generally costs a fortune. But, when researching the issue I found a reasonably cheap alternative:
You combine a twin parallell loop stomp pedal, with an EQ pedal. Note that it must be parallell, because that allows you to split the frequencies and join the distorted highs with clean lows.

I chose the Sonicake Portal: https://www.amazon.se/-/en/dp/B0DCNJG9X8?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title
...and the Amuzik bass EQ: https://www.amazon.se/-/en/dp/B09HC5JRVQ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

I know, I know. Chinese crap. But I'm not paying four-five times these prices for european or american products, that most likely have internals made in China anyway. They also sound really good. I mean really.

Now, you simply connect the EQ to one of the loops and cut treble and mids to taste. Then you connect whatever distortion pedal you want to the other loop. You could use an additional EQ here, but in most cases it's not necessary thanks to distortion pedals cutting the low end anyway.
Now mix them together with the levels of both loops in parallell mode. And voila, you got a fat, nice distorted sound that is not muddy, because the low end is clean. And you didn't have to break the bank.

My personal favourite in this setup is the MXR Timmy, just to make a sterile clean sound, less sterile. Sounds better than any dedicated bass overdrive I've ever tried or heard.

View attachment 7194238

Oh, and you can of course experiment with other types of pedals in each loop. As with the synth in the image.

Edit: And yes, they are both true bypass, and yes, you can activate the distorted sound with only one stomp: Keep the EQ and drive on at all times, and hit both channel buttons at the same time on the looper with your foot. They are close enough to each other for that to work.

The third channel is not a loop, but you can use it either to mix in even more clean sound, or on its own as a boost for when that is needed.

Very smart.

I do the same with the HX Stomp, using parallel path either with internal dirt effects or the FX loop, so I suppose your solution works well if you wants to stay 100% analog and still use distortion pedals made for pedals.

 

[mcnach]

I used to do a simplified version of this, with a Boss LS-2 line selector. It allows you to blend in a clean signal with whatever you have on the loop.
It works for most pedals I tried, but sometimes you find the phase is reversed on some distortions, so this approach doesn't work because the LS-2 does not have a phase switch, There are other AB pedals that do, 'though.

 

[Andre678]

My solution may have been a bit more pricey but it is hard for me to even imagine using dirt pedals without my own clean blend to use. I use all my dirt pedals through my Filter FX Loop and it has become such an integral part of my pedalboard setup. Wonderful way to get low end into any pedal. It was quite the upgrade from the LS-2 I had been using previously.

 

[Makten]

I used to do a simplified version of this, with a Boss LS-2 line selector. It allows you to blend in a clean signal with whatever you have on the loop.
It works for most pedals I tried, but sometimes you find the phase is reversed on some distortions, so this approach doesn't work because the LS-2 does not have a phase switch, There are other AB pedals that do, 'though.

The Line Selector was one of my options for this, but I figured it was more expensive (I live in Sweden were the local market is tiny), and also it would not allow a dedicated EQ on the clean signal. And no true bypass.

It's kinda strange that there isn't a ton of solutions for this. I mean, every dedicated bass distortion pedal does it, but they are both expensive and also not always very versatile. I got the "Pork & Pickle" for instance, and I don't at all like the overdrive character. It clips way too harsh and aggressively even at low settings.

Edit: The Portal looper has phase switchers for both channels actually. Pretty neat, even if I haven't needed it yet.

 

[triviani]

One Control Mosquito Blender

 

[jeff62]

I prefer a simpler solution… buy a distortion pedal made for bass. There are so many good ones that are different flavors after all.

 

[Stylee Mousse]

This is good way to use pedals that otherwise wouldn’t work well for lots of bass applications.

I DIY’ed up something like this but for the low side used the EH Hog’s Foot bass booster for the low loop.

Hog’s Foot is kinda like a preset EQ that cuts everything above 600hz or so. Not useful in any modern context by itself.

Another rig I created for my wife when she played bass in a band with me was a 2 input vintage v-4b with a clean input and a aby pedal adding an OD to the second input. I called the DIY one switch thing and “and” pedal because it would allow the normal bass signal AND the OD when turned on.

 

[Jeroen914]

parallel stacking effects is a lot of fun
I have the Boss LS-2 which allows all sorts of routing of effects/signal chains

 

[Kacey Y]

Good creative use of what you have available. I also have used a Boss LS-2, like others mentioned. It was cheap here, I got mine used for $20 about 15 years ago and use it for all kinds of things, including clean blend for dirt pedals. I've also used a graphic EQ in series or parallel for various effects. I'm firmly pro "use what you have creatively" when it comes to fx pedals.

Not as affordable and accessible, but Damnation Audio makes a couple very nice blend/eq pedals meant specifically adapting dirt pedals for bass, called the Dirtfixer and Dirtmixer

 

[Makten]

One Control Mosquito Blender

Yes, but... Twice the price and no possibility to cut the treble on the clean signal.

I prefer a simpler solution… buy a distortion pedal made for bass. There are so many good ones that are different flavors after all.

If you can find one that you like, of course. Problem is that they are often quite expensive, and you might already have some great guitar pedals that will do the trick if you blend in some clean lows.

 

[mambo4]

The main problem with 99% of all drive/distortion pedals for guitar, when used with a bass, is the lack of.....bass.

In my pedal days my poor man's solution was to stack
a Dean Marklley 112 Guitar combo

on top of a SWR WM 15

The W15 had a tuner Out jack that I ran into my pedal chain, then into the dean markley.
The dean had the bass knob turned all the way down, the SWR tuned how I like
I figured most FX happen in the higher freqs anyhow.

100% unadulterated SWR bass tone
100% unadulterated guitar pedal FX loop
I guess it was bi-amping?

sounded great.

 

[stubbsonic]

The Sonicake is useful for lots of reasons, but for bass players-- with the goal of retaining lows and dynamics-- the combo of having either a parallel dry path, or a "home-spun" band-split is a great way to protect what is precious in our particular bass tone.

I just got the Portal last month and haven't worked out the best way on my board. I have a SA LA Lady (essentially an Aftershock)-- which already has a dry path. The LA Lady has two drive engines which can be run in parallel (inside the unit). So I was thinking Path 1 would be sort of a slightly warm tube thing post Portal, and Path 2 would be a tube-screamer kind of mids forward drive that would go through the Portal's A path. I could engage that for a boost and a bit more hair. Path B would be a Zoom with whatever mod FX I want. Just musing at this point.

The other reason I'm coming on here is to mention a fantastic value for EQ which is the M-Vave IR Box-- which touts itself as an IR loader, but it has a crazy good 9-band parametric EQ. It has High & Low shelving, HPF and LPF, and 5 fully-sweepable mids with Q (that adds up to 9). In addition there are independent global knobs for level, Low-Cut (HPF) and High-Cut (LPF) right on the unit. It's tiny, and currently under $30 on AliExpress. I bought one, tested it and then got another. (Note: they are on a popular online retailer as well, but for closer to $50)

The thread linked below but I'll summarize: mono i/o, additional XLR out (but no ground lift), headphone out, USB-C audio i/o interface (but loud AF, and L/R are backwards). 32 presets, each preset can have an IR (1024 or 2048 samples, 24-bit) and/or an EQ setting and a level setting, has a bypass function. global level/HPF/LPF knobs, powered by USB-C or 9V tip neg (docs mention different current requirements, but 500mA seems to work fine). CubeSuite App is the editor, which is available for Mac, Windows, iOS, Android. The Mac & PC software connects via USB, the iOS and Android app connects via Bluetooth (!). Currently, the Android App has a bug that severely limits the range of the Q control (1-16 out of 160).

Thread 'M-Vave IR Box review'

Mar 6, 2025

I haven't seen this one discussed here, but wow this is a cool piece of kit and it is dirt cheap. I think I paid $25ish from AliExpress.

This is basically an IR loader, but it does a lot more that hasn't been emphasized in the marketing:

• It has both balanced and unbalanced outputs, so it can fill the role of a DI box (no ground lift though).
• It has headphone output
• It shows up on your computer (Windows, in my case) as an audio input/output device so it can act an audio interface.
• It has a 9 band EQ - HPF and LPF, high and low shelving, plus five other bands that are...

• ETJ
• Replies: 125
• Forum: Effects [BG]

• 

 

[FretRiff]

The main problem with 99% of all drive/distortion pedals for guitar, when used with a bass, is the lack of.....bass. You could modify the electronics by cutting less bass, but that requires some skill

Roy Mitchell-Cárdenas: "If you put on any [over]drive, any fuzz, a lot of times that will cut off the low end. To compensate for that, I started adding EQ at the end to boost back the low end. That solved it." He just uses a basic Boss EQ pedal. See 2:39



He also did a separate 2-hour livestream with Josh of JHS discussing using guitar pedals for bass.

 

[Makten]

Roy Mitchell-Cárdenas: "If you put on any [over]drive, any fuzz, a lot of times that will cut off the low end. To compensate for that, I started adding EQ at the end to boost back the low end. That solved it." He just uses a basic Boss EQ pedal. See 2:39



He also did a separate 2-hour livestream with Josh of JHS discussing using guitar pedals for bass.

I've seen and heard those and I actually think they prove that it doesn't work very well. His sound is kind of thin, which is expected, because you can't add back something with EQ that was taken away with a high pass filter.

In the end it all depends on personal taste. I want more bottom end than what he gets.

 

[Ritter667]

parallel stacking effects is a lot of fun
I have the Boss LS-2 which allows all sorts of routing of effects/signal chains

A subtle flanger in parallel with a more prominent phaser sounds amazing.

Flanger and tremolo in parallel sounds great too.

And you can get a much richer drive by blending certain drives with each other in parallel.

Also the drives I use sounds great just blending them with regular parallel clean signal, but this of course will depend on the specific drive, mine doesn't sound like a distorted or clean signal floating on top of the other at all, as otherwise can occur with certain drives blended with clean signal.

And actually the lack of bass in certain drives can be an advantage, bi-amping is a thing you know, and i am not talking about using cross over, but the good old fashioned clean bass amp/cab + overdriven guitar amp/cab.

More a matter of taste and personal preferences than actual facts.

I like overdriven mids, with low and high pass filters on the dirt, a lot better than clean LPF + overdriven HPF.

 

[hondo4life]

A subtle flanger in parallel with a more prominent phaser sounds amazing.

Flanger and tremolo in parallel sounds great too.

And you can get a much richer drive by blending certain drives with each other in parallel.

Also the drives I use sounds great just blending them with regular parallel clean signal, but this of course will depend on the specific drive, mine doesn't sound like a distorted or clean signal floating on top of the other at all, as otherwise can occur with certain drives blended with clean signal.

And actually the lack of bass in certain drives can be an advantage, bi-amping is a thing you know, and i am not talking about using cross over, but the good old fashioned clean bass amp/cab + overdriven guitar amp/cab.

More a matter of taste and personal preferences than actual facts.

I like overdriven mids, with low and high pass filters on the dirt, a lot better than clean LPF + overdriven HPF.

So you use an actual guitar amp cabinet for the overdrive side of your bi-amp. I also bi-amp, but I have not tried that. You're giving me GAS.

 

[bassbrad]

I have several blender loop pedals that work well for me, the main one I use is a Boss LS2 but when crunched for space I also have an older version of the One control Mosquito blender.

FWIW there are many pedals that have a full range that will work well for bass not all of them are bass specific.

For ages I ran a guitar amp as part of my rig to add needed highs not just for distortion but also when using other effects. Stanley Clarke and Chris Squire also did this, Bootsy too.


I generally run effects and clean blended equally, all these pedals are in the loop except the Particle Accelerator and Zoom MS60B that come after the loop

 

[BadMonk]

Here I thought it was just me who didn't like what I've heard from (budget friendly) od pedals. I guess I need to get out more often.
Maybe I'll give one of the above inventions a try, esp if no soldering is involved.

 

[leonard]

I've found a polarity switch to be essential on these kind of applications.