The fact is - especially when we're talking about fuzz pedals used on bass and also filters and phasers - it's pretty difficult to find something that will work for a bass player in a band context and still sound good soloed.
My favourite fuzz sound on bass, god's honest truth, is the USA Big Muff. It's a beautiful sound, the perfect fuzz, but my god it doesn't work in a band at all, you just get swamped.
Whereas the most practical fuzz I've ever had was the MXR Blowtorch. Most settings sound utterly uninspiring soloed but add guitarists and suddenly it makes sense. I still sold it, but y'know...
I ended up favouring the Wren & Cuff Pickle Pie 'B' for my Muff sound, because the on-board blend and the range of the tone control combined to make a lot of sense on bass. Ultimately I ran out of a reason for having a "trad" fuzz on my board so I traded it for a Woolly Mammoth, but it's a great bass fuzz if the Sovtek sound is the kind of thing you're after.
As it stands, my two fuzzes now are from Chunk Systems and Z.Vex, but I have much more use for gated fuzz than I do traditional fuzz, so my choices aren't really typical.
Similarly with filters, the reason I ended up with a Meatwad as my main filter was precisely because it was so tweakable. Some much cheaper filters sound great alone, and I mean really great, and in certain situations they sound great with a band too, but if your guitarist changes his sound you disappear - poof! You're gone.
That's why people go with "boutique" sometimes. Because they've tried the standard stuff and found it just doesn't work that well for most bass players.
