mid-heavy bass OD/distortion w/ clean blend?

[Matt Dean]

I have tried most of the Darkglass, Fuzzrocious, and several other brand offerings in the heavy OD/distortion market and have ended up with this lineup… I'm running the VT and ODB through the Damnation clean blend. Darkglass and Fuzzrocious (I currently have a L'll Fella I rotate through the board) make great heavy distortions too…. this is just where I have landed according to my tastes.

 

[Matt Dean]

I've owned the MBD-1 twice and the MBD-2 once. It can get heavy, but I disagree if you want a mid heavy OD. As a light OD I loved it and it was one of the most balanced pedals I've come across, but ime if you need to boost the mids it doesn't have that ability

You're not wrong about that.

 

[Kendescending]

I've owned the MBD-1 twice and the MBD-2 once. It can get heavy, but I disagree if you want a mid heavy OD. As a light OD I loved it and it was one of the most balanced pedals I've come across, but ime if you need to boost the mids it doesn't have that ability

You're not wrong about that.

Agreed on the mids. I couldn't get the sound I wanted out of my MBD-2, so I quickly sold it. While it doesn't have a clean blend, the Onkart Grombass V2 doesn't add OD to the lowest frequencies. Great sounding pedal with 3 different types of distortion.

Grombass v2 – OnkartGromt

 

[monkeyfinger]

Jam Pedals Lucy Dreamer Bass. It's a bass friendly version of a tube screamer, which is, by design, is mid forward.

LucyDreamer Bass - JAM pedals

 

[monkeyfinger]

I tried the LD, but it was too mid-forward for me. I ended up with a Jam Rattler Bass, their RAT clone.

Rattler Bass - JAM pedals

 

[blujosh]

If you want heavy with a clean blend, get a Damnation MBD2 my friend.

Good call!

Can't believe I didn't think of that one!

MBD2 caught my attention a while ago, but i thought it was more of a neutral and/or scooped tone profile vs being mid-forward?

i'm thinking the Amptweaker Bass Tight Rock Jr might be a candidate. too bad they were discontinued

 

[blujosh]

Jam Pedals Lucy Dreamer Bass. It's a bass friendly version of a tube screamer, which is, by design, is mid forward.

LucyDreamer Bass - JAM pedals

I tried the LD, but it was too mid-forward for me. I ended up with a Jam Rattler Bass, their RAT clone.

Rattler Bass - JAM pedals

ooh, i'll have to check those out. definitely checks the boxes of what i'm looking for, and i like the compact size too!
could you tell if the mid hump of the Lucy Dreamer seemed the same as a typical TS or was it adjusted lower or wider for bass?

 

[monkeyfinger]

It is similar to a TS, but the center of the bump is lower to sound better with bass. I originally tried the guitar version. The mid bump was not complimentary to bass tones. (It was in the honk range) But the bass one is about an octave lower. So it is in a nice place for bass guitar.

 

[Spiky_Bassist]

I love my DarkGlass, both the microTubes and the AlphaOmega. Right now I only have the MicroTubes 500 and AlphaOmega 900 amps, but the tones are great. There is a ton of flexibility with how it sounds and the blending of wet/dry makes it very versatile in dialing in the sound you want.

 

[Rib 13]

I have a Darkglass B7K and its pretty flexible -- it can mimic classic SVT-ish speaker breakup or you can go full Djent with it......Ive never used distortion on bass in my not so great career so I tried a bunch out and the B7K (and probably most Darkglass stuff) I settled on because it was the only one I auditioned that sounded like bass+drive instead of bass+blown speaker

 

[micguy]

I'll second the Pork Loin (or the Pork side of the Pork and Pickle) as something that dies a good mid grunt with a blend.

 

[blujosh]

The SANSAMP GED-2112 "YYZ" pedal might fit the bill.

Honestly I thought it was a "one trick pony" kind of thing. It really isn't. Sure, you can get that prog rock bass sound out it. But it also sounds delightful when the distortion is dialed down for "just a touch of OD". Also, when stacked with a fuzz... it might peel the roof off your house.

funny you should mention that - i was actually using the YYZ at the end of my chain as my overdriven preamp and frustrated that i was getting close but couldn't quite get to where i wanted when i started this thread. your suggestion made me try it again but approaching it as a straight up OD pedal by cranking the mids and drive to 3 o'clock, dropping the highs to 9 o'clock, dialing in a little of the "Deep" clean channel and then running the output into an MXR M81 "clean" preamp, and BAM! it's the closest i've gotten to what i was looking for.

it didn't occur to me to try to use it as a mid-heavy OD pedal, but damn, it's working pretty well as one. it even slams the front of my Bass Big Muff like a typical mid-forward OD does. the combo of those three pedals is turning out to be pretty epic and versatile!

so, thanks for making me re-think/consider that!

 

[grimjim]

I use a darkglass alpha/omega. two different distortions that you can blend, along with blending the effected signal with the clean signal.

 

[keatz]

The Omega side of the Darkglass Alpha Omicron will do it.

 

[Nun Yerbiznes]

My first post: hope I'm some help. I had been looking for a dirt pedal with blend, but then I opted to use the mixer in my rig. My situation is specific, in that I'm not a "real" player. I played a lifetime ago, and I'm back at it now (thank you pandemic). I'll never be in a band, and I'm just futzing around at home, recording. The USB mixer I use to record into the PC however gives me the luxury of mixing in some clean signal along with the dirt.

This may not lend itself to someone who needs to keep their rig as small as possible, but if you can find even a small pedal that lets you actively mix 2 signals (turning down the level out of one pedal, not killing the output of the other because you're simply grounding it out), it opens up a world of possibilities. By doing the blending outside of the dirt pedal, you can try anything from a $20 behringer pedal to a $400 "boo-tique" pedal.

 

[Fuzzbass]

I'm a big Darkglass fan but the B3K/B7K engine has a notch in the mids. Not a massive scoop, and that pedal can be made punchy with EQ, but the reason I love the B7K is that the notch works great with my mid-forward P-style basses, and the pedal adds nice sizzle on top.

Darkglasses that are more mid-forward: Vintage series has a mid hump, Alpha Omega series can give great chunky mids. The X series can also boost lots of mids depending on how the variable filters are set... but they are multi-band overdrives and have a steeper learning curve.

Tech 21: the SH-1 Steve Harris is versatile and does mids very well (two mid bands). YYZ will work, too. So will the VT series if you keep the Character control right of noon.

Aside from that, I was also thinking Rat and OCD variants.