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NPD: DOD FX91 Bass Overdrive....Awesome!

Sergi

Sergi

May 31, 2017
99
79
#1
I just got a DOD FX91, and the only thing I can say is ... wow! Despite being the cheapest pedal I have, I can say that it is one of the best overdrives I own. I've been looking for the sound that this pedal offers me for years ... stacked before a Sansamp BDDI, the FX91 delivers a metallic crunch without being harsh (at low gain), and a blend pot that works very very well.

I have in my possession a Xotic BB, MBD-2, Fulltone bass drive, Fuzrocious Demon, Idiotbox Blower box ... and this is the pedal that has finally given me the tone I was looking for. Has anyone else tried this pedal and liked it? It seems strange to me that there's no much talking about this pedal in these pages ...
 
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#6
Sergi said:
Yes, the demos give a pretty good idea of the sound of the pedal..and the good news is that it sounds even better live. Looking forward to hear about your thoughts on it.
Click to expand...

Well, just got it in and dammit you were right. One of the best frikkin bass overdrives I have ever played. Beats the crap out of tons of my boutique stuff. DAMN!!!!
 
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#7
Having had a night to play with this pedal I want to give a deeper review.

To me this is the best kept secret of bass overdrive world and I gotta wonder if it's the inspiration for more modern boutique offerings. Why?

1) It has one of the best, muscular and well implemented blend knobs I ever tried. The clean signal is definitely low-passed ala Damnation fame.

2) Even better, the tone control is for the drive signal only. So it makes it even easier to integrate the two signals.

From it's simple and intuitive controls, to it's somehow magical circuit, I simply cannot believe I didn't know about this pedal early on in my buying. It would have saved me a hell of a lot of money.

Another thing I can't believe is that this pedal isn't an instant candidate for cloning and updating.
 
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#9
Peaveylover said:
Having had a night to play with this pedal I want to give a deeper review.

To me this is the best kept secret of bass overdrive world and I gotta wonder if it's the inspiration for more modern boutique offerings. Why?

1) It has one of the best, muscular and well implemented blend knobs I ever tried. The clean signal is definitely low-passed ala Damnation fame.

2) Even better, the tone control is for the drive signal only. So it makes it even easier to integrate the two signals.

From it's simple and intuitive controls, to it's somehow magical circuit, I simply cannot believe I didn't know about this pedal early on in my buying. It would have saved me a hell of a lot of money.

Another thing I can't believe is that this pedal isn't an instant candidate for cloning and updating.
Click to expand...

I'm glad you liked it! I totally agree with you. The blend is one of the best, if not the best, that I have found in a pedal, and in conjunction with the tone pot, it produces one of the best overdrives I have ever heard. On some settings, it reminds me of some darkglass type of distortion, although more tubey, natural and organic.

Like you say, it's way better than a lot of the boutique pedals that are talked about so much around here, and that's why I don't understand how little recognition this pedal has. This pedal is definitely at the top of my overdrive pedals ranking.
 
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#10
Sergi said:
I'm glad you liked it! I totally agree with you. The blend is one of the best, if not the best, that I have found in a pedal, and in conjunction with the tone it produces one of the best overdrives I have ever heard. On some settings, it reminds me of some darkglass type of distortion, although more tubey, natural and organic.

Like you say, it's way better than a lot of the boutique pedals that are talked about so much around here, and that's why I don't understand how little recognition this pedal has. This pedal is definitely at the top of my overdrive pedals ranking.
Click to expand...
Agree 100%. And Gremlin would be a good candidate to clone. I'll message him today.
 
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#16
Got mine yesterday,
IMG_20230119_181148067~2.jpg

Sought one out, due to this thread making me aware of it.

I agree with a lot that's been said.

Great OD tones, and can be found for under a bill.

Controls are very interactive, and can give a solid range of drive sounds.

Quite happy I took a chance on it.


When set "just right", it really adds this sort of harmonic enhancement to my test bass, which has some fairly old strings.
Really livens it up.
 
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#20
Jim C said:
How does this pedal sound compared to Tech 21 VTBDI?
Click to expand...
Never tried the VTDI, but had the VT Bass V2 about 10 years ago.

The VT has control over the mids, while the FX91 doesn't. The inherent character (based on memory) is different. The FX91 wrt treble/highs, is more metallic clank, while the VT is more fizzy sizzle.

I remember the lows having a very "plump" character on the VT, while the lows are more filled out and thicker on the FX91 (most of the lows are coming from the clean side. The dirt side is shy on the low-end)
While the gain range on both can get out of hand real quick, the FX91 has different "sweet spots" that are easier to dial in.

I know the VTDI has a blend, which my VT Bass did not.
Full range clean blends can be useful at maintaining your lows, but with certain circuits/settings can have this "layered" effect, that can be off-putting.

The low-passed clean on the FX91 is incredibly well implemented, sounding very natural, without the layered effect I mentioned earlier.


If there's anything else you're curious about, don't hesitate to ask.
 

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