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Overdrive help

wvbass

wvbass

Mar 1, 2004
7,436
11,818
West Virginia
#1
I'd given up on this for a couple years, but recently I started looking again. Mostly, I like effects to sound like I'm not using effects, if you know what I mean - a little compression, a preamp for a passive bass, things like that. A lot of the time, I run with no effects at all.

I'm looking for an overdrive:
  • I don't use effects a lot, so I am hoping for something in the sub-$100 price range.
  • True bypass, or at least no hiss or noise when bypassed.
  • Transparent. I want my bass to sound like my bass, not the pedal. I'm looking for something that preserves all my low end, and a lot of the high end.
  • Low Gain. Ideally, with the gain all the way down, it would sound like it isn't on at all. As the gain comes up, I just want a little grit/breakup in the upper mids, not a full-blown distortion. I still want a relatively "clean" tone, just not a "pristine" one.
  • Responsive. I want more gain if I dig in more, and I want it it to clean up a little when I back off.
  • It needs to work with a P bass. I play through a GB Shuttle 9, and just want to "age" my tone a little.

A lot of pedals sound great on the upper range of notes on a bass, but get ugly on the lower register. It is hard to tell much about YouTube samples, but I liked what I heard from the full size Spark Booster. I also liked the EBS Multidrive when I demoed it years ago. I haven't really "lived" with either pedal, though, so that is just speculation. I have tried the Carl Martin BassDrive, the Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive, a Marshall pedal, an Ashdown pedal, a DOD, and numberous others. I still own a Cusack Bass Screamer, and it is decent, but not perfect - there is mild low end loss, and the tone changes somewhat. Everybody's description of the Barbershop makes it sound like what I want, but all the sound samples I listen to sound a lot like poo. I've listened to the MXR bass overdrive, and on paper it sounds perfect, but the audio samples leave a lot to be desired. It seems that a lot of demos like to showcase the more extreme amounts of overdrive/distortion/fuzz.

Suggestions?
 
#5
Yes the Free The Tone BAss Blaster is pricey but it sounds absolutely amazing, it can go nearly super clean (almost like a sadowsky preamp) to full on balls to the wall overdrive. I use it mainly for my motown / tape saturation emulation effect, and also when i turn my jazz bass tone up then it can do the Larry Graham slap with a touch of drive on the popped notes
 
#6
Joe Geezer said:
Yes the Free The Tone BAss Blaster is pricey but it sounds absolutely amazing, it can go nearly super clean (almost like a sadowsky preamp) to full on balls to the wall overdrive. I use it mainly for my motown / tape saturation emulation effect, and also when i turn my jazz bass tone up then it can do the Larry Graham slap with a touch of drive on the popped notes
Click to expand...
Stop it! You're going to make me spend a lot more than I planned on! :greedy:drool:thumbsup:

(I guess this is TalkBass, and that's how it works)
 
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#7
wvbass said:
Stop it! You're going to make me spend a lot more than I planned on! :greedy:drool:thumbsup:

(I guess this is TalkBass, and that's how it works)
Click to expand...

haha ok then I can also recommend the Xotic BB Preamp or the Xotic RC Booster, they are both excellent pedals, the RC is super clean most of the way but can get light overdrive with the gain maxed. The BB preamp has light to heavy overdrive, its very dynamic and picks up all your finger work. I bought the BB Preamp because like i said i use the FTT Bass blaster for very light OD so the BB preamp handles my grinding bass lines and nasty slap lines.
 
#8
oh yea my next over drive pedal is going to be either a BJFE Blueberry or a SolidGoldFX BETA...... i think they fall in to the same ball park as the FTT Bass blaster & Xotic BB preamp
 
#9
Joe Geezer said:
haha ok then I can also recommend the Xotic BB Preamp or the Xotic RC Booster, they are both excellent pedals, the RC is super clean most of the way but can get light overdrive with the gain maxed. The BB preamp has light to heavy overdrive, its very dynamic and picks up all your finger work. I bought the BB Preamp because like i said i use the FTT Bass blaster for very light OD so the BB preamp handles my grinding bass lines and nasty slap lines.
Click to expand...
Thanks! The Bass BB is definitely on the list. I like preamp pedals...I have a Sadowsky and a Trilogic 2, but both are clean.

I listened to some Bass Blaster clips again, and it definitely sounds like a possibility too.
 
#16
wvbass said:
Are there any demos of this that don't feature John Alderete making weird noises? Great player, but every demo of this pedal focuses on all the extreme, oddball tones that Moog pedals can create.
Click to expand...
I did not see any demo. When i've got this pedal i did believe it's kind of weird. Fortunately, i was wrong. I works perfectly with my active bass (Bongo). All of the controls were really useful. It was easy to get a TON of sounds - clean booster, overdrive, a kind of fuzz, fuzzy drive, a dirty wah (with an expression pedal)...
One of the most flexible pedal ever. And it filled with power. One minus is - this pedal does not like any drive BEFORE it - it begins to do something weird and not in a good way.
 
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#18
wvbass said:
Are there any demos of this that don't feature John Alderete making weird noises? Great player, but every demo of this pedal focuses on all the extreme, oddball tones that Moog pedals can create.
Click to expand...

I had one and it was interesting, but not my thing. It doesn't sound like what you're after. I used to have a few clips up with it, but I think I may have deleted them. However, YMMV, IME.
 
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