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Overdrive, Not Distortion pedals

Invalid Link Removed formerly known as Lo|Fat Bass OD is a long time favourite that was recently updated.
Source Audio Aftershock offers every possibility very versatile offering multiple engines or your own creations
Fuzzrocious BDPG my favourite full on saturated amp sound v1 or v2 - plays well with other dirt
EHX Hot Tubes nano has everything from warm to full blast and tone bypass.

honorable mentions go to:
Austone Millennium Overdrive- Unique meticulous boutique..
Digitech Hardwire Overdrive
DOD Boneshaker
DanElectro Daddy0 (Marshall JCM)
 
Ok, Bass geeks,
I've been playing a long time prof, and semi-pro. I have probably 200 pedals. I'm interested in knowing your thoughts on Overdrive pedals NOT Distortion pedals. I don't like the sound of distortion pedals. SO, what's your favorite " Overdrive " pedal for Bass?

I have a Plumes pedal from Earthquaker Devices and I like it. I don't like distortion on bass either. I set it so it's not that overdriven and responds when I pick harder.
 
I have a Source Audio Aftershock Bass Distortion pedal. Out of the box you get overdrive, distortion or fuzz. I haven't shopped for any kind of distortion since. Out of the box you you get a pedal with an O/D setting, a distortion setting, and a fuzz setting with a drive knob, wet/dry mix knob.. input and output settings.

Hook it up to a mac or windows PC/laptop or iOS/android smartphone you can save up to 6 presets on it.. with 43 distortion engines to choose from some of them pretty weird, which you can send as mono or stereo or you can send two different distortion engines to each channel (left, right). Both channels have their own parametric EQ. Optional noise gates and low/high cut filters, HPF/LPF . But you need a smartphone or a computer and the neuro editor software to utilize all the extras mentioned in this paragraph.

I have multiple pedals from source audio, which combined with their "Nuero Hub" gives me 128 "scenes" which are presets utilizing multiple pedals and a midi controller to cycle them. Any number of those scenes could be used for drive/fuzz settings with the other pedals disengaged giving you more than the 6 presets the aftershock is capable of storing.

You can also download community presets, and tweak your input and output levels to your liking, or other settings.

In your case it might be a bit too much for "just overdrive".. but this pedal does that, lets you tweak that to your hearts content, and then offers soo much more. I don't think there's a pedal out there that offers this many options for fine tuning and those options are there for the sake of bass guitar. Though it works pretty well with my Strat too.
 
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My all time favourites are

Way Huge Pork Loin
Tech 21 VTDI
Fuzzrocious Dark Driving

I always end up with some type of Tech 21 device on my board. Now it's the VT on my Bass Fly Rig. I haven't trial'd that many OD's but Tech 21 has the magic touch when it comes to folding the essentials into easy-to-use packages (comp, tuner, DI, OD, limited effects). I wish they would do the same based on a BDDI (v2) platform.

Riis
 
Ok, Bass geeks,
I've been playing a long time prof, and semi-pro. I have probably 200 pedals. I'm interested in knowing your thoughts on Overdrive pedals NOT Distortion pedals. I don't like the sound of distortion pedals. SO, what's your favorite " Overdrive " pedal for Bass?
I don't have a fave. The OD in my GT-1B is good enough to get the point across, and is only ever on for tunes that absolutely require it (such as Zep's Heartbreaker). Otherwise, the tube pre built into my amp is sufficient.
 
I use an always on RYRA "Klone" to my hearts content. It does have the slightest bass cut (but my rig has bass overflowing so its not an issue.) Klon type pedals add warmth and complexity to the sound at low levels if your rig can spare the slight low end roll off.
 
The Broughton Sunray is by far the best I've ever tried for warm, organic overdrive.
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The ShiftLine Olympic MKIIIs is a preamp, but it's the second best overdrive I've tried.
652ECD29-535A-4778-A312-E38BF54F62D4.jpeg


For non-tube pedals, my favorites are the CAL Grizzly and the Spaceman Saturn VI.
398179B7-00B9-4637-835A-76AC9E58EDD2.jpeg
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Been enjoying this pedal a lot. Sounds super fat with my octamizer in front of it as well.
Here's someone else's demo that made me want to buy it in the first place.


That Hooker's Green Bassmachine overdrive sounds awesome.

Think I am going to need to get one to add to my bass pedal effects setup.

Seems to be able to have a quite broad range too, and can get quite gnarly, which would properly be what I would go for as my default setting.
 
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My favorite overdrive is a Broughton SV-Pre at higher gain settings. It just sounds so … natural. And with loads of oomph. I love it.

Mind, if I had to nominate what I consider the BEST overdrive pedal for bass – it would be the TC Spark. Now, hear me out before yelling at me. :D

I don't nominate the Spark because it sounds better or has better features than an SV-Pre or any other higher-priced pedal. But "best", for me, also incorporates availability and cost. The "best" overdrive doesn't help me much if I need a replacement two days prior to an important gig, but it would take weeks/months to actually source one. Or cost me hundreds and hundreds of dollars to get it. But TC Sparks? Easily found, and so inexpensive I actually have three of them by now.
 
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I'm mostly a clean player but like that warm, harmonically busy/rich territory right before an amp starts to get pushed just a little too hard. For me the Aguilar TH and most of the Tech 21 pedals (BDDI, VT Bass, etc.) seem to work nicely when I'm after that "beginning to overdrive" tone.

My Aguilar TH500 and Mesa TT and WD can also get me there on their own (i.e without a pedal/effect). My Xotic Bass RC Booster will be too clean for most (it works for me), but the Xotic BB Bass Booster will easily get a solid, beefy OD tone IME.
 
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