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Overdrive pedal suggestions (again)
- Thread starter Doug4321
- Start date
I was very pleasantly surprised by the MXR Bass distortion and overdrive - M85 and M89 respectively.
The M85 is very flexible - it's heavier than I expected, with the silicon diode selected it reminds me very much of the Damnation Audio. The clean blend works really well, but there is no loss of low end.
The M89 reminds me of a poor man's FTT Bass Blaster. Very touch sensitive, and does a great job at the "barely there" distortion that almost disappears and blends in with the band.
Especially for the price, both of these are great pedals.
The M85 is very flexible - it's heavier than I expected, with the silicon diode selected it reminds me very much of the Damnation Audio. The clean blend works really well, but there is no loss of low end.
The M89 reminds me of a poor man's FTT Bass Blaster. Very touch sensitive, and does a great job at the "barely there" distortion that almost disappears and blends in with the band.
Especially for the price, both of these are great pedals.
I bought one of these back in '15 way affordable and unique to e indeed. I should have keep it maybe it's.time to buy again...
EQD Westwood doesn’t get as much love here as I think it should, but it checks all your boxes. With the active bass and treble controls you can get the tone sitting pretty much flat.
if you want to get into their ecosystem, I feel like the Source Audio Ultrawave Bass does anything and everything. I just got one last week and I’m seriously impressed at how good it sounds.
if you want to get into their ecosystem, I feel like the Source Audio Ultrawave Bass does anything and everything. I just got one last week and I’m seriously impressed at how good it sounds.
Will say the Greer Lightspeed , Blackstone Mosfet and the Lovepedal Amp 11 have been my absolute favourite drives on bass.
Does anyone have experience using the EQD Westwood with active basses? I love the sound, but some O/D just don't like them. I am hoping that's not the case with the WW. I am planning to use this with my MM StingRay Special 5 HH.
Grizzly can be ideal for vintage tones! I recommend using the Overdrive channel, leaving Distortion off. On top of that, it has a Hi Cut filter which mitigates harshness nicely.
Don't sleep on the Tech 21 SH1! Just forget it's associated with Steve Harris. As Lowend said it's super versatile. Yeah, it can do metal tones, but it does vintage very well: just leave the Bite switch off. On top of that, it has two semi-independent channels. The EQ is not independent, but you can dial in two different overdrive and output levels for your selected tone.
Our different opinions might be a result of different signal chains, but IME the MBD2 is only fuzzy at higher gain levels. Matter of fact, I reserve mine for vintage overdrive tones at low to moderate gain, and use other pedals for modern clangy dirt. When I need both vintage and modern dirt, I stack the MBD into something like a Darkglass B7K: the MBD is my base dirt, then I kick in the B7K for modern grind. The MBD's low-passed clean blend is a brilliant idea that should suit the OP well.
I do love the MBD2, and of all my drive pedals I probably reach for it the most for singular use. I think it stands up really well on its own. And it’s super flexible. I kinda wish I had two, one for lighter overdrive/distortion, and one with the boost switch engaged for gnarly fuzz.
