Pedal help!

[Shushamouth]

Currently looking into getting an overdrive pedal. I play in a band, our tuning is in both drop B and the other is drop D. The tone sounds wonky. I was recommended I get an OD pedal and I was wondering if what are some suggestions when playing in a more metal style of music.

I have zero experience with effects so I'm somewhat at a lost.

My gear currently consists of an ampeg SVT 810e, ampeg Portaflex 500, Schecter omen (drop b) and an Ibanez (D).
I have a BBE sonic maximizer and a line 6 bass pod (which I'm not currently using).

I feel like with both guitars playing my bass just isn't getting that nice fat sound I'm looking for.

Please, help!

 

[yaksonator]

Darkglass B3K. Done.

 

[franvarin]

I think you're off to a good start with your Ampeg rig. Essentially, try an OD pedal into your preamp. That will overdrive the preamp and help with a dirt sound. Any decent OD pedal will do this. I happen to have Joyo Ultimate Drive. I have it behind a VT Bass and BDDI. The combination of the three gives me a lot of flexibility. I don't use the VT Bass or BDDI to overdrive, I use them for tone shaping. The Joyo is my OD pedal and it does quite well, and you can't beat the price!

 

[MothBox]

I like the Beta:


Probably also worth checking out Juans Youtube channel too:
https://www.youtube.com/user/PedalsAndEffects/videos

There's a lot of demos on there of overdrives, distortions and fuzzes. If its your first time dipping your toe in the water I'd recommend you spend some time listening to demos and looking at what you like and what you don't.

 

[willbassyeah]

I would go with a slight drive just for a grind what you looking at is low gain od, don't go for anything that is fuzz related first, you might have trouble cutting through especially playing with drop tune guitarist.

Any of these pedals should help you with your needs:
Darkglass b3k
Darkglass vmt
Bjfe blueberry
Bearfoot blueberry
Ehx bass soul food
Tech 21 bddi
Tech 21 vtdi
Dod 250 reissue
Fuzzrocious rat tail or any other rat pedals variant
Mantic vitrool
Fairfield barbershop
Fu*k overdrive tafm

Alternatively go look for johnk bass od demo or look for mrexcane demo

 

[aprod]

There are plenty of overdrives and distortions in the Line 6 Pod. Run it in front of the amp not thru the effects loop. Have fun experimenting.

 

[monkeyfinger]

If you run the bass directly into the amp and cab without guitars at a lower volume, are you able to get the tone you want?

 

[LSMFT6]

Alex Webster seems to do well with the Darkglass B7K

 

[Mosfed]

It clearly depends on budget. You have a pretty sick setup so you should be able to get a really good tone with very little work.

Not to throw out something totally different - but did you ever consider a compressor? That will FATTEN your side right up when used correctly.

Overdrive wise - If you are on a limited budget, the Joyo American or Ultimate Drive get a lot of love around here.

At a little more:

Here are a few:

Bearfoot Blueberry Bass OD



Darkglass Vintage Microtubes



Darkglass B7K



Then a fan favorite is definitely the Fairfield Circuitry Barbershop

 

[Crystalman85]

I would go with a slight drive just for a grind what you looking at is low gain od, don't go for anything that is fuzz related first, you might have trouble cutting through especially playing with drop tune guitarist.

Any of these pedals should help you with your needs:
Darkglass b3k
Darkglass vmt
Bjfe blueberry
Bearfoot blueberry
Ehx bass soul food
Tech 21 bddi
Tech 21 vtdi
Dod 250 reissue
Fuzzrocious rat tail or any other rat pedals variant
Mantic vitrool
Fairfield barbershop
Fu*k overdrive tafm

Alternatively go look for johnk bass od demo or look for mrexcane demo

+1 on darkglass. I own a darkglass vmt and It has a smooth overdrive sound. also it was mrexcane's demo of the vmt that inspired me to purchase one.

 

[Crystalman85]

If you're interested in buying a guitar overdrive/distortion pedal for your bass, check out these pedals.

Fuzzrocious rat king
Hardwire cm-2 tube overdrive
Hardwire sc-2 valve distortion
Hardwire tl-2 metal distortion
Voodoo lab sparkle drive
Way huge pork loin
Zvex distortron

These pedals can give you a nice grinding sound without obliterating lows.

 

[Shushamouth]

If you run the bass directly into the amp and cab without guitars at a lower volume, are you able to get the tone you want?

Slightly. The guitarists also need to sort through their sound. Essentially we need to all work on combining a tone together that works so everything is more smooth.

 

[smeet]

The guitarists also need to sort through their sound. Essentially we need to all work on combining a tone together that works so everything is more smooth.

Very important point, I hope the guitarists understand this too. The fatness of your sound is usually going to come from your lower mids. But whatever frequency range(s) you want to emphasize in your sound, the guitarists should cut at the same frequencies so you can come through there. The reverse is also true, so each instrument slots into the overall band mix.

 

[J Posega]

Have everyone reset their EQ flat at your next rehearsal and start tweaking tone starting with the treble. Don't let them turn up their bass more than a notch or two.

That said, what does wonky even mean in terms of tone?

 

[monkeyfinger]

Slightly. The guitarists also need to sort through their sound. Essentially we need to all work on combining a tone together that works so everything is more smooth.

Yeah, the total sound is important. Did this amp/cab combo always sound thin to you even playing solo? How long have you been using the cab? (I am asking because I suspect there is an issue with the cab. I am hoping to eliminate that as a source of the problem.) Overdrives are great. (I have 7 on my board.) But I don't recommend them as a fix to another audio problem. One more question: do you have to max out your amp to be heard over the guitar players?

 

[hrodbert696]

Slightly. The guitarists also need to sort through their sound. Essentially we need to all work on combining a tone together that works so everything is more smooth.

I've shared this before - not so much for you, as for your guitarists...



I don't play metal, but what I have found is that just a touch of hair on my overdrive, even if it sounds mild by itself, can sound like huge distortion in the mix with a guitarist. Let them stick to the higher frequencies, keep your sound solid on the bottom, add some nice warm grit and you should be good to go.

 

[P-oddz]

In my experience, driving the PF series too hard and combining drive/distortion pedals can end up with some pretty undesirable distortion. I've personally found that if I EQ the PF to sound close to the standard "overdriven SVT" tone, adding a gritty dirt pedal into the mix can get into touchy territory where I am concerned about the amps performance into note-fart-out-zone and ultimately have to back up on gain of the amp. Pedals that I have found personally that work well with the Ampeg in lending a bit of grit, still maintaining a certain level of "meat" to your tone without you having to push your amp too hard AND work well with stacking other drives or distortions, would be the Catalinbread SFT (my personal choice) and the Beta Bass drive mentioned above. The SFT - newer versions - seem to sit more in a higher mid territory and ultimately can help you achieve a more bass forward approach, where the Beta is more of a low-mid punch and blends really well in a mix. These two are based more on a "classic" type of drive.

If you are looking for "modern" and into distortion territory, the Darkglass B3K mentioned above is the typical answer when it comes to metal tones and is favored by a lot of metal players.

What type of metal are you playing, or other bands/bass players do you draw influence from? That often helps in narrowing down the literally hundreds of paths you could go down when it comes to pedals...

 

[gregmon79]

Have you considered a boost? Maybe you could benefit from some more clarity. You said that your sound was "wonky". That makes me think that maybe youre not cutting through the mix well enough, maybe? I know for me, I needed to cut through the mix, and aside from my preamp, the DG B7K, an OD did help me. So did a boost. I use a Fulltone OCD (through a clean blend to help with bottom end) for a boost/drive and it helps me cut through like a knife. My bass is very prominent in the mix. Now, I only have one guitarist to contend with as you have two. I recently started using the Southampton Fifth Gear which is an OD/boost and it works very well to add some punch and clarity and if set right OD. What a great pedal.

In the end there are a few things you could do to help you in the mix. An OD or boost could help, as you stated talking to the rest of the band about EQ, and even getting an EQ yourself could help. Ive used and own the Source audio Programmable EQ as well and that really helped me too when I wanted to cut or be a little more noticeable. It will help too if youre using more than one bass, which you are, because you can set 4 presets and switch given whichever bass youre using. You will most likely have to try a few different things and it will take time. Probably. If youre lucky itll come quickly. Youve def come to the right place for suggestions. Welcome!!

 

[MCS4]

I'm going to run contrary to the status quo here and suggest that, if you want a "nice fat sound," you're better off keeping a loud, clean, full-range tone (no dirt, or minimal dirt) and spending some time getting your "band EQ" in order with the guitar players. Usually it seems to me that distortion makes bass harder to hear in the mix, rather than easier, unless the particular pedal happens to emphasize an EQ range that your setup is missing (which is more luck than anything, and just as easily accomplished with EQ).

If you specifically want to have a distorted tone, then by all means do so. However, in my experience, clean bass tends to result in a fatter tone and a heavier overall band mix for metal... plus, with two heavily guitars, it's probably difficult to tell whether or not the bass is actually distorted anyway. You can always keep a overdrive/dist/fuzz pedal handy to kick on any time the bass is "exposed" and you don't want to sound too clean.

 

[bravesaint5]

Find your tone first, then worry about OD. You've got some pretty good gear, I'd be surprised if you didn't find what you need straight from the rig itself. But if you want to get your toes wet with effects (I wouldn't blame you, it's addicting), start small and work your way up. If you have the coin to drop on a nice boutique Bass OD, research and go for it. But if you want to slowly immerse yourself try to find a used Boss ODB-3 Bass OD, bonus points if you can find one with the Monte Allums Tri-Gain mod! You could also wade into Fuzz with a EHX Bass Pi, but depending on the type of hard/metal you play it might not quite fit.