Searching for a compact ASYMMETRIC overdrive

[OhulahanBass]

I don’t have allot of space left on my board and want to add couple more pedals but can only make room if I replace my Genzler 4 On The Floor with a more compact overdrive. I only use it in 3rd gear, with med-high drive, clean blend, and a bit of the LPF. I love how it sounds but can replace it if I can find something smaller that:

• Gives me some asymmetrical hair, (more saw like the better)
• no bass loss
• Tone shaping a bonus
• Great medium drive
• Great with Active Bass

Walrus Voyager, Jackson Golden Boy mini, or Way Huge Pork and Pickle seem to peak my interest. I got the Blumes but the drive is too heavy in asymmetric mode with my active basses:-(

Any suggestions? Any advice?

 

[stubbsonic]

I don't know if a digital pedal is on your menu. The Source Audio "Dirty Trinity" (LA Lady, Aftershock, Kingmaker) are essentially the same pedal, but with different presets pre-loaded. For example, the LA Lady can easily configured to become an Aftershock by loading the six Aftershock presets via the Neuro app. I only mention this because you might find a deal on any one of those three pedals, and they're all three essentially the same. They have dry mix and lots of ways to preserve low-end. Demo vids are out there, but it's hard to find those that match one's particular tastes & needs. Still you can see from the demos how the pedal does have a good analog character. I can assure you that it is a very versatile pedal and has very low latency (less than 1 ms)

Here's the available drive-types list. Some of them are asymmetrical, but I don't know which ones get into sawtooth territory.
0 Tube Drive - Marshall amp-style overdrive
1 Smooth Tube - Mesa boogie pre amp distortion
2 Power Stage - Fulltone Distortion Pro
3 Crunch Tube - Our own distortion, not based on any particular sound. It’s a more aggressive tube distortion.
4 TS9000 - Ibanez Tube Screamer
5 Big Pi - EHX Big Muff Pi
6 El Raton - ProCo Rat
7 Fuzz Façade - Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face
8 Bender - Tone Bender mk II
9 Metal - EHX Metal Muff
10 Octave Fuzz - Octavia
11 Gated Fuzz - inspired by the Woolly Mammoth, but not very close at all. (rsmith601's words, not mine)
12 Bass Tube Drive
13 Bass Smooth Tube
14 Bass Power Stage
15 Bass Crunch Tube
16 Bass TS9000
17 Bass Big Pi
18 Bass El Raton
19 Bass Fuzz Façade
20 Bass Bender
21 Bass Metal
22 Bass Octave Fuzz
23 Bass Gated Fuzz
24 Gated Fuzz II - original
25 Gated Fuzz III - original
26 TS 9001 - Ibanez TS 808?
27 Maestro FZ-1A - Maestro FZ-1A
28 Bigger Pi - Skreddy Mayonnaise
29 Foldover - original
30 OhSeeDee - Fulltone OCD
31 Fuzz Face II
32 DS-1 - Boss DS-1
33 Rat II
34 Bender II
35 Metal II
36 Octave II
37 Smoked Glass C4L - Darkglass B3K
38 38 Special - original
39 Smooth Tube II
40 Power Stage II
41 Crunch Tube II
42 Grated Bass - original
43 Clean
44 Smoked Glass D5M – Darkglass B3K
45 The Klone - Klon Centaur
46 Pepperface Fuzz - Analogman Peppermint Fuzz
47 Vari-Screamer - Nobels ODR-1 Natural Drive
48 Foldover II - Original
49 Germanium Muffin - Germanium EHX Big Muff

 

[OhulahanBass]

Unfortunately I think the side jacks will keep me from effectively making enough room for the other two pedals I want to add. I got space for 1 more at the moment but if I replace the Genzler I have space for 3 standard or small pedals with top jacks, one of which will be an asymmetric drive.

Also, I really like Source stuff but never seem to keep em around, I have had their filters, synth, and multidrive. They never make it past honeymoon phase for me. I’m not an analog purist, though you wouldn’t be able to tell from my bass board. If it wasn’t for my love of Walrus Qi on synths and all the digital and hybrid synths I have and adore I may think I was.

I find Asymmetric drive is saw enough for me. I just seem to dig even harmonic emphasis from jFETs, tubes and saw waves through filters. I have two great fuzzes, I just need one good drive for when I need just some hair not the splat.

 

[whoismarykelly]

A sawtooth sound is a VERY different sound from asymmetric clipping. Are you looking for a drive with asymmetric clipping or something that is making sawtooth sounds?

 

[OhulahanBass]

Asymmetric clipping is priority, specifically to down size the 4 On the Floor in 3rd gear. I probably should just keep the info request simple.

I do get a sawish with a lil LPF vibe from asymmetric clipping, I remember the first time was 15 years back on my Eden 300T. I remember doing a bit of research and the vibe makes more sense looking at harmonics in a spectrum analyzer than on an oscilloscope. That said, a drive or fuzz that turns anything into a saw would be rad.

 

[The Editor]

I've been looking a the JHS Morning Glory Clean! Top jacks as well!

 

[tommyeadg]

I can wholeheartedly recommend the Singular Audio Tube Drve for your purposes. The bias knob effectively sweeps from asymmetrical to symmetrical clipping. Also top jacks. I love mine and I recorded a demo of it somewhere in the Singular Audio thread

 

[OhulahanBass]

I can wholeheartedly recommend the Singular Audio Tube Drve for your purposes. The bias knob effectively sweeps from asymmetrical to symmetrical clipping. Also top jacks. I love mine and I recorded a demo of it somewhere in the Singular Audio thread

Wow, this looks like what I had in my head. I was even starting to map out how to make my own with JFETs with similar bias control but high voltage tube would be even better! And it is on sale. Thanks for the tip.

In your experience, does it hugely soften attack or give a bloomy vibe?

 

[tommyeadg]

Wow, this looks like what I had in my head. I was even starting to map out how to make my own with JFETs with similar bias control but high voltage tube would be even better! And it is on sale. Thanks for the tip.

In your experience, does it hugely soften attack or give a bloomy vibe?

Definitely can do both if you want it to, but I usually dial it to keep the tone and attack of my clean bass intact

 

[OhulahanBass]

Well, I started off thinking I would get a few sub $150 drives and see which felt the best but now I think I am going to do a shoot out between the DCX Bass and the Singular Audio tube Drve. Both small, both capable of some asymmetry and even order harmonics, both capable of subtle grit, both with high praise.

I don’t think either pedal is particularly designed for front of chain but I don’t see a down side in putting them up front.

Any other suggestions for this tone quest?

 

[OhulahanBass]

I got a Tube Drve on the way. Looking forward to getting some even and assymetric harmonics in triode and more crunch in pentode. Before getting the DCX Bass I tried the UA 610 plugin and was not impressed. Perhaps it just isn’t the sound I’m going for. I will try to find time to mod Blumes for active bass and look for a pork and pickle to do a 4 pedal shoot out.

 

[OhulahanBass]

First impressions on the Tube Drve are positive. It is a nice tone enhancer with just a hair of grit in low gain-assym-triode. Low gain-assym-Pentode adds a bit more hair but overall same tone enhancement. It does what I want, lil tone enhancement plus some grit for filters-Phasers-flangers to grab onto. A great compact addition to my board.

If you turn it up to get more grit there is a perceived loss of lows, I sorta want todo some eq before and after experiments, I bet you could manipulate the saturation in lovely ways. In high gain I prefer my Plasma Colil and Octavius Squeezer by a good margin, the bass retention on those regardless of how much madness comes out of them is much better, but they can't get a nice sweet low gain tone like the Tube Drve which does sound great in subtle settings.

I have a Pork and Pickle on the way, plan to mod the Blumes for better active bass response and then I will have 4 saturators to compare for my front of line.

 

[OhulahanBass]

Singular Tube DRVE won out. It is the only pedal I tried that I like more than the 4ontheFloor. It is just so tasty in every gain setting and for triode and pent. High gain pent can even sound like a more controlled Plasma Coil with its sharp attach and breakup. Using my parametric mid on my J-retro preamps I can get it to focus nicely on some key frequencies to saturate then cut them at the end of the line with some bass boost and wow, it’s my tone but with nice saturation right where I want it. If I was performing live I would get two of these, one for low gain and one for medium, sticking to Plasma coil for high gain.

I think that is it for my Assym Saturation search. Thank you all for inputs!