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Slight overdrive

mr.mow

mr.mow

Feb 11, 2009
999
368
Melbourne
Disclosures
Endorsing Artist: BBE/G&L Basses
#1
I'm after a slight grit overdrive.
I tried the MXR OD and found it was too 'distortiony', I'm running a GK Fusion 550 which has a nice tubey OD naturally, but I'm looking for something to kick on that will take it just over the edge into fat, ever so slight gritty hairiness.

So when the guitarist goes for the solo I can kick it in and fill out the space with some fat p'd off bass.
Or is an OD even what I'm after? A gritty boost?

Obtuse enough?!
 
#2
It's a quest many have embarked on ... many, many threads here about slight overdrive, a touch of overdrive, just some hair on the sound, etc ... while waiting for folks to chime in with their favorites, do try a search because there are many discussions on this topic already.

I've tried a couple of different pedals but not found that holy grail just yet. :)

I don't much like the MXR either, or the Darkglass VMT for that matter, something about the midrange and slight loss of punch doesn't agree with me. Best for me so far is the Empress Multidrive, expensive but very versatile and with an EQ so you can add back sound that is lost to the overdrive, and the Wampler Euphoria/Ecstacy that has a bit grittier but very transparent overdrive. On order is a Pigtronix Bass FAT Drive which I hope will give me a darker and "ballsier" overdrive than the aforementioned. I briefly tried the Way Huge Pork Loin as well, that was not bad after some tweaking, but still not quite right to my ears.

Overdrive/distortion seems very personal though, so if you can, do listen to a couple of different pedals yourself, preferably using your own bass and amp.
 
#4
Just got a BDPG, just the ticket. I could wind up with two of them!
The Red Dragon has a more mild mannered tone profile going by the youtube demo from Tim Watson but the just beyond clean on the BDPG is very fine and responds to attack nicely. I think a volume pedal after it would be quite handy.

EDIT, I got around to integrating BDPG into my pedalboard this morning and it's disappointing. The Low distortion tone is inaccessable as an effect without having makeup gain after it coming on at the same time.
 
#10
One thing about blending though, to me the sound is sometimes not "one" so to speak. I haven't tried the EBS pedal so I can't speak on that, but in some other cases I don't like the blended sound as the clean and dirty signals don't quite meld nicely but actually sounds like two different sounds playing in unison.

I could be imagining this course, sometimes you hear what you expect or want to hear. I may well fail a blind test. :p
 
#12
I use a Fulltone OCD.. I wanted just that... Slight OD.. not fuzz.. the DarkGlass seems cool.. I never played it though.. and i think i may be cooler than the OCD.. But the OCD sounds like an amp just starting to get to the edge of breaking up... and responds nicely.. it has a feel to it...
 
#13
Hi, I use a Joyo Ultimate Drive (sometimes described as a cheaper OCD clone) combined with a "Fat" setting on my SansAmp BDDI thru a 2x10 neo cabinet. I get a mild to moderate overdrive w/o sounding crunchy. I use it on songs like Hot Blooded, American Band, Welcome to the Jungle, and I Love Rock & Roll.
 
#14
I recently went on the same quest. I bought:

OCD
MultiDrive
Blueberry
Vintage Microtubes
SFT
PorkLoin
Spark Booster
Agro

I liked all of them for the most part except the OCD. One of the worst, most dissapointing pedals I've ever used. Usually I can understand why someone would like a pedal even if it's not what I'm looking for. Not the OCD.

Anyway, like I said most of these I really liked but I was specifically looking for something with a fat, soft, ever so slight distortion. Something to take the edge off but add a little bit of hair. The three pedals that did this wonderfully were:

Catalinbread SFT
Way Huge Pork Loin
TC Spark Booster

The one I kept was the SFT. I would have been happy with any of these three, honestly. They all did exactly what I wanted. I did not keep the Spark Booster because I prefer the footswitch that the SFT and the Pork Loin use. I did not keep the Pork Loin because of it's size. So that narrowed it down to the SFT. If you have the room, don't overlook the Pork Loin. If you can deal with the little footswitch, don't overlook the Spark Booster, which is probably the most versatile pedal I've used. I think SFT can 'out fat' any of them though, thanks to the Bandaxall tone stack it uses. Give it 18volts and stand back!
 
#15
Downunderwonder said:
They mostly gave up on the NSFW name and went with the acronym I think, unless you want the full on Broke etc paintjob. Mine has a very rough BDPG, maybe screened on.
Click to expand...

False. BDPG is easier to type, especially at work. It's still called "Broke Dick Peanut Gallery.


Site is up. Our server was under maintenance.
 
#16
I tested out probably a dozen pedals for recently for similar purposes. Right now I primarily use a Marshall Jackhammer on the overdrive setting for a moderately gritty boost (although it can do lighter) or a Blackeye Effects Palmetto Boost for very very slight grit with a bit of extra treble. I also recommend the Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive as an in-between option.

Some others I tried include the Mad Prof Blueberry (couldn't dial in a good low end + grit combo), Fulltone OCD (same), Darkglass VMT (couldn't make it sound $250 better than my old Jackhammer), Source Audio Multiwave (too synthy), Dr. Scientist The Elements (great overall pedal but not as good as others for light OD), and Fuzzrocious BDPG (similar general character to the Palmetto Boost but did not work well with my EQ settings).
 
#19
I have a MarkBass tube compressor that actually has a great bit of overdrive that is very attack/volume dependant. Wasn't expecting it, but it works pretty well. My BG250 TC Electronics amp has the TubeDrive effect.. you can get it as a pedal too. That is also a great warm gritty bit of distortion depending on how you set it up. It's not a fuzz or anything heavy.. you can configure it to be clean until you get a certain level of attack on your point and then it starts gritting up a bit. I like them both.
 

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