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Slight overdrive

#41
To each their own! I do like the Ibby Bass Tube Screamer alot. It's my secret weapon when I am forced to use a backline I don't care for. I had a original Tube Screamer years ago when they first came out, great pedal for bass. I loaned it to a geetard never saw it again. I never head of the bottom booster how does that differ from the TS9B ?
 
#42
johnk_10 said:
yeah, that's the thing about the barbershop. when you turn it off you really miss it. it doesn't mess with your tone, just your dynamics. to me, it's the perfect pedal for making it sound like you've dialed in a tube amp into its sweet spot, and at any volume level. on top of that, I don't think that you can get a bad sound out of one.
Click to expand...

How does the Barbershop work after other dirt? does it help to round out fuzzes and distortions? or would a darker OD be better for that?

Thanks,
Jeremy
 
#45
Been lovin the barbershop on every gig. I use on a few tunes that I play with a pick. Such a nice and subtle grind. Haven't found anything that can touch it, for my tastes... Which is a super sutle "amp breaking up" overdrive. (VT bass & deluxe,phat phk, mxr80, sansamp gtr, among others...)
Anyway, I highly recommend the barbershop!
 
#46
godofthunder59 said:
To each their own! I do like the Ibby Bass Tube Screamer alot. It's my secret weapon when I am forced to use a backline I don't care for. I had a original Tube Screamer years ago when they first came out, great pedal for bass. I loaned it to a geetard never saw it again. I never head of the bottom booster how does that differ from the TS9B ?
Click to expand...

To be honest I'm not really sure how they differ (Ibanez isn't very specific on their site, and I can't seem to find any other info (even on guitar sites where they just say "it fattens up my signal"), but I can say that it seemed to me that the TS9B had more of an inherent "voice" to it that didn't seem to speak to me at the time. I found the BB9 to be a little more transparent when engaged, giving a decent low end boost, filling out some low-mid section, and adding the gain amount I wanted, but ultimately not coloring my tone that much - just adding some beef to it.

Maybe one of these days I'll record a side by side of these two - as it doesn't seem there is much info available.
 
#48
I think what I liked about the TS9B is that to me it sounded like a overdriven British tube amp, which more or less is my sound. I call it the "stack in a box" What works for me may not work for you.
 
#51
I'm a big fan of the Way Huge Porn Loin, been using one for a few months that I picked up for under $100 used.
Really retains the phatness of my dry sound, and adds anything from a little bit of nice grit to some almost distortion-like craziness. I love it.
Needed to do some tweaking of the internal trim pots to make it really love my basses, but it's a mainstay on my board now!
This barbershop sounds so intriguing tho...
 
#52
I am using a tube screamer in my metal band. I can get a clean tone when playing fingerstyle at the neck and can get a gritty tone when I pound strings heavily. Tube screamers are very responsive, my chain is this:
bass - split box - amp
_________|_____|
hipass 500hz hipass 500hz
_________|_____|
_______TS7 -----
 
#53
There are also two pretty small boutique makers doing SICK guitar pedals that also work VERY well with bass,
The JHS Morning Glory is a crazy nice overdrive that's really worth looking into, sound clips are equally as sick with guitar and bass. Def more expensive than my used pork loin, but worth it IMO
Also, the Emerson Custom Guitars EM-DRIVE is a top-notch transparent overdrive that sounds killer and can run at 9v or 18v, again made for guitar but no reason not to put it on a bass!
Anyway, if I find myself not worried about $$, and geeking out on multiple versions of the same effect (which I would def do), I'm buying that JHS!
 
#54
I checked out quite a few pedals trying to get a slight overdrive and happened on to the marshall guv'nor plus. It blends in the breakup very slowly instead of way to much too fast... And it has tons of bass available. Only downside is the treble isn't as bright as i'd like. But if you google it, there is a mod to remove a resistor that remedies this.. These can be found on ebay. Cheep
 
#55
Tomkat8 said:
I checked out quite a few pedals trying to get a slight overdrive and happened on to the marshall guv'nor plus. It blends in the breakup very slowly instead of way to much too fast... And it has tons of bass available. Only downside is the treble isn't as bright as i'd like. But if you google it, there is a mod to remove a resistor that remedies this.. These can be found on ebay. Cheep
Click to expand...

Oops. Cheap
 
#57
InternetAlias said:
I am using a tube screamer in my metal band. I can get a clean tone when playing fingerstyle at the neck and can get a gritty tone when I pound strings heavily. Tube screamers are very responsive, my chain is this:
bass - split box - amp
_________|_____|
hipass 500hz hipass 500hz
_________|_____|
_______TS7 -----
Click to expand...

Hey, can you tell us more about this "split box" of yours? It sounds like something I could use... Seems like it allows you to isolate frequencies?
 
#58
superHEAVYfunk said:
Hey, can you tell us more about this "split box" of yours? It sounds like something I could use... Seems like it allows you to isolate frequencies?
Click to expand...

Pretty much, yeah. It's handmade and it's really simple, it is a simple 10x10cm box with a switch, when it's on frequencies are divided, 0-500hz is one output, 500-20khz is the other. When it's off all frequencies simply go to the amp and therefore completely bypass the drive circuit. Notice, however, that doing this gives you a pretty unusual tone. Most pedals are built with an assumption that there will be a lot of low end signal coming into them and are built to compromise for this, if the signal that goes into them is highpassed @ 500 they will start behaving strangely, attack, percusiveness and sensitivity will be enhanced by a great deal and the 'buzzy' distorted sound of a sustaining distorted note will be gone, this can turn any heavy distortion into a slight drive in a way. The reason I recommend tube screamer is that it has a really natural breakup into distortion, so this 'attack' would not be as ear piercing as it would be on, say, a metal distortion pedal. The reason there's one more highpass after the drive is that if you have a sustaining note a drive circuit can make it extremely loud and you shouldn't want this (it can be terribly boomy live). I know this because I used to play through a screamer without limiting its bandwidth, this could cause terrible boom on sustaining notes (and if you are pretty loud already, this can break windows).
 
#59
I'd say Hardwire Tube Overdrive if you like a little mid scoop or the Hardwire Valve Drive if you don't. Or ideally, stack 'em like I like to do. While they can get gritty, they can also be 100% clean, so you should be able to get the amount of hair you're looking for. Also, they do a great job of tracking your dynamics. In other words, you can play with a light touch and get a nice warm tone, but then dig in and hear the pedal respond by adding a corresponding amount of grit. I'm really surprised by that aspect in particular given they are both under 100 bucks.
 
#60
I know the OP stated that he already has some natural tube-like OD from his amp, but the VTbass pedal sounds like it could be a good option. I think the drive on that pedal sounds great in a mix. There is, of course, the fact that it has a pretty powerful EQ section so it won't just "add" OD to your amp sound, but if you're using it strictly for OD, the "coloring" probably isn't an issue to begin with.
 

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