I'd highly recommend the EBS Multidrive for a subtle, slightly pushed amp type of OD. They're not very expensive, especially if you pick one up used, well made and simple, with a good tone. Just gain and volume, tons of volume boost on tap if that's your thing, and a few modes to pick from. I like the "STD" mode for mild OD most of the time, the "TUBESIM" mode is a little bassier and seems like it has some clean low pass in it. I have a vintage RAT (paired with a clean blend) and an OCD v4 and the EBS Multidrive is least "distortiony", as you put it. I like the other for a more aggressive overdrive/distortion, but the EBS is right in the sweet spot for mild to medium overdrive along the lines of a slightly pushed tube amp to my ear. There are a few other pedals I've wanted to try that have been described similarly, like the Fairfield Barbershop, but they're usually more expensive and have a bigger footprint as well. Little things like active/passive switch and the small size push the EBS way up the list of very useful low key overdrives for me. It's not the best thing for every OD usage, but I think it fits the bill for what you're describing, in my experience.
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Slight overdrive
- Thread starter mr.mow
- Start date
If turned sideways, the Barbershop tales no more space than a small MXR pedal including the jacks and plugs.
Love the Barbershop. Bought it based on John K's review and clips. It's an always-on pedal for me. As others have said, it gives that tubes-on-the-verge-of-breaking-up sound. Totally transparent. And after a while, it becomes such a part of your sound that it's difficult to detect -- until you switch it off.
Pork Loin is by far the best I've tried for slight overdrive and it can even do RAM type tones. Some say it's too dark but if you play with the internal and external clean blends you can actually get some treble boost or you can darken it up and get some low end boost. Absolutely love this thing, I could see turning it on all night for certain rock gigs. Been searching for a light distortion pedal that would give me the tone of MY bass but distorted and this is the closest I've found. Excellent in the mix without overwhelming the rest of the band.
Pedals I've tried-
VT Bass- Top end gets out of control easily for my cabs with tweeters. Sounded great if it was too loud in the mix but got lost when I was trying to keep my volume reasonable. Also it's just too much work trying to get it to sound good from room to room. A couple of the guitarist I work with flipped out about how great it sounded when they first heard it but agreed that it just got lost in the mix.
SFT- Kind cool but WAY too much low end roll off once I got the grit going even moderately. Great for B-15 ish tones. Too hard to find sweet spots for overdrive tones.
BB Preamp (guitar)- Love this after other effects and it does a nice job at light grit but just changes the original tone a bit too much. Any low or high end loss can bee eq'd back in with the bass and treble controls. I still have this on my board to use with my envelope filter and much preferred it's smooth overdrive to the bass version.
Bass BB Preamp- Not bad for ultra to low grit though I didn't love the sound of the overdrive. No lowend loss but it just got to snarly sounding in the mids once I pushed the gain.
MXR Bass Overdrive- Kinda like a Pork Loin with higher gain with a clean blend that's not at all clean...... with about 10 heavy blankets thrown over your amp..... and the amp in the next room.... or basement ... or house next door in the basement....
I kid, I kid 
but it is REALLY dark and the clean blend was worthless on mine. Really too bad it's so dark because the overdrive actually sounds great.
Pedals I've tried-
VT Bass- Top end gets out of control easily for my cabs with tweeters. Sounded great if it was too loud in the mix but got lost when I was trying to keep my volume reasonable. Also it's just too much work trying to get it to sound good from room to room. A couple of the guitarist I work with flipped out about how great it sounded when they first heard it but agreed that it just got lost in the mix.
SFT- Kind cool but WAY too much low end roll off once I got the grit going even moderately. Great for B-15 ish tones. Too hard to find sweet spots for overdrive tones.
BB Preamp (guitar)- Love this after other effects and it does a nice job at light grit but just changes the original tone a bit too much. Any low or high end loss can bee eq'd back in with the bass and treble controls. I still have this on my board to use with my envelope filter and much preferred it's smooth overdrive to the bass version.
Bass BB Preamp- Not bad for ultra to low grit though I didn't love the sound of the overdrive. No lowend loss but it just got to snarly sounding in the mids once I pushed the gain.
MXR Bass Overdrive- Kinda like a Pork Loin with higher gain with a clean blend that's not at all clean...... with about 10 heavy blankets thrown over your amp..... and the amp in the next room.... or basement ... or house next door in the basement....
I kid, I kid but it is REALLY dark and the clean blend was worthless on mine. Really too bad it's so dark because the overdrive actually sounds great.
Congrats! Always satisfying to get just what you're after.
A Barbershop is definitely in my future.
With side-mounted jacks you can however stagger the pedals with overlapping plugs, so you can only count one of the sides when comparing the effective width on a really tight pedal board. Thus the Barbershop will actually take up a little more space.
Yeah, that sounds pretty cool. I've always been interested in split signal processing. Would you have a schematic or layout available?
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,638
- Disclosures
- John K Custom Basses
With side-mounted jacks you can however stagger the pedals with overlapping plugs, so you can only count one of the sides when comparing the effective width on a really tight pedal board. Thus the Barbershop will actually take up a little more space.
that's why I made another one in a 1590B.
it'll be for sale in the TB classifieds later today since I don't really need two of them.
that's why I made another one in a 1590B.
it'll be for sale in the TB classifieds later today since I don't really need two of them.
Ga dang it. I wants. But I can't haves right now.
I have to withdraw my endorsement of BDPG. Unless you want it always on and can make up the gain after it, the loss of gain at low distortion is untenable.
So I couldn't resist but had to buy the Barbershop ... My initial impressions (after only a short listen, I should add):
The good: This pedal does something really interesting to the sound, at low drive settings it opens it up in a nice way without sounding distorted. It becomes obvious when you switch it off, something is missing. This could make it an always-on pedal. Can't wait to hear how this works with the band. More gain gives you a nice breakup.
The not so good: The pots are a bit scratchy, didn't expect that in a boutique pedal. I can live with it though, I'm not likely to touch the knobs much once my sound is dialed in. Hitting bypass creates a pop, not nice that either. There's hum if only the output is connected, but quitens with both input and output plugged in.
On low end loss: This pedal is supposed to be great at retaining lows, but it's not perfect to my ears. I hear *some* loss of lows, more than some of my other pedals, most notable with the B string that sounds a bit thin. When I first listened it was with studio monitors and that was not good, but it was better at higher volume with the bass amp. Blending with dry signal did not work very well for some reason, it made the sound thinner even with the phase switch in the better position. The enclosed user manual states that the low end of the frequency response is 45 Hz, which would help explain the weaker B.
All told, I'm not as blown away as I expected to be given the hype online, but this still looks like a keeper on account of the sound. I have some reservations on build quality, unwelcome noise and to some extent low end loss.
The good: This pedal does something really interesting to the sound, at low drive settings it opens it up in a nice way without sounding distorted. It becomes obvious when you switch it off, something is missing. This could make it an always-on pedal. Can't wait to hear how this works with the band. More gain gives you a nice breakup.
The not so good: The pots are a bit scratchy, didn't expect that in a boutique pedal. I can live with it though, I'm not likely to touch the knobs much once my sound is dialed in. Hitting bypass creates a pop, not nice that either. There's hum if only the output is connected, but quitens with both input and output plugged in.
On low end loss: This pedal is supposed to be great at retaining lows, but it's not perfect to my ears. I hear *some* loss of lows, more than some of my other pedals, most notable with the B string that sounds a bit thin. When I first listened it was with studio monitors and that was not good, but it was better at higher volume with the bass amp. Blending with dry signal did not work very well for some reason, it made the sound thinner even with the phase switch in the better position. The enclosed user manual states that the low end of the frequency response is 45 Hz, which would help explain the weaker B.
All told, I'm not as blown away as I expected to be given the hype online, but this still looks like a keeper on account of the sound. I have some reservations on build quality, unwelcome noise and to some extent low end loss.
I wrote a review of this pedal a few months back that mirrors yours. And yes there is a lot of hype thrown at pedals these days. The champion for hype is the B3K, but that's another story.
I just bought a Barbershop and a ss/bs Mini...can't wait to give them a try! Still looking for the perfect mild overdrive for my taste.
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,638
- Disclosures
- John K Custom Basses
