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Stoner/Doom Bassists Thread, Part 90: Maxed Out

#62,601
Random poll time - if you had to buckle down and only have 3 dirt pedals on your board (one each of overdrive, distortion, and fuzz), what would they be? I'm trying to downsize the board for simplicity's sake and go with a "less is more" approach this year in an attempt to tweak knobs less and play more. Still keeping these pedals that I'm removing from my boards, but going to continue trying to get rid of others over the course of the year. Anyway, here's what I've got, and I'm open to suggestions. Really, I need to figure out which distortions I want, as I'm pretty set on my OD and Fuzzes for now.

Board 1:
Overdrive: ODB Clone
Distortion 1: MBD-2
Distortion 2: Volt Thrower Clone
Distortion 3: Bear Amps Heavier Metal (HM-2 clone)
Fuzz: Priestess

Board 2:
Overdrive: ODB Clone (or maybe my old GK Rails Pedal or Pork Loin for a different tone)
Distortion 1: Ibanez PD7
Distortion 2: Bass Mountain
Distortion 3: Arion Metal Master (HM-2 clone)
Fuzz: CMC Effects Bubble Font

Really, I think it's between my "Rats" (VT and Bass Mountain) and my "Modern Metal" (MBD and PD7) tones, as realistically, I know I don't need the HM-2s...

So Doom Room - what would you do? Which pedals of mine would you keep on the board? Which of your pedals would you use? Let's talk some dirt!
 
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#62,604
I wish I'd come across any of those other pedals to try but honestly, I've been pretty well set with what I have for a while now. Most of the pedals I have on my bass board...actually, all...are guitar pedals that just happen to work well for bass. I need to get myself a Rat clone one of these days but I'm looking at a refret for my Ripper and the days of $175 refrets are long, long gone. These days, in my area, it's gonna be $500.
 
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#62,605
kleinenenten said:
Random poll time - if you had to buckle down and only have 3 dirt pedals on your board (one each of overdrive, distortion, and fuzz), what would they be? I'm trying to downsize the board for simplicity's sake and go with a "less is more" approach this year in an attempt to tweak knobs less and play more. Still keeping these pedals that I'm removing from my boards, but going to continue trying to get rid of others over the course of the year. Anyway, here's what I've got, and I'm open to suggestions. Really, I need to figure out which distortions I want, as I'm pretty set on my OD and Fuzzes for now.

Board 1:
Overdrive: ODB Clone
Distortion 1: MBD-2
Distortion 2: Volt Thrower Clone
Distortion 3: Bear Amps Heavier Metal (HM-2 clone)
Fuzz: Priestess

Board 2:
Overdrive: ODB Clone (or maybe my old GK Rails Pedal or Pork Loin for a different tone)
Distortion 1: Ibanez PD7
Distortion 2: Bass Mountain
Distortion 3: Arion Metal Master (HM-2 clone)
Fuzz: CMC Effects Bubble Font

Really, I think it's between my "Rats" (VT and Bass Mountain) and my "Modern Metal" (MBD and PD7) tones, as realistically, I know I don't need the HM-2s...

So Doom Room - what would you do? Which pedals of mine would you keep on the board? Which of your pedals would you use? Let's talk some dirt!
Click to expand...
If you don't count an always on Rusty Box, I use an MBD3 (which is always on, but I do use the boost frequently) and I've been swapping two other pedals. The fuzz has lately been going back and forth between a Broughton Calamity and a johnK Blackbeard. The distortion has been either a Spite Box or a Bass Power Distorter, but they don't see much use. I have a couple of other pedals to try out and I think I may be in the market for octave up fuzz.
 
#62,606
davedamage said:
If you don't count an always on Rusty Box, I use an MBD3 (which is always on, but I do use the boost frequently) and I've been swapping two other pedals. The fuzz has lately been going back and forth between a Broughton Calamity and a johnK Blackbeard. The distortion has been either a Spite Box or a Bass Power Distorter, but they don't see much use. I have a couple of other pedals to try out and I think I may be in the market for octave up fuzz.
Click to expand...
So your MBD is used for overdrive? Mine is definitely in distortion territory. I've always been intrigued by Blackbeard, but hear they are incredibly similar to my trusty Pharaoh Supreme, so have not tried to go down that specific fuzz rabbit hole...

For now, I think I'm settled. I've got ODB/GK Rails for OD, MBD2/PD7 for distortion, and Priestess/CMC Bubble Font for fuzz. Enough variation between boards to have two different tones for each dirt, but also to cover the same ground tonally in a song. Digging it! I briefly went utilitarian, then saw the yawning gaps in my pedal board space and quickly had to fill those, so I kept off the "extra" dirt and added back in a chorus. May just have the spot be my "fun" pedal spot, as I don't think I'll use chorus much, but I also wouldn't be using flanger, phaser, or vibrato much either, so I can swap those all willy-nilly when I want. Still have less dirt than before, but probably more usable tones overall! And my board is better organized and easier to swap things in/out. A great success overall!

I also reduced the fuzz (10:30ish) and tone (noon) on my fuzzes. Digging those tones so much, not that I wasn't before, but it always amazes me how many times a good pedal just sounds good on so many settings.
 
#62,607
Formula73 said:
I wish I'd come across any of those other pedals to try but honestly, I've been pretty well set with what I have for a while now. Most of the pedals I have on my bass board...actually, all...are guitar pedals that just happen to work well for bass. I need to get myself a Rat clone one of these days but I'm looking at a refret for my Ripper and the days of $175 refrets are long, long gone. These days, in my area, it's gonna be $500.
Click to expand...
Oof. I've got an old bass that may need a refret soon. I'm hoping to get it to last a while yet. It's my first bass, so nothing fancy, but lots of sentimental value.
 
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#62,608
kleinenenten said:
Oof. I've got an old bass that may need a refret soon. I'm hoping to get it to last a while yet. It's my first bass, so nothing fancy, but lots of sentimental value.
Click to expand...
Yeah man. It sucks. Hopefully it’ll be the last refret I ever get on fkn anything…without doing it myself. I’ve done it once and decided it was worth paying somebody else, but that was 20yrs and $300 less price tag.
 
#62,609
Random (possibly dumb) question time - do different OpAmps produce noticeable changes in EQ/volume/gain for a pedal? I bought a pedal from a builder a few years ago, and love it. He had a second one for sale again a few months ago, so I bought a second. The second requires vastly different EQ/volume/gain settings to get almost identical tones. I cannot seem to get identical tones. He has told me that he used a slightly different OpAmp in #2, and has sent me a few OpAmps to swap in/out of the socket (including one that matches what is in pedal #1). But it's blowing my mind how different the settings must be, especially for OpAmps that are supposed to behave identically. For reference, treble is about 2.5 "hours" higher, gain around 2 "hours" higher, and volume about 2 "hours" lower. The distorted tone is slightly different overall as well, with a touch more fuzz in the top end and slightly more compressed, but I'm pretty sure that is to be expected with a different OpAmp. Anyway, I guess it's still delayed in the mail system that is still backlogged after the massive storm. Hopefully I get the OpAmps this week and can test it out next weekend!
 
#62,611
Huh, the alerts thing is weird on my phone. I hadn't had a heads up for this thread in like a week. Got some catch up work I think.

Anyway. I shoulda grabbed a link, but woah, just ran into some mind boggling stuff. I don't care for politics at all, but I don't think I'll ever buy anything Devi. Just stumbled on a collage of her postings on ilovefuzz.com. regardless of where someone stands, that was some vile stuff. Reminds me of CoD trash talk taken way too far from back in the day.

Hopefully I'm not stepping into grey areas for tb posting material.

more on topic @br1qbat, finally got a chance to try an ace tone. I see what you mean, it's a hell of a fuzz on bass. Similar to a SF, but different.
20250121_185500.jpg
 
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#62,612
Novarocker said:
Huh, the alerts thing is weird on my phone. I hadn't had a heads up for this thread in like a week. Got some catch up work I think.

Anyway. I shoulda grabbed a link, but woah, just ran into some mind boggling stuff. I don't care for politics at all, but I don't think I'll ever buy anything Devi. Just stumbled on a collage of her postings on ilovefuzz.com. regardless of where someone stands, that was some vile stuff. Reminds me of CoD trash talk taken way too far from back in the day.

Hopefully I'm not stepping into grey areas for tb posting material.

more on topic @br1qbat, finally got a chance to try an ace tone. I see what you mean, it's a hell of a fuzz on bass. Similar to a SF, but different.
View attachment 7137354
Click to expand...
Yeah, that Devi thing went real bad, real fast. I vaguely remember it going down. It was a fkn mess.

Staying away from it is probably best lol
 
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#62,614
Man I wish I wasn't broke, be killer to try one.

@kleinenenten idk, but i know parts tolerances for not just pots but also everything else can come into play. How much so, I've no idea.

kleinenenten said:
Random poll time - if you had to buckle down and only have 3 dirt pedals on your board (one each of overdrive, distortion, and fuzz), what would they be? I'm trying to downsize the board for simplicity's sake and go with a "less is more" approach this year in an attempt to tweak knobs less and play more. Still keeping these pedals that I'm removing from my boards, but going to continue trying to get rid of others over the course of the year. Anyway, here's what I've got, and I'm open to suggestions. Really, I need to figure out which distortions I want, as I'm pretty set on my OD and Fuzzes for now.

Board 1:
Overdrive: ODB Clone
Distortion 1: MBD-2
Distortion 2: Volt Thrower Clone
Distortion 3: Bear Amps Heavier Metal (HM-2 clone)
Fuzz: Priestess

Board 2:
Overdrive: ODB Clone (or maybe my old GK Rails Pedal or Pork Loin for a different tone)
Distortion 1: Ibanez PD7
Distortion 2: Bass Mountain
Distortion 3: Arion Metal Master (HM-2 clone)
Fuzz: CMC Effects Bubble Font

Really, I think it's between my "Rats" (VT and Bass Mountain) and my "Modern Metal" (MBD and PD7) tones, as realistically, I know I don't need the HM-2s...

So Doom Room - what would you do? Which pedals of mine would you keep on the board? Which of your pedals would you use? Let's talk some dirt!
Click to expand...

I mean, idk keep the a rat on one (volt or mountain). For the other, I'd probably keep the pd7 because it can stack or an hm-2 variant.

I mostly just use my heavy weapon for dirt, the two sides run parallel so "stacking" or on their own gives some solid variations. I do also have a spires (FF/Fuzzrite) that I'll use sometimes in conjunction with one or both sides of the heavy weapon.

I love muffs, and I'm currently torn between the box of war, tri pie, and warlow. I have a '78 and it's great, but not really what you'd want for bass. The warlow is tons of fun, lots of lowend, but can get splatty on the lows.the war is outstanding in the mids and lows, but where I like it I feel like it's get lost in the mix. The tri pie is more scooped, but in a spot where it seems to stand out when played with drums and doesn't lose out on lows where I have it set. Honestly, I'll probably flip most of them, but get them again someday down the line as I'm a borderline pedal hoarder that just wants to try too much.
 
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#62,615
I noodled a bit on my 5 string Ibanez GSRM25 Mikro Bass, that I named "Mr. Growly - The Noodlemancer", tuned in G# standard tuning (as in one half step bellow the 4 upper strings of a 6 string bas, through my "amp-less" setup, recorded directly into a hand held Zoom recorder:


1738235927067.png
 
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#62,616
Ritter667 said:
I noodled a bit on my 5 string Ibanez GSRM25 Mikro Bass, that I named "Mr. Growly - The Noodlemancer", tuned in G# standard tuning (as in one half step bellow the 4 upper strings of a 6 string bas in regular B standard tuning), through my "amp-less" setup, recorded directly into a hand held Zoom recorder:
View attachment 7138926

View attachment 7138927
Click to expand...
And more noodling:
 
#62,617
kleinenenten said:
Random poll time - if you had to buckle down and only have 3 dirt pedals on your board (one each of overdrive, distortion, and fuzz), what would they be? I'm trying to downsize the board for simplicity's sake and go with a "less is more" approach this year in an attempt to tweak knobs less and play more. Still keeping these pedals that I'm removing from my boards, but going to continue trying to get rid of others over the course of the year. Anyway, here's what I've got, and I'm open to suggestions. Really, I need to figure out which distortions I want, as I'm pretty set on my OD and Fuzzes for now.

Board 1:
Overdrive: ODB Clone
Distortion 1: MBD-2
Distortion 2: Volt Thrower Clone
Distortion 3: Bear Amps Heavier Metal (HM-2 clone)
Fuzz: Priestess

Board 2:
Overdrive: ODB Clone (or maybe my old GK Rails Pedal or Pork Loin for a different tone)
Distortion 1: Ibanez PD7
Distortion 2: Bass Mountain
Distortion 3: Arion Metal Master (HM-2 clone)
Fuzz: CMC Effects Bubble Font

Really, I think it's between my "Rats" (VT and Bass Mountain) and my "Modern Metal" (MBD and PD7) tones, as realistically, I know I don't need the HM-2s...

So Doom Room - what would you do? Which pedals of mine would you keep on the board? Which of your pedals would you use? Let's talk some dirt!
Click to expand...
I’ve been off the thread for a while. For context, what is the main bass that you are running through this?
 
#62,618
So, NBD that’s really been a monthlong project that I just got done with during a snow day. Got a 2014 Fender Modern Player Jazz 5 Satin (with the Roscoe Beck-like pickups) and installed a Kellingsound custom 8 position varitone blender circuit with series/parallel and phase options. Given that this model is equipped with humbuckers, I added two mini-toggles for each pickup to run coil 1-humbucker series-coil 2. So this combination gives a ridiculous number of tonal options. This is entirely passive, so my pedalboard serves any necessary boost requirements for those occasional nasal out-of-phase settings with the push pull pots.

Finally ran it through a 3-hour jam session and it can do everything and then some. One of the settings gives off a very convincing T-bird/Ripper neck pickup sound with the varitone at a certain position. It’s too bad these basses are rare because I will need to build a backup.

Pic 1 is NBD
Pic 2 is after the control plate upgrade.

IMG_2621.jpeg

IMG_2765.jpeg
 
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#62,619
Kawai2g4b said:
I’ve been off the thread for a while. For context, what is the main bass that you are running through this?
Click to expand...
Ibanez SR505 with an upgraded Bart NTMB preamp, all through either a GK 400RB-IV or 700RB-II and a Neo 410 cab.

I've also already put my "Rats" back on, because I had an extra spot on my daisy chain... But am still thinking I may just use my "chorus" spot for flavor of the month effects like flange/phaser/chorus/vibrato etc. So I'm still getting more tones overall. AND my board is far better organized now, so that's a big plus.
 
#62,620
kleinenenten said:
Ibanez SR505 with an upgraded Bart NTMB preamp, all through either a GK 400RB-IV or 700RB-II and a Neo 410 cab.

I've also already put my "Rats" back on, because I had an extra spot on my daisy chain... But am still thinking I may just use my "chorus" spot for flavor of the month effects like flange/phaser/chorus/vibrato etc. So I'm still getting more tones overall. AND my board is far better organized now, so that's a big plus.
Click to expand...
Board 1
 

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