What do you like for gritty overdrive?

Guitar pedals. If you need a fuzz tone, get a Boss DS-1. On bass, it's tasty and gritty as hell. You'll lose some bass response though (Obviously)

 

Well the DS-1 isn't really a fuzz, but I bought one to mod for gritty OD.

 

Whatever. I find the distortion descriptive words somewhat ambiguous

 

As always, it's hard to describe tone in words. I would consider the Blueberry with the tone at 1 o'clock and the gain at 3 o'clock or so to be "gritty" but I don't think that's what you're getting at here.

The HAO Rust Ride is called an overdrive and is very aggressive and crunchy. I personally don't consider it an overdrive though as it sounds (and I mean this in the best way possible) like a trash compactor.

I haven't played one myself, but you might want to check out the Electronix GeminiDrive. From the clips it sounds like it might be what you're looking for.

 

Judging by the clips I've heard of it, I would say the Catalinbread Hyperpak is in the "gritty" camp. And I think it sounds awesome. I've thought about picking one up for a while now

 

I have a 2-knob Hyperpak, and love it for guitar- it gives the clean channel on my Hot Rod Deluxe a nice tubey high gain crunch (the distortion channel on those is close to worthless). I tried it with my bass rig though, and it sounded like crap. I lost a significant amount of low end, and it wound up sounding like a can of bees- completely unlike how it sounds with guitar. YMMV, of course.

I just got a VT Bass pedal and although I haven't tried it with my bass rig yet (my band's on hiatus for another couple weeks), I think it's going to be a winner. Subtle growl to buzzsaw grind, with as much or as little low end as you want.

 

Fulltone OCD

 

Odd because I love the Hyperpak on Bass it's my go to distortion

 

It looks like he's got a solid state Thunderfunk and if I remember correctly you've got a tube amp. That's a pretty big difference for a pedal like the Hyperpak.

 

Yeah, dirt boxes are especially application dependent. I remember not understanding for the life of me why anyone would buy an MXR Distortion pedal, until I played with a guy who used one to kick his JTM45 into overdrive. Into a clean SS amp it sounded small and tinny, but it gave the Marshall a jet engine roar and nicely compressed sustain. Vive le difference!

 

DOD 250 i consider gritty. i enjoy all the forms, clones, and variations of it on bass.

 

EBS ValveDrive had ended my search for gritty.

 

Sounded pretty good on my Iamp800

 

I've had a lot of success lately with the BBE Green Screamer. With the tone at 0 it gives me some nice dirt w/o losing too much of the low end.

 

Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive here. Blend Knob offers complete control as far as I'm concerned. Wish the Tone knob was more dynamic on it.

 

Would it translate that most bass overdrives and distortions could be used for electric guitar, too?

I see and have seen many examples that are typically considered "guitar effect pedals" but have found comfortable acceptance in the bassist's universe.

Notwithstanding the many flavors of overdrive and distortion, for the bassist is it merely a matter of keeping the low end in tact?



Matt