What Overdrive pedals are you using?

[loopee]

Interestingly enough, the Spark into the Beta is a killer combo. Let me 'splain!

Don't let me scare you with this statement, but the Beta can be a farty/raspy pedal. It all depends on how hot your signal is. A high output bass will sound farty on the Beta, but not ungodly farty like an SFT or Barabershop. If you go through the Spark first and lower the level going into the Beta, you'll get a nice fat warm growl with an almost 3D like character that the Spark by itself can't do. I do think the Spark is a fantastic sounding warm overdrive (it handily beat the Barbershop, Blueberry, and SFT for me) but the Beta has so much character. Moral of the story...experiment a little bit.

by lowering the level on the Spark do you mean below unity then use the Beta's volume to up it?

 

[chaak]

i) Darkglass Vintage Microtubes for that driven amp, vintage Ampeg sounds, and for slight gain.

ii) Darkglass B3K for in your face overdrive, distortion settings.

iii) Crowther Audio Prunes and Custards for that weird driven almost fuzz like with overdrive tones and envelop filter approach and to create synth like tones in combination with an MXR Bass Octave Deluxe and a Moog Ring Modulator.

iv) RMI Basswitch Sonic Spark (it can act as an overdrive, but a very subtle one, I love this pedal it sits after everything else in my signal chain and right before the compressor, and it's magical)

 

[Fuzzbass]

I usually play active P-style basses, but I have a couple of passives I really love. I also have a couple of MM style basses (active, of course).

I haven't tried 'em all (very far from it), but I've been doing lots of research this year, and here are my favorites:

Darkglass B7K: Tilts toward the modern end of the tone spectrum, but amazingly versatile

Darkglass Vintage Deluxe: as you'd surmise, tilts toward vintage tones, also versatile

VFE Triumvirate: three band overdrive, you can adjust OD on treble, midrange, and bass frequencies separately. Capable of crazy synth-style sounds, but I use it for dirty highs and clean lows+mids -- it gets tones similar enough to a stereo clean/dirty rig

Ashdown LoMenzo Hyperdrive: very cool and underrated pedal that allows you to overdrive a sweepable band of midrange frequencies (goes from low mid into the treble range, actually). It's capable of heavier OD, but I use the Mix control to dial in somewhat-subtle always-on midrange distortion that sits great in the mix

Empress Multidrive has three channels: Fuzz, Overdrive, and Distortion. Sure, you can select just one channel, but the cool feature is that you can blend two or three together however you like. Also, each channel can be run lowpass, highpass, or full range! I typically use heavy Distortion on my highs, and blend that with the Overdrive channel run clean or with very light OD -- as with the VFE, it simulates a stereo clean/dirty rig. Despite my TB username I don't use fuzz when I gig, but that channel is fun to play with at home

Fairly recent additions...

Idiotbox Blower Box: RAT style OD with 2-band EQ, capable of absolutely outrageous distortion, but I realized that it also sounds killer as always-on low gain OD. Wouldn't say it's transparent, but the shimmery grind on top is wonderful IMO.

JohnK Foundry: designed by Jared Lash, it's a Blueberry Bass OD clone going into a Submarine clone. I guess it's a little dark like the Blueberry, but it's a mostly neutral OD that sounds especially good with my passive P5.

Creation Audio Grizzly Bass: a funny-lookin' pedal for sure, but sounds amazingly tube-like, and is tonally versatile: hi cut, mid scoop, overdrive channel, distortion channel. Despite that versatility, it can easily be set for transparency and subtlety: most people here recommend the Fairfield Barbershop for that, but some say the FFBS does not play well with actives, and I mostly play actives, so I ruled it out. The brilliance of the Grizzly is that it remains transparent and subtle (or even entirely clean) with my hottest active. Each of the controls I mentioned can be turned totally off... you can create different flavors, but aren't locked into any of them.

Darkglass B7K Ultra: If you love your B7K then I wouldn't say you have to move up (I am keeping mine), and if you don't like the B7K then this won't interest you, but the new features add a LOT of tweakability.