Handsdown best overdrive pedal for BASS??

[smawer]

Is it the fulltone bassdrive?

... has anyone a/bed the new mosfet version?


any other suggestions?

cheers guys!

[jokerjkny]

the fulldrive's nice, but didnt like the active input of my sadowsky basses.

i really like the ebs valvedrive, but frankly, ebs quality SUCKS. always has, seems like it always will. :( but man, the drive is awesome w/ that tube glowing back at you.

[okabass]

i really like the ebs valvedrive, but frankly, ebs quality SUCKS. always has, seems like it always will. :( but man, the drive is awesome w/ that tube glowing back at you.

I totally agree with the quality (or lack of it) of the ebs pedals and pre amp (vs1). Their repair service is awful at least here in Finland. Sweden is our neighbour country. Sorry to say, but this is my experience.

[Thor]

I have not tried the EBS drive pedal, but (knock on wood) - have not had any problems with my compressor, reverb, octive nor envelop filter.

I am a fan of the Fulltone BassDrive (have the old verson, and have not yet checked out he MOSFET version). I am intrigued by the DAM Ezekial as well as the BJFE Blueberry bass OD - unfortunately, they are both hard to find units with steep price tags.

Cheers,

Edward

[smawer]

hmm... the ebs looks like its built like a tank. and for that price tag... you'd think you'd get a lifetime product. .. this is for my mate's bass.. basically looking to achieve a much higher attack with a slint of overdrive/fuzz sound on the top... for a clearer, more aggressive sound.. not looking for the orion distortion sound if you know what i mean...

ill have a look at the DAM ... id be interested to hear what sort of sonic options you get with the bassdrive... my fear is it'll colour the natural sound and make it all muddy.

[jokerjkny]

hmm... the ebs looks like its built like a tank. and for that price tag... you'd think you'd get a lifetime product. .. this is for my mate's bass.. basically looking to achieve a much higher attack with a slint of overdrive/fuzz sound on the top... for a clearer, more aggressive sound.. not looking for the orion distortion sound if you know what i mean...

ill have a look at the DAM ... id be interested to hear what sort of sonic options you get with the bassdrive... my fear is it'll colour the natural sound and make it all muddy.

looks can be really deceiving.

heck, they're distributed by "brooklyn gear", and its near impossible to get good service even tho they're maybe an hour's (traffic clogged) drive from me, regardless.

[dillonfiore]

hmm... the ebs looks like its built like a tank. and for that price tag... you'd think you'd get a lifetime product. .. this is for my mate's bass.. basically looking to achieve a much higher attack with a slint of overdrive/fuzz sound on the top... for a clearer, more aggressive sound.. not looking for the orion distortion sound if you know what i mean...

ill have a look at the DAM ... id be interested to hear what sort of sonic options you get with the bassdrive... my fear is it'll colour the natural sound and make it all muddy.

I have the Fulltone Bass Drive. It has a switch to go from vintage to mosfet. I love it. I hated OD on bass until I played this one. Its not too muddy, though it can be if you want it to be. It really just took my sound and gave it some OD. I didnt lose any tone from it at all.

[SuperSoundMusic]

Fulltone fulldrive is great. the new mosfet version has a switch to go back to the original bass drive. mosfet is slightly more aggresive.

[tedzepplin]

Is it the fulltone bassdrive?


The bassist in my band had one and we didn't like it. From what I remember it sounded too much like a guitar overdrive.

Now he has an Electro Harmonix English Muffin.
It doesn't lose any low end and can gradually go from clean to growl.

But the best overdrive is when he plugs straight into his 70s Ampeg SVT.

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/2566/eenglishmuffn654yh8.jpg

[John Phillips]

The ProCo Juggernaut is great - and it sounds much better in a band mix than by itself, so it's easy to get a bad impression if you try it alone in a shop or at home. Its biggest flaw is that the two footswitches - which are pretty unnecessary anyway, unless you also use it as a loop-switcher - are too close together and slightly confusing in operation, if you're not concentrating.

I also have a Boss ODB-3, which is less great - it sounds pretty much like crap on its own, and although it does sound a lot better in context I still find it a bit thin-sounding. I tend to use it only for the mildest overdrive, with a lot of clean blended in. I have it on my board and not the ProCo though, because it's a lot smaller, and...

I use my Frantone The Sweet for heavy fuzz instead :).

The Juggernaut is my 'one pedal board' though, because it covers most of the ground of both of them with different settings.

[thunderbroom]

If your not into the Fulltone full drive you'd like the BJFE BBBOD it is the warmest bass overdrive i have ever played. i have two and would buy a third if i get a chance.

+1 on the Frantone Bass Sweet wild germanium fuzz.

[gainiac]

This is the easiest question (for me) I've seen here in a while!!!

The best?

Hands down?

Budda Phatbass Tube OD. You will not be disappointed.

http://www.budda.com/gear/epedals/phatbass.html

Absolutely astounding. Fer phuzz check out the Z-vex Wooly Mammoth.

[fyrwyr]

The bassist in my band (the band in which I am the guitarist NOT the bassist) has a custom 1 off Bass LovePedal that is killer! I want him to make me one now!!!

[ekoboy]

I have a ton of fuzz and distortion pedals for my bass rig. Love the DAM Ezekial - totally worth checking out. Also have an Occtone modded DS-1 that is pretty sweet. If you dig fuzz - check out the Freakshow Brown Rabbit. And the Malekko B:Assmaster is the total bomb - my new favortie toy.

[staplek]

i think the sans amp bass driver kicks ass. i use it primarily with a rick 4001 which sounds incredible, better than with my thunderbird. you can get that big tube sound and dial in varying amounts of OD.

[Bassomatic]

Fer phuzz check out the Z-vex Wooly Mammoth.

I love the Wooly Mammoth, too, but found I had to keep it *real* minimal for gigging situations. Too often I went for a slight adjustment and ended up in way-over-the-top land.

[Great King Rat]

i think the sans amp bass driver kicks ass. i use it primarily with a rick 4001 which sounds incredible, better than with my thunderbird. you can get that big tube sound and dial in varying amounts of OD.

:dude on the sans amp.

[jokerjkny]

woolly mammoth is great for passive basses, but is awful w/ active basses.

[king-albert]

I absolutely love the bass overdrive/fuzz i get from my Crowther Prunes & Custard. It's really different than the usual bass growl your hear.

[gainiac]

woolly mammoth is great for passive basses, but is awful w/ active basses.

That's why you need one of them fancy schmancy basses that does both!

[ABKB]

The bassist in my band had one and we didn't like it. From what I remember it sounded too much like a guitar overdrive.

Now he has an Electro Harmonix English Muffin.
It doesn't lose any low end and can gradually go from clean to growl.

But the best overdrive is when he plugs straight into his 70s Ampeg SVT.

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/2566/eenglishmuffn654yh8.jpg

+1, bass player in our band has one of these and it's the first bass od I have ever liked that I have heard. Dont know if it's the tubes warming things up or not but I like it however it works.

[Bassomatic]

woolly mammoth is great for passive basses, but is awful w/ active basses.

I was all passive at the time, if memory serves.

Actually, I am now, too (except for a Godin fretless conversion in process).

[Hansomatic]

This is the easiest question (for me) I've seen here in a while!!!

The best?

Hands down?

Budda Phatbass Tube OD. You will not be disappointed.

http://www.budda.com/gear/epedals/phatbass.html

Absolutely astounding. Fer phuzz check out the Z-vex Wooly Mammoth.Just bought one on fee-bay for $298. Plugged my Ken Smith into it - the other end into my Ampeg B15... hate it.

I guess I am looking for growl, not distortion. I am now considering an Avalon U5. Anybody using a U5 for edgier "flea-like" tone?

[n.j.]

My two favorites, but I only play passive basses, Precision and even older Precision.
- ZVex Woolly Mammoth: for over the top fuzzz, as mentioned.
- Expandora: on the bass setting it's fantastic, for light od to full on destruction on the "forbidden" setting. Plus it's cheep.

[gainiac]

Just bought one on fee-bay for $298. Plugged my Ken Smith into it - the other end into my Ampeg B15... hate it.

I guess I am looking for growl, not distortion. I am now considering an Avalon U5. Anybody using a U5 for edgier "flea-like" tone?


You're playing a Ken Smith and you need more "growl"?!?!?

I don't know what to tell ya!

[TedintheShed]

This is entirely dependant upon you bass, the tone you are trying to acheive and less so on your rig.

Personally, I'm a fan of the SBM, but I have 4 distortions/fuzzes on my pedal board.



Is it the fulltone bassdrive?

... has anyone a/bed the new mosfet version?


any other suggestions?

cheers guys!

[fordy]

hey hansomatic,

if you are not happy with your phatbass pedal...
i'd be happy to buy it from you.

email me

drofy1@mac.com

looking for one

[LL1]

not really a pedal but the ADA rack mount mb-1 has some great tube OD and distortion for bass. overall a nice unit.
I currently use the Wooly for a heavy fuzz and the Dam Zeke for OD,dist.,,,a very versitile pedal

[5stringwonder]

From the clips that I've heard, I'd say the BJFE Blueberry Bass OD. Still on the fence on whether to order one coz of the price but sure wish I had one.

[The Everlove]

+1 on the bjf, his stuff is great, I can't imagine any less for a bass pedal

[Hansomatic]

hey hansomatic,

if you are not happy with your phatbass pedal...
i'd be happy to buy it from you.

email me

drofy1@mac.com

looking for oneIt is now part of my guitar set-up. Probably one of the best guitar pedals I've heard - no loss on the low end - makes sense right?

[6AM]

When I was playing bass, I had a heck of a time finding a bass OD/fuzz pedal that sounded good. I was using a Fender Jazz with Aero Design pickups into an early 70s SVT into a vintage Ampeg 8x10 cab. I tried a few. The T-Rex Bass Juice, Frantone Lo-Tone, and Fulltone Bassdrive specifically. I found the T-Rex to be dull, lifeless, and too undefined. The Frantone was unusable. Way too much low end flub. The Fulltone Bassdrive was the best of the three. Ironically, the OD pedal I liked the most was actually the Fulltone OCD. It had the most pleasant midrange and it was perfectly aggressive.

[westrock]

I was pleasantly surprised with the Maxon 820 for over drive and the Maxon 830 for distortion.

[AlanHendrick]

I gotta agree with Staplek and Great King Rat. The Sansamp is useful for live shows, recording, and as a great bass stomp box. You can dial in solid growly tones or straight up fuzz if you want it. Great price to boot.

[Podgorny]

I've tried a lot of stuff on bass, from various guitar pedals (Big Muff is always fun) to bass-sepecific overdrive pedals (Woolly Mammoth, Sansamp, Blowtorch, etc.).

I keep coming back to the SIB Varidrive. It just works so well. I'm not sure it would be so well-suited to a live situation, because of its size and some of the odd settings that seem to just rock on bass.

But it's beat out a lot of pedals that bassists have brought to the studio.

[Antero]

The ZVEX Woolly Mammoth is amazing for bass as far as heavy fuzz goes. Devi Ever TP on the "crunch" setting for overdrive.

A Rat can also work very well. I bet a few mods could make it into an excellent bass distortion.

[RocketMusic]

The T-Rex BassJuice does it for me. The mix knob is killer, it lets you dial in some of your dry signal to keep the low end.

http://www.rocketmusic.net/images/1676.jpg