Bass distortion pedal?

[danbond]

Hi. Our bassist plays a J-bass into an Orange Bass Terror into a smallish 4x10 bass cab.

Typically he plays in both half-a-step-down tunings and also drop C#. When we recorded we used some distortion on the bass for the bigger chorus' and heavier parts of our set and it sounded awesome.

Can anyone recommend some bass distortions to try? It seems a lot strip out some bass frequencies which is the opposite of what we're trying to do!

Suggestions would be very welcome!

Dan

[Jondog]

awesomeness. you might have a hard time finding one, but there are lots of good clones out there.

http://www.zzounds.com/item--AMPSCPOD

[nguideau]

Not a bass guy myself, but I have heard the ZVex Wooly Mammoth used with guitar before and it sounds good. It is designed as a bass fuzz, so something you could check out. I'm sure someone like Teddy or Andy with gobs more experience will have some better picks for you, but figured I'd throw one out there for the heck of it.

[tony_clifton]

I have used a BB Bass Preamp with my P, Terror Bass and 2 112 cabs. Sounds better than turning up the gain on the TB beyond 12 o'clock (in my opinion). Definitly worth checking out.

[Randy Bass]

I can tell you that the Fender Sublime bass fuzz pedal seems to cut bass response a bit, so you might steer clear of that one. I am amazed that anyone would want to use a fuzz pedal with a Terror Bass though. It's got more gain on tap at any volume than any bass amp I've ever used.

[danbond]

Our bassist plays with the TB set pretty clean. The gain on the amp itself isn't exactly what i think we're looking for and you obviously can't switch between the 2 sounds anyway.

[MaxProphet]

once heard a bass player use one of these and it sounded great. really great

[Neiloler]

What about a distortion pedal for someone playing an active bass? I've honestly learned to hate active bass guitars... :S

[Borderline Productions]

Not a big fan of active bass either. They must be popular because all decent bass amps now have a switch to accommodate them.

Can you hear the fuzz on the bass in the mix? If not, why bother?

[everdrone]

is the pedal for a solid state head? if so, it isnt gonna be the cats pajamas. otherwise ya, pedals are sweet for bass if done right.

I have a 6 Line 6 Lowdown HD400 Pro Bass Guitar Amp Head

Grind
As the name would suggest, this is for the modern rock sound of the late '90s and the new millennium popular in bands like Alice in Chains, Mudvayne, and Rage Against The Machine. Based on a distorted SansAmp PSA-1 into an SVT with a direct clean bass signal mixed in, this model gives you that angry, clear, and punchy aggression that cuts through the mix and takes your sound to DEFCON 1.


I use it live and it emulates awesome cranked distorted bass that ADDS A TON to the mix, CROWD IS ENTHRALLED, especially if open back cab guitar. my solid state basses with pedals dont add as much to the mix, but sound great when the guitar is soloing or two octaves up for the guitar root notes.

[Le Chat Noir]

I am partial to the bass Big Muff, slabs of lovely fuzziness but it keeps the low end much better than the NYC or Russian.

[chimpboyjay1]

My friend plays through a Bass Terror and has a T Rex Bass Juice - sounds awesome!

[bassdrop]

Most people who hate active basses haven't heard a nice preamp and/or haven't heard one where the player hasn't boosted the ever-living crap out of the EQ. The 18 volt Aguilar preamp I have on my bass is very transparent and allows me to tweak in some extra goodness on the fly (very sparing use of the EQ is key).

The lower impedance output allows a wider bandwidth to pass through to the amp. Combine that with the fact that I've bypassed the volume knobs, and run the bass into a Radial BigMIX with it's Drag circuit, and I end up with this huge bassy tone, because the AD200 is also a very bassy amp. The Fulltone BassDrive 2 does cut some lows, but in my situation that's good. I run it at a pretty low gain and OD settings. What it does to the midrange is pure magic, too. There's a second boost on the Fulltone that can be kicked in for even more gain. But a good bit of the overdrive at either of those points is from all of the above goosing the front end of the AD200. And the distortion is an edge of breakup thing where single note bass lines are not audibly distorted unless I really dig in, but chords will send the tone into distortion (I'm in a power trio which lends itself to this type of tone)

My point here is that there are as many ways to color a bass tone with some type of distortion as there are for guitar and it all depends on what the goal is. If you simply want an overdrive type of sound without any bass loss look at a Fulltone OCD since it has even wider bandwidth than a Fulltone BassDrive. Also look at the James LoMenzo HyperDrive from Ashdown since you can blend clean and dirt together on the pedal itself. For full on fuzz, I'll second the ZVex Mammoth or the EHX Bass Muff- both great pedals.

[Neiloler]

where the player hasn't boosted the ever-living crap out of the EQ

This is me. So me. I'm talking about novice bass players using active bass guitars when I voice my gripes here. Used well they're great.

Bassdrop, what order do you set up your signal chain in when using fuzz/OD/dist pedals?

[jackincaves]

I've heard good things about the Fuzzrocious Oh See Demon