Bass distortion pedal?

[Pete27]

check out the catalinbread SFT. designed for guitar but great for bass.

[heytrid]

This.

[Le Chat Noir]

Nah - honestly, the Bass Big Muff kills all other EHX Muff variants for bass. I've tried most of the current or recent production ones including that black Russian, NYC, green Russian, Little Big, Double etc... the Bass Big Muff is the best for bass, hands down, because the others kill your low end unless you use a looper/blender or a biamped rig.

This.

[heytrid]

Seems to keep my low end fine, maybe with a bass big muff ther ewill be more though.

I will have to try the bass big muff if I ever see one kicking around for sale.

[bassdrop]

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?

Yeah, a lot of the cheap actives will destroy whatever tone is actually in the pickups, regardless of settings. All bass players not willing to fork over the dough for something nice should just stay passive. I only ever through a slight bass boost on and maybe a bit of treble depending on the room and how old the strings are.

As far as the path, I run into the Radial Big Mix first, then the EHX Bass Micro Synth (which has blendable fuzz), then the Fulltone, with a Polytune at the end of the board. It sounds best this way to have the OD after the Synth since it makes the filter sweep really pop. The Fulltone is set with gain 8:30, tone at noon, OD at 9:00. Just enough to color it up a bit, but not an out and out fart-fest. I'd also like to add a dedicated octave pedal at some point too- either an EBS or Aguilar.

[Colonel Sanders]

I quite like the Sansamp VTbass pedal. But having recently tied the Sansamp DI bass driver, I quite like the ''blend'' option which help not loosing the bottom end. The Bass Big Muff also have something similar but you can't adjust the actual blend level, which you can with the Sansamp.

I prefer the Sansamp over the Big Muff as it is closer to the Chris Squire type of distortion over the Big Muff.

If I can ever nail the distortion that Tim Cummerford has on Roll Right (Evil Empire) I will be a happy camper.

[baytamusic]

Sansamp is what you want.

[a.hun]

Sansamp is what you want.

Yep, probably the best option. Other than having a dedicated Orange 'Overdrive'!

BTW on active basses, my main live bass - an old fretless Aria, has an active preamp. But it just has simple bass / treble controls which I use to set up different balances for the different p/up selections, neck, bridge or both. No big boosts, no problem.

I also have an active Jazz which is great for modern sounds, but things can get OTT if you aren't careful. With good passive p/ups you don't need active circuitry, but since basses (and bass amps) are much more dependant on EQ for setting up your basic sounds I say hang the rules, use the tools! If it works...


Andy.

[Colonel Sanders]

Yep, probably the best option. Other than having a dedicated Orange 'Overdrive'!

Andy.

I bought my AD200B as a dedicated overdrive channel. I ended up only using this amp. The Eden WT550 I used for the clean channel is now retired.

I don't even miss my early 70ies Ampeg SVT anymore...

[bassdrop]

Yep, probably the best option. Other than having a dedicated Orange 'Overdrive'!

Andy.

I bought my AD200B as a dedicated overdrive channel. I ended up only using this amp. The Eden WT550 I used for the clean channel is now retired.

I don't even miss my early 70ies Ampeg SVT anymore...

I did that for the first couple of years of owning the AD200, but I began to need a way to go back and forth between clean and OD sounds on the fly and also not risk blowing the rest of the band away with 200+ watts of full on British valve distortion

[a.hun]

Well my OR120M 'Overdrive' head was my main (as in only) bass amp for many years. I used to fit it with valves specifically to stay as clean as possible as long as possible. (Not very long then!) But having bought the Hiwatt 100 I'll have the luxury of using the Orange purely for adding some overdrive to clean sounds from the Hiwatt which should be a lot of fun in the right situation. To this end since clean headroom is no longer an issue I've bunged old Mullard preamp valves into the Orange which also make it a lot better sounding for guitar than what I used before.

I'll almost certainly use an ABY for the two amps and frankly I don't really see myself having to push either amp desperately hard. Like you say 200+W of valve power is enough to get noticed! Alternatives for smaller situations will be 1. just using the Orange alone for old times sake or 2. using the Hiwatt alone putting something like a Sansamp through one of its two independant channels for drive sounds. Then I could still mix clean and dirty sounds to taste. (My friend John P used the amp for recording his stereo Ricky bass that way, one p/up per channel with some drive on the bridge one - most cool!)

Bit frustrating right now though as I'm not actively gigging at present so I've never yet tried the two amps together 'in anger'. (Still need a better second bass cab too.) Could gig (I'm good enough to be asked often enough! ) but I got more than a bit fed up hauling my gear around just to play the same old songs time after time. I want to work with people who aren't into stagnating that way but want to actually create something new and good or at least work on different songs regularly. I need to actually enjoy making music to put in the effort these days. It has to be fun!!! If just doing an occasional standard pub gig or whatever I've only been using my 100W Ampeg B-100R combo which does just fine and is less hassle for me than head / cabs.
[/pretentious muso moan session]


Andy.