Bass Distortion Question

[adambilz]

Howdy! My bass player has a Stingray and wants to get a big distorted tone. Right now he uses the MXR Yellow distortion pedal, so he's looking for a bigger sound than that. We are a trio (bass, guitar, drums) and need the fullest sound possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated! It's a rock type band if that helps.
Thanks!

 

[Randracula]

Howdy! My bass player has a Stingray and wants to get a big distorted tone. Right now he uses the MXR Yellow distortion pedal, so he's looking for a bigger sound than that. We are a trio (bass, guitar, drums) and need the fullest sound possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated! It's a rock type band if that helps.
Thanks!

Fulltone Bass Drive....

 

[Psychicpet]

I'm test driving an Ashdown Bass Drive +

the 'balance' control is great, I'm getting a pretty gnarly buzz saw and by turning the Dist Tone you can get it nice and lo and deep but fuzzy
anywho, is lots of fun,looks sweet, is rugged and inexpensive

 

[EasyTiger]

get him to buy an Aguilar AG500

 

[strummer]

get him to buy an Aguilar AG500

+1!

I don't use the channel, though, I use A EBS Multidrive in parallell. That's fat stuff right there!

Anyway, a good idea is to have the possibility of mixing distortion channel with clean.

 

[Dees]

Ebs!

 

[Psychicpet]

... or a Marshall Guv'nor, I'm pretty sure that's what Tim Commerford used for quite a while with RATM.

 

[adambilz]

Thanks for the input so far guys, I'll run these by him, I can only hope that any store in this entire state sells anything like those pedals!! It'd be nice to try them out first, but it's so hard to find anything that's not necessarily commercial these days. I can't even find an EB Petrucci anymore in MA, I have to go to CT. Thanks goodness for Dubaldo music!

 

[Motojunkie]

All of the recommendations so far have been good ones. If he's on a budget, the Ibanez PD7 Phat-Hed is a pretty good option.

 

[Lazybite]

Big muff is a good cheap option... pretty versatile.... used by the masses.... for the best tone imho get the russian... the only issue I have had with the russian is that the workmanship can be a bit shoddy

 

[barkatozz]

If you really want to get radical.....get a ProCo Rat distortion.

 

[Jazzbassman23]

+1 on the Big Muff as a lower priced alternative. Doesn't drop the bottom out like a lot of distortion pedals.

 

[roballanson]

Been using the Boss bass distortion pedal for a couple of years now and never had any complaints.......my guitarist does because it creates a wonderful amount of feedback.....
Oh and its bright yellow so he will not get confused.
If not have a bash with the Ashdown pedal - heard very good things so far.

 

[Dr. Nick]

I've got an Ibanez Phat-head...it's okay, I guess, but I really want to try some of the the other options listed here...the Ibenhad doesn't allow you to mix distorted and clean signals, so it can get pretty fizzy, if you know what I mean...I don't think I've used it in a couple of months!

 

[KennethB]

I've used an old Ibanez Tubescreamer for years. It's the only pedal that I've tried that doesn't take out a huge part of the low end in my sound, so I like it. It not perfect, though. I think if you really want get into distorted bass tones the "two amp- route" is the way to go, like what Tim Commerford's been doing the last decade. He's the "king of distortion" for bass as far as I'm concerned. Lots of luck...

 

[florin]

Sans Amp Bass Driver D.I., can have a pretty nice distorted sound, with no "lo cut" at all.

 

[Dr. Nick]

I've used an old Ibanez Tubescreamer for years. It's the only pedal that I've tried that doesn't take out a huge part of the low end in my sound, so I like it. It not perfect, though....

Funny you should mention the Tubescreamer...I just picked up a TS9-DX yesterday for my guitar rig. Great for guitar and not bad for bass, either! A lot better than the Phat-hed....

 

[Aussie Mark]

+ 1 on the Big Muff or an old (or modded new) Ibanez TS

 

[syciprider]

Ampeg SVT.

 

[0557]

MXR Blowtorch, tailors the mids without taking the low end.