Distortion Pedal

[rddodier35]

Hey everyone,


I have been looking into buying a good sounding distortion pedal for the bass...What are you all using or what would you all reccommend me trying out? Thanks.

 

[strummer]

I have an EBS pedal, that can work in three different modes. The "flat" mode sucks out all the bass, like a guitar pedal. The other two work fine, sounding a bit different. The distortion is ok, but not as good as the dirty channel on my AG500.

 

[j rug]

I've got an Electro-Harmonix English Muff'n that I use for a mild overdrive, but I did swap the stock tubes with 12ax7s and that thing will go way over the top. I really like that pedal.

 

[nls666]

I use the the Boss ODB3 overdrive for bass... I use it to give my signal a boost every once in a while, but IMHO it's not the best sounding distortion when cranking the gain/overdrive. The bass dissappears and the overdrive gets static. It sounds good blended with the signal of my tube amp though...

I'm getting a Sansamp BDDI in a few days that I'm going to use for mild overdrive...

 

[StingRayzor]

Fulltone BassDrive. I have been using mine for close to four years. The low end of my signal never gets lost. It also has two levels of distortion available at any given time. I set mine to a nice little grind on one setting and the other to full on distortion. Built like a tank, never had a problem, true bypass switch, etc.

 

[high mileage]

Fulltone here too, at 18v (with a Dunlop DC brick power supply).

 

[thebillion]

Fulltone Bassdrive for me as well. excellent pedal.

 

[StingRayzor]

Hey high mileage, I would really like to try the 18v option. How much of a difference have you noticed and in what way?

 

[LowDownDave]

I don't use either of them in a band setting, but I've got the Marshall Guv'nor and the EH Big Muff (though I still haven't found the distorted sound I have in my head). I really wanted to try the EBS Multidrive, but I lost out last week while trying to win one on ebay. If you ever want to offload yours Strummer, then let me know!

I'll have to give the Bassdrive and English Muff'n a try. I'm starting to think that what I'm really after is a tube overdrive sound which is why I'm unable to reproduce it, but having just purchased my new amp, a tube-containing pedal may be just what I need. I want that Danko Jones/Nomeansno sound, but I guess it may just not be possible with the setup I have. I'll keep searching.

 

[roballanson]

Boss ODB3 for me....never found any problems with it. Had to muck about with it ffor a while to find the right sound but I dont have any bottom end loss with it...and it gives me some startling feedback when I need it - just to worry the guitarist

 

[plato]

I've used the EH Big muff for ages, just couldn't find something quite like it and I guess I'm so used to it that I stopped looking.
But no matter what you use always split the signal to have a bypass + distortion fed to the amp.
Check out the X-Blender from Xotic Effects, this unit blends any effect chain with your bypassed tone.

 

[JimB52]

Sovtek Big Muff Pi

 

[mike not fat]

I'm using a Digitech Overdrive. Cool stuff, with a wide range of sounds, built like a tank and not too pricy.

MNF

 

[high mileage]

Hey high mileage, I would really like to try the 18v option. How much of a difference have you noticed and in what way?

It sounds a lot bigger and fuller - not sure how else to describe it. It's worth the cash I spent for the Dunlop ($100) anyway. You can wire two batteries together to try it out - instructions at Fulltone's site. A quick trip to Radio Shack and $5 should get take care of it but I only use AC for it and the Dunlop is one of the only (might be one other) power supply that has both 9v and 18v outputs. Like Fulltone says, there are do's and don'ts with how to set it up but no modification necessary to the pedal, just plug it in.