Gain pedals

[morrow]

Since I’ve been fooling around with the BassVI I’m starting to think that some pedal overdrive might be fun . This will be more for fun at home than for gigs . The gigs require an warm old school thump and I have that pretty much covered .
So I was looking at various pedals and just discovered this the other day . Andy Field reunited with Jeff Genzler and Scott Andres to come up with it . He said it was like getting the old band back together .
It has four different drive levels , and high and low pass filters . The layout looks simple and intuitive for a fairly sophisticated pedal .
I’m still in the research phase , I’ll probably get something after Christmas …

[Pilgrim]

That one intrigues me too!

[morrow]

I found a place in Ottawa that seemed to have a better price than the others , and don’t have to worry about import fees or duties , so I would up ordering one yesterday . I was initially looking at Darkglass , but they seemed to be more about that modern metal crunch rather than an old school tube distortion . So I think this was aimed at my preferences . The more research I did , the more I liked it .
Who knows , it might even get some time with my bar rig . I don’t normally use pedals .

[Pilgrim]

To me, the challenge with OD or distortion is getting it without losing note definition.  It always seems to me that the more aggressive the distortion setting is on bass, the less definition on the note attack there is.

[D.M.N.]

I've been using a Menatone PIG pedal for gain and overdrive for a few months now, and highly recommend it, with the caveat of me running it in a stereo set-up, so that I have clean lows with the PIG blended in. It's based on the Marshall 200, and has a very good grit and natural sounding drive, to all out distortion, but I feel it retains note definition well. I find often times with bass overdrive pedals the highs end up sounding fizzy, or like there is a fizzy fuzz overlaid on-top of the bass's actual sound, but with the Amp-In-A-Box style, I find it sounds less like an effect and more just like the bass through a pushed amp. Like the amp it's based on, it has a Master Gain, Bass Gain, and Treble Gain, plus a master volume. It's pretty good on its own, but using it blended with the clean, it really shines, and allows you to keep your lows well defined. I've also used the Maxon DS-830 in a similar capacity, and it's great too, plus it's easily modded to retain more lows.