What's your favorite bass overdrive / fuzz?

SKATE RAT · August 01, 2008, 10:23:43 PM

i love my Rat pedal. it sounds great with my G3 and my P-bass.both single coils. its not so great with my humbucker basses.its too dark.i've been thinking about the Russian Big Muff.

Granny Gremlin · August 07, 2008, 09:41:17 AM

I actually like the Boss Dual Overdrive pedal to add crunch to a slightly overdriven tube amp. When recording I sometimes daisy-chain the 2 channels on a Bellari tube mic pre instead.

Bernardduur · August 15, 2008, 03:35:26 AM

Quote from: Granny Gremlin on August 07, 2008, 09:41:17 AM
I actually like the Boss Dual Overdrive pedal to add crunch to a slightly overdriven tube amp. When recording I sometimes daisy-chain the 2 channels on a Bellari tube mic pre instead.

+1! The SD-2 is my most used OD pedal! Although I must say that I remodelled the Crunch circuit to mimic a bass tubescreamer for some more mid emphasis!

Pilgrim · August 18, 2008, 09:16:28 AM

Awright, awright....NOW see what you guys did!!

I went to Ebay and bought an SD-2 pedal over the weekend.

You guys are a TERRIBLE influence on me. $:-\$

Freuds_Cat · August 18, 2008, 09:47:40 PM

Quote from: Pilgrim on August 18, 2008, 09:16:28 AM
Awright, awright....NOW see what you guys did!!

I went to Ebay and bought an SD-2 pedal over the weekend.

You guys are a TERRIBLE influence on me. $:-\$

And.........?

what does it sound like?

Pilgrim · August 20, 2008, 11:17:13 AM

It's not here yet...probably late this week.

Pilgrim · August 27, 2008, 01:49:53 PM

The pedal came in last night - about 10 minutes before I had to leave for a practice. And I only realized today that it's an OS-2, not an SD-2.

Y'know, one of these days I just might have to try literacy. I'm thinkin' it might be a plus.

I only got about 2 minutes to mess with it during practice....

Comments so far:

1) There seem to be some good sounds in there
2) I need time to crank the knob back and forth between overdrive and distortion to tell the difference according to Boss
3) The darn thing is very sensitive to RF. It had a real hum problem while I was working with it briefly last night - but so did my ODB-3. maybe it was just the proximity to my amp.

I must experiment more. I will procure cold beer and proceed. The pedal's here, so I might as well 'speriment.

Freuds_Cat · August 27, 2008, 06:30:26 PM

You definitely will not get any accurate deductions without beer. Tried road testing gear without beer myself ......... Doesn't work.

Pilgrim · August 27, 2008, 07:40:58 PM

New term: "Beerduction"....

Pilgrim · September 06, 2008, 08:33:46 PM

OK, I just bought a used SD-2. It should arrive late this coming week.

When it arrives, I shall use beerduction....and sell the OS-2 on Ebay.

Sheesh.

Freuds_Cat · September 08, 2008, 01:19:01 AM

And the quest for tone goes on.....

rodl2005 · September 11, 2008, 09:15:40 PM

I use a Humphrey Audio Badder Bass Monkey!!! Its a MODDED Digitech Bad monkey Tube Overdrive. Can get 'em on US Ebay-approx $90 !!!

I used to use a black Big Muff(russian one) & I still use that for over the top sustain........but the Badder BM Is a BEAUTY!!!!!! Sounds like a tube amp on OD!! My fave thing about it is it's ease of use! Where the Big Muff- you touch the sustain or gain & the volume goes thru the roof, so U gotta compensate for that..... & so on......

The Badder Bass Monkey- turn up gain & U get more OD -NOT VOLUME!!!! Turn up VOLUME & U get more VOLUME!!!!!

It has BASS & TREBLE controls also & U lose NO BASS/bottom end, so for overdrive- like the big muff sounding-ragged & rough, but easy to control & great for tube OD sounds!
ONE flaw-IMO- with drive(gain) OFF, it still gives a fair bit of OD(not a lot) I'd personally like there to be virtually NONE in the off pos.
Still- a GREAT pedal -especially at the $$$$$

Pilgrim · September 12, 2008, 02:47:23 PM

Quote from: Freuds_Cat on September 08, 2008, 01:19:01 AM
And the quest for tone goes on.....

Could be. Actually I rather like to play with different overdrive/distortion/fuzz pedals, even though I don't use them much. I've found that buying and selling used pedals generally doesn't cost a lot in the turnaround...mainly shipping and a few bucks plus or minus.

Perhaps one of them will "grab" me one of these days. Wish the guy I bought the SD-2 from on the 5th would get it delivered. Once I say that in public, it'll probably be waiting at home this evening.

Freuds_Cat · September 14, 2008, 05:37:10 AM

My SWR IOD preamp is going through the hoops for me at the moment. As I mentioned earlier in this thread it uses 2 EL84's and one 12AX7.

The EL84s are where the distortion comes from giving the player output tube distortion which I cant get from my Ampeg Preamp. I've been running 2 JJ's in it and find them a bit one dimensional. Wall of sound, but lacks air and sparkle. They go from clean to dirty in a nudge too which is a bit annoying. The idea from my perspective is to dial in the Drive control to the point where I can play normally with a clean but warm sound and as I play the strings harder the distortion starts to ramp up.

I just bought a pair of Raytheon grey plates. Waiting for them to arrive. I'm a bit of a fan of Raytheon tubes. Cant wait to hear 'em.

Bernardduur · September 14, 2008, 02:20:49 PM

I LOVE the SWR IOD! Build one myself a long time ago........

The only problem I had was that all OD came from the powertubes; they ignored the OD that comes from the phase inverter (phase inverter = SS). It would be a more awesome OD if they added a phase inverter tube!

(as most OD you hear comes from the PI; power tubes only add to the sound with the volume on full

)