What's your favorite bass overdrive / fuzz?

[Chris P.]

What's your favorite bass overdrive / fuzz?

I used to use an Ibanez PD7. A bit metal-ish, but it had a nice fuzz or a clean boost. Both very usable. Now I have the EHX English Muff'n. It sounds great for bass. Only difficult to tweak. It works like a real amp. I a bass has a higher output, the Muff'n will overdrive more. Volume and gain affect eachother. The PD7 just does what it says and doesn't change with more or less input.

[hieronymous]

My two standbys are the Fulltone Bass Drive for plain distortion (though a mudbucker pushes it over into fuzz-land) and the Z Vex Woolly Mammoth for full-on fuzz. My favorite part of the Woolly Mammoth is the "pinch" control that acts as a noise gate at higher settings (and occasionally lets out little squirts). It is almost synth-like in its square-wave furriness.

[MattK]

I use a late-70's EH Big Muff. It's not perfect, but it works.

[n!k]

I use a Voodoo Lab Superfuzz. It's technically a guitar pedal (a clone of the 60's Jordan Bosstone fuzz) but it's got a few added controls that make it a really raunchy, broken-speaker bass fuzz.

[SKATE RAT]

ProCo  RAT II ..................i don't leave home without it.

[chromium]

I've been using a EHX English Muff'n too - that and the Orange head's own overdrive.

I have an old "rams head" Big Muff Pi too that I've had since I was a kid.  It's always been exceptionally noisy if the sustain knob is set to anything other than zero.  I think somthing is wrong with it.  I'm thinking about going thru and refreshing the caps, transistors, diodes - to see if I can get it to be a bit more useable.  Aside from the noise, I like the way it sounds.

[angrymatt]

I just picked up an English Muff'n last night (dirt cheap too, big sale at the local music store).  I was looking elseware until I heard your recordings a few weeks ago, so when the sale came I checked it out and fell in love.  I haven't quite found my sweet spot yet, but I'm sure it's in there somewhere.

What I have found I like about it is to back way off on the gain, and pump the volume.  Gives a nice, I don't know, crusty edge to the solid state tone of my ampeg.  I haven't really moved the bass/mid/treb knobs from the 12-o-clock position yet.  I have all night to play 

[Chris P.]

Nice! Keep us updated!

Normally I have the treble a bit to 12 O' Clock, mid at 12 and bass a bit over.
I tweek volume and gain a bit different per bass. Sometimes a want a fuzz and sometimes just a boost. 

[Basvarken]

By coincidence I've ordered a Technophobia BasScreamer Deluxe a few days ago.
I've never used any overdrive or fuzz pedal in my life.
Always just used the drive of my tube amp (Ampeg V4B, Ampeg SVT II Pro or Orange AD200)
I plan on using the BasScreamer as boost / drive / blend.
Only for those parts in our songs where our guitarist shifts into higher gear for his solo...

[aluminumcatfish]

I use an old Tube Works Blue Tube pedal.

[Bart!]

By coincidence I've ordered a Technophobia BasScreamer Deluxe a few days ago.

I was interested in that one too, let us know what you think of it when it has arrived!
Thanks to the dollar I could order a new Fulltone Bassdrive for a better price than a secondhanded one over here. I can`t wait...

[Chris P.]

I heard some things the guy from Technofobia made and I like it. It's a guy from basvarkens hometown and he's nice and he knows where he talks about. He mods pedals and makes them himself.

[Barklessdog]

I love my Black Big Muff

But everyone at Talkbass raves about the B:ass Master.

Ed Friedland did a review on Youtube somewhere

[angrymatt]

I've been curious about a B:ass Master myself.  The Brass Master patch on my Pod is fun to play with, but not really usable for either of my projects, so I think it would be a waste of my money at this point to buy one.

Also on my Pod, I've had a lot of fun with the Boss Metal Zone patch (It's called Killer Z or something).  Pull that up, and as long as I'm the only one there, it feels like I'm channeling Burton.  If someone is there... well... I just feel like a jerk with way too much distortion.

[Barklessdog]

Here-



After watching the clip again, I remember why!

Here is a clip of Ralphe Armstrong using the old version- around 2:59 with a Gibson Victory