Recommend me a bass overdrive please.

[marqueemoon]

Thanks, everyone. I just realized I have a SHO-esque boost kicking around. Maybe this pushing my “always on” boost will give me the touch of extra grit and midrange I’m looking for. If it works compact SHO clones are pretty easy to come by.

[Shadoweclipse13]

I've never heard a SHO with bass? Sound good there too?

[beauzooka]

The SHO experiment should be interesting. How well it works will be dependent on how the preamp in your bass amp clips when hit by the hot signal from the SHO.
You have a GK head, if I recall correctly? Good luck!

[marqueemoon]

The SHO experiment should be interesting. How well it works will be dependent on how the preamp in your bass amp clips when hit by the hot signal from the SHO.
You have a GK head, if I recall correctly? Good luck!

Yeah, I have an 800RB on long term loan. I'm thinking I'll eventually buy a 400RB as I don't need the headroom/biamping capabilities of the 800.

I'm giving the preamp a little push with a compressor and another boost already. Naturally I left the pedal I wanted to try at home instead of bringing it to practice tonight

[Invader Zim]

Boss ODB-3.

[Kinx]

Darkglass stuff (Alpha Omega) is also very nice. I spent couple of years researching a "proper" distorted bass sound (I really love Tim Commerford from RATM, for sound reference) and I ended up with one always-on bass amp and one distorted guitar amp - the guitar amp was behind AB splitter and signal went into it only when I wanted distortion, so it was basically an A+B rig with B being on for the heavy parts. This prevented the low end from disappearing, which happened with most overdrive or distortion pedals.

Since both KHDK and Darkglass pedals have the proper midrange eq and wet/dry blend control, they tend to work similar with the right cab.

[s_mcsleazy]

bass soul food.

tbh i've always wanted to try the rusty box. might build one sometime.

[somanytoys]

Darkglass stuff (Alpha Omega) is also very nice. I spent couple of years researching a "proper" distorted bass sound (I really love Tim Commerford from RATM, for sound reference) and I ended up with one always-on bass amp and one distorted guitar amp - the guitar amp was behind AB splitter and signal went into it only when I wanted distortion, so it was basically an A+B rig with B being on for the heavy parts. This prevented the low end from disappearing, which happened with most overdrive or distortion pedals.

Since both KHDK and Darkglass pedals have the proper midrange eq and wet/dry blend control, they tend to work similar with the right cab.

I've always liked Tim's playing and his sound. I've found that separation of signals, amps and speakers is definitely the way to go to get a nice, defined sound where one sound doesn't step on the other.

That's pretty much the scenario that the dUg Pinnick pedal is based on. He used to use a clean bass amp and a guitar amp that was distorted, and this pedal is what was sort of the distillation from that setup. He beta tested it in a tour across Europe, only bringing the pedal and using whatever backline amps were available. I tend to prefer it as a preamp, going directly into a power amp, or plugged into the receive of the effects loop of a regular amp.

I normally tend to just use multiple bass amps, one set to clean or at least semi-clean with a lot of lows, and another amp to give me the more distorted sounds. That way it matters less if the others have less bass, but that's also why I use the versions of the Jext Telez pedals that I use, because they use specific transistors that produce/allow much more bass than the other versions. I typically leave both on all the time because it gives it a nice depth, but it's usually it's a loop that I've recorded that's playing, and I'm playing guitar against that. I do switch the distortion on and off when I play bass in New Orleans, for the dynamics that help the music.

[somanytoys]

bass soul food.

tbh i've always wanted to try the rusty box. might build one sometime.

I really like it. It does a great job of sounding like the Traynor TS-50B. I don't think you'd regret it.

[jorri]

Fulltone OCD does me fine for bass overdrives. I've not tried an actual bass overdrive that works well. Its also got a touch of Rat (vs. bluesdriver) but entirely flat on the LP switch position, preserves the bass because it distorts those frequencies less so no need of a blender.

[Lobsterdeth]

i always recommend people just drive their amps, bass od pedals have always been hit or miss for me
with that said, the acapulco gold might be really hairy and fuzzy but i've found that it cuts through the mix no problem when i'm playing with my band
sho should work fine too
there's this mexican pedal brand called paradox and they make an ampeg v4 in a box called "terran" which sounds really good on bass too and has a ton of options to not lose your low end and stuff

[Spitshaded]

One of the best overdriven bass tones I've heard live was from a band I played a show with once (wish I could remember the name). I asked him how he got his tone & he said he just used a Wren & Cuff Phat Phuk B. I don't think they have a clean blend, but the tone was super full, growly & didn't sacrifice any low end or clarity. I think Wren & Cuff offers a clean blend option on all of their pedals too (could be wrong on that). I also really like the Wren & Cuff Pickle Pie B, which is a bass voiced Muff that does have a stock clean blend on it.

[marqueemoon]

That Wren & Cuff looks pretty cool. The demo on their site is pretty bad though.

[Spitshaded]

That Wren & Cuff looks pretty cool. The demo on their site is pretty bad though.

Yeah their own demos are pretty weak. I forgot another one to check out would be the Big Game Pedals Cvlt Deluxe/Solace State. They're based on the Peavey f800, which is the amp used for the bass tone for Death From Above 1979.

https://www.biggamepedals.com/products

[marqueemoon]

Thanks, everyone. I just realized I have a SHO-esque boost kicking around. Maybe this pushing my “always on” boost will give me the touch of extra grit and midrange I’m looking for. If it works compact SHO clones are pretty easy to come by.

This was way too subtle as it turned out.