Distortion sucked my low end out!

[TwoFingerz]

Hello everyone, just signed up bout an hour ago or so and I must say seems like everyone has lots of good things to say, so with that in mind, here's my question:

 

Does anyone know where to get a good distortion pedal? I lose my lows on about everything I've played... splitting my signals would work but I can't afford that. I also would like some more effects like a chorus and some things like that... anyone got some ideas on what might help or what sounds good?

[bassarama19]

Are you using a guitar distortion or a bass one??

 

Bass distortion pedals, at least the good ones, are made to maintain your lows, where guitar pedals will suck your lows out.

[JohnS]

Tell us more about what kind of set up you are using. This needs to be known to help your situation.

 

Welcome to the lowdown

[Scoot]

I (and several others here) have said it a few times now, but the best distortion pedal I've ever used is the Fulltone BassDrive. It's very versitile, simple, and loses zero low-end. Mr. Claber will be on shortly to agree.

 

Edit: Here\'s some reviews from Harmony Central, looks like they like it too.

[Mike R.]

I use the Original Marshall Guv'Nor with this, http://www.loooper.com/loooper.html

 

I know you said you dont have the money to spend for this but if you save up this is pretty good.

 

And welcome to lowdown

[Mr. Phil]

Well, you can try NOT STEALING MY AVATAR!!!!

 

I use a Zoom 708 multi FX pedal, and I get some pretty decent distortions from it, although they aren't the best.

 

WELCOME TO THE LOWDOWN!!!

[getz out]

I'm a big fan of Tech 21 NYC products.

 

I use a SansAmp BDDI in front of a SansAmp GT-2.

 

If I want light SVT-esque grind, I switch on the BDDI. If I want to kick it up a notch, I blow the doors off with the GT-2.

 

They are as thick and juicy as you want if you set them up properly.

[Fear of Napalm]

How is the Fulltone BassDrive's gain? Alot of the bass pedals I've heard are very warm sounding but dont seem to have a ton of punch to them or they sound to thin. I really want something with a nice tube sound to it but also enough gain to sound monstruous. Ive asked before but no one here has seemed to play one and there are very few reviews on it, but by any chance has anyone played a GK Diesel Dawg? The Wooly Mammoth pedal sounds great but I dont see myself shelling out $250 for a pedal. Of course peoples opinions will vary (i.e. a jazz players idea of a good bass overdrive will be different than someone into rock or metal.)

[PETE_COMBS]

Try buying a bass chorus pedal for about 50 bucks,its going to give you more of a higher pitch sound,but your better of buying a cheap ZOOM bass pedal,you'll find some lowend,distortion and some effects,will work good for awhile.

[Mr. Phil]

Originally posted by PETE_COMBS:

Try buying a bass chorus pedal for about 50 bucks,its going to give you more of a higher pitch sound,but your better of buying a cheap ZOOM bass pedal,you'll find some lowend,distortion and some effects,will work good for awhile.

Hey my fx pedal wasnt that cheap! It serves me well. kinda. Its not built that great, and the power jack is totaly shot, so I run on batteries, and the output jack is starting to go. NOT GOOD! I have some gigs coming up in a couple months.

[g.]

The discontinued Digitech BP-8 acts as pretty good preamp with some really good bass-oriented tube overdrives and high-gain distortions, though it doesn't do the thinner guitaristic sounds at all. In the bargain at the prices they are going for you get a lot of other high quality effects and great EQ, and even a crossover should you be so inclined.

[alexclaber]

Originally posted by Scootdog:

I (and several others here) have said it a few times now, but the best distortion pedal I've ever used is the Fulltone BassDrive. It's very versitile, simple, and loses zero low-end. Mr. Claber will be on shortly to agree.[/url]

I agree. It's also really well built and feels well worth the high price. However, with the Digitech BP-8 being available so cheaply secondhand, if you fancy having more than just distortion I'd track one of those down instead.

 

Alex

 

P.S. I also love the tone of my (black Russian) Big Muff - unfortunately it's a lottery as to whether you'll get one that doesn't break within weeks.

[bc_dup1]

I keep reading about these cheap BP-8s but never see one on sale!!

[alexclaber]

Originally posted by bc:

I keep reading about these cheap BP-8s but never see one on sale!!

This one recently sold on eBay.com:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2566071439&category=41419

 

Next time a new bass multi-FX comes onto the market watch all the old ones get sold as people 'upgrade'!

 

Alex

[bc_dup1]

OK, Alex, but will ship to US only, and no buyers with less than 10 feedback - that disqualified me twice over!!

 

I'm playing in an electronica band and am the only musician with no effects. Starting to feel I should do my bit. The Roland V Bass quite appeals (my guitarist has the guitar version and it is great). Problem is, expensive and you then have to find a bass to modify to play through it -I'd want something (nearly) as playable as my high-end basses but a lot cheaper since the bass's sound presumably won't matter and the modification will not enhance its value.

 

If I could get something like the BP-8 cheaply that might be an alternative/stop-gap measure.

[Ayatollah Watts]

where you from in MD?

[alexclaber]

Originally posted by bc:

I'm playing in an electronica band and am the only musician with no effects. Starting to feel I should do my bit. The Roland V Bass quite appeals (my guitarist has the guitar version and it is great).

I'm rather sceptical about the V-bass, the user interface looks very unfriendly and I wouldn't want to stick that great big pickup on my bass. TBFKAG appears to have one, maybe he'll offer his opinion.

 

For a wide variety of synth noises I'd recommend the Akai Deep Impact - great tracking, 9 programmable patches, true bypass and lots of fat sounds.

 

Alex

[doc taz]

For now, I use the distortions on my Digitech BP200, a bass multiFX unit. Most of the distortions from that unit don't suck out the lows too much. I've heard good things about the BOSS Bass Overdrive, which incorporates a blend knob, so you can mix in a clean signal with the distorted one. There's also something called the Diesel Dawg . I thought that was some kind of a joke...

 

I've also had good luck with a couple of BOSS' metal pedals, a HM-3 Hyper Metal, and the MT-2 Metal Zone.

[g.]

I've been using the Roland V-Bass live ever since I got it, spending the first week writing four super-patches that could do everything I needed - and then some - for a night's worth of tunes.

 

It tracks wonderfully on my Carvin LB-75 fretless, and the two combined sound like a zillion bucks. I drilled three small holes have never looked back. My install is solid and can handle the rigors of crowded stages in clubs full of drunks just as well as anything can be expected to, and I find it easy to perform with.

 

The V-Bass if nothing else is a great bass preamp; it has incredible signal-to-noise, tone control and transparence, and can output enough voltage to practically drive speakers by itself! ; } ...And my bass sound is tremendously detailed and fluid - I can morph it easily while I play because it isn't just effects (though it has super nice ones).

 

I send it directly to a one-rack-space Peavey DPC-1400X running in bridged mode for 1400 watts at 14 pounds. The remaining three spaces in my rack are used to house a high-quality surge protector, cables, bass stand, and the V-bass floor unit when I am in transit.

[craigb]

My suggestion is . . .

 

split your signal.

 

No wait - you probably can afford it because I'm not talking about using 2 amps (although you could if you wanted, I guess). I use a Boss LS-2 pedal (~$80 @ MF) for this. It has several modes where it does different things - but basically it has 2 "loops" that you can select/combine. So for my use I use it like a 2-channel mixer where when it is selected I mix my input signal with an effected signal, and when it is not selected it just passes my input signal on through.

 

Essentially it gives me a dry/wet effects blend before my DI. I use it with a Zoom BFX-708 (a low-end sucker if ever I met one) and adding in the LS-2 just made a huge difference, particularly because in my band we all go through the PA and the bottom was just dropping out of my bass sound (really noticeable since we added a subwoofer) whenever I kicked in an effect.

[g.]

To get back on track, the V-Bass has awesome overdrives and distortions of every variety. But like any multieffect (which is only a subset of the V-Bass's ability), it begs to be programmed by each person to reflect their tastes and individuality, and the rig they are driving.

 

It works best into high-end PA-like "transparent" rigs with real power amps and cabs like Euphonic Audio, Ampeg Extremes (discontinued), Acmes, Whappos, etc so that it can easiest assume its many possible personalities. If your rig colors the sound too much it acts like a filter in too many frequency areas to allow all its rig simulations to be totally convincing.

 

It is easy to program, the interface is incredibly well-thought-out for something this deep (only one or two quibbles here) - though it helps to get it up on a small table when you are building patches. The factory patches are merely good starting points for your own, which will be much more flexible and controllable and dynamic.

 

With one bass, one rack space, the pickup and control module on my bass, and the floor unit, and a mulit-way cab, I have the most flexible firepower that can be had in such a simple setup.

 

But if you don't program some patches yourself - even just three or four - you will just end up with some not-quite-satisfying gimmicks, I think. Of course I feel that is the key to any multi-effects unit on the market, as well...

[g.]

What are Digitech BP-8 units going for on eBay these days? I'll sell mine for that (I don't need a spare), including a spare audiophile tube (6556 I think) which some people prefer over the rest of the AX7 family. These units are built like a tank, really flexible, and put out a professional-quality signal regardless of what effects are in use or bypassed.

 

Whatever custom patches are in there are good, and I can help anyone get the best out of it for how they want it to sound. I even built some programming sheets for it that aid greatly in exploring and leveraging it.

 

If you are new here, some of the old-timers will probably vouch for me :  }

[SteveC]

The simple solution is an EBS MultiDrive Overdrive pedal. Easy to use, sounds great and won't suck the bottom end.

[abdullah the butcher]

Instead of starting a new thread I'll just bump this one. Im on the market looking for a good distortion stomp box as well. What pedal out there for bass deliever a ton of gain while still mainting a good, punchy low end? The fulltone, EBS and Raspberry Box (i think its called) seem nice but there isnt really much gain on any of those. Im gonna ask to, how is the GK Diesel Dawg for delievering molten distortion for bass? And I dont want to know about any guitar distortion pedals, thanks.

[alexclaber]

Originally posted by abdullah the butcher:

What pedal out there for bass deliever a ton of gain while still mainting a good, punchy low end? The fulltone, EBS and Raspberry Box (i think its called) seem nice but there isnt really much gain on any of those.

Having a good low end may be possible with a high gain distortion but I doubt you'll get much punch from anything. If the Fulltone's not got enough gain, try adding a blend pot to a Big Muff, tracking down a Prescription Electronics Depth Charge (good luck on that!) or get a Zvex Woolly Mammoth.

 

Alex

[getz out]

Originally posted by abdullah the butcher:

Instead of starting a new thread I'll just bump this one. Im on the market looking for a good distortion stomp box as well. What pedal out there for bass deliever a ton of gain while still mainting a good, punchy low end? The fulltone, EBS and Raspberry Box (i think its called) seem nice but there isnt really much gain on any of those. Im gonna ask to, how is the GK Diesel Dawg for delievering molten distortion for bass? And I dont want to know about any guitar distortion pedals, thanks.

You could check out the fantastic pedals from Red Telectronix .

 

Seriously, you are asking for the impossible. It's kind of like asking for really bright sounding worn in tapewound strings.

 

Here's what to do:

 

-Buy an Ampeg SVT head and matching 810 cabinet.

 

-Buy a Marshall JCM series head and a matching 412 cabinet.

 

-Buy a dbx 223XL crossover.

 

-Send the lows to the Ampeg

 

-Send the highs to the Marshall

 

-Enjoy

 

Or, if you truly want "molten distortion," learn to play guitar.

[bc_dup1]

TBFKAG you have a private message

[g.]

Ah, but you CAN have a full-shredding high gain distortion with "guitaristic" attitude! One way is splitting signal to dedicated rigs, another is having gear that does this internally. This may entail mixing full un-distorted signal in with the distortion, or having an internal crossover with distortion above say 110 Hz and compression below so the sustains are similar and the lowend is exceptionally full (as well as the splitting and parallel mixing such as the Peavey TranTubeFEX and TubeFEX provide). These units can make distortion that is simultaneously phat and yet dynamic and defined, yet can send skinny stringers hoime with their tales between their legs.

 

In the case of the BP-8 the distortions are voiced in a bass-oriented fashion and can be really high gain (think beyond Jack Bruce on Frank Zappa's Apostrophe or the guy in Ben Fold's band when he punches it). On top of that you can EQ post distortion and they've done their homework so this is effective.

 

In the case of the Roland V-Bass toy can actually be playing a virtual instrument shifted an octave up (or even just on the higher pitched strings while leaving the lower pitched ones in the original pitch for pedaling or spearate lines) though a variety of virtual guitar or bass heads and cabs, or though models of bass or guitar distortion boxes. It can sound so much like a distorted guitar that if you understand how to play like a guitarist, you can take the solos while something else supplies the low end. Or you can blend it with the sound of your bass's magnetic pickups running through either a head/cab model (such as SVT run hard) or a bass distortion (or clean but compressed heavily with lots of attack) - and actually do Hendrix complete with wha-wha tricks on the guitar part while the bass is not wha-wha.

 

There are some routing limitations, but none that have stood in my way.

 

But back to distortion: it can be done, and there are a number of ways that work well with various gear, right down to having a small high gain footswitchable guitar amp with the bass rolled off some, on the side. Even a 30-watt amp will do if you have it EQ'd right and it's got the gain to spare. A fair number of bass heads and preamps can also distort on that side of the signal chain in interesting and fat ways.

 

Oh, and don't forget the original Sans Amp rackmount if you are after the high-gain sounds, or the discontinued ADA MP series.

[getz out]

Originally posted by  :

Ah, but you CAN have a full-shredding high gain distortion with "guitaristic" attitude! One way is splitting signal to dedicated rigs, another is having gear that does this internally.

I don't disagree, but the term "molten distortion" tends to suggest that scooped-mid-death-metal style distortion.

 

Even a good unit, like the SWR Interstellar Overdrive (combines clean and hi-gain signals, I believe), cannot provide the impossible.

[Fear of Napalm]

WOW, that GK Diesel Dawg pedal is the mystery pedal in the bass world. Im gonna be trying one out soon.