What bass distortion rocks your face?

[Maguchi]

My bass player has just decided that he LOVES playing with distortion. I'm usually a pedal whore, but I know nothing about bass pedals. :mrgreen: So...anyone have a bass distortion to recommend?

This thread was posted when Bush was in office.

So is bass distortion still a thing?

 

[Floyd Eye]

I think bass distortion is best either with a blend knob, or two amps with one running clean.

Also, don't feel limited to "bass" pedals. Plenty of good thick fuzz, OD, and distortion pedals work great with bass, particularly the ones with a blend, and good EQ control.

The Game Changer Plasma Pedal (not the 3rd Man version), and Valco KGB Fuzz are sick with bass. The Plasma has a blend knob that helps the thump stay intact, where the KGB has both a blend slider, and a dry out so a clean signal can be sent to one amp, and the fuzz signal to another. They have the KGB Distortion which carries the same features. BTW KGB stands for Keyboard, Guitar, and Bass.

Yep. If you can't limit the distortion to the high freqs it's tough in a mix. I used to run a DI to the board and a Senn 421 on my SVT/810 rig on gigs when we had a competent engineer who knew the material. Well, I'd still do it when I mixed from the stage but it wasn't as good because it's not like I could tweak the board mid song. I mean I could take the DI out with a pedal stomp but that's backwards.

In the end I just used the TAFM, but really only on particularly brutal shit. The SVT II non pro is a really dynamic amp and I can go from clean to a fair amount of dirt just by plucking harder.

 

[BeZo]

So is bass distortion still a thing?

Yep.

 

[rsm]

So is bass distortion still a thing?

Not for me; never was. I never liked distortion on bass.

Back in the day, on bass, I used a biamp rig, with a tweeter and 2x10 on the top, and a 1x15 bottom though most soundmen refused to mic both cabs, and usually gave me a DI. In the studio I used a DI, and had both cabs mic'd. I remember the recording engineer dialing out my top end metallic sound, he even called it out, and I said I wanted it in. When the band listened to the unmixed tape of the full band with my top end in, and out, they agreed with me.

Back in the day, I had a full ADA guitar rig (MP-1, MQ-2, B200S, and four 2x12 vertical splitstacks), and a full ADA biamp bass rig (MB-1, B500B, 2x10 cab with tweeter, and 1x15). Eventually I replaced the MP-1 and MQ-1 with a MP-2.

Here's the bass rig:

so, no distortion.

My bass sound was a cross between Chris Squire and DD Verni, hard to hear the bass in this vid, but you can hear the metallic ring on the top end....made the bass more clear and articulate, while the bass low end would rumble and you'd feel it more than hear it....if I could get my cabs mic'd!

 

[RaceU4her]

Darkglass X7 i use