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Post subject: Bass Overdrive or Distortion?
Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2015 11:02 pm
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Anyone use these? I only ask because I saw Kings X live. Doug (bass player) had this kind of mild distortion. It sounded like not good when he checked his sound but when the whole band kicked in it sounded awesomely. They have the best live sound. One of the best I've heard. I've heard a couple bands.


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Post subject: Re: Bass Overdrive or Distortion?
Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 2:37 am
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Former Metallica bassist Cliff Burton used a distortion/overdrive pedal for his famous "Pulling Teeth" riff from the Kill 'Em All album.

Manowar bass supremo Joey DeMaio runs his modified 4004 Laredo through a fuzz distortion box (this bass is actually tuned an octave higher than usual with a tall string spacing normally found on standard electric guitars and a very thin neck with Grover tuners; it originally came with 4 active humbuckers and a single volume control. Later incarnations are presented with H and HH pickup layouts).


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Post subject: Re: Bass Overdrive or Distortion?
Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 9:47 am
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I kind of look at it as a sound enhancer. The distortion barely in the signal helps the bass cut thru while the whole band is playing . Maybe this is wrong but like I said about Kings X- you'd have to hear it to see how the overall sound is with the band all playing. I have a live DVD and it's the same with his sound. I'm not a Kings X freak- I like them but I seem to notice how maybe his bass sound helps thier overall sound- it's a three piece band. You can not hear the dist when the band is playing only when he thumps the bass in between tunes. It's a "big picture" thing I think.


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Post subject: Re: Bass Overdrive or Distortion?
Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 1:56 pm
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The best I've ever heard is the Overdrive Fender developed and put into the Rumble line and also the Bassman heads. It's just killer. The amount of fine tweakability is phenomenal!

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Post subject: Re: Bass Overdrive or Distortion?
Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 3:21 pm
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It seems like there is a ton of bass distortion/overdrive/fuzz pedals coming out on the market these days. I've only used it once in a while, but nothing extensively.

Yeah, I've used the overdrive on my Rumble 350 and it does sound pretty good. I've never tried any of these bass specific ones, though. Just whatever was around for guitar, like a RAT pedal or something like that.

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Post subject: Re: Bass Overdrive or Distortion?
Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2015 5:25 am
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I have a Big Muff - I use it a lot playing blues.


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Post subject: Re: Bass Overdrive or Distortion?
Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2015 6:25 am
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I never use pedals. I like a bit of natural tube overdrive on bass from the amp and using my fingers. I've never even used the modern channels on my 100T or Super Bassman other than just to try them out and make sure everything works and fiddling around. They just sound "fake" to me in comparison to the real thing available on the vintage channel.

Granted, in the realm of artificial overdrive I will concur with Linnin that it is the best one I have ever heard. I've never been a fan of using too much gain on an amp even in the case of solid state or hybrids when it comes to bass. I like a little natural dirt for a raunchier sound for blues, but I can get that all in my hands. (Which to my ear the 70's Bassman 100 and modern Bassman 100T does better than any amp. Ever.) However, My old SWR550X had a really nice gain that I didn't use much of. Now that I think about it. It sounded very similar to the current Fender offerings. I wonder if any of that made it's way into the modern Rumble and Bassman amps when Fender ended SWR?

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Post subject: Re: Bass Overdrive or Distortion?
Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2015 11:41 am
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Fender Super Bassman has a nice overdrive channel, but like KOP, I just use the vintage side. Maybe because I am vintage, too.

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Post subject: Re: Bass Overdrive or Distortion?
Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2015 12:19 pm
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Not a big fan of pedals but in the past I've used an MXR M89 for OD. Doesn't pull as much out of the bottom end as some other OD boxes. Also it's pretty tweakable so you can get a mild OD. However, my favorite OD is on my Carvin BX250. Those guys just nailed it.

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Post subject: Re: Bass Overdrive or Distortion?
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 7:25 am
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It really depends on what kind of O/D, distortion you want.. the Big Muff is excellent and also what Cliff used... the Boss Metal Zone is great for bass because it has an eq and you can dial in lots of low, as is the Marshall Guv'nor (which is what Tim Commerford of Rage uses).. basically you want anything that has an eq so you can keep your lows... Boss also made an excellent '59 Bassman pedal that sounded GREAT even at low gain levels... MXR has the M80 pedal which also doubles as a great DI box... I've used that pedal for close to a decade and its never let me down.. personally I have a BOSS ME50 multi pedal and I run the natural distortion on all the time to give me a little mild overdrive... just the tone I prefer which is kind of a 70's overdrive bass tone ala Gene Simmons, Geezer Butler, etc

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Post subject: Re: Bass Overdrive or Distortion?
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 9:13 am
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I have an old Boss Heavy Metal HM-2 pedal, but I don't think I ever ran my bass through it. It also has the low and high EQ knobs, but only the two knobs and not stacked like the Metal Zone.

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Post subject: Re: Bass Overdrive or Distortion?
Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 6:49 am
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You forgot to mention the plastic Santa Clauses. That's an important part of the configuration, you know. :P

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