adamg67

For my money, and style of music, Boss can claim the best guitar overdrive pedal ever with the BD-2 Blues Driver. I know plenty of other guitarists who rate it very highly as well. For bass, I'm only using overdrive at the mo (plus rack mount compressor), so Boss havn't featured yet, but not through snobbery, I'd try a Boss pedal anyday if it was likely to sound good.

[quote name='GazWills' timestamp='1438348220' post='2833785'] I really like the Xotic Bass BB Preamp for this ... [/quote] Hmm, you're not the first person to suggest one of these, I might just have to try one, and there happens to be one for sale on here at the mo... must be fate GAS strikes again. [quote name='GazWills' timestamp='1438348220' post='2833785']... seems silly to buy something like that to mostly use as a low gain pedal! [/quote] You might be right, I already made that mistake once with the Knightfall. I like the sound, but I know I can't use it in the band I'm in, and for messing about at home I've got Amplitube anyway. I'm glad you said that.

So, I've got a nice clean sound, sort of old fashioned, roundwounds on an Ibanez BTB with a little mid boost, into a Sansamp RBI but with the presence completely off and just a little bit of drive, so you can't hear it but it warms it up a bit. We've got some songs that sound better with some overdrive, and some that sound better clean, so I've been trading OD pedals looking for something that works. So far I've kept (for now): One Control Hooker's Green Bassmachine - supposed to sound a lot like a BJF Blueberry, it was also designed by BJF. I love this for just a little bit of dirt without changing the sound, I can keep the punch I like but get a slightly bigger dirtier tone without mud. I'm gigging this now and I think for that touch of dirt sound it will be hard for anything to beat it. Darkglass Vintage Microtubes - this changes the tone a bit more but does have blend, for me this is better for a slightly more full on overdrive, but I have to be careful or I feel like I've lost the punch. Might be a keeper for a heavier sound. Fairfield Barbershop - this has a slightly rougher sound that I like, it's just a touch nastier, again for more of a full on overdrive. It's different to the VM, another sound again to play with for now. I've tried and sold a COG Knightfall, that was too much of a distortion rather than an overdrive, which I knew when I bought it really but all I lost was the postage to its new home. I've got a Digitech Hardwire CM-2 and I really rate it, but don't use it because the Hooker's Green is just very slightly better, and also a lot smaller. So, finally, to the question: what should I try next that will give me something a bit different to those, still in the general area of transparent-ish bass overdrive? I was wondering about an Idiotbox Blower Box, that's supposed to do OD as well as distortion.

I bought a Fairfield Barbershop from Mikkel and it was a pleasure doing business, he got it here superfast and everything was exactly as described, the pedal was just like new.

I sold a Jack a couple of months ago, it was a nice bass. Nicer than an SR506 which I paid about the same for, but not nearly as nice as the Ibanez BTB 456 which has ended up replacing it, but then that cost nearly double what I sold the Jack for. I really liked the normal body but headless thing, but the Jack is double ball end strings and there isn't much choice of strings any more. I've got flatwounds on the BTB and I'm pretty sure you can't get them for a Jack.

I'm very happy with my MarkBass Traveler cabs (102p and 151p), and my OCD is satisfied by how nicely they stack.

Yeah, just been playing with it again and I don't think it's out of phase, I think the pots just aren't quite right.

I found the wiring diagram for my bass, and looking at that (and having a bit of a think about how this has to work), it looks like a blend pot is basically just two stacked volume pots? So as you turn one pickup down you turn the other up? If that's the case, I can imagine they're not always perfectly balanced. I don't know if they're tweakable though, it might need replacing but that doesn't look like a very hard job.

Bought a pedal from Ian, all very easy and quick and the pedal was exactly as described, and sent recorded. Very happy.

It's a few years old, so checking the wiring and the pot is a good idea anyway, I'll have the back off and see what's what. They're Ibanez soap bar pickups.

I like that a lot. Too many basses look the same, this manages to look a bit different and still look amazing IMO.

I've got some odd behaviour with an Ibanez BTB 456 that I bought second hand. It's in really good nick and everything works perfectly apart from the pickup blend knob. I get good volume with the blend all the way to the neck or all the way to the bridge, but a noticeable volume drop when I'm halfway between the two. It's not like it's half volume or anything, but it's enough that I couldn't use it like that live. My first thought is phase - if the pickups are out of phase, could that cause an issue like this? Or would it be much worse? Anything else obvious it might be?

I just switched to a BTB 456 6 string, the neck's quite wide and was having problems with pain in my 3rd finger. I started warming my hands up and stretching before playing and it's gone now. I can't say for sure it wouldn't have gone anyway as I got used to the neck, but it's a good idea anyway so I'm sticking to it.

Hi Phil, and welcome. Are you in a band at the mo? If so I'll look out for you, we've just started gigging round West Yorkshire and we're not far from Halifax, I work in Mytholmroyd (you might be the only person on here to have heard of it, if you have) and live the other side of Keighley, guitarist and drummer are Haworth and Oxenhope and the singer's from Hebden Bridge and works in Halifax (so does the drummer, over that way anyway). So far we've just had one gig at the exchange in Keighley and one at the Hop in Leeds, but we're planning some more now. Not many places for originals bands to play these days though.