Dirt Pedal Criteria Question

[Guest]

I’m not in the market for more distortion/drive/fuzz pedals, but am interested to know if members feel they use or have used a pedal which meets the following criteria:

 

1) Adds a decent amount of dirt to the signal when required, not just subtle amounts;

2) Preserves the same balance between highs/mids/lows as the original signal if so desired (e.g. no overbearing “clank” on all settings).

3) Affect the signal in a unified way, i.e. doesn’t split out the signal into the original signal with a separate layer of dirt;

4) Enables note clarity within a band context (with distorted guitars) even when the dirt is high.

 

I won’t pre-empt any comments by giving my own thoughts on pedals which have clearly failed on one or more of the above criteria. Just interested to get the thoughts of those who have experience in these kinds of pedals over the years.

[itu]

My modest testing (around ten units a few years ago) and understanding is that you need to test the pedal with your basses. Hi-Z ("passive") output of a bass produces different response compared to a Lo-Z output. My feel is that there's of course difference because of the output level. Remember: a battery powered preamp may have higher or lower output level compared to a "passive". Still the impedance seems to have an effect on the behaviour.

 

Some compressors tend to have similar behaviour. Other effects are less prone to the output Z of the bass. Envelope filters can be easily tweaked with level/gain, time-based units from chorus to reverb do not seem to care about Z.

[MrDinsdale]

Much of the criteria is potentially subjective but of all the drives I’ve played the EAE Halberd comes closest to that.

 

It’s more in the mid gain territory but can get pretty fuzzy when pushed. It has 3 voicings which range from clanky highs to warm thick bass but its middle setting (to me) seems pretty flat. I previously used it as an always on low gain grit but more recently I’ve been using it at higher gain albeit a little more on the thick fuzzy side.

 

I keep meaning to record some samples on bass as there’s only really guitar demos out there. 

[Downunderwonder]

Red Dragon. Possibly still available by special order.

[MrDinsdale]

This is a great round up of some heavy hitters, some surprises in there too!

 

[Baloney Balderdash]

On 02/12/2023 at 11:13, MrDinsdale said:

This is a great round up of some heavy hitters, some surprises in there too!

 

 

While I was not surprised that the Boss Bass Overdrive and the Behringer clone of it sounded absolutely horrifying bad, I was surprised by the fact that the Berhinger clone actually sounded marginally less horrible than the original Boss pedal.

 

It also surprised me how much I liked the Ampeg Scrampler at lower gain settings, and how much I liked the EHX Soul Food at higher gain settings.

 

The Ampeg Scrampler at lower gain settings with some cleans blended in and the EHX Soul Food on higher gain settings with some cleans blended in were the absolute winners of this test to me.

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

 

While I was not surprised the the Boss Bass Overdrive and the Behringer clone of it sounded absolutely horrifying bad, I was surprised by that fact of the Berhinger clone actually sounding marginally less horrible than the original Boss pedal.

 

It also surprised me how much I liked the Ampeg Scrampler at lower gain settings, and how much I liked the EHX Soul Food at higher gain settings.

 

The Ampgeg Scrampler at lower gain settings with some clean blended in and the EHX Soul Food on higher gain settings with some cleans blended in were the absolute winners of this test to me.

 

Agreed on these, I just really liked the Agro when the gain was up but the top end reduced, that’s the sort of sound I have in my head.

 

I own and really like my Sansamp Bass Driver v2 but it sounded absolutely terrible in this video. 😳

[Baloney Balderdash]

57 minutes ago, Lord Summerisle said:

Agreed on these, I just really liked the Agro when the gain was up but the top end reduced, that’s the sort of sound I have in my head.

 

I own and really like my Sansamp Bass Driver v2 but it sounded absolutely terrible in this video. 😳

The Aguilar Agro did sound great as well, and on pretty much all settings, unlike pretty much all the other pedals.

 

Still on more specific settings for me the Scrampler and Soul Food won.

 

I'd imagine though that the Agro might have won if it had some parallel clean signal blended in, as well as I think the EHX and EBS tube pedals would work really great with clean blend.

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[MrDinsdale]

I loved the COG pedal! Agreed on Boss and Behringer though.