Distortion on active basses

[simonbrown92]

I’ve always struggled with a decent distorted tone when using my active basses, I’ve got a Spector rebop 5 string and an Ibanez SR2600, and they both sound like they’re being water boarded when I step on my boss ODB-3. My Ibanez can switch between passive and active and sounds great in passive. I’ve read threads on hear about impedance issues and radial dragsters being the fix, problem is they seem to be discontinued so my question is does anyone have an alternative solution? Do I need to change pedals? Is there an alternative to the dragster? Does anyone have one to sell?

 

 

cheers 

[itu]

I have not used Dragster, although a pedal maker said that such units may not work well.

 

Better alternative is to find a distortion that works with your basses. I tested several pedals after I found that not every pedal is functional with every bass.

[jazzyvee]

Not sure if the principle is the same for bass as it is guitars, but where goes. I had the same issue with active guitars and distortion pedals. In the end I found the solution to be using a valve based distortion pedal or the dirty channel of my valve guitar amp. I ended up buying a Radial trimode which works great.

[Cosmo Valdemar]

I'd say, try a different pedal. The ODB-3 has its place but bass distortion has moved on in leaps and bounds since. It's a very fizzy pedal so might not play well with an already bright and aggressive bass.

I'm a massive Spector fan, always have been, and I've always thought they sounded best distorted. I certainly never play mine without some overdrive!

There's no reason for an active bass to not play well with a distortion pedal, unless the output is particularly high - thinking about it, if your Rebop has the original non-adjustable Tonepump preamp it could be overloading the pedal...

 

 

 

[simonbrown92]

7 hours ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

I'd say, try a different pedal. The ODB-3 has its place but bass distortion has moved on in leaps and bounds since. It's a very fizzy pedal so might not play well with an already bright and aggressive bass.

I'm a massive Spector fan, always have been, and I've always thought they sounded best distorted. I certainly never play mine without some overdrive!

There's no reason for an active bass to not play well with a distortion pedal, unless the output is particularly high - thinking about it, if your Rebop has the original non-adjustable Tonepump preamp it could be overloading the pedal...

 

 

 

Yeah I’ve been looking at different pedals I’ve seen a deluxe big muff second hand pretty cheap so gonna try that out and see how it goes. My rebop has the adjustable tone pump so I’ve already tried adjusting it up and down to no avail. I’ve just bought a euro 4lx as well which I’ve not tried through my pedals yet but I’m guessing it’s going to be a similar issue. Happy to hear any suggestions for pedals to try 

[Cosmo Valdemar]

4 minutes ago, simonbrown92 said:

Yeah I’ve been looking at different pedals I’ve seen a deluxe big muff second hand pretty cheap so gonna try that out and see how it goes. My rebop has the adjustable tone pump so I’ve already tried adjusting it up and down to no avail. I’ve just bought a euro 4lx as well which I’ve not tried through my pedals yet but I’m guessing it’s going to be a similar issue. Happy to hear any suggestions for pedals to try 

Distortion/overdrive is a very personal thing and there's so many different flavours - are there any particular players or songs you like the sound of?

[Bolo]

What sound are you after?

Are you listening in band situation or bedroom/solo? 

Here's a bit wit Rex Brown to show how much clank he has in his signal, in the mix it still sounds huge.

 

 

 

 

[simonbrown92]

Well when I first bought my OBD-3 I was playing it through my jazz bass and it sounded awesome, the tone I wanted etc, but I’ve since moved to Spector and although I can get a nice sound from it by rolling the bass all the way back on my bass (tone pump pre amp, dialed down to around 30% output) it’s just not very practical in a live scenario. Certain songs I need to stomp on and off for distortion, so I’d initially read up on radial dragsters to correct impedance load which I thought may help me get the OBD-3 pedal working to my liking, but as  ITU commented above maybe that’s not the best idea. I’ve got a second hand big muff deluxe on the way to try next 

[Bolo]

I'd take my bass to a store to try some pedals out first hand of I were you. 

Personally I didn't like the mxr drive/distortion pedals with my Spector or Stingray 5. I do like a Zvex like the distortron, a tube preamp like Verellen Meatsmoke, and am currently having a lot of fun with a RAT pedal.

[tayste_2000]

On 10/05/2025 at 23:44, simonbrown92 said:

I’ve always struggled with a decent distorted tone when using my active basses, I’ve got a Spector rebop 5 string and an Ibanez SR2600, and they both sound like they’re being water boarded when I step on my boss ODB-3. My Ibanez can switch between passive and active and sounds great in passive. I’ve read threads on hear about impedance issues and radial dragsters being the fix, problem is they seem to be discontinued so my question is does anyone have an alternative solution? Do I need to change pedals? Is there an alternative to the dragster? Does anyone have one to sell?

 

 

cheers 

 

Unlikely to help, I had one, can’t remember what I did with it but it didn’t help. In active mode just try rolling the volume back and see if that helps.

 

This is how you’ll know if it’s an impedance issue or you’re hitting the pedal with too hot of a signal. It’s more likely the latter as Boss are buffered pedals so the input impedance isn’t as important as if it was a vintage fuzz.