Nate Mendel Dual Overdrive Pedal

[Reversebird]

Just brought the Ashdown Nate Mendel Dual band Bass Distortion/overdrive pedal.
I watched the Ashdown advertising video he made and thought that sounds exactly what I'm looking for but as per usual pedals never sound like the videos when you get them home.
This one does!!!!! Watch the Ashdown video and if you like the sound you can definitely get in this pedal.
I can dial in the sounds from the video really easily from a little bit of grit on channel 1 (+30db) to massive distortion on channel 2 (+60db) and if that's not enough for some people you can add a further + 10db on a micro toggle switch. As with all Ashdown pedals it's built like a tank.
I also have the James Lomenzo which is nice too but the Nate Mendel just reminds me of all those 1970's Punk tunes from The Jam and The Clash sort of warm driven valves and grind but as I stated you can achieve the Foo Fighters out and out grunge too.
I got mine from GAK in Brighton for £83 which they price matched against Absolute Sounds in Bournemouth. This is staying on my pedal board along with my Ashdown Chorus, Aphex Bass Exciter and Pitch Black Tuner.

[Lozz196]

Just checked the clip out - I like the "just on" setting, adds a nice bit of grit to the sound whilst maintaining the tone. I can see how this type of setting would work really well with Jam & Clash type songs.

[dannybuoy]

I liked the light overdrive tone, but reckon it went a bit too mushy at high gain. The light od sounds a lot like the drive in the Ashdown MiBass 2.0 I tried out.

Edited April 26, 2014 by dannybuoy

[Guinness21]

Do you think this would sound good with a stingray? Looking at getting a tech 21 vt bass pedal to hit ratm and rhcp sounds, but maybe this would work better.

[Reversebird]

Hi
I tried a Tech 21 VT and couldn't find "that" sound. I wanted distortion but a warm valve type distortion that gives a nice dirty bite but doesn't scream thrash metal.
I found that sound and the thrash metal in the Nate Mendel.
For other sounds more bass / more treble / lead / cutting above guitarists and drummers I use an Aphex bass exciter but a reckon a decent graphic would do the same job.
YouTube is a pretty good place to check most of these pedals out but again they don't always sound the same in live situations.
I think I said earlier it's taken a long time for me to find my sound in a pedal and I''m not a massive pedal fan, it just one more thing to go wrong playing live but playing in covers bands one sound does not suit all in my opinion.
Peace Reversebird

[Ashdown Engineering]

[quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1398466284' post='2434541']
The Nate Mendel model looks similarly bizarre. Two masters, two drive controls and an input control. Give me some tone controls and a blend knob!.
[/quote]

It's what Nate wanted... Spent a year producing different control configurations and prototypes until he had exactly what he wanted, may not be for everyone but thats the nature of signature products. Sounded good in London last night to us ;-)