Best order for multiple distortions

[EliasMooseblaster]

I've also kept the pedals to a minimum in my bass setup, but now one of my friends - a very generous complete b**t**d - has thrown a spanner in the works and given me a Bass Big Muff Pi.

Things are still pretty simple: the Pi is only joining a Pitchblack Plus (tuner + A/B switch) and a TS-9B. My dilemma is: overdrive before fuzz, or fuzz before overdrive?

[cheddatom]

try it both ways. I always thought I'd want fuzz before overdrive, using the overdrive like an amp-pre, and the fuzz liek a fuzz pedal infront of it. However, with my current pedals this combo is horrible and I have them the other way around

[EliasMooseblaster]

This is what I initially had in mind - the Tube Screamer's a great boost for soloing just for the way it pushes the mids, so I was thinking I could use a (relatively) clean sound from that and have the Muff before it in case I decide extra filth is necessary, and for when I need filth without the boost.

[Ghost_Bass]

I would go a separate route, with more than one dirt pedal i would go from the more polite to the nastier, using the OD/Dist to add detail on the Fuzz and give a bigger set of b***s. But, like everything, you need to try both combos to see what suits you better.

[cheddatom]

also parralel can be ace... like blending a clean signal with your fuzz tone, except the clean signal is a little bit dirty

[dannybuoy]

With those, overdrive before the BBM for sure. And do the master volume mod on the BBM if you can to tame the volume in dry mode!

The BBM really comes alive with a dirty boost / overdrive in front of it. Then set it to dry mode and you effectively have overdrive in parallel with boosted BBM!

Of course try both ways. But I used a BB Preamp (similar to a tubescreamer) into a BBM like this for years and sounded great live. I layered it up with clean tone, then overdrive, then all three - I didn't like the sound of the fuzz by itself.

Edited August 6, 2014 by dannybuoy

[xgsjx]

Parallel gets my vote. I used my Bass Murf to split the signal. The good thing about the Murf is that it's splitting frequencies too, so if any fx are sucking lows, you can retain the lows on a channel. It makes a good overdrive too.

[The Walloper]

I use my LS-2 A+B, and have my SFX red dragon (OD) before my Swollen Pickle (Fuzz) through loop A, and keep a clean signal through loop B. Keeps my low end there and I can bring the level of loop A up to suit my needs.

[adamlunt]

I'd say more harsh distortions should be secondary.

However if you're using something with a clean blend function, and you use another distortion first I guess that could provide some interesting results.

eg - ProCo RAT and MXR Bass Overdrive. If you run the RAT before the MXR with the clean control set to half way you'd get half RAT, and half RAT + MXR because its letting some of the pre effect signal through. I bet that'd sound ace!

[adamlunt]

Mind you… if you're using a harsh distortion/fuzz and an overdrive/preamp you could use it one of two ways

Fuzz first - The preamp/overdrive will make it louder as its boosting the signal after the Fuzz
Fuzz second - The overdrive will send more signal to the Fuzz causing more saturation

I favour the latter of the two because I don't crank my distortions all the way up. They're more for colouring my clean sound.

Edited August 7, 2014 by adamlunt

[Prime_BASS]

I think of it as one of my drives is my "sound" and would ideally be in a whole preamp with the EQ I use. The other drive goes in front of that to boost it more, adding more dirt and girth, as what traditionally OD used to do with valve amps before we started using 100 upon 100s of watts.

Overall it doesn't matter though.

[paul_5]

I tend to favour putting the 'cleanest' dirt box (overdrive) first, then building up to a fuzz at the end.

Currently mine goes BB Bass Pre -> Blowerbox -> Coloursound Bass Fuzz.

Nice and FEEEELTHY!!!

[EliasMooseblaster]

I suppose I should probably report the results of my experimentation thus far:

Bass --> Pitchblack+ --> TS-9B --> Big Muff --> Ashdown LB-30 seems to work well.

I did take a bit of inspiration from the guitarist friend who gave me the muff, who uses his TS-9 to add some grit and boost to the sound, and then a Keeley distortion to thicken up the whole thing if he desires. Key differences being that the Muff is a much dirtier pedal than his Keeley, and my T-bird pickups are considerably hotter than his Strat pickups. So if I run the TS-9B and the Muff together, I get a truly immense amount of mid-focused filth that can drown out even Cherry White's guitarist. So the order probably isn't too important for the time being, as I can't see myself using them together very often!

Good news is, though, the Muff gives me a very good approximation to the bass sound I ended up with on the recording for our last single
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n4I0qYrdXo
...that was my 'bird into an enormous Hughes&Kettner head via a Rat. And it's remarkable how close that little Ashdown sounds to the H&K when I kick in the fuzz!

Edited August 14, 2014 by icastle
Link fixed.