Replacement for a Boss ODB-3

[Bottle]

Hi guys

Well, I'll start by saying that I don't usually use a ton of effects. Most of the time I run my set up clean, with perhaps a smidge of grit from my SansAmp to dirty up my second channel. I have my amp-rack set up a little like this:

Bass > TU-2 > GK Head > (efx loop out) > SansAmp Paradriver > X-Over > Power-amp

Broad strokes, the GK feeds my 4x10 cab (clean, full-range) and the power-amp (in two-channel mode) feeds the effected low end into the 1x15 and the highs go to a stack of two 1x12 PA cabs. Recently I've been dusting off my Boss ODB-3 overdrive and inserting it into my signal chain to get a bit more of an overdriven sound for the intro of a particular song. The song was originally recorded with two guitar parts and a bass, however I'm experimenting with playing the textured rhythm guitar part in the intro, so need to dirty up the bass and give it some 'crunch'. I'm playing my Ibanez finger-style, quite high on the fretboard, over the highest E (14th fret on the D string) and G (12th fret on G, playing root/thirds over an Em chord), trying to get a 'crunchy' and 'chuggy' sort of tone.

(1) Bass > TU-2 > ODB-3 > GK Head > (efx loop out) > SansAmp Paradriver > X-Over > Power-amp

and

(2) Bass > TU-2 > GK Head > (efx loop out) > ODB-3 > SansAmp Paradriver > X-Over > Power-amp

I've tried the ODB-3 in a couple of places (see above), but can't really get anything more than what can only be described as 'angry wasps in a jar'. Guess I'm looking for something that can give me some distorted highs whilst leaving the lows (relatively) intact. Any thoughts?

Thanks, Ian

EDIT: Added a picture for 'clarity'

Edited November 24, 2010 by Bottle

[paul_5]

Dirty bass is a bit of an obsession of mine, so here's a couple to try.

A Sovtek Big Muff (big green one) are prized by a lot of bass players for the warm, fuzzy sound (though this is fuzz, not overdrive, which tends to be a bit 'thinner' to my ears) but are out of production. The Bass Big Muff does well enough in reviews, but I've not tried one myself.

The MXR Bass Blowtorch has an on-board 3 band EQ (with selectable mids) so that you can EQ the distorted sound after dialing in as much dirt as you like. Some players think that the amount of distortion available is a bit limited, but as my bass has a pretty hot output level I've got the opposite problem.

The Ashdown Drive plus allows you to distort just the highs (using an onboard crossover) and leave the low frequencies untouched, but build quality can be an issue. To my ears the distortion is a little bit underwhelming, but then I like it [i]really[/i] dirty


There's loads of other bass dirt boxes on the market, so have some fun playing/experimenting in music shops, ring round before you go though, as some shops don't tend to stock massive ranges of these; we're a niche market.

Failing that harmony-central.com is a good place to go for honest reviews, or the guy at bassfuzz.com tends to play about with most of these boxes. They're not very thorough reviews, but often they're better quality sound clips than youtube.
(edit)I've just checked bassfuzz.com and all of the samples have been taken down, leaving just the scores out of ten for each pedal

Hope this helps.

Edited November 19, 2010 by paul_5

[Bottle]

Cheers for all that!!

Had a look at BassFuzz.com's YouTube channel, where they review their pedals - some pretty awesome stuff on there - the 'Dirty Bomb' for instance! Can't see myself wanting to use it live (in church of all places), but it looks like it can do some real dirty sounds. I've had a look at the ZVex stuff (and even built myself a Woolly Mammoth clone), but there's very little for bass there, it's all geared up for guitards

Anyway, it's given me some food for thought, and I'm heading to the SE bass bash next weekend, so I'm hoping there'll be some folks there with effects I can try. In the meantime, I'm seriously considering selling the Boss - it just doesn't get used enough for me to justify keeping it, TBH. My personal opinion is that if it were better (and didn't suck tone quite so badly) it would be a keeper. Just had another go on it this morning and I ended up rolling all the highs off and boosting the lows, but didn't get me any further

Ta muchly, Ian

[kingforaday]

have you tried a blend pedal to mix the dirt in with the clean signal rather than completely change it? i messed around for ages with tons of distortions and fuzz effects until i sussed that what i was looking for was some way of adding the dirt to my sound without destroying my clean tone.

i'm currently using a barge concepts VFB-2 to blend a fulltone bassdrive in with my other sounds and i'm really happy with the sound

[BTS_Spacebass]

+1 for the VFB-2.

I've gone through quite afew fuzz's and overdrives and a clean blend does make a drastic difference.

Also I used, and still do sometimes, an ODB-3 - I always set it at very low gain and it keeps it gritty. The minute you start putting the gain up the wasps appear.

T

Edited November 20, 2010 by BTS_Spacebass

[Mr. Foxen]

Ashdown Lomezo Hyperdrive should be the go to bass distortion, it covers most stuff as it has a built in blend.

[Bottle]

[quote name='kingforaday' post='1030243' date='Nov 20 2010, 11:08 AM']have you tried a blend pedal to mix the dirt in with the clean signal rather than completely change it? i messed around for ages with tons of distortions and fuzz effects until i sussed that what i was looking for was some way of adding the dirt to my sound without destroying my clean tone.

i'm currently using a barge concepts VFB-2 to blend a fulltone bassdrive in with my other sounds and i'm really happy with the sound[/quote]
Yep, after my first attempt where I put the Boss right at the start of the signal chain, I moved it to the effects loop of my GK head. Trouble is, the level's probably too hot for the input stage of the ODB3, so any amount of gain is just nasty

I'll have a look at the Barge Concepts pedal next. Thanks!

Ian

[pantherairsoft]

MXR Blowtorch is one to try as the EQ section lets you get it nice and smooth. I am also a big fan of the Tech 21 XXL Bass Edition. Goes nicely from Overdrive to Fuzz with nice sustain...

[DanOwens]

Or how about a DHA valve pedal? They can get really grindy without fuzzing everything up.

Dan

[chardbass]

The MXR El Grande Bass Fuzz looks brilliant

[url="http://www.youtube.com/user/BassGuitarMag#p/search/2/G6d9YzoCx3w"]http://www.youtube.com/user/BassGuitarMag#...h/2/G6d9YzoCx3w[/url]

[cheddatom]

ODB-3 has a built in blend control too.

If you put it before your amp, you should be able to get a decent low gain crunch from it, but perhaps not enough of a crunch for what you need. As above, when you turn the gain up, it gets sh*t.

[Bottle]

[quote name='cheddatom' post='1032240' date='Nov 22 2010, 09:10 AM']ODB-3 has a built in blend control too.

If you put it before your amp, you should be able to get a decent low gain crunch from it, but perhaps not enough of a crunch for what you need. As above, when you turn the gain up, it gets sh*t.[/quote]
That's been my experience so far. Tried it before the head and in the Efx loop, not a whole lot going on there. Going to the Bass Merchant in Colchester today to try some new basses on for size, maybe I'll have a look at any efx pedals they've got.

Ta muchly, Ian

[mcnach]

[quote name='Bottle' post='1029670' date='Nov 19 2010, 05:34 PM']Hi guys

Well, I'll start by saying that I don't usually use a ton of effects. Most of the time I run my set up clean, with perhaps a smidge of grit from my SansAmp to dirty up my second channel. I have my amp-rack set up a little like this:

Bass > TU-2 > GK Head > (efx loop out) > SansAmp Paradriver > X-Over > Power-amp

Broad strokes, the GK feeds my 4x10 cab (clean, full-range) and the power-amp (in two-channel mode) feeds the effected low end into the 1x15 and the highs go to a stack of two 1x12 PA cabs. Recently I've been dusting off my Boss ODB-3 overdrive and inserting it into my signal chain to get a bit more of an overdriven sound for the intro of a particular song. The song was originally recorded with two guitar parts and a bass, however I'm experimenting with playing the textured rhythm guitar part in the intro, so need to dirty up the bass and give it some 'crunch'. I'm playing my Ibanez finger-style, quite high on the fretboard, over the highest E (14th fret on the D string) and G (12th fret on G, playing root/thirds over an Em chord), trying to get a 'crunchy' and 'chuggy' sort of tone.

(1) Bass > TU-2 > ODB-3 > GK Head > (efx loop out) > SansAmp Paradriver > X-Over > Power-amp

and

(2) Bass > TU-2 > GK Head > (efx loop out) > ODB-3 > SansAmp Paradriver > X-Over > Power-amp

I've tried the ODB-3 in a couple of places (see above), but can't really get anything more than what can only be described as 'angry wasps in a jar'. Guess I'm looking for something that can give me some distorted highs whilst leaving the lows (relatively) intact. Any thoughts?

Thanks, Ian[/quote]


I owned an ODB-3 for a week or two... I hated it.

I've tried a number of pedals for various things, and ended up settling with this:

- when I want heavy distortion, ala ODB-3 but nicer, a Digitech Bass Driver. It sounds much better than teh ODB-3, for me.

- for heavy distortion, I also used the MXR M80 Bass DI+. Again sounds a lot better than the ODB-3

- another pedal that's very interesting is the Ibanez PD7 'Phat Hed'. It doesn't allow you to belnd wet/dry, but it retains bass very well. I play it mostly on the "clean" setting. Yes, clean. BUT it has this switch called "attack"... set it of OFF and it just works as a basic boost/EQ if you want. Set it to 1... and it adds some metallic grit on teh high frequencies that sounds relaly nice (to me). Set it to 2 for more of that. Very gritty. Think about RHCP "By teh way", the sound you hear during teh break. That's what I use it for.
It's a great pedal to keep a fat bottom end, good definition, and add that "grit" to the top end.

I also have a Danelectro cool cat transparent overdrive... it's again a really nice pedal with dual tone controls, but this I use to just add some mild overdrive. Worth checking out.

[Bottle]

Thanks for all the advice, guys

I'm selling the ODB-3 now - just doesn't do what I need it to. Thinking of trying some of the stuff you guys have been recommending

Ta, Ian

[Bottle]

Apologies for the thread resurrection, but I thought I'd update people with my search for a fuzz pedal to replace the ODB-3

[quote name='paul_5' post='1029887' date='Nov 19 2010, 08:38 PM']Dirty bass is a bit of an obsession of mine, so here's a couple to try.

A Sovtek Big Muff (big green one) are prized by a lot of bass players for the warm, fuzzy sound (though this is fuzz, not overdrive, which tends to be a bit 'thinner' to my ears) but are out of production. The Bass Big Muff does well enough in reviews, but I've not tried one myself.[/quote]
A quick look-around and some reviews and I'm leaning towards a Bass Big Muff Pi (or clone). I've seen 'em new for about £55 on several websites, and quite few s/h here on BC. I did see someone mention a Bass BMP clone / DIY job, but I can't seem to find the thread anymore.....

Have a couple of questions:

(1) How does the BBMP fair with a high-level input i.e. from an effects loop or close-to-line-level input?

(2) How does it fair with an active bass (considering putting it at the start of a signal chain, so I can use the Dry and Effected outputs into seperate amps if the Effects Loop idea doesn't pan out). This is for future reference in case I go ahead with my planned purchase of a Cort GB34A; both of my current basses are passive, though.

Have been trawling GGG for ideas - I can get a BMP clone kit for $65 + ~$15 shipping, although I'm then getting fairly close to the UK list price for a new BBMP.

Would the DIY route be better?

Any thoughts welcome!!

Ian

[thumbo]

The Barge VFB-2 is an incredibly useful pedal. I currently use mine to make to tame my octave pedals a little, in which I run a Digitech Whammy and MXR Bass Octave. I've always found that I much prefer the sound of the MXR Bass Octave in the VFB-2 loop, it just sounds much nicer to my ears - less boomy and a clearer sound. But more to the point, the VFB-2 is great for taming fuzz and drive pedals in particular.

Another +1 on the Fulltone Bassdrive too. I haven't tried many drive pedals of this kind of price, but I honestly don't feel like I need to as this pedal has done very well for me in pretty much every band I've played with over the past 4 years. It does old school grunt very well and it also screams like an evil thing if you need it to! I think for a lot of people the appeal of this pedal is that it doesn't mess with your low end too much, I don't find that I'm having to compensate for the amount of bass this pedal produces.

[EskimoBassist]

If you're wanting a distortion that will go from tube grit to all out high gain insanity, the Bass Drive may well be for you! I love mine to bits and the switchable boost is a great tool.

Lots of love for the Bass Big Muff too, not sure what's it like with a close to line level signal, but I've had no problem sending very hot and boosted signals through it.

[Bottle]

[quote name='EskimoBassist' post='1164834' date='Mar 16 2011, 07:21 PM']If you're wanting a distortion that will go from tube grit to all out high gain insanity, the Bass Drive may well be for you! I love mine to bits and the switchable boost is a great tool.

Lots of love for the Bass Big Muff too, not sure what's it like with a close to line level signal, but I've had no problem sending very hot and boosted signals through it.[/quote]
Good to know. Think I'll go hit the 'Effects for sale' thread.......Oooooooh, shiny!

Ian

[chrismuzz]

[quote name='Bottle' post='1167589' date='Mar 18 2011, 08:16 PM']Good to know. Think I'll go hit the 'Effects for sale' thread.......Oooooooh, shiny!

Ian[/quote]

Be careful in there! I somehow ended up a few hundred pounds lighter the last time I visited. And this time last year I was a bass > cable > amp kinda guy!