Marsy Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 So after lots of research/experimenting/stacking/blending I believe I've found THE bass overdrive/distortion. Providence - Vandal It was a risk/chance or rather a stroke of luck here, because there is very little info around the web on these. I was told that these were made for professional artists rather than or general sale, and that's why there is so few of them around.. Although I'm not sure whether that's completely accurate. The guy that designed these series for providence now designs pedals for Free The Tone. So I figure the new 'free the tone - bass blaster' must be similar to the Vandal. Here's what free the tone say: Bass Blaster BB-2: The Bass Blaster, previously only available for professional musicians, has now been added to the Free The Tone Custom line-up. The Bass Blaster is an overdrive pedal designed for the bass. The voltage is increased internally to +/-15Vdc in order to easily be able to control the wide dynamic range of the bass guitar. It has excellent touch response that the bassists request, and the sound characteristics are not lost regardless of whether the bass is played with a pick or fingers. The pedal creates the fat overdrive sound that most bass are looking for. Treble and Bass tone controls are perfectly matched to the characteristics of the bass and provide a wide range of tonal adjustment. Anyway, I'm super happy with the vandal, just thought I'd share that. It would be cool to hear from anyone who knows anything else about these? Cheers BC Stephen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamfist Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 Ouch. Pricey !! If you ever had a chance to do soundclips or a video that would be much appreciated. Do you tend to use it as a preamp in it's own right over a clean tone, or as something to push your CL's preamp with ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marsy Posted October 20, 2013 Author Share Posted October 20, 2013 Those free the tone pedals are pricey yeah! And the couple of clips on the site suck IMO. I'm not too sure what you mean with the preamp thing? I just use it as a gain stage on the floor with the svt. Everything just jumps to life, it adds exactly what I want with definition and character. I'm not sure the free the tone ones are the same come to mention it. although there are aesthetic similarities, the bass blaster is 9vdc. The providence for some reason that I'd be interested to know is 9vac (unfortunately). Awesome though! Ha ha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibob Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 The circuit looks fairly similar to the Xotic BB preamp, as do the controls. Obviously there are tweaks to make it their own, but I bet it's just a tube screamer derivative (nothing wrong with that, solid basis for a bass drive) Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marsy Posted October 21, 2013 Author Share Posted October 21, 2013 Hey si, What circuit have ya been looking at? The bass blaster? I haven't heard the bass blaster myself but the my vandal doesn't sound quite like either of the fulltone bassdrives that I've been using. I've always found them to need the x-blender to reintroduce the clean tone. Which was my overdrive tone right up until now. The vandal just blows it away! It would be cool to get some sound clips up but I haven't got decent recording gear easily available. Hmmm.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibob Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 Sorry, I misread your post, I was looking at the Free The Tone site that has some guts/PCB shots up Good job on the find in any case, its always nice finding a dirt pedal that sounds ace to your ears! Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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