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Dirtboxes don't work well with Music Man Sterling bass?


DiMarco
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Hi,

I own five basses:

- Fender Jazz Bass (active) Marcus Miller Signature Olympic White.
- Fender Precision Bass Nate Mendel Signature with quarterpounder pu.
- Rickenbacker 4003
- Warwick Dolphin Pro1 5str
- Music Man Sterling Bass

Recently I have purchased some new dirtboxes in my everlasting quest for great overdriven tone.
So far the list of dirtboxes owned/tested is this:

- MXR M80
- MXR El Grande
- EHX Big Muff
- EHX Bass Big Muff
- Boss ODB3
- Tech21 VTbass V2
- Darkglass B3K
- Darkglass Vintage Microtubes

With the Fenders, Ric I can get good results using most of these pedals, the Warwick is in a league of its own and makes anything you hook it up with sound good.

The Sterling sounds REALLY good dry. It makes you start to play Flea-esque stuff whether you want to or not, simply encourages rhythmic playing. Every note is like a kick in the butt. I love this bass!

Here's my problem: Kicking in any form of dirt (even the mighty B3K pedal!) makes it sound weaker then it is without that dirt.

My questions:

1. Do I want to solve this and if so, how? Maybe within the mix of other instruments it won't be such a problem?
2. Anyone else experiencing this type of problem with their Sterling or Stingray?

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I have a stingray, and know what you mean. All my FX sound great through passive basses, but the fuzz and distortions generally don't sound as good through the stingray. However, a fulltone bassdrive and a BB bass preamp both sound great with my stingray, and they are both tubescreamer based pedals. I don't want to suggest getting a tubescreamer will solve your problem, but for me these types of overdrives work well with my stingray, so maybe worth a try if you can borrow one?

Edited by GazWills
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[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1388229251' post='2319641']
Try a Zoom :P :)
[/quote]

GRMBL! :gas:

Will check out a TS based circuit if I get the chance to.

Another option is dragging along multiple basses and use the Sterling for the clean stuff only.

Edited by DiMarco
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Hi dimarzio.

I found the same with all my previous EBMM basses the very same, good dirt sound would end up being very scooped which in my opinion is the opposite of what dirt and a musicman bass should be.

But I agree with Gaz above, tube screamer based stuff sounds good with anything I've tried.

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