Your Favorite Overdrive?

[Baloney Balderdash]

So, as the title say, what is your favorite overdrive pedal(s) for bass?

 

Preferably leave a bit information about your chosen overdrive(s) and why you like it as well.

 

 

My, hands down, must be the Joyo Orange Juice, which is based on the Tech 21 Oxford, which again is an all analog emulation of an Orange amp type preamp/overdrive, but with the Orange Juice being seriously sized down, without the build in primitive analog cab sim filter of the original, this Orange Juice being more aimed for functioning as a drive pedal, rather than a preamp, and, compared to the original, with a simplified EQ section as well, to accommodate the truly miniature size of the Orange Juice (smaller than the standard mini size 1590A pedal enclosure).

 

It can do everything from perfectly clean, to just on the verge of tube like breakup, to light low gain overdrive, and all the way up to seriously grinding medium gain distortion, it is quite sensitive to picking dynamics, and it retains low end exceptionally well, even on higher gain settings (no need for a clean blend really, as far as I am concerned).

 

It is capable of a lot of different overdrive tones as well, but beside working really great as a very touch sensitive lower gain tube like overdrive it really excels at higher gain overdrive and distortion with a quite grindy quality as well.

 

The controls are Volume, Drive, Tone and then Voice, the Tone control functioning as a regular standard post gain stage Tone control, and the Voice being identical to the Character control of the Tech 21 Oxford, which is a pre gain stage EQ control, which means how you set it has a great influence on the actual character of the drive (rather than just EQ'ing the already distorted signal it actually determines how the signal distorts, as in which frequencies distorts more or less).

 

Not entirely sure exactly which specific frequencies the Voice control adjusts though, but it seems to scoop the mids progressively bellow the noon position, cut a bit of low end as well, and generally making the low end sound more loose or floppy, while it seems to boost the upper mids as well as tightening up the low end progressively above the noon position, that is generally loosening up the tone progressively bellow noon, and tightening up the tone progressively above noon. 

 

I own two Orange Juice pedals, and just ordered the third one, the two I currently own functioning respectively as an always on higher low/lower medium gain overdrive, mixed in parallel with about 55-60% or so dry clean signal, being part of what shapes my basic always on "clean" tone, adding a touch of light grit and producing more harmonic content, and then as a post reverb medium gain distortion, and my plans for the third one that I just ordered is to be part of my regular pre reverb drive section, functioning as a medium gain kind of distortion as well, with more or less the same settings as the post reverb one. 

 

That will be that no less than 3 Joyo Orange Juice pedals will be part of my current pedal setup.

 

 

A random Google photo of the Joyo Orange Juice :

 

 

 

Edited October 8, 2022 by Baloney Balderdash

[EliasMooseblaster]

Hands down, the Ibanez TS-9B, aka "Bass Tubescreamer"

 

I shopped around a few different bass overdrives before settling on this one, and whilst most of them sounded quite nice, I felt like they were designed very much for comping. Sure, they all distorted the signal, fattened up the low end, but they all made the bass sit quite politely underneath everything else. I had been looking for something to help me push the bass forward in the mix for the songs in which I was soloing.

 

Of course, the original Tubescreamer is a much-cloned and ubiquitous pedal among Blues guitarists, famous for providing a warm and mellow overdrive with a distinctive mid-range hump that helps to push the soloist through the mix. It also interacts nicely with the guitar's volume pot - crank it up for more aggressive overdrive, back it off for a smoother tone.

 

So it made perfect sense that a bass version should do the same for me. There's not much I can say, other than it did exactly what I was hoping it would. It's a bit more elaborate than the guitar version: the vol/tone/drive controls are replaced with vol/drive/blend/bass/treble. The blend and EQ controls make it very versatile - if you want a more polite overdrive for comping, it can do that too. But then, I bought it for soloing, and it does that perfectly. So I say: bassists of the world, rise up (through the mix)! You have nothing to lose except your bandmates' patience!

[paul_5]

A genuine tube pedal that I made myself.

 

That’s no help to anyone else, so I’ll say Dave Hall VT1eq or the Blowerbox Idiotbox - like a low-tuned rat on steroids, basically because that’s what it is.

[Bigwan]

Without question its the Ashdown James Lomenzo Hyperdrive pedal. Been through some big money drive pedals but always come back to the J-Lo. Nothing else I've found does quite what it does. 

 

Never mind the fact it has a HUGE footprint, Ashdown's entirely useless VU meter and more controls than are strictly necessary - I keep threatening to sit down and build a compacted version for myself - it just sounds SO GOOD! 

Edited September 16, 2022 by Bigwan

[Doddy]

40 minutes ago, Bigwan said:

Without question its the Ashdown James Lomenzo Hyperdrive pedal.  

The Hyperdrive is a great pedal. I like the NM2 as well. Ashdown have made some nice drive pedals.

 

I tend to favour either the Earthquaker Devices Plumes or the Homebrew Hematoma for overdrive.

[dudewheresmybass]

I can agree with all the suggestions thus far - 

Lomenzo is great, the nm2 when using both channels sings nicely, the ts9b is excellent, but my go to is a combination of the orange juice and Caline orange burst. Instant chewy drive sounds!!

[danbowskill]

Of recent im absolutely loving Laneys Blackheath... So many excellent overdrive sounds in a little pedal

[Baloney Balderdash]

1 hour ago, dudewheresmybass said:

I can agree with all the suggestions thus far - 

Lomenzo is great, the nm2 when using both channels sings nicely, the ts9b is excellent, but my go to is a combination of the orange juice and Caline orange burst. Instant chewy drive sounds!!

The Orange Burst is an Xotic BB Preamp clone, right?

[Lozz196]

I don’t have it on very high settings but the Ampeg SCR-DI is excellent for adding a touch of drive that really works in the mix. I doubt in the mix that anyone would even know there was any drive there but it just smooths out the sound and helps the bass sound less clean & sterile. 

[Bolo]

 

Not my video. I've been using Verellen's meatsmoke preamp pedal for years. Using channel 1 as my default tone, off for clean lead/solo bits, channel 2 for anything 'are you nuts?'.

Drive, eq and master volume per channel makes it the perfect tool.

[LukeFRC]

I’m quite enjoying the fact that the most recomend Ed pedal so far costs £35

[Bunion]

The Blackstone Mosfet Overdrive, still loving it! 
 

 

[Japhet]

I like the programmable Bass Driver (Sansamp). 3 channels for basic, crunch and drive. Before that I really liked the One Control Hookers Green for a bit of grit.

[dudewheresmybass]

On 16/09/2022 at 17:07, Baloney Balderdash said:

The Orange Burst is an Xotic BB Preamp clone, right?

I believe so, but they can be picked up for less than £20 - unlike the bb pre 😉😉😂

[javi_bassist]

I currently have 3 that I really like:

 

Ashdown Triple Shot. Great sounding overdrive. The control you have over three different frequencies makes this pedal one of the most versatile overdrives I have. The only thing that I don't like about it it's that it lacks a master control. It would have been a nice feature to add.

 

Ampeg Scrambler. It really surprised me. Just a simple and great sounding overdrive. 

 

A copy of the Morning Glory. I have a copy of this pedal with a Blend control. Awesome sounding pedal. The morning glory itself sounds pretty amazing, but I wanted that blend feature.

 

BONUS: The TC Mojo Mojo. It just sounds like an old-school overdrive. Very musical. 

[NAS Bass]

The Joyo British is an absolute belter and not just for Marshall style drive either. A really great all rounder. 

[thisisswanbon]

Way Huge Pork & Pickle for me... If I'm ever in the market for a new drive there'll be no hesitation.  I only let it go as the fuzz wasn't quite right, and the drive wasn't quite wild enough for what I needed for what I currently do. Ended up with a used EHX hot wax and a new EHX Sovtek deluxe muff for the same money as the P&P.  While the Sovtek is the PERFECT fuzz for me, no other drive has come close to the P&P for me.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I have tried a few overdrives and came to the conclusion that a blend control didn't help me find a setting I liked. i then tried and and settled on a TC MojoMojo which dirtys up the signal nicely

[paul_5]

8 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

I have tried a few overdrives and came to the conclusion that a blend control didn't help me find a setting I liked. i then tried and and settled on a TC MojoMojo which dirtys up the signal nicely

Overdrive is a weird one. I find the more I use, the less of it I blend in. A 'light touch' (moss is just starting to form on the cusp of each freshly formed note) means I'll probably use a 100% wet sound, but settings that have a bit more dirt (fungal spores now airborne/wire-haired terrier) right up to just plain nasty (Lemmy having a shave with an angle grinder) are usually about 50/50.