Low Gain/Edge Of Breakup Tone

[Supernaut]

Difficult situation now... I like the Spark and Beta MKII in different ways. The Spark is more neutral and organic sounding but the Beta gain and break-up sounds more valve like... sigh! Beta reminded me a lot of the Bearfoot Blueberry. 

[tayste_2000]

Have you tried running the spark into the Beta and by having both, having 3 awesome sounds?

[Supernaut]

2 hours ago, tayste_2000 said:

Have you tried running the spark into the Beta and by having both, having 3 awesome sounds?

Not yet... 

[Maude]

It's only a cheapy but the Eden Glowplug tube warmer does exactly what you're after. 

Whether you like it's sound or not is another matter but I really like it. It is fairly overdrive heavy but set low it just adds a nice growly warmth. 

Only downside, for me, is that it uses a 15v supply. 

[Lfalex v1.1]

Channel B of a Two Notes "Le Bass" could work well.

Has controls for volume, gain, bass, treble,mid and sweepable mid frequency.

Just set the gain where you want it (it'll do everything from clean to distortion) and level match against bypass with the volume control. 

 

Then there's channel A, and the Hot and Cold fusion modes,  too.

[Supernaut]

Still using the Beta MKII every rehearsal. I tend to prefer the Beta for my Jazz bass and Spark Booster for my Precision. Really liking the vintage tones and low end retention of the Beta. Works well with my Blower Box. 

[bnt]

What about a "Klon" circuit for a mild boost/overdrive?  I'm a cheapskate, so I got the Mosky Silver Horse, which has "Gold" and "Silver" "Klon" circuits. I could have saved myself a tenner by getting the Golden Horse, which has only the "Gold" circuit, which is lower gain. Last night I put the Bass VI through it and on one setting I could hear a little clipping when I played hard. I find the "Gold" circuit to be bass-friendly too.

[Baloney Balderdash]

10 minutes ago, bnt said:

What about a "Klon" circuit for a mild boost/overdrive?  I'm a cheapskate, so I got the Mosky Silver Horse, which has "Gold" and "Silver" "Klon" circuits. I could have saved myself a tenner by getting the Golden Horse, which has only the "Gold" circuit, which is lower gain. Last night I put the Bass VI through it and on one setting I could hear a little clipping when I played hard. I find the "Gold" circuit to be bass-friendly too.

Mosky makes seriously great budget pedals.

 

I love my Black Rat RAT clone, use it on the Turbo setting for my high gain distortion, retains low end better than the original Turbo RAT and sounds no short of amazing, and for some reason it also just blends exceptionally well with clean signal, which I blend in via my Boss LS-2, doesn't sound like a distorted signal on top of a clean signal at all, but just adds extra definition and better articulation to the distorted signal.

 

And the Mosky Klon clone has won several blind tests against the real deal.

 

Edited March 7, 2024 by Baloney Balderdash

[matybigfro]

For low gain for bass I actually think the Barber Half-Gainer is the ultimate pedal if slightly overkill

 

It's based on the Barber LTD which is a dedicated low gain unit with very transparent but sweet drive

 

Not only does it add a channel so you have two drive settings but a very versatile Bandaxall style Tone control (Neutral at 12:00, treble cut and bass boost to the left and Bass Cut treble boost to the right)a dedicate Mid's/Character Control that gives either mid cut or boost with changes to freq point and curve and internal trim pots one for presence and Bass. Only fault I had with it was it was slightly big  pedal (although hardly much bigger than fulldrive just orientated differently)

 

Actually think this was one of the most underrated overdrive pedals of all time and that Barber is a lost hero of the boutique world. It's a shame it's now discontinued.

 

As someone extremely sensitive to low end or sub loss from overdrive pedals this pedal was perfect as I could dial it in to be essentially a completely transparent drive which simple added gain to the bass signal presented (which ironically takes a fair amount of eq adjustment) or a very wide range of overdrive sounds from scooped to mid-boosted. For low gain it was simply the best option in my mind.

 

 

[LukeFRC]

3 hours ago, matybigfro said:

For low gain for bass I actually think the Barber Half-Gainer is the ultimate pedal if slightly overkill

 

It's based on the Barber LTD which is a dedicated low gain unit with very transparent but sweet drive

 

Not only does it add a channel so you have two drive settings but a very versatile Bandaxall style Tone control (Neutral at 12:00, treble cut and bass boost to the left and Bass Cut treble boost to the right)a dedicate Mid's/Character Control that gives either mid cut or boost with changes to freq point and curve and internal trim pots one for presence and Bass. Only fault I had with it was it was slightly big  pedal (although hardly much bigger than fulldrive just orientated differently)

 

Actually think this was one of the most underrated overdrive pedals of all time and that Barber is a lost hero of the boutique world. It's a shame it's now discontinued.

 

As someone extremely sensitive to low end or sub loss from overdrive pedals this pedal was perfect as I could dial it in to be essentially a completely transparent drive which simple added gain to the bass signal presented (which ironically takes a fair amount of eq adjustment) or a very wide range of overdrive sounds from scooped to mid-boosted. For low gain it was simply the best option in my mind.

 

 

I recently picked up a Barber Linden - I'm not sure it will find a place on my board but it is really really well built and sounds great. I imagine one with a bit of gain would be *chef's kiss*