Amps that go dirty

[Beedster]

5 hours ago, 2elliot said:

Any Orange bass amp or GK with do that. I assume it was D.I. to desk from the head and not a cab and mic. That gives you a very different sound, possibly not something you have heard in rehearsal if you are just playing through the head and cab. A cab will alter the sound of the head.

 

Pretty much every Mesa amp also 👍

[Norris]

I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the Fender Rumble overdrive sounded, especially for a class D amp. There's a couple of heads in the for sale section too...

[Stub Mandrel]

37 minutes ago, Norris said:

I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the Fender Rumble overdrive sounded, especially for a class D amp. There's a couple of heads in the for sale section too...

 

I have bought basses after asking to use a Rumble, having tried them out on a Mark Bass and feeling they were gutless. MB do clean very well, although one or two people I have heard have coerced some grit of of them.

[PinkMohawk]

For me, I find that a lot of bass amp drive circuits tend towards too wooly and undefined for my personal tastes. Exceptions exist of course, GK being the main one that comes to mind, but for the most part, if I'm not using a drive pedal on my board, I'd sooner reach for a guitar head to get a dirty tone. 

 

Another consideration is whether or not most bassists use drive constantly. If you do, and the amp drive is what you want, you're off to the races. If you don't, then you'll need a drive circuit that has a footswitch, and for some reason amp footswitches always feel like more hassle than just a pedalboard. 

[Bagman]

The Ashdown CTM-300 is glorious overdrive 

[Stub Mandrel]

On 25/01/2025 at 20:34, PinkMohawk said:

Another consideration is whether or not most bassists use drive constantly. If you do, and the amp drive is what you want, you're off to the races. If you don't, then you'll need a drive circuit that has a footswitch, and for some reason amp footswitches always feel like more hassle than just a pedalboard. 

 

That's what's great about the Bass Terror, it varies a bit from bass to bass, but somewhere around 2 o'clock on the gain you'll find a sweet spot where you can play loud and pretty clean, then dig in for real dirt without the volume going up too much. Very controllable.
 

[paul_5]

My personal favourite is the Ampeg SVP into any preamp that you'd care to mention. It'll do subtle amounts of honest-to-goodness tube besmirching right up to pig-shit filth; remarkable piece of kit!

Edited Monday at 19:36 by paul_5

[PinkMohawk]

23 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

That's what's great about the Bass Terror, it varies a bit from bass to bass, but somewhere around 2 o'clock on the gain you'll find a sweet spot where you can play loud and pretty clean, then dig in for real dirt without the volume going up too much. Very controllable.
 

I enjoyed my Bass Terror while I had it, though that was a while ago, and I was always a "All the gain, all the time" kind of guy, so I never really messed with looking for that sweet spot, but I've no problem believing it, it had a great distortion, especially when I hit the front end with a DS-1, I think that's what I was using at the time. 

[Adee]

Certainly worth looking at the Darkglass Microtubes 500 and 900 amps, they have the B3K and Vintage distortions built in with the ability to blend the clean and distorted tones. They do other combinations of amp and distortion too

[Beedster]

On 27/01/2025 at 19:25, Stub Mandrel said:

 

That's what's great about the Bass Terror, it varies a bit from bass to bass, but somewhere around 2 o'clock on the gain you'll find a sweet spot where you can play loud and pretty clean, then dig in for real dirt without the volume going up too much. Very controllable.
 

Not disagreeing re the Orange but is the same not true of all tube pres, you get that sweet spot that respond beautifully to the tiniest increase in pressure on the strings? Certainly true of all mine, although the exact setting varies with each 👍

[Stub Mandrel]

32 minutes ago, Beedster said:

Not disagreeing re the Orange but is the same not true of all tube pres, you get that sweet spot that respond beautifully to the tiniest increase in pressure on the strings? Certainly true of all mine, although the exact setting varies with each 👍

 

Maybe, the Orange and Joyo are the only two valve pre equipped amps I have extended experience of.

Edited Tuesday at 22:58 by Stub Mandrel

[BassAdder60]

Ampeg V4B sounds amazing and sensible gigging volume 

 

Tried all the hybrid drive type amps and nothing comes close to a full valve amp pushed 

[Beedster]

21 minutes ago, BassAdder60 said:

Ampeg V4B sounds amazing and sensible gigging volume 

 

Tried all the hybrid drive type amps and nothing comes close to a full valve amp pushed 

 

I think you're bang on, there are few all-tube heads that behave like the big units but do so at lower spls. The V4B is an EXTREMELY good head 

[thodrik]

In terms of bass amps which go utterly filthy in terms on board dirt, The Mesa Big Block 750 is probably the dirtiest amp I have ever tried. I wanted one for a decade before I finally got one and it is definitely a 'never sell' item. 

Ampeg SVTs are great for overdrive too. My nephew as an SVT 3 Pro and you can actually drive it to pretty good overdrive at useable volume levels, which isn't so much the case with the Big Block.