Looking for "Crunchy" pedals/effects: Need recommendations!

[B-dawg]

Me and my band are kind of like, this is gonna sound crazy, a Deftones  band mixed with Machine head. I was wondering wear I could get an effect that has crunch to It? I'm looking at the Elektron Analog Drive because I really like the sound of Audie Pitre's bass and that's supposedly what he used, but just looking for recommendations, thank you!

[Salt on your Bass?]

Couple of immediate thoughts would be something darkglass flavoured would probably get you in the territory, or an ampeggy drive type pedal for some hair/ drive (beta V in the classifieds or something similar.....that's what I kinda associate with those bands at least... Might be off base. 

 

Pedal on my board that kinda gets that territory is the damnation audio MBD - wicked pedals and nice clean blends function. ✌️

[Cosmo Valdemar]

This is an impossible question to answer. There are so many variations of drive available, from farty pushed amp sounds to modern Darkglass barbed wire clank.

And you'll get a million different opinions. 

Tell us what gear you currently use and post a YouTube video of the type of thing you're after and we'll better know what to suggest!

Edited Friday at 19:43 by Cosmo Valdemar

[andruca]

I'd start with the cheap. All you hear in these clips is recorded with a Zoom MS-60B (it's a review, just linking the sound demo points), probably 60€ used. It can do SansAmp (has an emulation from factory), it can do Darkglass (a blendable RAT emulation fakes it nicely, further Zoom generations have a specific Darkglass emulation I definitely like a lot less than this -sounds BOXY-). I plug into any amp/PA/interface with these tones and they just work.

 

My "clean" SansAmp tone, what I use for anything fingerstyle/slap...

 

My overdriven SansAmp (Ampeg'ish) tone, what I usually use for picked punk/HC or heavy handed fingerstyle...

 

My Darkglass tone, what I use for modern metal, almost exclusively with a pick...

 

I've always found it EASY to copy any tone with Zoom's MultiStomp/B3/B1on/B1Xon generation. Just to give you an example, I've been happy with GumaDRIVE (B3K clone) pedal for a couple weeks after building it with my bro. That was until I took about 15min to have both units side by side and cloned the tone with a Zoom. I've used the GumaDRIVE for recording only eversince.

 

Zooms can simply sound any way you like, there's MANY flavors of each effect to choose from (specially when it comes to overdrives), and effects that need it have a blend parameters to mix in uneffected signal. It's ultra flexible. You just need to know what you want and understand enough not to just randomly move knobs (and also be familiar/comfortable with tweaking, not for everybody, I know).

 

There is a bass Metal Zone emulation on Zooms too, if you'd like to explore what Danny Sapko suggests here (somewhat effective, but original tone is more fuzzy -I like it less-, but you can also get that from a Zoom)...

 

Edited 5 hours ago by andruca

[itu]

...and if your bass is hi-Z ("passive"), or lo-Z, the fuzz/OD/dist pedal will sound different. Your options are:

- works with your bass, put the pedal right after the bass

- you have many basses with different outputs, a buffer or another pedal in front of the crunch pedal may be in order

- buy all crunches that work with your basses

 

And do lots of testing to find your own. I tried several side by side. EBS was terrible (for me that is), most of the Darkglasses likewise (except Duality), Muff's popularity I didn't get at all, Boss pedals were a chore... The variety of fuzz/OD/dist pedals (and even rack units) is so wide, that I really recommend using your own bass when testing. I even have one board for hi-Z basses, and two boards with different fuzzes (and compressors) for lo-Z basses.

 

Believe me or not, you cannot mix and match every pedal with every bass.

Edited 6 hours ago by itu

[MartinB]

You'll probably want to lower your action to get some rattle/grind from the frets

[Pinball]

I recommend the Tech 21, Dug Pinnock pedal. I great pedal and it has a  a great rattly guitar amp sound, when you dial up the drive and "Chunk" dials! Strong bass is always present.