Dirt pedal for bass guitars...

Empires · Post by **Empires** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 1:16 pm

My Our Bassist Bass Bitch wants a dirt pedal.

I'm going to build him one.

After scouring youtube demos for a while, it's fair to say I haven't found anything that tickles my fancy as a straight up clone.

Unless someone can suggest otherwise, I fancy building one of these ->Link

If I did, what should I be using for C1 to give 'awesome bass tonez' and preserve the low end as much as possible?

I think it needs a 'blend' control as well, which should be fun trying to create.

Your input is much appreciated.

chisa · Post by **chisa** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 1:17 pm

big muff

endsjustifymeans · Post by **endsjustifymeans** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 2:57 pm

Harmonic perculator

laterallateral · Post by **laterallateral** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:10 pm

Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat Rat

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 7:27 pm

endsjustifymeans wrote:Harmonic perculator

More or less the same I guess, the Chuck Collins' Interfax Harmonic Percolator bass jam:
[youtube][/youtube]
Apologies this is due to be edited into something far more presentable when I get the time!

My housemate also has the EH Big Muff Pi Bass - which is quite nice indeed.

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 7:37 pm

chisa wrote:big muff

werd.
i had a black russian muff and the only thing i ever liked it on was THE BASS GUITAR.

endsjustifymeans · Post by **endsjustifymeans** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 7:47 pm

Black Cat Bone wrote:
endsjustifymeans wrote:Harmonic perculator
More or less the same I guess, the Chuck Collins' Interfax Harmonic Percolator bass jam:
[youtube][/youtube]
Apologies this is due to be edited into something far more presentable when I get the time!

My housemate also has the EH Big Muff Pi Bass - which is quite nice indeed.

That is what the fuck I am talking about. The HP sound so sweet a on a bass rig...

Haze · Post by **Haze** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 7:48 pm

woolly mammoth?

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:09 pm

endsjustifymeans wrote:
Black Cat Bone wrote:
endsjustifymeans wrote:Harmonic perculator
More or less the same I guess, the Chuck Collins' Interfax Harmonic Percolator bass jam:
Apologies this is due to be edited into something far more presentable when I get the time!

My housemate also has the EH Big Muff Pi Bass - which is quite nice indeed.
That is what the fuck I am talking about. The HP sound so sweet a on a bass rig...

Just so there's a context its a Jesus Lizard/Shellac fan into a Fender Precision Bass into an HP-1 and then into some gigantic Ampeg head and two cabs (don't know the exact model). And yes it sounds awesome.

I think member Timhulio makes a good replica HP although I've not played one personally (there are videos and threads on this forum however if you search) He is UK based and his is somewhat less costly than the Chuck C exact replica by about Â£70.

endsjustifymeans · Post by **endsjustifymeans** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:35 pm

I have one of Tim's and have rocked it in my p-bass to great effect.

Mike make's one too, damn Brit's have the market cornered.

kim · Post by **kim** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:46 pm

Sloan wrote:
chisa wrote:big muff
werd.
i had a black russian muff and the only thing i ever liked it on was THE BASS GUITAR.

it sounds great if it's just bass alone with drums but as soon as there's guitars bass just completely gets lost in the mix with this pedal; trew story.

steve of zebulon pike uses a rat 2 on bass, his dirt sound is awesome but i don't know wether he mixes it with a clean blend or anything else...

another great dirt pedal for bass is a sansamp bass driver.. it doesn't give you fuzz or distortion just a very nasty overdrive at max drive but it does sound great. you don't lose definition.

i wonder what that dude in electric wizard uses, i think i knew it was a pedal but i just don't remember what the name was.

endsjustifymeans · Post by **endsjustifymeans** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 9:02 pm

heavium wrote: i wonder what that dude in electric wizard uses, i think i knew it was a pedal but i just don't remember what the name was.

It's definitely a fuzzy distortion... maybe a RAT.

BradK · Post by **BradK** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 10:58 pm

I think it's pure THC mixed with Satan's breath.

ultratwin · Post by **ultratwin** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 11:52 pm

Good luck going a head with a homebuild, I'm sure it might be quite a challenge. Here's what I've discovered, don't know how helpful it might be:

-Heavium is right about the Sansamp Bass Driver: It's is a good overall unit, especially for simpler setups, and will make one's bass tone "angrier" at pumped settings..

-Clarity is your friend if you want to be being heard, as often more distortion equals higher frequencies that fight with your clean tone...If any of that is actually left in the signal.

-Bass-heavy fuzzes like the Russian Muff can be good but (as Heavium mentioned) not that audible in real world situations because of the general loss of clear bass signal integrity and the tone not "finding its place" with a guitarist present. Curiously enough, the Frantone Cream Puff's huge bass boost keeps the low-freq goodies massively pumped and sounds awesome, but as far as audibility and clarity is concerned, even with mid-output settings one might end up hearing more cone distortion than usable tones from the sheer oomph of the thing.

-Low end retention and usable signal clarity is often only as good as the amp you're using. Hands down, Ampeg SVTs handle drive more tastefully than so many others I've played through, and often it wasn't a distortion pedal I was using but rather EQ to boost the lower mids when the amp is already cooking. As with guitar amps, all-tube plus boost can generate a more natural drive that doesn't get all fizzy on you, although I've had very good experiences with some Ashdown heads with tube preamps + ss power amps. In other words, see what your amp can do for you first before throwing something at it.

-You have the right idea: Blend is your friend! See below.

-An EQ pedal can boost the lows in your dedicated drive pedal to help out a lot. Here's my setup circa a year back or so:

Drive tones are mostly from the Moollon Bassdrive (middle of the red box), which does a very good job at keeping the low end intact, and usually I need not keep the gain above 12:00, the rest dependent upon the amp's preamp section. It is followed by the Prescription Electronics Depth charge, which is what I replaced my Wooly Mammoth with (and really prefer!). The magic comes in the form of the blend knob, which ensures everything from a blistering turd blast to gently fuzzed overdrive. The Moollon EQ on the right has really good control over the mids and shelving of the Q, and is purely used for heaping low and mid-low tones into either the OD, fuzz, or clean signal, and this is where the above setup seems to make the most sense. By the time my amp is dialed in, I have no less than 3 basic tones to work with, in addition to what the EQ can do to all three of them.

Empires · Post by **Empires** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 1:32 am

Of all the demos I listened to, the Sansamp seemed to be the most useable... although no schematic thus far.

I shall also consider the harmonic perculator... research to do.

We played tonight with a band who's bassist had a Rat 2 and it sounded pretty good so I'll keep that in mind.

Lots of options and decisions to be made.

Thanks all for your input. Much appreciated.

the isaac eaton · Post by **the isaac eaton** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 2:14 am

Haze wrote:woolly mammoth?

+1

Mammoth is the best on bass.

aen · Post by **aen** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 6:05 am

here's what I'm using to blend, more or less.

I stuck a clean booster in the "dry signal" side though.

As far as the input cap, I would go at least 1uf. All the stuff I build is really bassy, excepting this one overdrive thing, and I use 1uf on the input and sometimes the output as well.

Empires · Post by **Empires** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 10:25 am

Cheers, Aen!

That's going to be massively useful. Greatly appreciated!

That's it settled then.

Apparently Mellowtone's 'Worlds Smallest Fuzz' is based on the Bazz Fuss circuit.

This pedal is going to be an incestuous collision of Mellowtone and Dwarfcraft.

{excitement}

Zeezee · Post by **Zeezee** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 4:57 pm

Yeah, Russian Big Muffs and i can recommend the EHX English Muff'n on bass too.

blacktaxi · Post by **blacktaxi** » Sun May 03, 2009 4:31 pm

Sorry for necroposting, just thought this might be useful: my Univox SuperFuzz clone on the bassy tone setting sounds AMAZING with bass, however I think it won't be that good if your bass amp is not tube-driven. On the pretty low gain setting (about 25-30%) through an Ashdown bass amp it sounded just total grit with tight low end.