Yea, my son has a BigMuff, but he makes more $$$ than his parents combined. And the wife is on my case to pare my/our expenses post-holidays. Any suggestions on an intro-level model? Used BigM’s go for at least U.S.$70-ish (and twice that for the Deluxe), so would you recommend one of 'em, or a cheaper new basic pedal, since many go for less than half that? No need for anything fancier than messing 'round at home or jamming with said son! P.S. Also curious about extreme metal pedals for beginners, not “heavy” or “huge” styles, (even if I’m psych-punk-drone inclined) looking for textures and layers.
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I bought a cheapie off of eBay and it wasn’t half bad. I think it cost me $35 aud
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I have this guy.
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@Old_WannaBe, thanks for the tip: this is one I’m considering. How do you like the octave-up feature? Although this model doesn’t indicate it’s explicitly aimed at bass, I take it that’s no worry? P.S. Reviews on Reverb mixed on this re: lacking quality control w/wiring inside. Curious about their Extreme Metal pedal, btw.
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Behringer is the king of cheap pedals. They have a lot of models (I think they have multiple bass fuzz pedals so I would recommend looking it up) but here’s one from SweetWater for $22. Ridiculous! Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz Pedal | Sweetwater?
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In many (all?) cases, Behringer pedals are direct copies of more expensive ones by other manufacturers anyway.
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Be careful with Fuzzes not intended for bass. They might kill your lowend. You’d need some way to split your signal to have a clean lowend to retain it (that basically is the difference with Bass Fuzzes, they have a Blend knob to retain the low end, which just adds the “unfuzzed” signal).
If you are looking for textures and layers: Experiment with multiple distortion pedals in a row.
What I just did today is this: I played around with one of the bass pre amps in my Boss GT-1000Core, and thought that having the gain at some level basically is some kind of sweet spot, everything above just sounds crappy.
Then I added my Digitech Bass Driver in front, to add a bit more distortion. And then I added one of the Bass Distortion sims in the GT-1000 before that, which gave me a very nice sound.
Chaining distortion pedals can be awesome.
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Thanks, @Malyngo for your advice to watch out that the boost is included. I will probably look a bit higher than Behringer, if only because I distrust my clumsy foot meeting plastic…
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I think the son needs to show some return on investment and buy Dad a BigMuff for the bass. Just my opinion.
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I actually hate fuzz but on the latest jhs youtube vid Josh goes over the best pedals of the year. I was amazed by how cheap you can get a mini rat pedal, I think they’re like 60ish bux. Whether you consider a rat fuzz or distortion is another question. He has other reasonably priced suggestions on it, check it out.
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I understand it’s on the high end of the budget but I’d still recommend a used Bass Big Muff Nano; the “dry” setting makes it worth it, even though it will be about $50 used. It’s simply a great fuzz pedal and not too deep down the money pit. (Depending on model you can spend a lot on the Big Muff pedal line.)
Some people prefer the Green Russian for guitar but I actually like the Bass Nano Big Muff more for bass. Green Russian sounds a bit muddy on bass to me.
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I recently got this guy and I’m happy with it. Finds Under $50! - Donner Fuzz Seeker [Bass Demo] - YouTube
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I think now if I had to choose one, between fuzz and effects, I’d opt for the latter. How about distortion pedals in the entry level for a punk, metal, or drone? Fun with pitch -shifters or harmonizers as bass pedals at this range? E.g., Hotone Skyline, Donner Harmonic Square (mixed reviews but I like their Island delay), or Mooer Pitch Box (mixed reviews) as mentioned in 12 Best Pitch Shifter Pedals 2021 Or the rowdier leather jacket swagger of a Sonicake (I have their reverb) Hotone Djent?
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That one too 
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His channel is basically the best stompbox news channel, despite it not being about bass.
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So far I like it. I use it mostly for doing Royal Blood covers because I am too cheap/lazy to do the whole split signal thing.
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Bought Behringer SF300 some time ago, and I gotta say, for the money there’s a lot of options on this little thing. Loving it.
My concern is, is there any chance that this pedal may cause damage to the speaker in my combo? I read somewhere that as far as the amp is not clipping it should be fine.
Thanks for the answers.
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If distortion caused speaker damage on its own, there would be no guitarists 
Amplitude plus transients cause speaker damage. So is playing a synth square wave at max volume bad for speakers? Well, depends
The speaker’s power rating versus the amp’s peak output is what will determine longevity. You playing fuzz bass at reasonable levels won’t harm it at all.
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