yeah @Gio I agree, the overdrive circuitry has too much gain and it sounds kinda metallic even on the lowest gain settings. the blend control just overlaps this tone over the clean tone but it doesn’t allow really a in-between setup.
the good point is that the circuitry seems easy to mod, but I don’t know yet if I will spend time for this.
I have never even considered a boss pedal because something in my mind equates boss to metal (probably unfair I realize).
I feel the same way, but for different reasons.
I’m retired and don’t need no boss
Did you ever find the big beefy overdrive you had in mind?
Hmm. Yes and no.
I’ve found a few things that I really like.
The MXR sub octave bass fuzz is pretty good. The wet/dry blend does a good job of keeping the beef in there with the fuzz, and the fuzz is pretty warm and fuzzy.
My favorite ever is the Ibanez Tube Screamer. That’s the sound I want every time. BUT.
It has a lovely mid-range boost and glorious compression, but there is some lost low end.
One very loud and gear-heavy solution (Toast Machine) was an ABY rig, with one bass rig and one guitar rig, all stemming from my bass. The Tube Screamer was in the chain of the guitar rig only. The bass signal stayed dry and low. That was awesome… but not feasible for any gig not at a 500+ capacity rock venue.
The amp I have - the Mesa Boogie M-2000 had a nice tube preamp section that had a sweet overdrive, but it was always a bit too mellow to give me the big fuzzy push I wanted.
There are more pedals than there are days in the year, and I could never afford the time or money to try them all, alas, alas.
My current rig is using the Ibanez or the MXR sub octave bass fuzz or both together. I like it, and I kick on that Ibanez all the time. For the most part, the live sound still has enough low end. Not as much as I’d like… but that overdrive. It’s dreamy.
I’ve read there is a significant difference between using a fuzz pedal and an octave pedal versus using an octave-fuzz pedal. In your experience, what’s the difference?
I can’t say, really.
Totally depends on the pedal. I think in general, if you get one pedal that does one thing well, you’re in real good shape. But I just happened to really really like the MXR sub octave bass fuzz thing. Usually I use it with the envelope filter to make me sound like a big synth. Just a specific vibe I liked and use.
I’ve played a lot of pedals in a lot of stores.
That’s really the best bet.
Bring your bass (pickups / output have such different responses in different pedals!!) and try tons of things is the only method I’d stand by.
do you have a soldering iron, @Gio ? if yes I can search for my files : back in the days I created a mod for the TS9 which extends the spectrum in the low-end. there is a switch and when it is off, the TS9 comes back 100% to its original circuitry.
If I remember it’s a very easy mod, maybe one or two basic electronic components to add (+ the switch itself). it can be done without a switch for a permanent mod if you don’t want to drill a hole for the switch.
Or you could always get the Tube Screamer Bass which should be about the same as that mod, already done.
I have the PLUMES by Earthquaker Labs. I really like it, it is a Tube Screamer Copy, with slight additions that help with Low end
I really love this pedal. its only $99, but when I bought it, for some reason it was only $80, so all the better. Really nice construction, Hand made in Ohio, and they did a great job. That little toggle changes the clipping, as described below.
Plumes is an overdrive based around that classically overdone tube-like circuit you all know, and amps crave. It is a unique, all-analog approach to that circuit offering 3 different clipping voices, loads of headroom and almost three-dimensional clarity that will push your amp over the edge. The re-imagined tone control is finely tuned to sculpt low end, clear top end, and focus mid-range with blooming sustain.
Symmetrical LED clipping - More Crunch and Compression.
No clipping - Wide open OpAmp drive for clean boost.
Asymmetrical silicon diode clipping - More transparency with a loose feel.
Boss for OD / Distortion, or Boss in general.
I know they are Roland, and have been around for ever, and pioneer a bunch of stuff, but I always kind of thought of them as BORING. There are some staple pedals that can go on anybody’s board, regardless of what sound you want, like the TU-2 Tuner, NS-2 Noise suppressor, and general modulation effects like Chorus, Reverb, Delay. I always thought they were highpriced based on the name, and the same old pedal design that never changes, no matter the pedal.
But
Everything changed when I got my hands on that BC-1X, and my Boss love is solid now.
And, honestly, if it were not for @Gio mentioning that pedal in a different thread a while ago, I never would have even tried it.
Somebody answered a post I put on Offer Up with 4 pedals for sale or trade.
I sold the TC Electronics Nether Octaver with the Donner Harmonizer (together they give a POG or Sub N Up mini effect cuz the harmonizer can go up) and had a Boss TU-2 Tuner and Behringer Bass Limiter / Enhancer pedal left.
He showed me the pedals he had to offer, one was a Bass Chorus and the other was the BC-1x compressor.
I thought he was joking, that is a new pedal, not many used around, and its a $200 pedal. But that is not why I wanted it, it was not the monetary value at all. I would have looked past it and took the chorus pedal had I not remembered Gio say to somebody, @howard possibly, when asked about compression pedals, and what he used, or what he would want, and he said there was only one or two compressors out that he would want to try, and the Boss BC-1x was one of them.
Since I remembered that, I took it for trade, and man was that the right call, I love that pedal. Out of the two GREAT pedal trades I recently made, I think I like the Boss BC-1x compressor BETTER then the DarkGlass Alpha Omega Ultra that I also recently a trade.
Anyway, EVEN THO I am SENDING BACK the Boss RV-6 Reverb pedal, that does not mean I don’t have love for them now, cuz I do.
And I wonder about that OD they have in the new line pedals that included the Boss Bass Comp BC-1x, cuz they also have this Boss BASS DRIVER BB-1X
HMMMM… I wonder. Maybe I can find somebody who will trade it to me for something??? Might kick ass
you speak like someone who never tried an old SD-1 or a BD-2.
Yeah, BD-2, not SD-1
It was just how I felt when I heard Boss, but its all changed, and Boring CAN be good
I wouldn’t call them boring. More like “Standard”. Had a Boss flanger back in the late ‘80s that was definitely not boring 
Gio have you tried the Ibanez TS9b (bass tube screamer)? I have one and there is no lost low end.
You guys are missing the point of what I was saying, it had nothing to do with the effects they produce, more about what they look like, and the image they bring to mind. its not about what the pedals actually do
Yep, the no nonsense 100% practical no fun look can act like a big turn-off 
I always in my head picture bad hair metal 80s guys with a fugly spiky guitar standing in front of a million boxy boss pedals 
And they are all distortion pedals
@terb - I love your projects and ideas. I do not, however, own a soldering iron. I leave modding to the licensed professionals!
That seems rad, as does the Earthquaker. I’d love to get my mitts on that PLUMES. My local shop carries Earthquaker Labs, so maybe I can find something.
Apparently there’s a whole bunch of pedals that are variations of a tube screamer and a whole set that are variations of the blues breaker (Blues driver is one of these).
I found this to explain the basic difference.
https://www.guitargearheadz.com/blues-driver-vs-tube-screamer/
I had just been researching the whole lack of bass problem, but for the blues breaker set. Keeley came up with a mod to the blues driver to solve it. Then Keeley started making their own called a Phat. Then Boss put a toggle switch on the blues driver in the wazacraft series to do the same thing. There’s a YouTube comparison of all 3 and they are nearly identical.
I found this history and example set on the “blues breaker” type pedal to be interesting . . .
