bass distortion

[dolecek1]

I have been looking for my bass sound for sometime now.Being on a limited budget doesnt help much either.The first unit i had was the bass v-amp pro ( which for the record is a piece of junk ) now i just was given the digitech 8.Its better than the vamp but still not what im looking for.What im looking for is high quality distortion, similiar to fear fear factory and the melvins.Is there maybe a cent pedal around that i could just go directly into my board and play thru my monitors as i dont have an amp.I have looked at a few pedals on musiciansfriend but i get so many mixed reviews, thanks guys.

[Bassman Brad]

You need something called the SansAmp Bass Driver, made by Tech 21. I think it's around $150-175. MXR also makes a similar device, although I can't remember the name of that unit.

[Kasey]

check out the "Mammoth" by zvex. a bit expensive, probably between $200 and 300, but man is it cool...

[Fletch-X]

Originally Posted by Bassman Brad

You need something called the SansAmp Bass Driver, made by Tech 21. I think it's around $150-175. MXR also makes a similar device, although I can't remember the name of that unit.

I personally love My Sansamp Bass Driver. Great recording tool and excellent in front of any amp. You are able to get very tube like sounds. That said if you're looking for mainly distortion you might be better off with a MXR M80 Bass D.I. I've never used one but I'm told it's better for distortion.

[metalhead28]

I recently started using a SansAmp RBI. It is an excellent unit and has a great overdrive sound. Really fat and full tone, overdriven has a nice growl. I think its much better than the digital modelers on the market today. Very versatile too, you can't go wrong with it for direct recording.

[Adam P]

I'd go with one of the SansAmps or an actual tube amp to overdrive. My bass rig for my last band, which was a sludgy downtuned affair, I ran a Boss Bass Overdrive into a silverface Bassman into an Ampeg 8x10, and it sounded great.

[wishtheend]

I'm currently running the BOSS Bass Overdrive pedal and it leaves you wanting something else. The gain on this pedal really kills the tone and it just sounds muddy when doing anything fast-paced.

I've been in a toss up between the MXR Bass DI and the Sansamp RBI but haven't been able to try out the two. Anyone have experience with the MXR?

[Bassman Brad]

Originally Posted by Fletch-X

I personally love My Sansamp Bass Driver. Great recording tool and excellent in front of any amp. You are able to get very tube like sounds. That said if you're looking for mainly distortion you might be better off with a MXR M80 Bass D.I. I've never used one but I'm told it's better for distortion.

Yeah. The M80. That's the one. I'm with Fletch on this one. If you're primarily looking for lots of distortion, the M80 might be the way to go. It does more of a "fuzz" type distortion, whereas the SansAmp is better for overdriven amplifier types of distortion. (Although it'll go way over the top with this - much more than you'd get from a typical bass amp.)

But you really can't go wrong with either of these units. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that it would be a good idea to have one of these in the "toolbox" even if you mostly play through a regular bass amp. They'll certainly save your butt if your amplifier goes down during a show. And they're small enough to throw in a gig bag.

[gitrguy87]

I gotta go with the SansAmp myself.

[dolecek1]

gitrguy will the sansamp get me close to the bass player of fear factory?

[Fletch-X]

Check this site out. There's a couple of sound samples using some of the settings from the manual. http://www.geocities.com/sansampbass/sounds.html

[gvarko]

Bass DI - the only way to go...

http://www.tech21nyc.com/bassdriver.html

[David Katauskas]

As mentioned many times above, Tech21 has some great bass products. One being the PSA-1 for high end quality (also great for guitar). The pedals are also awesome and you can get a lot of the same base tones as the PSA-1.
...and their service/support is outstanding.