How to Choose a Bass Drive Pedal: Overdrive, Distortion & Fuzz | Reverb

Bass players with access to dirt boxes like overdrives, fuzz, and distortion need not live in the shadow of lead guitarists. Today, bassist Jake Hawrylak is back in the studio to help you select effects that will lend character and richness to your bass tone.

[enkiea]

I tell bands all the time "you need to turn down the dirt on your guitar(s) and turn UP the dirt on the bass."

[mypal]

The green Russian muff is so good with a bass. The thump of the low end on the muff just complements basses so well.

[filippomartorana]

"Distortion is pretty simple it's just overdrive but more"

[gregrush]

The Rat is my number one. It works well for most styles. Stacking dirty pedals is the what you need to do. Helps a lot on bass. Also, you can just use the boss LS2.

[cmousdale]

Interestingly enough - the first pedal was a Maestro Fuzz, and the demo'd it on bass. So you could say fuzz was born for bass.

[TylerHodelin]

the bassist in my band is very well appreciated, very loud and very well taken care of

[BubbaBass_Official]

I saw this video and recently picked up the EHX battalion and it is FANTASTIC, brings out all the best sounds in my jazz bass. Gritty, dirty, clean, all the best sounds.

[thespyinthecab]

This is my first video seeing Jake and I hope you have him on a ton more. He really did a great job explaining things and giving an in depth view of what each pedal does and the sounds they are capable of. His playing gave great and clear examples of each pedal, please use him more!

[chriswareham]

Darkglass Microtubes B3K. I spent literally years looking for a fuzz, overdrive or distortion pedal that could make the sound I heard in my head. Then I saw a video with the B3K and it was close, really close. I bought it, and it with a bit of tweaking I had the sound. Raw, but with no loss of bottom end and the sustain is controllable so I can pick fast and still hear each note. I've run it into both valve (tube) and solid state amps, with great results.

[pietero]

Way Huge Green Rhino has been one of my go to dirt pedals for the past few years

[purpled]

The EvilFuzz sounds so broken. I love it

[lichtfilme]

We used to use a Marshall Shred Master for Bass distortion. We cranked the contour knob, it was beautiful

[SonicXRage]

The Almighty Bass fuzz sounds incredible. I love how clear and controlled it sounds. I also love the Op-Amp Big Muff, which I'd use if I want to blur the notes while getting a deeper fuzz tone.

[distrustfulmonkey]

Not even a bassist and had to like this. Respect the passion. Rumble on bass bro.

[andrewpappas]

With most of these pedals I can't help think of a lot of great bassists that used them, like Krist Novoselic for the ProCo Rat and Cliff Burton and Chris Wolstenholme with the Big Muff. Also holy hell that Evil Fuzz was something, it sounded like something from an old retro video game or something..

[ok-tchau]

Fender Jazz Bass overdrives beautifully. It has a grind with the SansAmp BDDI that I don't get with my other active humbucker pickup bass.

[AaronAnderson]

That LED on the Gemini is HUGE, need a dimmer for that ball of flame.

[KeeperOfPoops]

the evil fuzz was something that Sunn O))) or Sleep would use, very heavy, very filthy and all awesome

[Dylan-cfro]

It kinda sucks going through and looking for these during this time to realize that everything is priced so much higher than it used to be. Take for example the Boss ODB-3, it used to be priced at 50-86$. Now it's priced around 90-130$...

[wicked]

this is the best bass effect video in youtube