Great video, Patrick--thanks for crash course in dirt! I'm a working musician and I have done a lot of swapping in/out pedals over the years to find pedals that fit within a band context, are versatile (as to not have so many pedals on my pedalboard) and the most musical. These four have stayed on my pedalboard the longest: -Wampler The Low Blow Overdrive/Distortion (now discontinued but there's a few on Reverb)--it all the features needed for tone shaping (eq, blend, smooth/jagged clipping) making it extremely versatile. -Jam Rattler Bass for distortion--it's got the classic, grinding distortion of a Rat with a blend knob (it's my favorite pedal)--it sounds great matched up with distorted guitars. Catalinbread Giygas Fuzz--this is a Big Muff-style fuzz with a tilt eq, mid range boost/cut (internal switch for guitar or bass mid frequencies), and a blend knob. It's a little noisy (you won't notice once you start playing), but it's like a Swiss Army Knife of fuzz. Malekko Heavy Industry Diabolik JMJ Fuzz-- this pedal is a beast! There are only 3 knobs (Fuzz, Clean, Squish), but there are so many different tone combinations available (the Squish knob is really something)--my band mates really like what I kind of far-out fuzz tones I can get from it. I know this is a long comment, but I hope this helps some low-end brothers who are looking for some dirt pedals that can do it all and sound great in the mix.
Thanks, man! I can personally speak for the Rattler and Diabolik, both FANTASTIC pedals! And I've heard nothing but great things about the Low Blow too, shame Wampler doesn't make it anymore though
I swear, you make everything sound amazing. Big congrats on showcasing so many different types of gear. Please do more drive and distortion pedal comparisons!
Definitely recommend finding pedals with a clean blend for bass, but a good chunk of “guitar” pedals are built with a surprising amount of low end capability, definitely try before you buy, if you can, do it with your other pedals (especially if you have “always on” stuff like a bass compressor (that’s one of the pedals where a guitar version doesn’t quite hit the spot, get the bass version), bass EQ (some guitar EQs have enough lower bass frequencies, but most don’t), or a DI type pedal like a Sansamp.)
I like the VT and B7K sound, a good pedal to try into an Ampeg SVT or even a Sans Amp is the ProCo RAT - it can be used with just a little drive or near fuzz like sound and the filter knob works wonders!
As many options as there are out there, I feel like darkglass dwarfs everything in terms of tone and usability. I still own and use many other dirt pedals for added flavor on recordings, but for live playing I have literally never gotten a bad sound out of my vintage ultra + B3k combo
I tried running my bass through an old Boss OD-1 - as mentioned in the video, I did lose a lot of low-end.. Now I have an HX Stomp to satisfy my pedal needs for both guitar and bass... :)
