Bass overdrive

[Andui]

Hello

I`m new to this forum but i have already built 4 stomboxes and they all work  
but now i want to build an overdrive for an bass and can i just use an existing schedule such as this http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/v2/diagrams/dist_250_lo.gif
and adjust some things or are there schedule for an bass overdrive?

[strungout]

Welcome! As far as I know, you can use any overdrive for a bass, the only thing you might have to do is change the input and output capacitors to allow for more low frequencies to get through. You should check out http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/v2/richardo/distortion/index.html
It gives a good explanation of how simple filters work, so you can figure out what values to change. You can also use the search tool above to look through the forum for and about bass effects.

Ciao.

[Andui]

i have been searching and i found this bass effect. it is the bazz fuss deluxe
http://www.home-wrecker.com/dbf.png
but i have one problem building it i can't order the audio transformator from mouser because i live in the netherlands. and my friend got an active bass so i will need it. hase anyone an idea how i could change it for an active bass without the audio transformator

[Andui]

well has anybody an idea if i use this schematic http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/v2/diagrams/dist_250_sc.gif and change c2 to 0.1uF instead of 0.01 uF.

would that work for an active bass has anyone an idea ?

[strungout]

As far as I know, an active base i basically a bass with a built it booster. And well, like I said, any overdrive should work, you just have to try it with different caps. You can use some sockets so you can switch caps easily (i used opamp sockets that I snipped in two pieces once). Guess there aren't many bass players around here  :?

Ciao.

[Mike Burgundy]

There are.
The BazzFuzz is a nice pedal, so is a modified RAT.
The problem with distortion is that low frequencies "fart out" - sound ugly.
What you need to do on any circuit whatsoever is muck around with the frequency-shaping caps both before and after clipping. Larger caps let through more bass, smaller less. Sockets are a real good thing to use for this. It's all in finding the sweetspot between balls and fart, really Clipping less lows will make for a tighter sound, but you will need to pull the lows back up afterwards (although clipping the highs compresses them and automatically brings lows back up)
With that in mind, you can adapt almost anything to bass.
I like a high-mid boost before clipping, and some serious sub-boost after, not too much clipping (except for the pre-boosted area) and some extra compression. Not in one specific pedal though.
It's also possible to blend a clean bass back into the clipped signal to get some oomph back, but you'll want to slightly compress that to get the dynamic respnse right. Also, watch out for phase inversions.

That transformer-used-as-a-coil kind of simulates interaction of the pickup with the circuit. You can leave it out at the cost of a subtle sound-change, unless you have a passive bass. An active one will have a booster in between and sever the direct link between the circuit and pickup.

Two cascaded miniboosters with larger caps between them sound good also, althoug I don't have that packaged. The fuzz bit from the 360+ preamp is supposed to be very, very good. You might want to consider a single band parametric EQ with that. The 360 has it internally, I use one externally. Makes for a lot of good sounds not available from just the distortion box.
hih

[Andui]

so i can just build the bazz fuzz and leave the transformator out of it  
that's great
also thanks for your explanation.

ps. sorry for my bad english....

[Andui]

okey i'm going to build bass fuzz v.1 from this site http://www.home-wrecker.com/bazz.html because that one sounds good.
but now i have 2 questions.
1. do i have to change anything to make it work for an active bass.
2. can i build an pot in it to change the gain. i thougt if i do it the same as in deluxe bass fuzz. (change the resistor from 100k to 10k and put an pot from the emitter to the ground from 10 k)

[Johnny G]

I built the deluxe Bass Fuzz and tested it with 3 friends of mine who all play bass. one ofthem has an Ibanez with active pickups and it sounded great, it sounded slightlly different to the other 2 basses but it definatelly wasnt bad.

on my deluxe i find that i just leave the tone control so that it lets the most bass through (biggest input cap) and i also have the 10K pot between the emmitter and ground for gain control. (btw i actually use this on my guitar but it still sounds great, good rock crunch)

[Andui]

@ johny g

did you build it with or without the transformator ?

[downweverything]

the thing i like to do with effects to make them work on bass is not make the caps larger as that just seems to make them farty sounding, but add a effect/dry blend to let the clean bass through.  sometimes maybe i roll off the high end on the dry part so the clean highs dont blend as much.  this seems to work good on a lot of guitar effects to make them usuable for bass.

[loki]

the thing i like to do with effects to make them work on bass is not make the caps larger as that just seems to make them farty sounding, but add a effect/dry blend to let the clean bass through.  sometimes maybe i roll off the high end on the dry part so the clean highs dont blend as much.  this seems to work good on a lot of guitar effects to make them usuable for bass.

how do you exactly do it? I'm thinking about building a tube screaber and adapt it for bass adding a blend knob

[downweverything]

check out moosapotamus's paralooper  

[Marcos - Munky]

The easiest way is build it normally, then after the output cap you add a pot, with one lug connected to the output cap, other lug connected to input jack and the central lug connected to the volume pot. You can use a simple mixer too. Or you can build ith normally, but add a pot with one lug connected to input jack, one lug to ground and the central lug to the central lug of the volume pot.

[loki]

cool, thanks Marcos, I'll try to do that...
may you clarify me better the difference between a pot connected to:
output cap - input jack - volume pot
and the pot connected to:
input jack - ground - volume pot

thanks... a 100k log pot as blend pot would do good?

[Marcos - Munky]

In the first one, you will have a blend pot and a volume pot. In the second way, you will have two volume pots, one for the clean signal and other for the effect. I drew a schematic to show you both ways better. Copy and paste this link in another window:
www.geocities.com/munkydiy/blend.jpg

A 100K pot will works fine.

[loki]

thanks, now everything's clear!