Looking for a low end growl

[netcastle]

I've been scouring this forum for a little while now and have finally decided to jump in.  I am a bass player, playing an active bass (about a 10kohm output) and I need something to give me some more flavor before I run my signal into my preamp, which is very clean.  I have built the Shaka 5, but even with some further mods, I can't seem to get it to growl down below.  I need tons of headroom, a creamy clean signal and a smooth overdrive.  I've listened to the Bazz Fuss (online) and it still seems a little raspy for my taste.  What pedals do any of you know of that I can try and tweek to give me what I want to hear from my instrument?

[octafish]

If you haven't already, check //www.moosapotamus.com

[col]

I built a bass booster out of one of the Babani Books by R A Penfold. It can cut as well as boost bass. I f I can work out how to post pictures here I'll paste my stripboard layout. It REALLY works your speakers at full settings and can be converted to a treble booster by simply changing two caps.

[netcastle]

Col, is the Bass Booster a simple circuit  (like a FET, pot and cap) that can be worked into another project?  Also, does anyone know of anybody who has built the Brassmaster.  I like it, but after my first project not working out like I thought it would (suprise, suprise, right?), I was hoping to get some words of wisdom, like can I use it at higher voltages, can I mellow out the distortion, are their other circuits that it interacts well with.  I know this is tricky because there is not a lot of info for bass out there.

I know that I'm new here and haven't earned my stripes.  Anything is appreciated.

[Eric H]

I have built the Shaka 5, but even with some further mods, I can't seem to get it to growl down below.

What were the mods you made? Seems like that circuit could work for bass.

-Eric

[SirPoonga]

try www.home-wrecker.com whisker biscuit with velvet mod?

[seanm]

You could also try my B. Blender. I find that for bass, blending some of the dry signal back in can really help. If you want to quickly try it with an existing effect, the only opamp that is really necessary is OPa. Without it, the circuit will feedback.

[netcastle]

What kind of OPA?  I have a few laying around and would love to use them.  As for my Shaka mods, I increased the size of the grounding cap that is parralled to the diodes.  I was thinking about putting some LED's in there as they have a tendancy to mellow out the tone a little bit.  I also increased the resistor to ground of one of the the J201's only because I thought this would give me more gain before clipping, but the circuit just seems to run into a brick wall of disortion.  With the incredible transients that the bass guitar has, this means that disotrtion will come and go with one pluck of the string.  It doesn't sound right.  I also increased the values of the input and output caps.  For some reason, when I built the thing I thought that I could increase the gain by adding more voltage, but that doesn't seem to work with this circuit.  

I don't know much about this stuff, but the signal from a bass guitar needs a lot more overhead.  It seems to me like this would require something special in the design.

Thanks for your interest

[col]

I finally got time to go on the computer and draw it up. Hopefully it is here:

[col]

Doesn't look like I can paste the picture. How do I do it? I don't have a web address which is what it looks like I need.
Netcastle, it is a simple booster based on dual op-amp. It should be easy enough to incorporate into something else.
Col

[onboard]

Hey netcastle, I'm interested in bass specific circuits too, beyond taking guitar circuits and swapping in bigger input/output caps.

Right now I'm tinkering with a JFET version of the front end of a '57 Fender Bassman Tweed - following runoffgroove's/Doug Hammond's lead. The clean version's sub 40Hz is strong. It could be then adapted to a distorion circuit.

I'll post it a new thread once I get something together I feel good about putting in front of everyone, very soon I hope.

I also found a fuzz face mod while putzing with the bass - smooth even going into a soild state amp.

[Dragonfly]

Doesn't look like I can paste the picture. How do I do it? I don't have a web address which is what it looks like I need.
Netcastle, it is a simple booster based on dual op-amp. It should be easy enough to incorporate into something else.
Col

if you just have an image in your computer, you wont be able to do it...you need a "photo host", such as "photo bucket" or "village photos" ...you should be able to find the sites by "googling"...

once youve done that, the easiest way ive found to post picture is this....

1) copy the image url

2) come here, post reply

3) click on the little (img) button above the reply window

4) paste the image url in

5) click the (img*) button above the reply window

6) go down and press "preview" to make sure you got it right...

7) if you got it right, press "submit"...if not, try it again

hope this helps solve your "posting problem" !

Andy

[onboard]

I was using tinypic.com alot, but now their url's aren't linking in the forum :?

netcastle, are you going into a solid state or tube amp? That could help pick a direction.

[moosapotamus]

...does anyone know of anybody who has built the Brassmaster...

A few folks here have built it. Here's mine...
Brassmaster Clone
I've messed around quite a bit with disto/fuzz circuits for bass. A lot of them make really cool sounds and are fun to play. But, I find the brassmaster sits in a mix better than anything else I've tried, so far. There's a fix for the filter (brass1/brass2) switch, but it sounds great as is, so I haven't bothered with it on mine. It'll definitely give you a nice growl.

~ Charlie

[seanm]

Doesn't look like I can paste the picture. How do I do it? I don't have a web address which is what it looks like I need.
Netcastle, it is a simple booster based on dual op-amp. It should be easy enough to incorporate into something else.
Col

I will host the image on my website if you would like. Just email me the image at stomp@seanm.ca and I will put it up ASAP.

[netcastle]

Thanks a lot for the good ideas.  For some reason (probably because I am a rank amature) I am interested in getting more headroom out of a circuit, maybe just for curiosity, but probably because I don't like the clean sound of my bass to much and want to cream it up.  I don't know if headroom is the answer, but it always seemed to me that more headroom would alow me to sneak the distortion in there and have a range from creamy to growl.  Maybe this is the whole point behind the wet/dry mix.  

Still, I wonder about the whole concept of headroom.  How does this work?  How is this a function of the opamp?  Maybe I should just build something.

[netcastle]

Thanks onboard and col for keeping up with this.  I appreciate it.  Onboard, I checked out your other thread.  I got to assimilate some of these ideas.  Lots to be done.

[col]

Thanks seanm. It will come later today.

[seanm]

Thanks seanm. It will come later today.

And here it is:

[netcastle]

good deal