Bass overdrive selection question

[Luke51411]

I'm not a bass player and don't have a bass to be able to breadboard and experiment with but I'm planning on building a pedal for a bass player friend. He said he really likes the Darkglass Microtubes B3K which uses CMOS but there is not schematic for it out there. He wants "something smooth and crisp. like a really good guitar tone but for a bass" This isn't the best description but I'm wondering if I could at least get somewhere in the neighborhood with something like a Red Llama with an added clean blend. Any other advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[thesameage]

Fairfield Barbershop is supposed to be "the best" bass overdrive out there that hits all of the important marks. YMMV, of course. See this thread for more info:

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=19316.0

That said, I am able to get a nice, relatively smooth overdrive sound with my pharaoh clone with the added option of being able to get fuzzy and intense when I want to.

[Jopn]

If you check out the forum section of tagboardeffects, some guys have put together a schematic and layout of the Bearfoot Blueberry Bass Overdrive.  I've got that one half put together so far, and really looking forward to it based on the demos.

[Leevibe]

jkokura sells a board for his JMK Big Bass Drive that I'm planning to build for a friend. A couple people here had commented that it's a great circuit.

[playpunk]

JMK Pcb's has the big bass drive, which is a BBOD clone, there are bass mods for the kingslayer, and a member here sells Roger Mayer voodoo bass overdrive boards. (http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=19088.0)

Barbershop sounds good on guitar to me.

[irmcdermott]

I'll also throw out that one of my favorite overdrives for bass has always been the Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive. Anything with a clean blend is going to help out, in my opinion.

[thesameage]

I have a JMK bass board I'm not going to use if you want to buy or trade.

[Luke51411]

I might be open to that, where are you located? I'm in the US

[thesameage]

NYC. PM me.

[GermanCdn]

My uber shitty demo of various bass drives can be found here

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=14453.0

I should have had the camera pointed towards the amp, as there's way too much bleed through of the bass itself in the demo.  I'll redo it at some point using my SWR amp (as overdrives perform better with tube than SS).

FWIW, I'd build a Muff variant over an OD for bass.  If not, I'd build a Pork Loin.

[Jopn]

FWIW, I'd build a Muff variant over an OD for bass.  If not, I'd build a Pork Loin.

Ah crap, I was getting really close to finishing that BFBBBOD, I hadn't considered the Pork Loin as an option yet for bass. 

Looks like I've got another pedal in my queue now.  This sounds great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZFt0NsjY-k

Actually, what I'll probably do is build the Pork Loin as a stand alone, and continue with the BFBBBOD with the intention of cramming it into a 1590bb along with a green russian.  I'm pretty sure the two of them would cover the entire spectrum of bass dirt for me.  The Pork Loin sounds like it would probably bounce back and forth between bass/guitar pedalboards.

[selfdestroyer]

FWIW, I'd build a Muff variant over an OD for bass.  If not, I'd build a Pork Loin.

Ah crap, I was getting really close to finishing that BFBBBOD, I hadn't considered the Pork Loin as an option yet for bass. 

Looks like I've got another pedal in my queue now.  This sounds great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZFt0NsjY-k

Actually, what I'll probably do is build the Pork Loin as a stand alone, and continue with the BFBBBOD with the intention of cramming it into a 1590bb along with a green russian.  I'm pretty sure the two of them would cover the entire spectrum of bass dirt for me.  The Pork Loin sounds like it would probably bounce back and forth between bass/guitar pedalboards.

If I were you I would add Jubal81's Schooner 3PDT board on the green russian for a clean blend. They work great.
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=16350.msg154886#msg154886

Cody

[thesameage]

I really like rullwow's pharaoh board. I'm finding that if you show some restraint, you can get a woolier overdrive/boost sound out of it. I'm working on my own hybrid version that has the "focus" knob of the musket, which helps you to control how much bass comes into the circuit to give you a tighter or flabbier sound depending on what you want. THe Pharoah has a switch to go back and forth between two values, but I like the idea of a pot better. 

[Frag Magnet]

I don't know that he's willing to part with any boards as it's an IDA product but Rej's Behemoth sounds amazing.

Mine's a pernament fixture in my bass rig.

[12Bass]

Sound clips of a plethora of bass overdrive pedals: http://johnkvintageguitars.homestead.com/Overdrive-Pedals.html