My quest for bass distortion;

[Bernardduur]

Ok. In my quest for the "best" bass overdrive / distortion / fuzz I've come to this little unit http://www.commonsound.com/duo/duoscheme.pdf. My other guitarist has one and stock it sounds marvelous on bass; low end is still there, distortion can be set to "dirty" overdrive and the "Mud" knob does exactly what I wanted it to do with the ZVEX "Woolly Mammoth" so now my search is almost to an end. I want to build one but I have this question:

"How can I "alter" it to be more a "bass" effect. I've already read about enlarging the input and output cap; any other thoughts? I will add some extra features to the unit:
- The ability to use both units at the same time with a blend knob to blend the sound of the units
- a bass-thru unit build into it so I can keep my bass low end.

Any other suggestions?

[Bernardduur]

No suggestions?

[idiot savant]

i just built a bass paralooper from www.moosapotamus.com
with that thing you could put the most treble-y pedal you want in  there, and it'll sound HUGE

as far as modding the duo distorter, i dont think i could be of any help, perhaps changing the in/out and tone filter caps to bigger values?

it is worth noting that the bazz fuss at www.home-wrecker.com is AWESOME, dont let it fool you just because its a little circuit, it has BIG tone!

[jmusser]

I mentioned that the other day. I believe if you did a search for a bass Bazz Fuzz sample, you'd find it. I forget who posted it, because I don't play bass, but I believe that's match made in heaven. It sounds decent with the guitar, but it really makes the bass shine.

[ejbasses]

I was once into bass distortion too but these days i go for a clean tone and let my hands do the talking.

I used to have a DOD bass grunge. it was an over the top type of thing sounds like it had all the gain in the world. Try building a DS-1 style or TS9 style circuit with op amps and diodes in the clipping section. I havent tried transistoror jfet style distortion on bass. Plus from what my ears tell me, putting a wah before distortion definitely improves its "bite". Dont forget the mix circuit where you can mix the clean signal with the distorted signal.

[seanm]

Ok. In my quest for the "best" bass overdrive / distortion / fuzz I've come to this little unit http://www.commonsound.com/duo/duoscheme.pdf. My other guitarist has one and stock it sounds marvelous on bass; low end is still there, distortion can be set to "dirty" overdrive and the "Mud" knob does exactly what I wanted it to do with the ZVEX "Woolly Mammoth" so now my search is almost to an end. I want to build one but I have this question:

"How can I "alter" it to be more a "bass" effect. I've already read about enlarging the input and output cap; any other thoughts?

If you do not lose the low end, it *is* a bass effect. Blenders are mainly for getting the bass back when the effect cuts it out. Sometimes some blend helps add definition though.

If you are a bass player, build a paralooper or other blender. They are a cool tool to have.

However, I don't think they can save all guitar pedals. I have tried guitar pedals that cut so much of the low you have to be way up on the neck before they start to work. No blender can help this.

[Bernardduur]

OK, Thanks! Will look into the Bazz Fuss, build it and taste it...... maybe I'm gonna love it even more.

[nelson]

Hogs foot bass boost into a big muff with bigger input/output caps and a modified tone circuit. Could even incorporate moosapotamus mod to the Hogs foot for more variation.

[sovtek50]

It's amazing how easy it is to put low end in a Tube Screamer, as taught by Jack Orman:

http://www.muzique.com/lab/fatt.htm

I discovered that when I built a a TS for a bass-playing friend of mine.

[octafish]

Superfuzz. Single notes, nasty fuzz, octave, plus 10uF coupling caps all the way through. My friends wife gets a decent "Sabotage" fuzz out of hers.

edit: spelling

[Bernardduur]

Ended; I ended up with:

- Channel A: a homebuild DOD 250 with a modded input cap; wow......
- Channel B: a homebuild Bazz Fuss with input attenuation;

Rest of the features are:
- Bazz Fuss has 12 stages of clipping diodes; a whole new world full of OD, distortion and OD
- Mud on channel; something I stole. It can act as a OD or as a FUZZ depending on the channel
- Individual volumes;
- Bass thru on whole unit;

Sound:

WOW....................................................................

[Samuel]

I am willing to  admit I may have calculated wrong - but from what I've see n the cutoff frequency for both the input and output on a Big Muff is still lower than a low E on a bass, by a considerable margin...

[ejbasses]

Hey bernard, Can you post some pics of your build? Your previous builds were really interesting

[nex_06]

I'd be interested in seeing this too.

But the Bazz Fuss, wow I love it.  With a bit of adjustment and screwing around with the caps/transistor(s) config I found a setup I really like.

Paralooper is my next project I can't wait to get ahold of some parts...

[Bernardduur]

OK, here are some pics:





It is still a start; need to paint the box and mount everything in.

[Bernardduur]

new images:

[syzygy]

There is a sound clip of the Bazz Fuss here.

[runmikeyrun]

I made a few projects in my own quest for bass distortion.  I built the bazz fuss first due to it's simplicity.  I actually made the buzz box, which is two in series.  I used darlington transistors and led's as clippers.  Not much distortion but all the low end i needed.

I then made an op amp muff fuzz.  It came out with too much of a mid cut even with a BMP tone stack in it.  Some more breadboarding and i think i could have made it sound better.  I like the sound of opamp fuzz on a bass because there is lots of distortion, but it does sound a bit sterile.  

After that i built a BMP but with some different values and a 10k trim pot on each gain stage.  I added a simple germanium booster before the BMP to warm it up some and give it some extra oomph.  I then used a rotary switch and a take off after each gain stage.  I can set each stage where i want it and switch my output for how much gain i want.  Each stage gets progressively more distorted as you might imagine.  I did it this way because my enclosure only had a spot for a rotary switch and not a gain knob.  It sounds pretty good but my germanium stage gates some and until i fix it i won't be completely satisfied with the sound, but when it's not gating it sounds good.

I didn't find total nirvana until i broke down and bought a Budda Zenman distortion.  It sounded awesome right outta the box, and after i swapped out the stock tubes for some mullards... man... it's amazing.  I'm not trying to discourage you or anything, but just keep it in check... i spent over a year trying to build the sound i wanted and in 5 minutes i found it with the Budda.

Changing in/out/coupling caps:  1uf is usually fine (I use a 5 string too), 10uf should let everything in down to about 20hz.  Experiment.  Sometimes too much bass blows out the distortion and it sounds horrible.  Start with the output cap.  Then input.  Then try the coupling caps.  Go in small increments if possible.  Good luck.

[Bernardduur]

Ah, thanks all. Right now I am happy with my unit (let see how long it lasts).

I've also experimented with caps. Therefor I added a changeable cap on the input of the fuzz (0.01 to 10 muf) to make it go from boom to BOOM. I altered the input cap of the DOD because I was not satisfied with the original tone, a tone everyone was raving about. With the 10 muf the unit has more warmth and volume in it.

The mud control is the best I ever found; by changing the voltage through the transistor I can get from fuzz to clean boost to OD to dying battery fuzz.

Ah well; still need to find some knobs for it.

[nordine]

hey bernard,

i'm very interested in this project of you, so i have a few questions:

1.-you say there's channel A and B, how do you merge these channels? did you build the paralooper also?

2.-do you have any mp3 samples of this?

3.-(Related to question 1) would you do a schematic of this? (or at least somethin like a flux diagram, with stages and how they communicate)


thanks