How to EQ a bass distortion pedal?

[Archon_113]

I know how to set up a guitar distortion pedal for metal type tones, but I have no idea what to do when using distortion with bass. Can anyone give me some basic EQ tips for bass distortion?

[nishich]

If is available try biamping, Here is what I do sometimes,

With crossover set somewhere about 500Hz, (or anywhere beetwen 100-800Hz to taste)

 

I let the bass side clean (below 500Hz) without any FX through bass amp 1x15 200W

 

And treble side into marshall valvestate 80W combo with maximal distortion 1x12 80W (builtin marshall ditortion).

 

Anyway distorted lows didnt sound good to me they kinda choke the sound, and you couldnt hear them through the mix.

This way you can keep low-end clean for some thump, bump or whatsoever

And easy cut-through the mix with distortion (also good for solo parts with bass)

[MackemGeezer]

My tips would be:

 

1. Only ever use a dedicated bass distortion pedal. Guitar pedals have inadequate bottom end response.

2. Only use as much fuzz as you need - the more fuzz, the more wooly and less welly your sound will have

3. Buy a fuzz box that allows you to boost the lows

 

I use an Ibanez PD7 phat hed stomp box a fair bit. What I tend to do is, first, set the output level so the wet and dry signals have the same overall volume, then bump up the "low" (bass) dial till the bottom ends of wet and dry signals match.

[Darkstorm]

Same way as with distortion or overdrive for guitar. By ear. I youve played guitar with diff dist/od pedals, you know its common to eq then diff for deired sound. Exact same for bass. Ideally you run a seperatemultiband eq after the od or dist. Typically I run od for bass at about 3/4 or little more for gain. Setting the od/dist sections tone at 6-8. Then tweaking back in lows & tailoring tone with the eq section thats after the od/dist.