Onboard overdrive

JediBassKnight

JediBassKnight

Mar 18, 2020
157
228
2,841
Iowa
#1
I've always thought onboard overdrive would be amazing. I don't switch it on or off constantly. And I hate using pedals. And if all I need is an overdrive for my sound, it'd be nice to just grab my Bass and go with a di and wireless in the bass case, no amp needed, no pedals, no wires.

I know it's not new and there are companies who build them into their guitars, but what about the people who want it in their existing guitars and or basses.

Not feeling the black ice passive stuff. I want pedal companies to make onboard variants. Also having onboard cab sim with the OD would be even better.

I've contacted darkglass and they said no. Having a Vintage Ultra with most the knobs disconnected and at my settings would be amazing. Haven't bothered with other companies yet.

I'm in Iowa and Bilt Guitars are built here and feature onboard effects. I might try them next.

Tl;Dr
I want onboard overdrive, can't find it and know it's not a new idea.


Questions for you all. Do any of you use onboard overdrive, If so where did you get it/did you make it/can I buy one?

Something along the lines of 4 dual concentric knobs total on my Bass, controlling; Volume/Pickup Balance, Treble/Bass, Mids/Freq, Drive/Blend and a switch for cab sim. So just one dual knob to control the overdrive and a mini switch.

Would anyone rock this on their basses?
 
#4
I am discussing this very idea with a very popular builder on this forum! I have my number one favorite two band pre, and I want to combine that with a “grunt” switch that inserts a small amount of upper range harmonic distortion. The goal would be a very simple drive circuit, with minimal options available as mini pots on the pcb itself. The goal would be a “set and forget” drive knob that you either flick on with a toggle, or engage with a push / pull.

I will definitely keep you posted on progress. I’m trying to do as much learning along the way to pull my weight and not rely completely on someone else. Either way, I am aiming to get this done this year for sure, and am going to start a thread outlining my starting point very soon.

This forum has amazed me many times over with the generous contributions from its members, and I’m hoping we can get that generosity rolling again with this idea!

Cab sim onboard?!? That sounds wild to me but I’m sure anything is possible with the right amount of determination!
 
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#5
GO DIY!

And if you don't wanna DIY it yourself, there are plenty of DIYers to semi-pro solder-jockeys who could do what you are requesting. Be prepared that your bass may need some additional wood removed from it to house all that you seek to include. Get your needs custom tailored to, you can't do that with commercial stuff.

JediBassKnight said:
I've always thought onboard overdrive would be amazing. I don't switch it on or off constantly. And I hate using pedals. And if all I need is an overdrive for my sound, it'd be nice to just grab my Bass and go with a di and wireless in the bass case, no amp needed, no pedals, no wires.

I know it's not new and there are companies who build them into their guitars, but what about the people who want it in their existing guitars and or basses.

Not feeling the black ice passive stuff. I want pedal companies to make onboard variants. Also having onboard cab sim with the OD would be even better.

I've contacted darkglass and they said no. Having a Vintage Ultra with most the knobs disconnected and at my settings would be amazing. Haven't bothered with other companies yet.

I'm in Iowa and Bilt Guitars are built here and feature onboard effects. I might try them next.

Tl;Dr
I want onboard overdrive, can't find it and know it's not a new idea.


Questions for you all. Do any of you use onboard overdrive, If so where did you get it/did you make it/can I buy one?

Something along the lines of 4 dual concentric knobs total on my Bass, controlling; Volume/Pickup Balance, Treble/Bass, Mids/Freq, Drive/Blend and a switch for cab sim. So just one dual knob to control the overdrive and a mini switch.

Would anyone rock this on their basses?
Click to expand...

4 dual concentrics and a sw is totally do-able.

1590A
Find a 1590A dirt pedal you like and ditch the housing and the stomper and stuff it in your bass.
Mooer has a cab sim in 1590A, and there are DIs that are nearly 1590A. Depending on your bass and willingness to excavate space — you could house 3 1590A pedals' guts in your bass.
I've seen a Darkglass B3K clone DIY that would fit in a 1590A pedal.

So ...
DIRT
CAB SIM
DI, all in your bass. Of course, the DI means you 'd be tethered unless your FOH / Recording studio engineers can take a wireless signal into their own DIs.

You could run an XLR cable and use phantom power... there's all sorts of ways to proceed...


I'm building an onboard pre with some grit for a guitar friend right now. Have 3 postage-stamp sized prototypes read to go and will make 2 more for him to choose one of them...
 
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#10
JediBassKnight said:
Awesome thanks folks for the input. I will look into those options.

@Feral Feline that sounds awesome. If I don't have any luck, might I hit you up for something similar that your making for your friends?
Click to expand...

Sure, but a) I'm a novice solder-surgeon, and b) you'd still need it soldered into your bass's cavity (you payin' my flight to Iowa? :laugh:) — so you might want to find somebody local to you with more experience than I have. :thumbsup:


:bassist: Onboard OD!
 
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#11
Thinking I might go there route of having an Xotic SL Drive put in my Bass along with a TC Electronics mini Hall of Fame reverb. Going to forgo the cab sim. My JDX DI can take care of that. I'll be going into an amp 90 percent of the time anyway.

Hopefully I can have my sound with me always as long as I have my bass.

I have the new Ibanez EHB 1500 bass on the way soon, and that bass has a switch for active/passive that I don't plan on using at all. I might have another mini switch installed, one for the overdrive and one for the reverb.

To power these units without draining my preamp battery. I will be Velcroing a Volto battery to my control cavity cover, and drilling a small hole to feed power to the two new circuits.

I know reverb isn't to common for bass but I like to do Volume swells and I want something hanging after I roll off the volume before the next swell.
 
#12
bigsnack said:
I am discussing this very idea with a very popular builder on this forum! I have my number one favorite two band pre, and I want to combine that with a “grunt” switch that inserts a small amount of upper range harmonic distortion. The goal would be a very simple drive circuit, with minimal options available as mini pots on the pcb itself. The goal would be a “set and forget” drive knob that you either flick on with a toggle, or engage with a push / pull.

I will definitely keep you posted on progress. I’m trying to do as much learning along the way to pull my weight and not rely completely on someone else. Either way, I am aiming to get this done this year for sure, and am going to start a thread outlining my starting point very soon.

This forum has amazed me many times over with the generous contributions from its members, and I’m hoping we can get that generosity rolling again with this idea!

Cab sim onboard?!? That sounds wild to me but I’m sure anything is possible with the right amount of determination!
Click to expand...


Yes please keep me up to date. My post just before goes over my new plans. Hopefully folks like us can pave new way with this type of thing.
 
#13
JediBassKnight said:
Yes please keep me up to date. My post just before goes over my new plans. Hopefully folks like us can pave new way with this type of thing.
Click to expand...

Will do! I'm looking into the simplest solution that sounds good, for instance just creating a separate switch that adds a preset amount of gain into the existing op amp of the circuit. If the gain isn't too extreme, my hypothesis is that it will lightly saturate the op amp and give it just a bit of crunch, as opposed to have a blazing distortion on tap. We'll see when we get there!
 
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#14
JediBassKnight said:
Would anyone rock this on their basses?
Click to expand...

I had an onboard distortion function built into my old Travis Bean fretless for a while, which I would crank up when doing my slide bass schtick. In all honesty, I think an onboard EFX loop function is a much better implementation. You might start by looking at how Jerry Garcia used one.

I've also been toying with the idea of sending remote control signals by wire to outboard EFX and/or my amp. Since I already have a 4 pin output connector and am currently only using two conductors, it would be pretty easy to implement:

mv4fl-png.png
 
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#17
JediBassKnight said:
@Passinwind wow nice bass and that sounds like a cool idea too.
Click to expand...

Thanks, my friend Marco Cortes did a great job on it.

Since I already have outboard power plumbed in, and this is my new dedicated slide bass, I've actually been thinking about throwing a simple distortion board in there sooner than later. If I do that I'll be happy to share whatever design I work out for it. :cool:

JediBassKnight said:
And I see you make a lot of your own stuff that is really cool. What kind of things would you change with your bass remotely?
Click to expand...

For starters: clean/dirty and/or or wet/dry mix for time based effects, muting, and maybe preset switching.
 
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#18
My taste in distortion is not your typical bass guitar stuff. I grew up playing metal on guitar. Happened upon a free bass and fell in love. Created a weird tuning and now I play something that more resembles guitar with a bass playing alongside it.

I'll post a link to some videos to give you an idea of what I'm going for sans the noise.
 
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#20
JediBassKnight said:
My taste in distortion is not your typical bass guitar stuff. I grew up playing metal on guitar. Happened upon a free bass and fell in love. Created a weird tuning and now I play something that more resembles guitar with a bass playing alongside it.

I'll post a link to some videos to give you an idea of what I'm going for sans the noise.
Click to expand...

Just FWIW, here's an old clip I did featuring distorted slide bass over a looped live bass and drum track:



That's the Travis Bean, which I sold a few years ago.
 
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