The Best Bass Distortion Pedals

Are you looking for an incredibly powerful distortion that’ll give you righteous tone? The MXR M85 gives you serious options for sound. Unfortunately, many overdrive and distortion pedals ruin the bottom end, destroying the tone and punch of your bass. The MXR M85 works a little differently.

You can push the distortion knob just a little bit to get an overdriven sound. You can then adjust the tone, dry, and wet, to dial in the perfect sonic texture.

The cool thing about the tone is that it only affects the wet part of the signal, meaning you can reduce the top end or boost the bottom without affecting your smooth, lower end.

The switch in the middle lets you toggle between SIL and LED, giving you the option to move between aggressive and compressed distortion and soft-clipped distortion.

When you really dial the tone in hard, you can push this thing to its limits, giving you a nasty, over-the-top distortion. Beyond that, it’s the perfect size for those looking to save some real estate.

While Electro Harmonix is most known for their big muff fuzz pedal, their Bass Soul Food pedal is just as special.

It’s a pure bass drive pedal that gives you a wide array of tones, acting both like a clean boost or a driven tube amp, depending on what sound you are going for.

There are four different controls on the interface that allow you to dial in those sounds. The drive gives you the option to choose between cleaner and punchier tones, though you can also heavily distort your sound if it’s turned all the way up.

The blend control gives you the option to mix both your clean and distorted sounds, coloring your overall tone nicely.

The treble control gives you the option to boost or attenuate high frequencies and the volume control, well, is pretty self-explanatory.

Lastly, there is a small toggle switch so that you can better control certain bass guitars that have higher output levels. All of those controls are built into the small metal casing that is tough and tour-friendly.

In every good pedal lineup, there is usually a Boss pedal. Boss have always provided both bassists and guitarists with high-quality, inexpensive pedals. The OPB-3 is an excellent example of that.

The pedal has strength and portability, making it perfect for bassists who are on the road. It’s incredibly straightforward and easy to use, giving you more of an overdrive-style distortion.

There are four controls on the interface of the pedal, including level, EQ, balance, and gain.

• The EQ gives you the ability to adjust the overall tone so that you don’t lose the low end when you start to really distort it.
• The balance acts like a wet/dry knob, allowing you to better dial in the correct mix.

It’s kind of crazy how wide of a range of distortion tones you can get out of this thing – retain some of your dry sound to allow for more clarity or push it really hard and trash the sound of your bass.

The Pro Co RAT2 was known as the king of distortion pedals for quite some time. Put it in the right hands, and you have a pedal that can provide insane rock sounds.

For those that are in the market for true, barking distortion, it’s a pedal that just can’t be matched. The attack hits hard, and the sustain settles in very nicely.

Though the pedal was originally made for the guitar, it has gained a major cult following of bassists everywhere. Keep that distortion at a low setting and scoop those mids and you’ll be on your way to a killer, distorted bass tone.

One of our favorite things about the RAT2 is the low-pass filter that can help you to attenuate those nasty, distorted high frequencies that can be unpleasant to the ears. All of this is wrapped up in a tank-like, metal casing that is perfect for taking on the road.

Plus, the knobs are large and labeled nicely, allowing you to play it in dimly lit venues with ease.

The Behringer Bass Overdrive BOD400 gives bassists a cheaper solution to the many expensive bass distortion pedals that are on the market. It gives you solid tones and a good amount of range while remaining incredibly inexpensive.

Seriously, it costs a fraction of half the pedals on our list. This is basically what Behringer does, so we’re not surprised in the least.

The controls are pretty simple to use. There is a two-band EQ, a level knob, a gain knob, and a balance knob.

While it doesn’t have any features that jump out as amazing, it does give you some really cool sounds. If you crank it all the way to the top, you can get a beautifully nasty fuzz.

In terms of the build, it is made out of plastic. The lightweight characteristic might be cool for some, though we wouldn’t deem it tour-worthy, as it isn’t very durable.