bass vs. guitar pedal

[clevernapkins]

does anybody know exactly what the difference between a bass distortion pedal and a guitar pedal is? i.e. I have a guitar distortion pedal lying around and i want to know if it will hurt my amp if i use it with my bass.

[clevernapkins]

ahh, nobody ever looks in this section anyway

[clevernapkins]

keeping this thread alive so it appears on the front page . . .

[clevernapkins]

boo

[patrickhowell]

does anybody know exactly what the difference between a bass distortion pedal and a guitar pedal is? i.e. I have a guitar distortion pedal lying around and i want to know if it will hurt my amp if i use it with my bass.


You can go ahead and use it on your bass... it will work fine.

[clevernapkins]

You can go ahead and use it on your bass... it will work fine.

thanks for the input

[patrickhowell]

thanks for the input
welcome

[mps]

I don't own a bass myself, but I know a band who use a Boss Metal Zone Distortion pedal with their bass, and we have played with them countless times and it seems to work absolutely fine.

[BLU3Fi5H]

How about a bass pedal on a guitar?? I have never used a bass pedal, so i really dont know the differences to be honest.

[Iamhome]

I'm guessing it wouldn't hurt. All it is doing is altering the sound - I think the only difference is the frequency it looks for to alter. It might not sound that great, but you can fine tune it to do what you want. See if it has an operating range (frequency) and make sure its not super low to where it WILL blow your speakers.

[patrickNORTH]

A guitar distortion pedal will work on a bass rig, But it will not sound very good at all. I'm not positive, but i think its becuase the guitar pedal won't send the same frequencies (mainly the low frequiencies of the bass ) so the sound that comes through will be very thin, with very little low end.
But i am no expert, this is just what i gathered from trying it myself.

[raycer]

itll work but yeah, it wont sound as good as a pedal made for bass. well, ill take that back, it depends really what sound you're going for. head over to guitar center and hook up an electro harmonics big muff and your bass and see how it sounds (its fuzz, but same diff hah). i like the way it sounds. really fuzzy, but you can still hear the notes.

[ozzysaxman]

heres the low down (HAHAHAHA OMFG!) sorry. bad pun.

as mentioned before, some bassists use stuff like big muffs, ratts, etc. the difference is they pretty much cloud the sound and just turn it into this super thick wall of mudd.
Bass distortions and ODs are focused around the bass' frequency range, which doesn't create the wall of mudd u get with guitar distortion. you can def. tell the difference, i'm a 78 year guitarist who switched to bass some 9 months ago, and i'm now playing an ibanez tone loc dist./od/booster. the tone sucks, but theres a definate difference. alot of it has to do with the resisters and caps they use to make the pedals, plays a big roll in the whole thing.
as far as people saying it'll blow your speakers, no way, its the other way around. the worry is if you play a bass in a guitar setup (amp/speakers), the speakers arn't supposed to be able to hit those lows, theres no worries the other way around.