opinions on dirt pedals with clean blend

[tchen]

sparkle drive, pork loin, what else? what are peoples' experiences with these? the concept sounds good, having a "layered" tone, but i dont really think the tube screamer sound is something i want to explore again.

[edkoppel]

they're great for bass.

the dam ezekial has this too and it's an amazing feature.
There are a few fuzzes i have that i wish had the clean blend.

[devnulljp]

Yes, the early Zekes --the blue ones -- sound great on guitar

[testertube]

great for bass. Ive only used fuzzes with clean blends. no OD. as much as I like weird sounds I dont like fuzz with clean blends on guitar. the notes pop/snap and the fuzz gets buried under the clean...usually sounds...assy?

[jrmy]

Gnomeratron VTF, built by our very own McSpunckle. I am eagerly awaiting mine. More options than you can shake a stick at - the fuzz side can go from muff-y to gated to brassmaster-y to oscillating nastiness. The "clean" side actually has a bit of grit & heft to it, so it's definitely not a "pure" clean. There are no guitar demos yet, but I'll do a bass & piccolo bass (w/strat pup, so it's pretty "guitarish") as soon as I get mine.

[ifeellikeatourist]

Love me some clean blend! No experience with the pedals you listed, but I like how a clean blend gives you more control, allowing you to have your gain all the way up, while still managing to maintain some transparency by dialing in the exact amount of clean signal you want. Check out a TAFM.

[sjtele]

I had a Sparkle Drive for a while and just couldn't warm up to it. Always sounded like 2 guitar tones fighting, one clean, one fuzz. And like testertube said, the fuzz always seemed to get lost. Just my experience tho.

[hclapp219]

The Philosopher's Tone kind of does this with the Grit knob. That being said, I didn't think the grit knob sounded great. Maybe the new germanium one that PGS has sounds better

[HippieHiku]

Love me some clean blend! No experience with the pedals you listed, but I like how a clean blend gives you more control, allowing you to have your gain all the way up, while still managing to maintain some transparency by dialing in the exact amount of clean signal you want. Check out a TAFM.

Yeah I second the TAFM clean/fuzz blend.
Most clean blends nowadays are made with bass players in mind, but they work really great with guitar as well
Every time I come home from work, I find my bass player practicing and my board missing a certain pedal

[spacelordmother]

The Music Electronix (now Zeibek) GeminiDrive. (bass OD)

It doesn't have a clean blend per se, but a parallel clean channel with boost. It sits a lot better against the dirty channel IMHO - I never really liked the way that blended dirt/fuzz sounds. Every time I take it off my board thinking something else sounds better/different, the second it goes back in the chain I remember why I love this thing so much.

It fucking smokes.

While officially still available, you'd be better off looking for a used one because the builder is a flake who has a tendency to disappear and not respond to emails for months at a time. But don't try talking about it around Talkbass. Too many of them are stuck so far up Osman's ass that it makes me sick.

[dorfmeister]

I like my Germ Assmaster's clean blend. You can even turn the fuzz all the way down and use it as a distinctive sounding clean boost. It's a monster pedal.

[bubstance]

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[spacelordmother]

Like all these other guys have said, though, they're pretty much indispensable for bass.

Dunno, though, it's up to you man.

Actually, I hate them on bass. I prefer dirt that doesn't lose low end, or (eq'ing it back in if I must) I see the point, but it just doesn't sound right to me. YMMV.

[devnulljp]

Not exactly clean blend, but the old Ge Fuzzrite lets some clean signal through, which is pretty cool. The DAM Fuzzrong and Creepy Fingers Fuzzfight do it too -- seems to be something about that particular circuit -- none of my Si Fuzzrites really do it, only the Ge.
The Colorsound Jumbo Tonebender too -- lets a bit of clean through low on the Fuzz dial. Great for bass.

[bubstance]

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