I’m not sure if I’m even qualified to answer this question, as the only Tone Bender I’ve ever used is the Tone Reaper side of the Hoof Reaper pedal. I’d say I find it not overly extreme sounding fuzz.
It has a grainy texture to it, but even at max gain I don’t find it to be very raspy or full on square-wave. It is however a great classic rock sound that’s more gritty and grainy than a typical distortion like a Rat or DS-1, but isn’t really a snarling beast of a fuzz.
Phaser is one that seems to work well both before and after dirt, just depends on what you want to get out of it.
For years I was putting my Phase 90 after dirt and it was pretty cool that way, but it does push the phasing effect to its absolute extreme. Then one day on a lark a couple years back I tried moving the phase before dirt, and just absolutely loved how subtle it sounded. The feeling of movement was still there, but not way in your face any longer, and it just seemed much more natural and beautiful sounding to me.
But it isn’t ‘wrong’ in the slightest to put phase after if having that more extreme sound is what you want/need
EHX Big Muff Germanium 4
I picked one up on a lark because it was cheap and I was vaguely curious about it for some years. Turns out it’s one of my favorite drive pedals ever. The overdrive side is very light and can be used as a cleanish boost or to add a jangly crunch. The distortion side is a little bland with the Volts knob turned all the way up, but gets a nice velcro splutter with the Volts dialed back. Pretty versatile drive.
I do play both bass and guitar… but I’ve never actually used phaser with bass, so I can’t really comment on what would work best it.
When I comes to bass effects, I like filter type effects, but that’s pretty much it.