Potentiometers, Switches and other electronic devices for Bass Guitars
The Tech 21 Bass Fly Rig is a multi-effect unit with, obviously, a whole bunch of in-built effects. But as you can see from a photo of it, one of the features is “sans amp”, and yes this does mean it can be used direct into a mixer. But as anyone who has used a … Read more
Fresh from the NAMM show, MXR showed off the Sub Octave Bass Fuzz pedal. This fuzz pedal features two circuits, meaning it’s not the typical “one trick pony” type of fuzz. It also features separate bass and treble EQ controls, an octave control (of course), dry volume control (totally necessary for bass), has mid-frequency boost, … Read more
At NAMM, we were able to talk with Carey Nordstrand who showed us the new stuff from Nordstrand Audio products, and it was demonstrated with a cool Fodera headless prototype. Will the Nordstrand Audio products become real? According to Carey’s personal blog, yes. According to Carey, NA products should be available later this year. Cool!
Short answer: Yes (see video below.) Long answer: It is possible for a bass player to play most guitar parts on his own without any guitarist present, however there are a few drawbacks to this. 1. You need the right pedals to do it This can get expensive real quick, and in addition you need … Read more
Little known fact: BBG does sell a looper. One of the best available, in fact. What would a bass player need a looper for? There are actually several good reasons for a bass player having a looper. But before we talk about that, here’s a video of one in action used by a bass player: … Read more
(Quick info for those that don’t like to wait and want a DI box now: See the SansAMP Bass Driver DI and SansAMP Character Series VT Bass DI.) “DI”, which most players know as “Direct Injection” (meaning not Direct Input and I’ll explain why in a moment), is a very standard thing to use when … Read more
In BBG’s pedal lineup is the Ashdown Dual Band Compression pedal for bass. Looks cool and sounds great… …but what exactly is dual-band compression and why would you want it? Dual-band compression for bass splits the incoming signal is split into two bands, low frequency and high frequency, runs each through separate compressor circuits, combines … Read more
Note up front, yes, we sell this, but that’s not the reason for this article. When it comes to envelope filtering, you have two ways of going about it. Either you use a manual bass wah pedal that you rock back and forth with your foot, or you use an envelope filter pedal. At first … Read more
Some players like using distortion, and that’s fine. However, there’s some debate that exists on whether you need a bass-specific distortion effect or not. Technically, no, you don’t: However…. Although the term “clean distortion” is a bit of an oxymoron (it’s like saying “clean dirty”), regular distortion pedals can’t distort cleanly. Why? Well, let’s take … Read more
Preamp vs. Pedal is can basically be defined as inboard vs. outboard. With a preamp, everything is literally inboard to the bass guitar itself. Internal power, internal board, all-direct connections with the least noise, and so on. With a pedal, everything is outside of the bass guitar. External power and board with two big wires … Read more
