nick_danola's Reviews

Great but with flaws

I have and will continue to use this pedal, as I love the functionality and usability. I split my bass signal with this pedal, sending my wet signal into a guitar amp (full wet with none of my bass signal mixed in). The dry goes back into my switcher and the rest of my bass pedals, and then into my bass amp.

Pros

• Having the ability to switch between octave up, octave + 5th, and the octave + 5th + 2nd octave with your feet is at a L awesome. As are the wet and dry outputs.

• Tracking is really good. The caveat here is you need to use the trim pot, and put this up front in the signal chain. When set up right it tracks as well or better than any other octave pedal I have used with a bass (I have used many).

Cons

• The tones it creates on its own aren’t great. Not anything close to a natural sounding electric guitar. The pitches and tracking are great, but you need to put something (or multiple things) after it in your signal chain. I switch between a EHX Mel9 (Melotron emulator) and a Mooer 011 Dual Cali (Mesa Dual Rectifier emulator). The “overdrive” on the pedal sounds like crap. So you need to put a better dirt pedal after this pedal if you want to make good sounding “powerchords”.

• The end of the decay can get a little weird if you let notes ring out really long. If your using the 3 note powerchord setting, it works best with straight ahead of 1/4 note or 1/8 note type songs and riff based stuff.

Overall it’s a very useful and fun pedal. Sometimes I just use the octave with heavy distortion (via my Dual Cali pedal) to double a bass riff with a lead guitar sound (like when we cover Hysteria by Muse). I use the other three octave combinations with my Mel 9 to add strings/orchestra or choir sounds (ex: Orchestra for “When you were Young” by the killers and the choir setting on Radioheads “Paranoid Android”). It was fun at a recent gig to see the sound guy jolt up and look confused when I punched in the full orchestra in the middle of The Killers and then watch him confusedly look for a keyboard player (we don’t have one). And I use the 3 note power chord setting with my Dual Cali to mimic an additional high gain rhythm guitar during guitar solos or at the end of a song climaxes (to bring the dynamic to 11).

I just wish another manufacturer took a shot at this design and added a better distortion circuit and found a better way to manage decay/tracking/noise gating at the end of long sustained notes. You can work around these limitations with additional pedals and appropriate application (this isnt an always on type of pedal). So it’s a 4.4 for me. It’s a unique pedal, and I haven’t found anyother pedal quite like it. As I noted earlier, I just wish a more electric guitar/bass pedal focused maker with some more “rock and roll” DNA took a stab at this concept. I feel like EHX could nail this using some of their existing POG circuits. Or maybe JHS could mod this with a Rat circuit. Wishful thinking…

Simple and Effective

I have cycled through a number of bass compressors, and this is by far my favorite. The compression is smooth and natural, and it really sweetens up the tone of my Pbass. You can dial in a good amount of compression without it feeling squished or farty. Straightforward controls might now excite compression heads. But for those of us who just want and effective and easy to use pedal that sounds great… this is the ticket.

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Best Fuzz Ever

I love this pedal. This is the ultimate version of the famous Shen-Ei Super Fuzz circuit. It has the features of both the Boss Hyper Fuzz (FZ-2) and the Behringer Super Fuzz combined into one box… with extra goodies. You get the 2 fuzz modes and boost mode, but also a 4th setting that mimics the 1.5 setting on the Behringer you can get by putting the switch delicately between Mode 1 and 2 and mixing the signals. Nice to have that option and not have to worry about stomping to hard and knocking fully into one of the 2 Fuzz modes. There is an “Extra” knob that dials in additional gnarly fuzz. Totally unnecessary, but fun nonetheless. The real secret sauce of this pedal in the blend knob. This is the only version of this circuit I have found with a blend. It’s cool to have for guitar, but makes this the best Super Fuzz ever for a bass guitar. since I have a Boss Hyper Fuzz already on my guitar board, I primarily use this on my bass board. It sounds “humongous”. I can get that crazy scooped Fuzz sound of Mode 2, but dial in just enough of my clean signal to cut through the mix and keep my pitch clearly defined. Super Fuzz always sounds good on bass by itself, but this is the first version that also sounds good in the mix with a full band. It’s so heavy but still so musical. Just buy one. Do it.

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4.5 out of 5

I do really like the unique, buzzy, spitty sounds I get out of this pedal. You can get some super gnarly vintage fuzz tones out of this pedal. It’s got a ton of headroom and the voice knob gives you a nice range of tonal options. It sounds amazing with a little bit of volume rolled off, and cleans up if you roll off more. I just with the Fuzz knob had more range in it. Turned all the way down it’s still super fuzzed out. With my hot humbuckers I basically HAVE to roll some volume off if I want a usable level of fuzz (that I can play chords with). It would be nice if the pedal was a little tamer, especially since there isn’t a huge spectrum of fuzz level in the knob to begin with. Basically goes from heavy fuzz to insanely heavy fuzz.

But the sounds I get when I pull the volume back a little are amazing and worth it. Especially for a low-fi early Black keys/white stripes sound.

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Awesome as a distortion pedal

I really just use the gain channel on this as a high gain distortion pedal. It sounds really good… I am sure not quite as awesome as a real dual rectifier, but pretty damn close. Clean channel is fine… and it’s nice to be able to shape the tone with the EQ knobs. But the gain channel is why you buy this pedal. Excellent value.

Funky

While maybe not ideal as a primary delay pedal, this thing is super fun and makes some awesome sounds. I think of it more as a modulated reverb, providing unique and ethereal ambiance to arpeggios and other slow/quiet guitar parts.

The unique tones will inspire you to write guitar parts you wouldn’t otherwise, and though I use it sparingly, I can’t imagine ever taking it off my board.

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Best value in RAT

Just an awesome little rat clone. It’s cheap, small, and versatile… letting you toggle between vintage (Rat 2) and turbo (Turbo Rat) modes. Mooer pedals can be a little hit and miss, but this one is a hit!

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Amazing

I love all Nash instruments, and I love P Basses… so I love this bass! I have a heavy relic, and it feels super comfortable and worn in. The lollar pickups sound great. Easy to play, looks amazing, and sounds great. I think it’s an upgrade from Fender custom shop, plus they come with the coolest cases.

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Unique Bass Preamp

This is a cool pedal. It’s got its own subtle voice, but you can get a ton of different shapes with the bass, treble, and focus knobs once you learn how to use them (along with the scoop setting). They aren’t normal Eq/tone controls, so you really should read the manual. But once you understand them, they are really fun and interactive. It also has a balanced DI out, which is a great feature to have (though I don’t currently use it because I have a Humboldt Bass Simplifier on my board).

I currently have this in a loop switcher and use it as the Eq for about half my presets (I use a boss Eq for my others). I play it scooped with the focus at 9 o’clock, bass at 1 and Treble at 4 o’clock. Gives me a pretty hard scooped sound with lots of treble/transparency that pairs great with dark distortion (my Shift Line Buzz OD) and my compressor (a diamond bass comp Jr).