20 Best Guitar Pedals For Bass (2023 Updated)

After researching all the many offerings for Bass DI, I saw a lot of hype on the MXR M80 DI+. The online reviews, and demos were tops, and the comments great. Thus, I decided to get one. After setting it up with my BB 424x, Amp and DAW, I tested it out.

And I was amazed at the difference the M80 has on TONE. I’m a TONE seeker. For decades I’ve played guitar and use low watt tube amps like the Tweed Deluxe, and silverface Princeton Reverb to get the best tone I could without pedals.

That’s something I wasn’t able to do with a bass guitar. But now, the MXR M80 allows me to get a wonderful tube tone for recording at low volumes. And I can now go direct into the interface for 2 great sounding bass tracks.

And both give me a good bass tone that’s easy to fit in the mix. When I play only with the amp, I leave the “Effect” and “Color” on all the time. It’s just that good. The character of the “Color” is what I like about this pedal the most.

It tightens up the sub frequencies, and rounds off the 80 to 120hz zone. Much like how I would EQ the DI signal. But it adds a smoothness that my Acoustic Amp doesn’t have. Nevertheless, the M80 has all the features I need for recording: like Phantom power, and 3 band EQ to shape the Color tone much like a preamp.

Also, it has a distortion feature with blend and gain controls with a gate, to tweak just the right amount of edge on the tone. And the signal is clean and strong. No tone sucking here, and no line noise unless you crank up the distortion.

Yep, all they review hype was correct. The MXR M80 DI+ is a solid piece of gear that’s a great addition for Bass guitar recording.

Whenever I turn on this pedal, distortion or not it sounds like someone just woke up a beehive, The actual clean sound is pretty good but when you really dig into the pups it starts to make that pop sound louder which is a big issue for me at least, (shouldn’t be due to volume increase) when the distortion is on, there’s even more buzz AND it’s a very bad distortion.

The distortion also doesn’t have a wide range of sounds and is only really usable at minimum gain and the blend knob almost all the way back, just get an OD , and an EQ pedal, trust me.

I am a semi-professional (bar band type) guitarist/keyboardist with over 40 years of experience. My guitar rig consists of a Tele American Deluxe, an Ibanez AS100 semi-hollow (335 type), and an Acoutasonic Tele, through a pedalboard into a Fender Deluxe Reverb amp.

I play a variety of styles requiring clean, gritty, distorted, elongated sustain, etc. as far as overdrive/distortion effects go. I use several different pedals to provide the variety of sounds and tone I seek.

The Timmy is a good, ,crisp overdrive/boost pedal on its own, but really shines when stacked with my “Mad Professor Golden Cello” pedal. The resulting drive, sustain, and “singing” tone provides me with a signature lead sound reminiscent of David Gilmour meets Carlos Santana.

I really like this pedal!.

I love this Timmy Pedal, after getting over the shock of the size(or lack of it lol) I leapt right in. It’s a very responsive overdrive pedal, “very transparent”, I use it to dirty up my clean sounds (tube amp) and I also use it to drive the input harder on my Dual Rec Roadster.

It sounds great through a Solid State Amp too. The multiple clipping stages are a great feature as are the treble and bass knobs. I couldn’t imagine my rig without it. If you’re thinking about getting an overdrive, just do it.

You won’t regret it.

I must have read a hundred positive mentions while reading forums and reviews on the Timmy, “it works with any amp,. it’s my go-to overdrive” etc. I finally got around to getting one, and I’m not impressed in the least.

I spent some time trying to find out what everyone raves about. is it good at taking a clean tone into a sweet break up? Eh, it’s okay at that. Is it good at taking a breaking up tone into a nice crunch tone? Eh, not really.

Is it good at tightening up a crunchy tone? Not to my ears. Is it good at putting that liquid sustain on an overdriven tone for great leads? It’s okay at that. The point here being that I have other pedals that are far better sounding in all aspects compared to the Timmy.

I’ve tried it with everything from Fender Princeton, ’57 Custom, and Pro Junior, to Vox AC30, to Marshall 1987 and 2203, with humbuckers, single coils and P90s, but was not impressed with any setup. It’s better than say a TC Electronic Tube Pilot , so it’s worth owning; however, I already have other pedals that sound better, so sent it back.

Disappointing considering how much great press it gets.

Like most, I was very skeptical prior to purchasing. Then I pulled the trigger, and the thing showed up 3 days later. Couldn’t wait to fire it up! Plugged everything in, started pushing buttons, while reading manual.

What a confusing mess! So I originally thought. but wait, that’s just part of the learning curve. 2 days later as I was contemplating sending it back, I gave it 1 last attempt to let me use it. Familiarity breeds knowledge in this case.

Everything fell into place, and began to make sense! This thing is capable of making just about any bass sound/tone you can imagine! No xlr out, but, I fixed that. Being a budget conscious bassist, I purchased a Valeton Dapper bass fly rig.

I run that off my amp fx loop. Then, run the B3N off the fx loop on the Valeton. After setting up to a 7 pedal, chain patch, I loop that back to the valeton, back to amp loop. Maybe double up an effect or 2 by adding Valeton’s fx.

Valeton has xlr out, for pa, and a dry 1/4″ out I run to a second amp for more depth on stage. Is this the best possible bass tone/sound??? No. Is it entirely adequate and in some cases, quite good??? Yes.

Yes it is. Would I buy this setup again? Most assuredly. Do I reccomend this? Yes, with stipulations. True bass tone snobs wouldn’t be looking at these products, but, if you’re new, inexperienced, or on a budget, this setup is hard to beat.

Get the auxiliary foot pedal for the B3N. It won’t be for all songs/music, but, a lot of fun, and useful in some applications. Most people play music because it makes them happy. Same with the gear they choose.

I am no exception. I smile everytime I play music, and the smile starts as I set up because I know what’s coming next, lol!!!.

As a bass player in a covers band, different tones and effects at needed for different artists. Really great fun researching a players sound and putting the effects into a patch. I found it easiest to hook up to a laptop using the free software, lining up all the effects, labelling it and adjusting some parameters.

Then playing and rehearsing to adjust the sounds by ear. I got some great chorus sound for Guns n Roses, a decent Motrhead sound, and even some tricky Muse effects. Not to mention various mildly overdriven sounds and a really nice Classic Fender Precision tone.

I even got a reasonable (not accurate) cello sound (intro to I Write Sins not Tragedies- Panic at the disco).

I purchased the Zoom B3n from MusiciansFriend when they showed up back in stock recently. I hoping that the 2. 0 firmware upgrade from 2 months ago would be applied to current shipments of the product, but I received the B3n with 1.

0 firmware. It was easy to install the device driver (although time patience is key), and the firmware upgrade went smoothly. The unit’s basic sound performance seemed like an improvement from the base firmware, and more effects were included with the new firmware.

I was also pleasantly surprised that the patch manager software was a breeze to download and use (Win7). In order to have everything available from Zoom to date, you have to use the patch manager to install the patches that have been made available over the past year or so.

Patches are. zptc files, so custom patches can be shared and dragged and dropped into the software, and then onto your B3n. You can also use the patch manager software to backup or restore your complete unit, and the editing is a breeze.

Swapping patch locations to organize for convenience can also be done more sanely in the software. I now have over 100 effects from Zoom, and 96 patches, all from Zoom, compared to the almost 70 effects and 75 patches initially received.

I don’t see myself needing to custom design that many patches, so having 150 available patch slots with up to 7 effects chained is great for me. I think Zoom did a great job considering the price point, but there is a learning curve, and you will spend several hours getting it together, so caveat emptor for sure! The snags are (1) the USB connector was a Micro-B, so luckily my son had a cable from his Samsung phone.

Most equipment I have uses USB Mini-B. (2) The output impedance is 10K, so an output buffer may be necessary when inputting into lower impedances to avoid ‘sound’ changes from the B3n. (3) The 6 available pedal effects won’t be accessible on the B3n unless you plug in and configure the Zoom Exp pedal.

(4) HW/SW Learning Curve!.

I owned one of these several years back and sold it for lack of use. Around a year ago I committed to incorporating effects into my sound. I was looking primarily for some usable drives, and fuzzes which I found in other pedals.

I was then trying to square away my compressor needs. I had tried two other pedals, one analog, on digital, neither really did the job. I was almost ready to buy another single effect analog compressor when I came across the MS-60b again.

I recalled it has an assortment of compressors and with what i paid for it, if all I ever used were the compressors then I still would get my moneys worth. The analog compressors I was shopping cost more than twice as much and since i only used compression on pick and slap playing I decided to give the Zoom a second go.

I am very happy I did. After working with it for a period of time I was finding the effects were much more usable than I recalled, this could be due to the firmware update, it could also be that my working with analog boxes, taught me how to utilize this pedal more effectively.

Mostly I was very happy the compression was working much better than the two previous pedals I had tried out. I could also see using it for octave and modulations. The pedal is not without its limitations however.

The buffered bypass is just okay. As such I run this pedal on a bypass looper which helps a great deal. I actually ordered a dry blend pedal to use with it which I hope will open up additional possibilities with this unit.

Also, given this is the size of a single pedal the user interface can be a little cumbersome, but the pedal fills a particular niche. If you are looking for a digital effects unit to complement an analog board, than the MS-60b is the way to go, if you are looking to run an all digital board than I might recommend the b3 or b3n.

I would like if there was an ad on footswitch available for more control, but overall I have been very pleased on my second go around with this pedal.

I play bass mainly, and this is an incredible deal on a very advanced effects pedal. I had read others’ reviews of the unit before I bought it, and the recommendations were good. So very useful, since you can use it as a direct box to play into a mixer for recording or live work, or straight into a PA.

Or use it as an ‘effects box’ between your instrument and your amp. While they also build a guitar version, nothing is stopping you from using this on your guitar or keyboard as well as your bass, so go wild! My main draw to this was the amp modeling, which allows you to play through very accurate simulations of bass amplifiers, what a money saver! As a bonus you get the use of standard effects like chorus, delay, reverb, pitch, wah wahs, compressors, equalizers, and so many more.

The distortions are phenomenal. There are some synth sounds that I find cheesy, your mileage may vary. To me it is worth the price just for the amp simulations and distortions, so the other effects are just a bonus.

I haven’t yet dived into programming it too much, it does take a little getting used to the menu structure and the principles of saving your presets on this. I own a couple older Zoom products, they are always a best buy product.

While this looks like one of the old-style effectspedals, or at least the size of one, it is really a very advanced digital device. Only drawback is it runs on two AA batteries, it would have been cooler if you could just use one 9 volt like the old pedals.

Overall: Over the years I have owned at least a dozen bass overdrive and distortion pedals and this one is the best hands down. It sounds like an Ampeg SVT cranked with lots of warm rich tube saturation without sounding muddy or losing your low end.

I was surprised at how well this pedal emulates a high gain tube amp. just like with the real deal if you dial back the volume on your bass and the amount of overdrive dials back with it. The controls are simple and easy to use and give tons of control of your sound.

The volume control works to boost or cut your volume without effecting the effect leval. The blend control let’s you dial in some of your clean tone to help keep your low end full. I leave the gain cranked with just a little of my clean tone mixed in and it sounds amazing.

As an added plus this pedal is dead silent even when switched on. In the past I always needed to use a noise gate for my distortion pedals but this pedal is so quiet I don’t need one, which helps free up space on my pedal board.

Perfect pedal for the price range, very usable, with the right amp and guitar set up it can sound very similar to an ampeg classic.

The Battalion is great. Spent a long time trying to find the best distorted signal for my playing and finally found the right thing for me. Has plenty of options and a variety of other really useful features.

The noise gate, although simple and the envelope being a bit too long is still really useful for it’s intention. The Compressor is again basic but works as intended and gives the sound way more punch.

The EQ is true and allows for a greater deal of control over the signal. It’s just brilliant overall, feels sturdy and can imagine using it for a very long time!.

I got my unit slightly used for less than $98 and I am super happy with it so far. Preamps are just plain expensive. You definitely can get some great sounding units for $250+ dollars. but for what all this baby does (e.

g. gate, distortion, preamp, di with ground lift and dedicated volume, bi-amp ability via dry second TRS output, compression, input pad) you cannot beat the value. Especially if you buy used! I always buy used.

Also some of the most expensive units I looked up clone schematics & they could be built for a 1/3rd the cost. not this SMD latent behemoth! I looked under the hood & it is a tiny city of wave soldered proportions.

GOOD LUCK fitting all the through hole equivalents into a same sized box. Thanks EHX you make good gear for nice prices.

It’s not the perfect bass chorus, but for $70 you can’t get any better! The X-over is great so the low end doesn’t get muddy and the EQ is very useful. It has a wide Rate range so it can do some serious vibrato (which I would personally never use, but it’s there if you do want it).

It works best in the front of the amp. In the FX loop the high end gets distorted for some reason, but in the front I can turn the treble all the way up. I love a lot of treble in my bass!.

I am a bassist and play a variety of different styles and genres. I am currently building a pedal board. I was looking at EHX’s Small Clone due to it’s popularity, and I generally enjoy EHX’s products (although i am trying to purchase more boutique pedals in the future).

The Bass Clone was an obvious choice as a bassist looking at the Small Clone, and I couldn’t be happier. The added features for bass, including the crossover feature, adds more versatility than I was expecting.

I have recorded twice with it since purchasing it last month, and it tracks great. I use it pretty regularly with my fuzz and distortion pedals, however, I recently discovered a pretty cool setup as I was experimenting with different sounds.

I used the Bass Clone with the Rate tuned to about 9 ‘o clock, alongside of my MXR Phase 90 with the rate knob on that turned to about 3 ‘o clock. Fantastic weirdness. In short: Tracks great Maintains low end thanks to the x-over Plays nice with other pedals Wide range of tones.

Build quality on this pedal is great, tone control is super. Paired up with a big muff bass pi and you’ve got a great sound. The crossover switch is a great addition but not one I use as I’m running a clean amp and a dirty one, so the more effects the better on the latter! Worth noting, there’s no battery.

This probably won’t be a problem as if you are considering it you probably have a power bank or some other wired power already. Gets you 90% of the way to Come As You Are, you just need to learn the notes.

The Zoom B1 on effect pedal is a fun and easy to use pedal, it is not a item that is a necessity for a good bass player but it is a lot of fun for those who are beginners and those who want to add some flavor to their sound.

The many selections that are offered will give you room to grow your playing to a different level of experience and the price of the pedal is not a bad thing but I will recommend that you have a expression pedal to build on the units sound options and allow for some of the crunch effects to get the best out of them.

Overall I find this to be a very good product and quality but will take some reading to get the full understanding of what it’s capability are so it will require some patience and reading more than once but once you get it setup the way you want there is where the real fun begins.

Buy it Enjoy it and have fun with it.

This thing is a killer value. I bought it for the looper as a practice aid primarily but the sound is clean enough to use on stage, which was a happy surprise. The preset sounds range from pretty good to great.

I got the distinct impression that the engineers got together with a bunch of pro bass players and shaped sounds that were exactly what they wanted and needed. The sounds can also be customized – If you like a sound, but you feel it has a bit too much of this or that, you can dial it in to exactly what you want.

There are sounds on here That are perfect as is, and others that are pretty close – some are useless to me but other players doing other styles will flip over. I’ve been using this thing constantly for about a week now and I practice 6-8 hours a day and gig at night so I now have quite a bit of experience with it – it’s a winner.

The instructions are simple and to the point and the device is user freiedly – not complicated at all. For the price, this is the best deal I’ve seen in a very long time. Body seems tough enough to last and put up with some abuse.

I can’t rate this thing a six, so five will have to do.

I wanted an effects pedal with a decent number of effects and a tuner. The B1Xon seemed to fit the bill and I was not disappointed. First it is well built. I can see this being able to stand up to a lot of use, including the pedal.

I had a problem many years ago with the pedal on a Zoom 707 but this seems much sturdier. The instructions are clear and I got set up in minutes. The tuner is so easy to use. I then played around with the effects.

A few of them seem very similar to others but there are 100, and then by mucking around with the parameters I got myself some great sounds to work with. I’ve used it almost daily for the last couple of weeks but I’ve really only just begun – there is so much more to try out.

The loop effect could prove quite fun and useful but as I’m recording my sounds anyway using the Zoom R24, I haven’t gone into that. I also use a drum machine, so haven’t used the rhythm a great deal, but again for someone practicing alone, this gives a good backing to play along to.

The patches can be adjusted to produce exactly what you are looking for, saved and can then be moved around the banks so that they follow each other in sequence. This means that when you’re on stage and want to switch between two different effects, you’re not pressing the foot switch 47 times to switch between them! The only thing I would query is whether I need the pedal, but for the extra few quid I think it may be worth it in the future.

The batteries last “up to” 20 hours, but I always recommend getting the mains adapter and using the batteries as back up. I haven’t used any other bass effect pedals but I’ve used a number of guitar effects pedals.

I’m currently using a Boss ME80 which has a much greater range and variations, but then again is metal and costs over £200. When I started, I used the Zoom 707 and 707II. These gave me the introduction to effects I wanted before going onto bigger things.

The B1Xon is very similar in this respect. For just over £50 the B1Xon is a great, well built, piece of kit that I’m sure will give me all the sounds and variation I need for a few years to come, and if I want to get more serious in the future I can go ahead and spend more money.

Based on what I’ve found so far and the experiences I’ve had with Zoom products in the past I would certainly recommend this.

This is my first dedicated overdrive pedal. My reference point are overdrive plugins in Logic. The pedal works, and there is some sound shaping ability, but the effect is not exactly subtle. Setting it for minimal overdrive still sounds pretty over driven.

You can modulate that some amount by dialing down the wet dry to a pretty dry setting. But overall the overdrive comes on pretty strong, pretty quick. The treble and bass knobs are a nice addition. First Behringer pedal.

Case was plastic. Not sure how durable it would be. Ended up returning, mostly because I lost the gig I was going to use it for, and dont have a real need for OD. Recommended if you want some obvious overdrive at a cheap price point.

I get a variety of good, useable tones out of this one box. In fact, this has replaced the distortion patches I was using on my trusty DOD Bass 30 entirely. To say that I am happy with any stock stompbox is a big deal, because I have only a few left in my collection that I haven’t modified the circuitry in to better suit me.

This is one of the few originals, and that says volumes. I step on mine regularly, and haven’t had any issues with it. I’m not a bass player, but I play one on my records. I’ve been playing lead guitar for 20 years, and I know good sounds.

I say this to inform you that my credentials are in good order. You can get any sort of growl you want, thick or thin- and as much or little of the clean as you need to retain the punch at the same time.

The only thing I would change is the color of the box. Since that has absolutely nothing to do with the sound it makes, I’m fine with it. Seriously, I was skeptical too when I saw the price. Don’t let it, and the silly color fool you- Let your ears be the judge.

Being a man with ears, fingers, and experience beyond my years, I highly recommend it to everyone.

I got this a while back to add a some gain to play a bit of metal with a bit of overdrive on top as well as fattening the sound of the bass. Unfortunately this will never give you a “smooth” gain sound like having a guitar amp’s gain around 2.

Having gain down all the way shuts off all sound to the amp, and having it around 2/10 puts on a harsh brittle overdrive no matter the EQ. Sounds a little better with flatwound strings. This pedal goes all out or nothing.

If a “Hysteria” sound is what you’re going for, this will do it but not a true amp low/med-gain sound.

Out of all of the BOSS pedals ive ever played or owned, this is my favorite. After doing alot of research and doing a side-by-side comparison with about 1/2 dozen other octave pedals, i purchased the OC-5.

It is a versatile pedal which can be setup for either guitar or bass via a toggle switch on the rear. Its range of sounds is massive. With this pedal you can access +1, -1 & -2 octave ranges. It also has settings for the vintage OC-2 sound or the polyphonic OC-3 sound.

This too is adjusted using a separate toggle. (OC-2+OC-3=OC-5 hence the name). So as you can imagine, there are alot of different settings to play with on this pedal and you can really get creative with the sounds you can make.

On some settings, you can make it sound like a 12-string guitar and at other times you can make it sound like a synth. Nothing else in the price range really comes close (tc electronic sub & up, aguilar octavizer, mxr octave deluxe etc.

) as far as versatility and tone. You cant go wrong with the OC5.

Still doing some tweaking since I’ve only had it a week. The tracking it pretty amazing and the option to dial in how many strings you want to have affected in the Poly mode is a great addition to it’s multiple options.

So far I’ve gotten some some very desireable sounds and expect to get many more out of this built like a tank great Boss pedal. If you want a great octave pedal, this is it IMO. The shopping experience with Sam Ash was first rate as well!.

Unit appears to be functional after it was exchanged. The first unit received was not responsive. The second unit works well but it is hard to synchronize the bass volume with the unit. the unit is louder when activated which may be too loud for play.

it is an ok unit for the price.

Wow man Wow!!! Where has this pedal been all my life ? And more importantly WHY HASENT ANYONE EVER TOLD ME ABOUT IT BEFORE!!! Have a super clean amp and just want to add a little Grit? Have a tube amp and want to push it over the edge? Going direct using a Preamp pedal and want to add a “Second Channel”? This is NOT a fuzz/Distortion.

This is just an amazing gritty tone machine.

As I’ve started to go back to my first love, bass playing, I decided to do as much research as I could into finding a nice pedal that would give my playing some bite. Having recently picked up a pedal that seemed inclined to disguise or mask the original sound of the instrument, I really wanted something that would retain the original sound while giving it just a touch of color.

The Bass Soul Food shines in this regard. To me, it’s simply a pedal that I can leave on at all times while I play. It sounds similar to some of my favorite bass guitar players from the late 70’s to mid 80’s punk era, low end with attitude.

I switched from the Pigtronix Fat Bass Drive to the Bass Soul Food. The review above me has said a good amount about this pedal, so I won’t repeat what they said. This has just the right sound I’ve been wanting.

Even blended all the way in, and the drive all the way over, it’s not too distorted for me. It’ll do a clean boost just fine as well. Really pleased that there’s still good low end. Doesn’t kill my tone.

I mainly use it on my USA G&L SB-2 with flatwounds. I was considering the MXR Bass Overdrive but it was more expensive & I didn’t like the sound of it as much. The video from EHX doesn’t do this pedal justice, in my opinion.

There’s a couple more videos out there on YouTube that represent it a little better. This is my first EHX pedal & so far I am happy with it. Built in the USA & build quality seems good & tough. Get growling with the Bass Soul Food!.

Overall: Floats like a stone and stings like a nest of angry hornets! This box has the buzzsaw sound down pat. The fuzz is a thick, smooth, and consistent. I like this kind of fuzz in particular because it’s less fuzzy and little more distortion-like.

The Tone knob has a really wide sweep from boomy bass to mid-range Hades. It has plenty of gain on tap and even sounds pretty good with the guitar’s volume rolled back a skosh. I’ve never used the original Green Russian Muff and have only heard them compared through videos online, so I can’t speak as to how they’re different/alike.

I got it because I didn’t want to haul my vintage Black Russian Muff around from gig to gig anymore because it’s getting valuable and since it was a pretty jenky design to begin with, it’s liable to break with heavy use.

That being said, the reissue Green Russian Muff has a different sound than an original V8 Black Russian Muff. It doesn’t sound as good to me, but it’s not so different that I wouldn’t use the Green Russian live in lieu of the Black Russian for the aforementioned reasons.

One huge plus for the Green Russian is its pedalboard friendly size. The Black Russian is the size of an 80s metal lunchbox and took up an awkward sized chunk of the pedalboard. Now there’s more room for other unnecessary boxes (gulp)! One noteworthy ding for this pedal is how difficult it is to see the script on the top of the pedal.

The words are printed right underneath the knobs, so if it’s kinda dark (which it usually is) and the lights are all in front of you (which they usually are) the words are impossible to see. Overall it’s a nice fuzz especially for the price.

It’s noisy, but once the music gets rolling you won’t even notice it.

I got this pedal to be able to blend in some warmth and gain to my solid state bass tone, and the added crossover effect was just a bonus. All of the options are great and the pedal sounds great too, but after a few months of using it for practice and shows it stopped making sound when the effects were off.

The signal wouldn’t bypass the pedal. I emailed Electro-Harmonix and they said I had to send it in and I had to pay for shipping. A few weeks later I got it back with no emails telling me what was wrong with it, what caused the problem, or even when it was getting shipped back.

The pedal now works for the most part, but the sound has cut out a few times since. This was my first electro-harmonix product and I was not pleased in the build quality or customer service. I am going to get pro coverage next time so I won’t have this problem.

They just don’t make products to last anymore.

I used the original Bass BigMuff Pi as my main fuzz box for a while and while it created usable tones, I just couldn’t seem to get anything to sound just how I was imagining my sound. Well, after purchasing this I am getting all the tones I need, and much more.

The overall tone of this is actually better than the original BigMuff. A much more tweakable, better sounding fuzz overall. Even just that is worth the extra money. But on top of this, it has a noise gate and a crossover with high and low pass filters which is a truly astounding feature.

Originally I didn’t picture myself using the crossover as much but you can get some CRAZY good tones with it. One example would be Cliff Burton’s “for whom the bell tolls” intro tone. All in all, this pedal is most definitely worth the extra cash over the original BassMuff.

Take it from someone who has used both in a band setting. The original bassmuff works, but if you are looking for tones that will cut through the mix, retain low end, and leave people asking what pedal you’re using, I highly recommend this!.

Both outputs are always on. It’s horrible. When playing it as a bass, the Dry output is still on, thus you hear a guitar doubling you bass playing. Worse yet, when pedal is disengaged (even with Mix at 0), the dry guitar signal goes out thru the Effect output and there’s no way to stop it.

So you have a dry guitar going to your bass amp or PA. Trust me, it’s annoying and other than creating your own workaround (AB box, volume pedals, reach over and turn amps on/off when you change from guitar to bass) there’s no way to use this thing.

I plug the bass9 into my quilter and send the dry to one channel and the bass signal to the other, works great. The operation of the pedal is flawless, tracking without latency. The down side is lack of volume control for the dry signal but can be worked around with a volume pedal or turning channel off to allow just bass.

This thing is magic. I play both guitar and basses (double, P and Jazz AND Bass VI) but I now find that using the Virtual bass setting on this played with my guitar, I can pretty much pull off a perfect P bass sound on the spot! Especially if I run the extra output directly to my bass amp.

I’ve owned lots of EHX, Pitchfork, C9 and others and I can say that this unit tracks the fastest out of all of them and the organic sound of the bass is HUGE.

I’ve been playing with a Russian Big M*ff for about 20 years and it finally gave out on me. Not the pedal itself, but the LED indicator which tells me if it’s on or not so I figured it was time for an upgrade.

Man, am I glad I did. Big M*ff pedals are the best distortion/fuzz pedals out there for bass as far as I’m concerned, but I am so blown away by how this pedal handles my 5-string. On my old M*ff, the low B string sounded muddy.

It just couldn’t handle anything lower than the E string. On this one, you can even get some punch and clarity on that low B. Not only that, it works great as a pedal for guitar. ESPECIALLY if, like me, you play a lot of stuff in C-Standard.

You can get some nice fuzzy Fu Manch-type tones. If you switch on the Bass Boost and crank the Tone and Sustain nobs to 11, you can even get that bass-heavy crunch Kyuss was renowned for. If you want a distortion pedal than can handle your five string, if you want a great distortion or fuzz pedal, this little green hulk can handle all of that and then some.

NOTE: I had to edit the word M*ff in this review because the word is flagged by MF’s profanity filter. Go figure.

I used to have one of those early 90s army green sovtek muffs that I absolutely loved. Hands down it was my favorite pedal. Unfortunately it was stolen. I bought this pedal to replace it since everyone seems to say that it is the closest thing going.

I think this pedal sounds really good but it just is not quite as smooth and creamy as those old russian muffs. I like the little bass boost switch and both tones are very useable but if you really want that super fluffy, marshmallowy, siamese dream-esque distortion you might just have to go find an old one.

I have also found that it sounds completely different depending on what amp you have it plugged into. Not just a little different but almost like it is not even the same pedal. This is to be expected of course but I was really suprised at just how much the tone varied.

Into my fender twin it really does not sound that good and I like my mini fuzz face 10x more. Into the effects loop of my orange rockerverb 100 it really comes alive and has a great tone. It also sounds pretty good in the loop of my mesa express5/50 combo but if you are planning to pair this up with a fender you might be sorely disappointed.

Sound: The sound quality of this pedal is very high. Very good for recording and live performance. Features: Very sturdy housing that can take a beating. Good quality knobs. Ease of Use: The pedal is very easy to use and get a great sound out of.

Quality: I have never had any problems with this pedal and it gets used a lot. Value: For the price you pay you get a lot of pedal. Lots of Big Muff tone shaping. Manufacturer Support: I have never had to get manufacturer support.

The Wow Factor: Very aggressive yet clear sound. Overall: Been using this pedal for a couple of years now. Would not trade it for any other fuzz pedal. I love the heavy earthy, dirty sound that I can get from it.

It retains a great presence in the mix. Highly recommended.