Things have to change ! Bass pedals on PPCB !

eh là bas ma

Well-known member
It's always a great surprise to look for effects entirely designed for Bass, and find almost nothing on PedalPCB's website.

I am sure it's all just a simple misunderstanding, and there are many hopes to improve this dire situation ?

Let's remember that bass instruments as we know them appeared in the 60's, and bass players were left in shadows, in the back of the stage, behind the guitarists, for years. If I understood correctly, it's Larry Graham who was the first to step into to the light, he left Sly and the Family Stones to play with his own band, and play bass in the front of the stage :


I would start by a project that has no equivalent in the diy community, despite being very popular (in the top 3 for years) and very interesting :

Aguilar Agro Overdrive.

Here is the original :

Here is a thread where someone began something, but never finished it, unfortunately.

This project is nowhere to be found in the diy community, so PPCB would have the lead on this one. Thousands and thousands of boards would be sold in a very short time. @Robert could become a life savior and a legend among bassists in one single strike !

The second project suggestion would be BOSS ODB-3, of course. There are already a few projects available, it's a classic for good reasons.

Can we still have hopes, or Bass dirt circuits are out of reach on PedalPCB ?
 
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I was born ambidextrous.

In grade 1, I alternated daily between writing with my left and right hands. Then the teacher spotted me one day:
T: "Weren't you writing with your right hand yesterday?"
YFF: "Yeah, I like to alternate"
T: "Well from now on you only write with your right hand"
My mom didn't know this 'til about 50 years later — she was so mad at that teacher! 🤬


In Grade-8 my whole class had a guitar teacher; I was playing lefty because it was more comfortable;
She forced me to play righty simply because I could, even though it didn't feel as natural.


Society/teachers have beaten out of me my ambidexterity. 😿



I coulda had classical. I coulda been a contrabass-ender. I coulda been somebody, I coulda been the Michael Angelo Batio of BASS!...

111bbb5ce2005bcda62b89f5c92622a3--michael-angelo-michael-okeefe.jpg


...instead of an effects-bum, which is what I am, let's face it.
You can still wear his wig though
 
I'm not against some bass projects, they just slip my mind since I'm not a bass player and they aren't the most requested projects here.

In fact, I have a couple projects on my desk being traced right now that are geared towards bass.
Might be worth adding a bass tag to certain products in the store with an accompanying category.

  • Lowballer
  • Waddle box
  • Frequency Interchange Filter
  • Friendly Fire Fuzz
    • Might seem odd, given it’s such a treble-heavy fuzz, but it’s most notably used by Colin Greenwood of Radiohead on The National Anthem, Talk Show Host, and Exit Music, and the only people who ever build FY-2 clones are Radiohead bass geeks
  • Snuffy Fuzz
  • Aloysius Fuzz
  • EQ, Anyone?
  • Softii overdrive
  • Creamery Compressor
  • Ocelot Octave
  • Roboto
Just to name a few…
 
JMK has a clone available :


We know it's the Blueberry thanks to this thread :

www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=14097.msg130851#msg130851

I guess I'll have to try and build one...
This one is on my board (I'm a bassist). Great for a little more volume and grit. I added a clean blend (Guitar PCB buff-n-blend).

For distortion I like a Nobles OD1 with the hard clipping diodes removed and the same buff-n-blend to get low end. It's killer.

If you want to make any distortion better on bass you need to add a good clean blend. @Robert I'd love to see a foot switch or soft touch board with a balanced clean and drive. The buff-n-blend is lacking because the volume of the drive is usually louder than the dry signal. It be nice to have a little boost on the clean too. It would open up all the drives/distortion to bass. Alternatively, it would be cool to have a utility foot switch board that would split the low end fundamental out and run the rest through whatever circuit.
 
Would it be pretentious of me to suggest my own projects? Particle Accelerator was designed for bass, Diplomat was extended to make it useful for bass, and Black Eye can turn into the best damn bass distortion in the world (in my completely biased opinion) if you swap two caps.

The only downside is tubes.
 
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