Phil O'Keefe Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 Bass players don't seem to get as much love from pedal builders as guitarists do, but occasionally there's something released that's built with the needs of bass players in mind - the Maxon BD-10 Hybrid Bass Driver is one such pedal. Want to read about it? Then check out my review right here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators isaac42 Posted August 2, 2015 Moderators Share Posted August 2, 2015 I don't think anyone ever said that guitarists should have all the fun. But guitarists do seem to spend a lot more money on gear, pedals included, so that's where the smart pedal makers concentrate their efforts. The other issue, which this pedal appears to address, is that most bass effects have a tendency to reduce or eliminate the punch of the bass. I've tried a lot of pedals over the years, made for both bass and guitar, and a lot of them sounded really good when I was playing by myself. In a band context, though, it's almost always one of two things that happens: either the punch goes away, or else the effect becomes inaudible. Either way, the effect is useless to me. One exception is the Digitech Bass Synth Wah, which I use on one song in one band, but it works very well in that song. Additionally, I've never been a big fan of fuzz bass, but I know that a lot of players are. One reason is the loss of punch. This unit, with its dual path, may well eliminate that objection. I have long thought that such a dual path might make lots of effects more useful, but I've never got around to trying it. In short, I've tried a lot of effects. I've liked a lot of them, but I always seem to end up going back to a bass, a cord and an amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted August 3, 2015 Members Share Posted August 3, 2015 The demo says its designed for bass but nearly the whole video is focused on using the pedal with guitar. It might have been nice to hear what it could actually do for bass but the guitar overpowers the bass from being heard in detail. I'm not a big fan on adding drive to bass. I cant think of more then a few hit songs that used fuzz. Chris Squire had a driven sound, but much of that came from using a high pass cap to roll off the bottom end then cranking the amp up to get drive. I sometimes use a tube preamp to get a little hair on the bass. Compression and occasionally chorus works, but you get too crazy and it makes a mix too busy especially if the guitar's using effects. Effects can work if the bass isn't being masked by the guitar. I was working on a Joe Walsh song yesterday called Meadows and put a highly driven synth sound on the bass It had the octave and envelope going with the drive and did a pretty good imitation of a synth, but I'll likely add a clean bass before I'm done. I did have to notch out the drive in the guitar frequency ranges to make it sit better and allot of the drive that was left was above and below the guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted August 3, 2015 CMS Author Share Posted August 3, 2015 As you noted, Phil, the unit's missing a midrange control. That by itself (or in this review, coupled with the phrase, "it works for guitar too", which means it really wasn't built for bass) is usually a sure sign I won't be happy with it. Nobody who actually plays bass guitar in a "serious" manner would leave out a midrange, and if they want to make us giddy...make it sweepable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted August 3, 2015 Members Share Posted August 3, 2015 I find most effects designed specifically for bass are often voiced incorrectly for guitar and vice versa. There are some exceptions of course and the bass you use can surely impact how well a pedal might work. I have a few drive units like the Morley JD-1 which works pretty good for bass. I don't think it could handle low tuning very well however. Guitar pedals can have a low end roll off of 150 and still not suffer much bass loss. Used on a bass it sounds like cardboard without those sub lows. If you can run the effect in parallel to a dry signal through a mixer just about any effect will work because the dry signal will have the lows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted August 3, 2015 CMS Author Share Posted August 3, 2015 That's another bit of trouble I'd have with this unit...no direct send. Yes, you can mix dry and wet, but this is a really good spot to send a line-level balanced signal to the PA. FWIW, I'm looking for how this unit differs (in a better way) from the Sansamp BDDI units, as they are very similar in price and basic function, but also lacks a midrange control. While I panned the BDDI after owning one, a lot of bassists consider it to be a must-have in their gig bag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members L.V. Posted August 20, 2015 Members Share Posted August 20, 2015 I agree. Getting a pedal suited for bass usually sounds better than using a guitar pedal. I actually fried a cheap guitar pedal by playing bass thru it. Lesson learned! I have found that the Morley dual bass Wah works good. I use it for a couple of tunes and cuts thru the guitar when I want it too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted August 31, 2015 Author Share Posted August 31, 2015 The other issue, which this pedal appears to address, is that most bass effects have a tendency to reduce or eliminate the punch of the bass. I've tried a lot of pedals over the years, made for both bass and guitar, and a lot of them sounded really good when I was playing by myself. In a band context, though, it's almost always one of two things that happens: either the punch goes away, or else the effect becomes inaudible. Either way, the effect is useless to me. One exception is the Digitech Bass Synth Wah, which I use on one song in one band, but it works very well in that song. Additionally, I've never been a big fan of fuzz bass, but I know that a lot of players are. One reason is the loss of punch. This unit, with its dual path, may well eliminate that objection. I have long thought that such a dual path might make lots of effects more useful, but I've never got around to trying it. In short, I've tried a lot of effects. I've liked a lot of them, but I always seem to end up going back to a bass, a cord and an amp. One of the things I frequently do when working on effected bass in the studio is to make a virtual crossover.... I duplicate the track, then use equalizers to divide the frequency spectrum up between them - making one nothing but lows and the other one the opposite. Then I process the one with the midrange and high frequencies, while leaving the bass frequencies clean and unprocessed. IMHO, you've nailed the biggest problem with using effects on bass... it ends up mushing out the punch, the fundamental. Being able to blend some of the dry signal in, which the Maxon allows, will definitely help, but I think an even better solution is to split the spectrum up and only process part of it, while leaving the bottom end alone. I wish there were more pedals out there for bass players that functioned like a crossover so that we could split the signal up by frequency ranges for just this purpose... anyway, try running the fuzz on only the mids and highs sometime. You may find you like the sound a lot better that way than running the full-range bass signal through the fuzz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators ThudMaker Posted September 3, 2015 Moderators Share Posted September 3, 2015 I used to do something similar years ago live (the band I was in at the time had a couple of acoustic strummers, so I held down more space than the bottom end groove. I split my signal up front at the pedal board with an a/b/y. The clean went to an Eden and the other split got the lows cut with a Trace EQ. From there I would add a bit of guitar OD and/or chorus into a marshall guitar amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted September 5, 2015 Author Share Posted September 5, 2015 It's too bad no one makes a compact pedal with a built-in adjustable crossover. I know SFX used to make one (the X&M), but I don't think it's available anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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