Controls
- Level – Controls the overall output volume
- Drive – Controls amount of signal gain
- Blend – Controls the blend of clean / overdriven signal
- Attack (Toggle Switch) – Sets the amount of treble content (Cut / Flat / Boost)
- Grunt (Toggle Switch) – Sets the amount of pre-clipping low end content (Raw / Thin / Fat)
Specifications
- Designed for a 125B enclosure with top-mounted jacks
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christopher_s_morgan (verified owner) –
It’s a relatively easy and very rewarding build. I build two of these at the same time. For the first build I used whatever I had on hand and for the second I used all WIMA capacitors. I would say spend the extra money for the better capacitors the end result is a more crisp and responsive tone. As I don’t dabble much in bass pedals, I decided to do this comparison to see how much it would really affect the tone. The end result either way is excellent but noticeably more quiet, tighter, and more responsive with the WIMA caps. This thing has a massive amount of gain and will offer about a 200% boost over unity. Even when running in flat attack and grunt (both switches centered) there is a exponential boost in mid-bass and treble. I’m not a bassist, my wife is. She was quite happy with the tones when played front end through an Orange CR100BXT. The audio quality of this build is on par with her store-bought Dark Glass Alpha Omega Ultra.
chapback (verified owner) –
This is a great sounding circuit! I’m personally not a fan of bass distortion as a whole, but the drive this pedal produces is pleasant when needed for my tastes. I dial in the drive lightly and use this to shape my tone. The controls on this really help to dial in my sound.
Popnfreshbass (verified owner) –
Great board and a true clone of the v1 b3k overdrive. Make sure you order 1/8w resistors otherwise you’ll have to stand them up.
Definitely an overdrive and not a distortion, but it can get pretty gnarly with the gain maxed out.
This pedal would be great for anyone looking to mod, as you could probably replace the switches for a more conventional EQ section for better tone shaping.
Kevin Knox (verified owner) –
Very powerful, a lot of grind. It is by far the ‘heaviest’ drive I own for bass, but it sounds great. The clean blend helps a ton. Only issues I have with it are likely down to my component choice – the top setting of the grunt control is far too bass-ey for me, but the others are just fine. I also only use the lowest bite setting, as the others introduce a small amount of hiss. If you’re looking for a really strong and flexible bass distortion pedal, this is a great option.
Like the other commenter said, order 1/8W resistors if you want it all to lay flat. I only had 1/4W but it was no issue just standing them all up.