A fast web search will reveal that there are at present over a quadrillion pedals in the marketplace that declare to make your bass guitar sound louder, cleaner and dirtier, of various ranges of high quality and priced from the suspiciously low cost to the criminally costly. Right here’s one which feels and appears reliable, does what it says it can do (and extra) and received’t break your finances.

Impressed by Common Audio’s 610 preamp, utilized in its unique kind to file an extended checklist of American musicians within the final century, Origin Effects’ DCX Bass pedal goals to convey a spread of old-school colors to your tone. These vary from taut cleans through heat crunches to full-on overdrive, with the secondary objective to present you a level of wonderful management over these sounds.

To do that, the DCX Bass makes use of specifically chosen frequencies for our instrument and avoids the lack of low-end and the annoying treble fizz that overdrives so typically ship.

This unit has a ton of options, all proper, however disguises them with a comparatively uncluttered management structure, so plug in with out trepidation. We’ve bought 4 rotary controls, Drive, Stage, L.F. and H. F. The primary two are self-explanatory, boosting the overdrive and the output, and the latter two enhance or reduce high and low frequencies, remaining flat when set to midday. 

The true gold comes with a function known as Adaptive Circuitry, described within the guide as “adjusting the pedal’s voicing in response to taking part in dynamics and quantity knob modifications”, in different phrases, you may smack the heck out of your bass strings when leaping across the stage and the drive received’t undergo. As well as, now we have two selector switches for Mode and Voice: these look insignificant however do drastic issues to your sounds.

The Mode change selects between EQ mode, the decrease achieve setting of the 2, which is nice for a clear enhance or a really refined drive tone: the Adaptive Circuitry kicks in gently as you add extra overdrive, rolling off the highest finish and preserving the sound heat relatively than scratchy. The opposite mode, OD, retains the treble off completely, permitting you to summon up a demonic drive tone with out breaking your neighbour’s greenhouse home windows.

Use the Voice change to manage the top-end roll-off much more exactly, with three totally different ranges of high-end discount. These differ whether or not you’re in EQ or OD mode, however both approach they’re labelled Flat, Medium and Darkish, equivalent to how refined the top-end elimination is.

As I mentioned, there’s an entire lot of capabilities right here, a few of which you will not want, so this pedal received’t go well with you in the event you can’t be bothered to spend time on them. If that sounds such as you, make investments $50 in an inexpensive plastic overdrive and overlook about it.

The field itself is a chunky half-kilo of steel that appears capable of survive being stamped on by stage divers, or thrown at your head by your drummer, and the controls are suitably robust, too.

At $319, Origin Effects has actually delivered worth, an important asset in in the present day’s world, so you probably have the time and persistence to grasp all the things it presents, do this unit out with our full advice.

Specs

• PRICE: $319 / £259
• ORIGIN: UK
• TYPE: Tone shaper and drive pedal 
• CONTROLS: Stage, Drive, Excessive Frequency, Low Frequency, Mode change (EQ/OD), Voice change (Darkish/Medium/Flat)
• CONNECTIONS: Normal enter, customary output
• WEIGHT: 18 oz / 500g
• POWER: 9V DC adaptor 90mA
• DIMENSIONS: 58 (w) x 124 (d) x 64mm (h)
• CONTACT: Origin Effects