Sweetwater’s pedal experts have convened, consulted, and debated to bring you this list of the best bass guitar effect pedals. From PA-ready preamps to funky envelope filters, these pedals have what it takes to help you shape your low-register tone.
The POG2 offers simple, hands-on control that lets you unlock a range of unique tones. It’s perfect for players who work best when they have a direct connection to their pedalboard.
Keely Overdrive Distortion Pedal
The Keely Overdrive Distortion Pedal is an overdrive pedal with some unique features. It has a wide range of tones that can suit a lot of styles of music. It is also able to retain a great deal of your guitar’s original tone, so it can be used as a transparent overdrive pedal. This is made possible by the voltage doubling circuit in the pedal. This also gives it a lot of headroom, meaning that it is able to handle high-gain settings without blowing out your tubes. The pedal has a number of different controls that let you sculpt the sound to your liking, including bass and treble controls and a voicing switch. This lets you adjust the way it reacts to your picking dynamics, so it is very responsive.
Overdrive pedals typically fit more with the needs of rock and metal guitarists, but there are a few that have achieved a mythical status among players in other genres as well. Among these are the Klon Centaur and the Analogman King of Tone, which can be difficult to get hold of unless you want to wait years for it or pay an insanely high price.
Luckily, there is another alternative – the Keeley Red Dirt Overdrive. This is a boutique no-compromise overdrive and boost pedal that was designed by the team at That Pedal Show. It is able to deliver a range of overdrive and boost sounds that can be used for blues, country and even hard rock. It has a straightforward front panel and offers control over the Gain, Level and Tone parameters. With the tone set to lower levels, this pedal delivers a classic tube saturation, while cranking the drive will unleash the high-gain harpies.
The Keeley Red Dirt Overdrive can be stacked with the Boss BD-2 Blues Driver, which is an excellent overdrive and boost pedal for anyone who wants to emulate the sound of a cooking tube amp. It is easy to use with its simple controls and responds to your picking dynamics very well. It is very affordable and has a fantastic build quality that you would expect from Robert Keeley Electronics.
M81 Bass Distortion Pedal
Whether you are looking to fatten up an old passive bass or just want some extra tone on a song this pedal can do the job. It packs a pristine bass preamp with a studio-quality Direct Out into a Phase 90 sized box. This is a great addition to any bassist’s pedalboard.
There are certain pedals that are specifically designed for bass guitars, but a lot of regular pedals will work just as well for bass. Pedals such as envelope filters, octave pedals, and distortion pedals can all provide a lot of variety for the bassist. Octave pedals in particular are popular among bassists and guitar players alike for the ability to produce a variety of sounds from synthesizers, sub-octaves, harmonizers and pitch effects.
For a more aggressive sound bass guitarists often use a distortion pedal to dirty up their tone. Similarly overdrive pedals can also help add grit to any bass tone. Metal bassists in particular rely on distortion pedals to bring that metallic bite.
Fuzz pedals are another effect that combine perfectly with bass. While some overdrive pedals may sound anemic on bass because they prioritize high frequencies over the lower ones, fuzz pedals are designed to process and accentuate the full frequency range of a bass signal.
Modulation effects such as chorus and flangers can also be a great way to spice up your bass tone. While some pedals are more effective on bass than others, it is important to experiment with different pedals and find a winning combination that fits your style and rig. Ultimately, the best bass guitar effect pedals will be those that give you a unique and interesting tones without drowning out your core tone. This will allow you to take your bass rig to the next level and impress both the audience and your bandmates. Experimenting with different pedals at a local music store or even borrowing some from your friends is a great way to come up with some new sound combinations that will help to take your bass playing to the next level.
Octavia Distortion Pedal
The Octavia is perhaps the most radical distortion pedal to emerge in the late ’60s. Designed by Roger Mayer, the effects technician for Jimi Hendrix at that time, it reproduces the input signal of your bass guitar one octave higher and mixes it with it. The result is a nasally metallic fuzz tone that sounds aggressive and “chinging.” Hendrix used this effect during his famous solo on the song Purple Haze.
Mayer didn’t produce the Octavia for commercial release, but instead gave it to Hendrix himself who often simply referred to it as “the octave.” A California company called Tycobrahe did eventually make a version of the pedal, which Mayer considered an “inaccurate rip-off” of his original circuit. Mayer later created his own manufacturing company and released a number of versions of the Octavia pedal with different-shaped cases.
This pedal offers three control knobs that allow you to shape the sound of your distortion: the Clean knob allows you to set how much of your dry signal is included in the mix; the Drive control lets you adjust the intensity of the distortion; and the Octave knob sets the frequency of the octave up or down. It also has a true bypass switch that ensures your clean signal isn’t affected when the pedal is not active.
This pedal has a simple design with easy-to-use controls, which gives you the flexibility to create any distortion tone you want. It also has a built-in tuner and an output that can be switched between mono and stereo. It’s a great choice for beginners who want to try out distortion pedals but don’t want to spend a lot of money. However, it’s worth noting that this pedal has a warm sound and may not be suitable for some genres that require more dirt. It also has a tendency to overdrive if you push it too hard, so it’s best used for practicing. It’s also not a good choice for live performances since it can be too noisy.
Bassballs Nano Distortion Pedal
Bassists in search of that elusive bone-quaking bass distortion often look to the BOSS ODB-3. This is a pedal designed specifically to handle the added low frequency of bass guitar, giving you a sound that’s thicker and more powerful than a traditional overdrive pedal. It also offers great control for tailoring the sound to your particular rig and playing style.
The original Bassballs was a groundbreaking effect, and the Nano version takes everything you love about the original and puts it in a small footprint. The human vocal-like sound of the two sweeping filters gives your bass a strong presence under leads and a commanding quality when out front.
Unlike some other envelope-follower pedals, the Bassballs’s response control allows you to vary the sweep range of the filter. With the response control set low, you can create a very subtle sound; with it set high, you can get a more dramatic effect. It even has a distortion switch that enriches the harmonics of your signal for additional overtones and depth.
Another great feature of the Bassballs is its small die-cast case with rounded corners that saves pedalboard space. It also features a footswitch that selects your original or filtered signal, and the pedal’s sensitivity control adjusts how sensitive the filter is to attack variations. It’s a perfect solution for bassists who want an envelope-follower with more of a dynamic range and for players with varying attack levels.