After many long nights in the R&D department the Electro-Harmonix boffins have emerged victorious with the Bass9 bass machine pedal, which takes your guitar signal and makes it sound like a bass.
The pedal requires no special pickups, MIDI connections or other electronic jiggery-pokery. Just plug it in like all your other stompboxes and you're off.
Its intuitive design sees you select from nine bass voices via a dial. The Bass9 has two volume knobs – one for the dry signal from your guitar, the other for the effect – and two control knobs for adjusting the parameters in each of the nine bass modes.
The nine bass modes are:
- Precision (no prizes for guessing how this sounds)
- Longhorn, (programmed to sound the Danelectro six-string bass, ideal for baritone work)
- Fretless (yes, you've guessed it)
- Synth (channels the Taurus Synthesiser)
- Virtual (allows the user to adjust body density and scale length of this imaginary algorithmic bass)
- Split Bass (allows guitarists to play bass on the lower three strings and chords and melodies on the top three)
- 3:03 (polyphonic effect a la the Roland TB-303)
- Flip-flop ("Inspired by EHX’s Octave Multiplexer, it provides a ’70s style logic driven sub-octave generator that tracks without glitches")
The Bass9 uses the same tech as others in the EHX9 Series but has an all-new algorithm that has been tweaked to transpose from one to two octaves down with excellent dynamics and no tracking issues.
An dry output jack outputs the input signal at unity gain and is always on.
See EHX for more details.
“Meticulously crafted analogue and digital circuits all curated from the ground up for bass-centric tonal expansion”: Fender unveils the Bassman effects line – 5 pedalboard essentials for bassists
“Imagine standing in front of a wall loaded with tube amp heads and 4x12 speaker cabinets, grabbing your guitar and hitting a chord”: Crazy Tube Circuit’s Heatseeker is an amp-in-box to help you nail Angus Young’s high-voltage AC/DC tones
