The Burlingames

I’m quite excited about a bunch of new bass pedals that Electro-Harmonix will soon be releasing. Interestingly enough, three of the four are distortion pedals.

First, and foremost, the Bass Big Muff Pi. After owning a NYC reissue, I settled on the newer Little Big Muff for my bass distortion. The new Bass Muff is the same size as the LBM and has the standard three knobs, but also includes what appears to be a 3-position toggle switch with the settings NORMAL, BASS BOOST, and DRY. I’m very interested to see what kind of difference the toggle switch makes.

The Bass Blogger is supposed to be a more subtle distortion. The toggle switch allows the user to choose between DRIVE and FUZZ.

The Steel Leather is a bass expander. Here’s what EHX has to say about the pedal:

A controllable percussive/attack effect designed specifically for bass guitar. Includes controls for response and effect level.

Lastly, the Bass Metaphors combines distortion, compression, and EQ. The EHX site doesn’t include much of a description for this one, but the foot switches lead me to believe that the EQ and/or compression are controlled by the BYPASS switch and the distortion can be switched on independent of the others. It also appears to have some interesting output routing options. Hopefully I don’t have to wait too long to give them all a try.

After much planning and some patient soldering, my Ampeg Sub-Blaster now has an LED and is still wired for true bypass. Here’s the pedal before the addition.

And the guts of the pedal…

And the backside, too…

First I soldered the wires, LED, and resistor together (mostly so I could get some confidence as this was only my second time using a soldering iron). I then replaced the DPDT switch with a 3PDT switch. The additional pole and throws allowed me to add the LED without sacrificing true bypass switching. After that I attached the LED/resistor/wire strand to the switch and effect PCB. Here’s the final result.

Here’s a closeup of the LED lead where it’s tapping into the power supply.

I was very pleased when I plugged in the pedal and it worked on the first try. I then turned my attention to drilling for the LED bezel. I think I made it more difficult than it needed to be, but the result was good. Drum roll please…

And with the ridiculously bright blue LED on…

There you have it, kids. A sweet pedal is even better thanks to the internet’s endless information and my willingness to experiment on expensive gear.

I bought another phaser the other day to compare with the Electro-Harmonix Russian Small Stone. I love the Stone; my only gripe is that it’s huge and takes up a ton of space on my pedalboard. So, in my attempt to create the perfect board, I bought the MXR Phase 100 to compare sounds.

The MXR meets the prerequisite of being much smaller than the Stone. It also has the added versatility of choosing between four different waveforms for the phasing in addition to the standard speed knob. The sound, however, was not what I am looking for. There was a very noticeable cut in the bass frequencies when I kicked it on. BOOOO!!! Overall it sounded kind of tinny and unnatural compared to the Stone. The Stone is so warm and doesn’t cut the bass at all.

I especially like my Russian Stone better than others I’ve tried. I tried another that looked exactly the same, but it had a much brighter sound and didn’t have the character mine does. I also tried the new Nano version of the Small Stone, but the waveform sounded a lot different. As far as I know I’ve exhausted all the options within my price range, so I think it’s safe to say SMALL STONE FOREVER!

I’ve taken the scary first step toward modifying one of my effect pedals. I have an Ampeg Sub-Blaster bass octave and I love it. The only problem is it does not have an LED to let me know if it’s on or off. I’ll be adding a status LED (which will require replacing the current foot switch to maintain true bypass operation).

I’ve also ordered the parts to build a new loop box. My current box has one loop, but I want a second for a bit more versatility. Plus, this will also serve as a good test of whether or not I really want to build these things for other people. I’ve contemplated building loop pedals as a side gig to make some extra cash. We’ll see if that’s still the case after trying to build one for myself. I’ll keep ya posted on the progress of both projects.

It’s no secret that I love music gear. Today I received a pedal I’ve been wanting for a long time: the Ampeg Sub-Blaster Octave pedal. It duplicates my signal one octave down. It sounds really great and I’m looking forward to making fit on my board. The only downer is the thing is ridiculously heavy thanks to the case it comes in.