Sovtec Bassballs

[BruceBass3901]

I have the oppurtunity to get hold of a Black Russian Bassballs, and am really considering it. I really want a Bassballs to have a bit of fun with and I know that I want to get one, but I have a few questions regarding the different issues.

1) Does the Black Russian have a 9V DC in socket the same as a 'Boss style' Input?

2) Is there any difference between this and the newer Nano version other than size?

3) Is there any tone suck on the Russian? I ask as I know it isn't True Bypass.

Any help would be appreciated

[andvari7]

Originally Posted by BruceBass3901

I have the oppurtunity to get hold of a Black Russian Bassballs, and am really considering it. I really want a Bassballs to have a bit of fun with and I know that I want to get one, but I have a few questions regarding the different issues.

1) Does the Black Russian have a 9V DC in socket the same as a 'Boss style' Input?

2) Is there any difference between this and the newer Nano version other than size?

3) Is there any tone suck on the Russian? I ask as I know it isn't True Bypass.

Any help would be appreciated

I'll be glad to help, based on my four years of Bassball-ery:

1. No. However, if you buy the accessory kit for the Visual Sound 1-Spot, or the fully-loaded 1-Spot set, you will get a converter (actually, you get two). This is also important if you have a black, Russian Small Stone, which I also have.

2. Some say there is a difference in sound, but I haven't enough experience with the Nano to make that claim.

3. Mine does not.

For what it's worth, I find the Bassballs to be a bit of a limited-use pedal. It has a unique sound, but it isn't very versatile.

[newbold]

INteresting...

re: limited use pedal - depends on how you use it. If you just use it as a standalone 'effect' then totally one trick pony. If you get a feel for how to set it to use as a tool then YOUR WET SIGNAL becomes more versatile. It will sit you differently in the mix.

I just put it in front of everything in my signal path and It drives my BOSS OC-2 a little harder, making the synthesized -1 octave growl a bit and its dry signal (especially at around 1 o'clock (where the clean buffer starts to boost the dry signal) gets richer down the line...which happens to be into my Pigtronix OFO...

...so when I have my Octava Channel kicked in, I can roll my pickups off just under where they would normally be gated out so i can have that dark tone out of the bass pushing my line...

And it being where it is also gives my Pigtronix EP-1's sidechain trigger a bit more juice so not only will the signal be hotter and richer, but the wow is more wOw or more wOW or more Wow...and as i said before, it sits you in the mix differently because the filters sweep a bit out of phase and tidy/trim off tone (depending on your approach).

I find it cuts a lot of my tweeter hiss out of the line, but that *could* be something other than proper operating.

Certainly a 'limited use' effect, but only as a standalone tone.

If you can find a use for a bit of drive and repositioning then you'll use it for a lot...

...like if you want to help your rhythm guitar player stand out without him having to change his tone or pedal tapdance during a bridge (or something...I'm really just making an example here) then you can play 'balls out'. You get a little bit of breeze and nobody notices that you're playing affected because that funky guitar sounds so awesome and the effect is subtle.

I look forward to getting a blender/looper because my bassballs pedal will surely make a huge difference when I do...but nobody will notice but me and anybody that picks apart my tone...which will probably be nobody.

[newbold]

And all this talk about bassballs got me looking around...

...and I found the 'bassballs mod' info...and tonight I adjusted the internal trimpots.

wow.

I now have it second in my chain because I am now able to get really useful tone with the sensitivity up higher, which glitches out my OC-2.

So if you intend to use your bassballs to drive active unfriendly pedals make sure to set your trimpots accordingly.

The filters sweep a lot more like an envelope filter for me now and the distortion channel isn't too over the top at higher settings.

I also was able to keep most of the lower 1/3 of the control settings usable...what a great pedal.

I can tame snarly treble or add a bit of midrange bark, keep my lines bubbling, or push my overdrive a bit harder.

I almost miss the OC-2 drive but now my bassballs actually sounds awesome and I *could* live with just bringing that with me sometime.

Not a useless standalone anymore and not just useful with other pedals.

[BruceBass3901]

Cheers for that everyone

I've decided to wait for a bit as a lusting for a new 5-string bass has come up

I've also decided that the Nano Bassballs would be better for me, mainly due to the size of it and the ease of using a 9V supply with it. I also intend to mod i so that the internal trimpots are external.

[Bassnut62]

+1 to everyone re BassBalls
It is a truly great pedal IMO, i do use it to funk up other effects in the chain; but I actually use it a lot on its own in either clean or dirty mode. It is great as a subtle filter alternative to more far out filters. Whichever full-on filter is in the chain, the Bass Balls is always there for me as the subtle alternative that also offers other options with other pedals.

I have a question tho....mine is the old US Bass Balls. Can anyone tell me the difference in sound and performance of the Russian BB compared to the US one?

Ta

[andvari7]

Well, I hope that it actually works right off the bat, because when I bought my black Russian box, it very much did not work. EHX fixed it, but they shouldn't have gotten to that point in the first place.

[MohawkHarry]

I owned both the vintage pedal that I bought in 1977 and the black Sovtek pedal. To me the Sovtek sounded a bit watered down and my vintage pedal fell apart from years of use. The nano looks like a tuffer pedal so it will be my next Bassballs.