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EH Bassballs users...

jobu3

jobu3

¿Huevos?!
Feb 17, 2002
4,509
512
119
Mountain Top, PA
#1
i am not much of an effects guy... so i need a little bit of help. i am need of something to liven my sound up for some songs we have been doing. i was thinking the bassballs because it sounds funky. from the mp3's i've heard, it sounds like it could go from subtle to extreme which is what i am looking for. do you guys recommend it? and another question is how much signal loss will i have with this pedal? as always, thanks in advance... :D
 
#2
I bought a baseballs and didn't like it that much. It's got a good sound but hardly any control. all you have is distortion on and off, and envolpe sesnativaty. So the big problem is volume control. I now play threw the Ibanez Bass Synth pedal and i like it. You get a lot of control from it and good sound. Also check out the digitech bass syth, you can get them for both around 80 bucks. Hope that helps JQ
 
#5
I have one. I thought it would be cool as hell. It's not cool as hell... it's OK. Every time I turn it on and start tweaking the knobs I say too myself, "Why is there so much sweep? Now, there's too little. Too Much distortion. Too little distortion. Where's that high end coming from? Now, there's too much low end."


See what I mean? Maybe not...

It's well made and has some cool features but doesn't live up to the hype and mythical testimony that precedes it, IMO.
 
#6
Firstly, I reccomend against the Ibanez, because I don't like digital, and I do like the bassballs. Paleale brings up many good points about its quirks, but I feel all these are resolved by a good understanding of the controls. Firstly, the sweep issue, that's because it's very touch sensitive. I find to get the sweep good takes very careful tweaking of the sens knob. As for using the disto, that's entirely different: The sens knob is also the fuzz level control so if sens is 0 with fuzz off you get a bassy lack of sweep, with it at 0 and fuzz on, you get no signal, wierd, huh? So to get the sound right in disto mode can also be hard, but you usually need higher sens settings than without.


Hope that helped.
 
#7
If you are looking for something funky, the Bassballs maybe a little extreme. I use a Lovetone Meatball myself, but since those are rare and expensive I recommend the Line 6 filter modeler. You get about 16 different filter pedals (including the Bassballs), and it sounds pretty good.
 
#9
I have the bassballs. I love it. If your looking for a do it all pedal though, this is not it. this thing has basically two sounds, sweep with or without dist. That said, it's one trick is really cool. I would recommend you get something else if you are looking for something to use more that very rarely. The song "Kerosene" at my mp3.com page is played with bassballs on 3/4 w/o dist. if you want an example.
 
#10
bassballs is pretty good pedal, but it's really a "once per set" type effect... and, personally, I find that the effect itself is a bit too trebley for my tastes.

however, I also have an EH mini-qtron which absolutely rules on bass... really great sound. it also sounds great in series after a distortion pedal also... better than the bass balls pedal on it's own.

Go MIni-Qtron - you wont regret it :)
 
#11
THe BassBalls is my all time favorite defect pedal. I like it because it is capable of so many different tones with elegant simplicity. By varyinhg the sensitivity control, making changes on my bass and switching the fuzz in and out I can get everything from subtle, to fat envelope, pseudosynth and crazy wah/fuzz-plus historically is is the first bass specific pedal.
 
#14
Blisshead said:
I have the bassballs. I love it. If your looking for a do it all pedal though, this is not it. this thing has basically two sounds, sweep with or without dist. That said, it's one trick is really cool. I would recommend you get something else if you are looking for something to use more that very rarely. The song "Kerosene" at my mp3.com page is played with bassballs on 3/4 w/o dist. if you want an example.
Click to expand...


I dig the bassballs too, but I can't get a good "no distortion" sound out of it. Any recommendations?

Plus this seems a bit strange, I don't know it it's suppose to do this: When the distortion is off, the sensitivity pedal does just that. But with distortion on it's sensitivity plus volume. Is this normal?
 
#18
I have one and use it maybe twice a set. I agree that it is one, maybe two trick pony. Help it with other ponies :D - combined with octaver the sound is KILLER!

I have mine custom made (copied) by local wizzard and moded so that it has three-way switch with extra option for fuzz only ;)
As here are BB users, let me ask you - can anybody post picture of its guts so that it can be seen how the two trims are originally set? As I said, mine is custom made so I just set it up for my taste, but Im curious how the original is set.. Thanks.
 

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