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Crossover pedal????

S

SteveMcB

Feb 7, 2006
686
14
Auckland, New Zealand
#1
Does anyone know of any pedals that work as a crossover, aside from the ole' 80's peavey BAC-2 biamp chorus? They're very hard to come by, particularly because AFAIK none were imported to this country, and only about 1 in 5 or so on ebay will ship to New Zealand.

I play g****r as well as bass, and I really want to be able to do the ole' lows through the bass amp highs through the g****r amp thing (dUg style). Don't have or want a seperate bass preamp then line level crossover setup either. Really want it in a pedal...:ninja:

Any ideas?
Thanks,
Steve
 
#5
Thanks for the replys guys.

tpylons - a BAC-2 is my current quest - unfortunately they seem to be going for quite a bit on ebay lately and most sellers won't ship here...

CopperheadLXXIX - I think I have seen a tiny Rolls crossover, but my impression was that it was only a line level device. That would require either a seperate preamp, or some major pedalboard rewiring each time I switched from bass to that other instrument...

superbassman2000 - any idea about which boss chorus does it? I have and love a few boss pedals, and old (or new) boss pedals are much more easily available than peavey ones here...


I guess the ideal thing would be to have a custom pedal designed, but I don't have the cash or the contacts for that! It would probably be pretty simple. That way you could have useful features like a phase reversal switch for one of the outs, and a footswitch which turned off the high freq out and passed full range to the low out, so 1 switch would revert you to a full range sound through the bass amp...

Dreams are free I guess...
Steve
 
#7
As a DIY enthusiast, I say..."MAKE ONE!"

of course, that's above my head electronically. I'm not quite sure where to start :hiding: *hides in shame* I've been interested in this for a while, but not quite interested enough to do something about it. If I end up running with this idea soon, I'll PM you. otherwise, good luck finding one.
 
#9
CopperheadLXXIX - the manual doesn't say it needs a line level, but it only mentions line level applications (mixer outs etc), which is what worries me. Thanks for the info though :)

343 Salty Beans - I wish I had the time and the electronic knowhow to make one! Unfortunately I lack both :crying:
I believe crossovers are quite electronically simple. I guess you'd probably need a little op-amp buffer amp of some sort. And if I could make it, I could make it to have all the features I described in the last post. I'm just too busy and too dumb:confused:

bongomania - The babe with the power, obviously...:D
If you do get into experimenting, let us know how it pans out!

I think at the moment, the best option seems to be keeping an eagle eye on the 'bay for BAC-2's. They're pretty rare though (relatively speaking).

Steve
 
#10
I thought I'd just drag up this old thread again because I finally got my hands on a Peavey BAC-2 (thanks dcr!). I have to say this pedal is exactly what I was after...

If you're considering using guitar pedals but are having problems with losing out on the low end when you do, it's pretty much a perfect solution, so long as you have a guitar amp as well as a bass amp.

The chains I've been using are:

Bass->BAC-2 low freq out->Nemesis NC115 (for lows)

and

Bass->BAC-2 high freq out->Boss OD3->Boss MT2->Vox wah->Rat->Ibanez AD99 delay->Johnson J-station(amp modeller)->Mesa subway blues (1x10) (for highs).

I didn't believe it would be true, but all of the guitar pedals sound great using this setup. The lows are solid and beefy, and the effects blend really well. The wah especially is a revelation - it sounded sooooo bad running full range through the bass amp, but biamped it's incredible - I way prefer it to using an auto-wah.

I'd recommend trying the BAC-2 (and biamping in general) to anyone based on my brief experience (3 days only though and no gigs yet...YMMV), especially if you have a g****r rig lying idle. BTW, the BAC-2 sounds good on g****r as well as bass.

Steve
 
#11
I know this is an old thread but I'm interested in a similar application. Is the chorus effect of the BAC-2 noticeable at all if you turn depth all the way down to "1"? Also, does anyone have experience with either of the FEA Labs Dual-Band Compressors? Those look to be more of what I'd want (because I only have a single compressor currently and it might be nice to compress both channels) but they cost significantly more than a used BAC-2.
 
#12
Wow, this is a blast from the past.

I still have the BAC2 but I'm on the opposite side of the world to it at the moment. The crossover works whether the chorus is on or not. The controls are very broad ranging, I don't recall it being very noticable with the controls turned all the way down. But as I said, the crossover is active no matter what as long as the pedal has a power supply hooked up.

When I'm on the same side of the world as my basses, I now use the same technique, but just for the effects, which I then mix back together before sending to the Nemesis.

So my chain goes:

Bass>Digitech BSW>(BBM incoming)>BAC-2>Bad monkey>DD3>Behringer MX400 minimixer>amp (the lows go direct from the BAC2 to the mixer, and the out from the Bad monkey is the speaker sim out.

Steve
 
#14
No problem.

I have to say that in this setup the chorus produces a very subtle (but noticable) high pitched weeoowweeoow noise in the background when used as a chorus. I don't use chorus, so just using the BAC2 as a crossover works well. Also beware that it is a heavy, heavy pedal. Feels like it's made of solid lead. But then, it's pretty sturdy as a result.

Steve
 
#20
Well people, (Steve, I also live in Auckland!) after a gig tonight I'm now after the same thing. Got my Diamond bass compressor, and while it sounds nice I want to break up the lows and highs a bit.

That being said, I'm an electronic engineer and I specialise in audio circuitry. If I were to design one, it'd be a 2 band X-Over (probably 12dB/octave) with selectable frequency (pot), and I'd probably make some sort of blend thing into it too, so essentially it'd be a 2-in-1 pedal. And of course, it'd be a pedal, not some box thing that you have to put on your rig away from your pedalboard!

Show of hands for who would be willing to buy such a thing?
 
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