Bass Clone UBER volume drop

[Wretched Banana]

Ok, not first time playing the pedal, but now that I have my own that goes into a DAW and headphones.

What is this even? RMS and peaks down ~50-60%? Bass and Treble on the pedal both dimed gets the signal to at least recognizable levels, but otherwise this is not usable with significant gain added elsewhere.

I know these pedals, clones, nanos, etc. always had volume drop discussions on boards like this over the past 2 decades, but geez this is something else. Battery, power supply, on the board, in isolation, active bass, passive bass... no difference.

Is it worth getting a replacement, or should I just Julia?

 

[SunnBass]

Odd...I frequently find that mine seems to make everything seem louder when it's on...

Plus the amount of volume drop you're seeing makes me think something else is going on.

 

[Wretched Banana]

I played this pedal for years but always amped & loud in our rehearsal studio. Never noticed anything wrong with it myself. I'm reading reports of similar issues all over the place, though. Curious...

I need a chorus right this moment for a gig where I'll need to kick it on and off all the time, so this won't do. I'll return it for something different asap, just to be safe if it's a build consistency issue EHX is notorious for. But I'll test our old studio pedal when I get a chance.

 

[Wretched Banana]

Got the MXR bass chorus. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of how subtle it is, and especially with the x-over engaged it's worse imho. But at least it's at unity gain at all times like it should be. The clone was unusable.

I've always liked the Clone tones though and I'm already missing it. I'll definitely need to revisit another one soon. I'm convinced mine was faulty, otherwise EHX should have gone out of business.

 

[sunbeast]

If it only happens when plugged into an interface and not in your amp rig I might suspect an impedance issue. I’ve definitely had a few digital EHX pedals with volume drops when engaged, but usually found the opposite issue with their analog pedals (though I haven’t used the Bass Clone yet)