Anyone else have this issue? It’s mostly on the pops as opposed to the slaps. And I don’t think my Phase 90 used to do that. Help! I play active and passive basses, and I have a GigRig 3-To-1 pedal to switch between basses with different outputs and equalize their volumes, so none of my pedals SHOULD be receiving hotter signals with active basses than with passive ones. I just can’t figure this out.
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Phase 90 with slap bass DISTORTS
- Thread starter Colinatbass
- Start date
I could see this happening. Some modulation will def spike your signal. I would say a comp, as 900se has stated, or try a different phaser. I remember if I wasn't careful, my BF3 would clip my signal back in the day. And the newer slicer by boss really clips the heck out of my signal. Never figured out a way to minimize that though.
I think if you equalize the overall volumes, the active basses still have the ability to send more high transients than the passive basses (which have somewhat of a "natural" compression built into their frequency response). Finicky to work out issues like these for sure. I'm with @900se on the compression.
Ah, just looked at the optocomp review. There’s no attack or mix controls. But also there's no input pot, so the active signal could be too hot? Apparently, there's a -15db pad switch inside it, which sounds like an active bass 'fix’? Might be worth trying that to see if it helps?
Thumping and popping strings causes a huge transient that was never considered when the Phase 90 and most other pedals of that era were designed. While a certain "crunch" is part of the sound we desire when playing a percussive style those designs were never meant to have that much input. A limiter before should tame the crunch beast. The same can be said about bass amps and speakers as more percussive playing styles are a reason bass amps have more power for headroom as well as the advent of the dreaded tweeters in many bass speaker cabs.
if you have a newer one it kinda overdrives any way you are just exposing it unnatural gain.. did just try reducing you volume on your bass or Volume viva a pedal.. but the comp should help a bit.. if you got the 95 put it on vintage mode. let me know if that helps.
Long story short, slap bass has huge, powerful transients, and that technique will affect a lot of signal chain, particularly in the case of pedals that were never designed with the possibility of the existence or use in conjunction with slap bass. It is NOT a given that one active bass signal will be louder or more powerful than a passive bass signal. I've seen (and I own) of one being louder and more powerful than the other. So you'll have to experiment with which bass allows you to play through that Phase 90 without clipping, or the least amount of it. I suspect that the pedal is voiced for guitar, and probably really picks up on frequencies in those ranges, and may have some areas of bass frequency that don't have the same amount of effect- so it's really an unbalanced sound and hard to control. I'd bet if there was a phaser pedal that was better intended from the outset to be used with bass, that you'd get a more phased sound that would be easier to control, and would have a more balanced, predictable (in a positive way) sound that's easier to integrate into a live or home practice situation, and would likely fully eliminate the pops/clipping and such.
I read that the 'Block' version of the Phase 90 can get crunchy/distorted compared to the 'Script' version which is purported to be smoother sounding. If yours is a Block version, you might try a Script version and see if it suits you better. Some people prefer the edgeyness of the Block version over the smoothness of the Script version of the Phase 90.
