Radial Bassbone review. Never wrote a bass gear review before and thought I would give it a try.
I received the pedal two weeks ago and have been experimenting with it. I wanted the pedal for two situations first using two basses and being able to balance out the gain between them. Second was for one bass and with an alternative EQ setting.
First impression out of the box it is a very well made pedal. Solid construction, clear markings, nice layout of input and output jacks that should fit into most pedal-board schemes. The pedal doesn't run on batteries it uses 15v so you will need to use the supplied AC adaptor. The manual is well written and comes in hard copy with the pedal and is available for download from the Radial website. You will need the manual so you can make yourself and effects loop cable. I don't know if this is very common it is the first time I've run across it, but the effects loop is a single jack on the pedal. I stereo type jack (tip-ring-sleeve) is what you plug into the jack and it handle both in and out to loop. You need to make a "Y" like cable with one side for send and other for return and last is the stereo jack for pedal. I would say this is nice for Radial to keep clean interface for the pedal, but could be a pain if you didn't realize it needed the special cable or forgot it.
For a short description of the pedal it has inputs for two instruments selectable by footswitch. Level controls for both instruments and typical High, Mid, and Low EQ section that works for channel two only. Tuner out, balanced out with XLR, loop, and output jacks. The XLR has a ground lift switch. Channel one contour switch which offer Flat, Shape 1, and Shape 2. The contour 1 is a bassy tone, and contour 2 has scooped tone for slapping. The pedal has a footswitch controlled boost feature. The boost footswitch can assigned to the boost channels, effects loop, or both. The input toggle can be used to switch between two instruments, or if only one instrument is connected then it will switch the one instrument between channels. This is nice to have an alternate EQ setting.
In use the pedal is quiet unless you crank the High's up and it becomes hissy. The EQ section was good, but would be nice in a future version to have a range switch for the Mid control. In trying to use the Mid control I liked it for cutting, but didn't like the frequency for boosting. The High control was nice and just a touch gave a nice edge. The Low control was potent and could fatten your tone or go to extreme rubbery bottom. The tone control are Cut/Boost, but don't have center detent on the controls. That is a personal quirk of mine, I like a center detent so I can quick get back to flat. The Boost control works as expected and offers up to 12db of clean boost.
The one issue I have with the pedal is the Level controls. In testing with I found I had to run Level control all the way up to match the output of my basses without the pedal. I assumed that since designed for using two basses in and single out the level controls might be able to bring the level of the lower output bass up to match other bass. I would expect unity gain to be with the level control at about two-thirds of the way up. I contacted Radial's tech contact and explained the situation and my expectations. They replied promptly and said the pedal is working as-designed. It is a passive pedal so running level wide open it to be expected.
I did not get a chance to test the XLR output of the pedal, but have read positive comments posted on website from those that have used it.
I would say the Radial Bassbone is a good pedal and would give it a 7 out of 10. I would prefer to be able to bring up the level of a soft bass to match a hot bass, versus have to drop the level of the hot bass. I was a little surprise at that hiss with the Hi cranked up in a otherwise quiet pedal. Also looking at the pedal there is room on both sides and maybe they could have send and return jack for the effects loop and avoid having to use a special cable. A minor complaint is having to use its own AC adaptor and not being able to run off same power for other pedal on a board. Another minor gripe is no center detent on the EQ controls. Last is the price, $300 list and about $230 street price I feel it is pricey. On the positive side it is a nice combination of features in one pedal A/B switch, DI, Boost, and EQ.
For more details see the Radial website.
I received the pedal two weeks ago and have been experimenting with it. I wanted the pedal for two situations first using two basses and being able to balance out the gain between them. Second was for one bass and with an alternative EQ setting.
First impression out of the box it is a very well made pedal. Solid construction, clear markings, nice layout of input and output jacks that should fit into most pedal-board schemes. The pedal doesn't run on batteries it uses 15v so you will need to use the supplied AC adaptor. The manual is well written and comes in hard copy with the pedal and is available for download from the Radial website. You will need the manual so you can make yourself and effects loop cable. I don't know if this is very common it is the first time I've run across it, but the effects loop is a single jack on the pedal. I stereo type jack (tip-ring-sleeve) is what you plug into the jack and it handle both in and out to loop. You need to make a "Y" like cable with one side for send and other for return and last is the stereo jack for pedal. I would say this is nice for Radial to keep clean interface for the pedal, but could be a pain if you didn't realize it needed the special cable or forgot it.
For a short description of the pedal it has inputs for two instruments selectable by footswitch. Level controls for both instruments and typical High, Mid, and Low EQ section that works for channel two only. Tuner out, balanced out with XLR, loop, and output jacks. The XLR has a ground lift switch. Channel one contour switch which offer Flat, Shape 1, and Shape 2. The contour 1 is a bassy tone, and contour 2 has scooped tone for slapping. The pedal has a footswitch controlled boost feature. The boost footswitch can assigned to the boost channels, effects loop, or both. The input toggle can be used to switch between two instruments, or if only one instrument is connected then it will switch the one instrument between channels. This is nice to have an alternate EQ setting.
In use the pedal is quiet unless you crank the High's up and it becomes hissy. The EQ section was good, but would be nice in a future version to have a range switch for the Mid control. In trying to use the Mid control I liked it for cutting, but didn't like the frequency for boosting. The High control was nice and just a touch gave a nice edge. The Low control was potent and could fatten your tone or go to extreme rubbery bottom. The tone control are Cut/Boost, but don't have center detent on the controls. That is a personal quirk of mine, I like a center detent so I can quick get back to flat. The Boost control works as expected and offers up to 12db of clean boost.
The one issue I have with the pedal is the Level controls. In testing with I found I had to run Level control all the way up to match the output of my basses without the pedal. I assumed that since designed for using two basses in and single out the level controls might be able to bring the level of the lower output bass up to match other bass. I would expect unity gain to be with the level control at about two-thirds of the way up. I contacted Radial's tech contact and explained the situation and my expectations. They replied promptly and said the pedal is working as-designed. It is a passive pedal so running level wide open it to be expected.
I did not get a chance to test the XLR output of the pedal, but have read positive comments posted on website from those that have used it.
I would say the Radial Bassbone is a good pedal and would give it a 7 out of 10. I would prefer to be able to bring up the level of a soft bass to match a hot bass, versus have to drop the level of the hot bass. I was a little surprise at that hiss with the Hi cranked up in a otherwise quiet pedal. Also looking at the pedal there is room on both sides and maybe they could have send and return jack for the effects loop and avoid having to use a special cable. A minor complaint is having to use its own AC adaptor and not being able to run off same power for other pedal on a board. Another minor gripe is no center detent on the EQ controls. Last is the price, $300 list and about $230 street price I feel it is pricey. On the positive side it is a nice combination of features in one pedal A/B switch, DI, Boost, and EQ.
For more details see the Radial website.
