Fulltone Bass-Drive

It's pretty simple. Anyone should be able to figure it out without consulting the manual. And this is a good thing because the manual is useless. It seemed to be the manual for a different (guitar?) version of the pedal, only with the name changed.

I was really excited about trying this pedal because of the great reviews here but when I plugged in I was very dissapointed. The sound itself wasn't terrible. Certainly no tube sound as many people here claim but not awful. A little harsh but ok. The problem was that on most settings it produced a significant loss of low end. In my opinion this pedal is almost useless for live purposes. The change of tone and loss of low end is much too distinct when you switch it on. I tried it on a sound check but disconnected it before the show. It might work better in a studio setting. I didn't try it for recording. But I tried it with lots of different basses and amps on rehearsals to make sure I hadn't missed something. Amps: Ampeg SVT Classic, Hiwatt Custom 200 and an old Fender Bassmann 100. 2x15 and 4x12 cabs. Basses: Rickenbacker 4003, Fender J-bass, Fender P-bass, Gretsch Broadcaster, Crucianelli 335-copy, Epiphone "SG-bass" and an old Hagstrom shortscale. Nothing worked for me. I also tried combining it with other pedals but the result was always the same: a loss of low end for most settings. I ended up returning it to the shop for a refund. They told me that several of their customers hadn't liked this pedal. Most thought it sounded too harsh. I find it very strange that this pedal has received so many excellent reviews. At least try it before you buy!!!

It was build like a tank. If you manage to break this you really need to take better care of your equipment.

I have been playing the bass for almost 20 years. I play mostly music inspired by 60's psychedelia, and 70's prog but I have also played in a couple of popbands and metalbands. From the description this pedal should have been perfect for me but it just wasn't. I do not agree with the people claiming this pedal to sound like John Entwistle, Geezer Butler and Jack Bruce. And by the way, these three fantastic bassplayers all have their own different sound. No single pedal can sound like all these three. So that's a lot of crap. Even without the problems with the low end I think the price of this pedal is a bit to high when compared to the sound quality. I prefer a little warmer sound. If I should recommend a similar pedal it would have to be the Budda PhatBass. It's brilliant!!! And if you want something cheaper the EBS Multidrive (although that one sounds a little muddy).

It's relatively straightforward - volume, tone, overdrive, and the boost channel level. The toggles are a little more mysterious - the "FM" (flat midrange) overdrive mode isn't explained very well and the difference between it and vintage is aurally pretty close, as is the "Mosfet vs Normal" modes - although there is a slightly pronounced bass response in Mosfet mode.

The manual is a one page sheet (8.5x11") and is fairly useless. This company has sold a lot of pedals, is it so hard to print a nice, compact, descriptive manual?

Mine is the latest Bass-Drive Mosfet, 2007.

The overdrive is what it's all about, and it's pretty disappointing. Cliff-notes version: it does NOT sound like any kind of tube, especially an SVT.

The distortion sounds artificial, doesn't let the natural tone through. The tone control is harsh - anything over barely on has unnaturally high frequency components.

My big beef - with high-output basses, it has significant distortion with the overdrive turned "off" - in my opinion, this pedal is not well engineered - the designer didn't do their research to see what a typical signal level for a bass is.

On the good side, it is fairly noiseless, and it has direct bypass.

I've used it with an SVT-VR head and an Euphonics Audio iamp800, thorough 1x12s, 4x10, and 6x10s.

It seems really dependable, with a solid case and the shafts are well-protected, as are the toggles recessed between the knobs. That they did right.

I dealt with customer support about the distortion issue, and they were plain awful. Fulltone has grown to such a degree that they're outsourcing support in DC - this is a California company! It's like Microsoft's helpdesk being in India.

But that would be just fine, if they were competent. They're following scripts, and refused to pass my concerns up to someone who understood them. They weren't particularly friendly nor unfriendly. In the end I had to eek out the owner's email address.

Mike Fuller was definitely more competent, but he also didn't seem to have a grasp on the concept of gain stages and thus, the pedals are probably ad-hoc designed. My guess.

I play loud rock and wanted something to attempt to emulate my SVT with some tube crunch, and the pedal failed miserably. I'm going to sell it back to the store or on Ebay, I have no use for it.

Ironically, my guitarist's tube screamer ts-9 sounds MUCH better than this on bass. As it turns out, this pedal is the same board and circuit as their Full-Drive Mosfet. No wonder it sounds thin.

Bottom line, no thank you. My suggestions: a stock or modded Ibanez TS-9, an EBS Multidrive sounds at least as good and is CLEAN with the drive turned down, or a Rust Ride.

4 knobs and 2 switches. A volume knob, a tone knob and then overdrive and boost. I keep volume at 10 o'clock, tone at 7 o'clock (as bassy as it goes), overdrive at 9, boost at 3. I have one switch in vintage mode, more mids = better. The other is in Mosfet mode (standard is too thin sounding for me. Really easy to find your sound.

The sound is excellent. The overdrive is nice for a mild boost. Then the boost just makes it crazy. Best bass OD/distortion I've ever used.

I've had it for about 1 1/2 months and never had to change the battery. I need to get a power supply for all my pedals. Nothing on it seems cheap. Knobs, switches and pedals seem sturdy. Nice heavy metal housing too.

Never called.

I've been playing for 4 years and tried all the OD/distortion boxes around, the Bass-Drive is easily the best. If it were lost or stolen I'd buy a new one in a heartbeat. The one thing I dislike is when it's in boost mode you can hear your fingers sliding along the strings. That's all I can think of. Go try one for your self and see how great it is.

This pedal is a modified guitar distortion pedal, and the controls on it are more akin to guitar, as opposed to the bass/mid/treble +/-db format. I have a 2004 model with the dip switch and label signed in marker (before MosFet)

There are 3 modes: Vintage (treble rolled off a bit), FM (modern, clearer treble), and CompCut (designed to increase output to distort your amp instead of the pedal). I will outline these in more detail later.

There's a volume knob which increases the output. Pretty standard.

There's a tone knob, which is akin to guitar. Cranking the tone knob favours treble, and decreasing rolls the treble off. Unlike a Big Muff, having the treble on full still leaves your bottom end there.

There's an overdrive knob which increases the dirt on the signal with the pedal engaged.

There's a boost knob that is independant of the overdrive knob that only affects the signal when the boost switch has been engaged.

There are 2 stomp switches: On/off, and the aforementioned boost.

The manual for this is little more than 2 pieces of computer paper with information printed on it. However, you needn't read a book to operate it. It's a very simple pedal that has no learning curve, especially if you are familiar with guitar.

NOTE: You can also use this with an 18V power supply, freeing up much headroom. However, that means the pedal will distort less at the same settings as with 9V and should only really be used in CompCut mode in front of a tube amp.

I run this pedal through a Fender Bassman 250 2x10 combo. I use a '51 P-Bass Reissue, an American Deluxe Fender Jazz Bass V, a Warwick Corvette ProLine tuned BEAD, and a few cheapo Chinese freak basses.

I haven't had any effects that interfere or don't work with this pedal, but all I really use is a chorus and a delay. I also use, from time to time, a flange pedal to simulate a wah-wah, and it works perfectly.

First of all, this pedal is dead silent. Sometimes I'll forget to switch it off (my MIA Fender and Warwick have noiseless pickups) and my amp will be silent, as if the pedal isn't on. On my Precision, there's single coil hum, but that's to be expected. This pedal amplifies and grimes up only what's put through it. It adds no noise at all.

Another thing to note is that the pedal trully does not cut bottom. Many people stupidly use Big Muff Pi pedals with their basses (because Cliff did), and even at the lowest tone setting, the bottom end gone and the treble is trully muddied. Other pedals have a blend feature, letting you mix the clean with the dirty. It works, but in my opinion, it sounds like there are 2 instruments playing, and there is huge frequency overlap. With the Fulltone, the pedal simply accomodates the low frequencies into the distortion (rather than cutting them off to avoid muddiness as guitar pedals tend to). You don't lose any bottom; in fact, you gain some.

I'll outline the modes, and how I use them:

FM: This is the setting I use the most. I use it with my modern basses. I use it only with the boost on and cranked (not a fan of subtle distortion). The pedal breaks up the signal wonderfully. My MIA Fender has an 18V power supply in it's EQ, so the output is tremendous. This really overdrives the pedal and allows it to have some intense distortion without having the pedal's output be too high. The tone is straight distortion; no buzz, no fuzz. I never quite understood what people meant when they say a distortion pedal is tonally transparent, but I do now. When engaged with the band in full swing, every little nuance and detail in my clean tone shines through the distortion, although amplified and dirtied up. Totally amazing, as I work hard for my tone. It still shakes the rafters, and not in that nasal low-mid kind of way.

Vintage: The difference between Vintage and FM is subtle, but Vintage flattens out the treble a little bit. Using my '51 P-bass RI, even strung with flatwounds, I can acheive a rather surprisingly accurate rendition of John Entwistle's Live at Leeds tone. With a more period-accurate P-bass with the right strings, I imagine it'll be dead on. Again, I use full boost. I can get essentially the same tone with this bass in FM mode, but the treble is a bit more defined.

CompCut: This mode is special. It basically bypasses the compression and clipping components that cause the distortion. In effect, it's a tremendous clean boost. Yes, with overdrive and boost cranked and the boost switch enabled, it will hair up, but the idea behind CompCut is to provide an incredibly high output of your tone to your amplifier so your amplifier's pre-amp can do the distortion (best working on tubes). I don't have a tube amp, so I though I'd never use this setting. However, I did mention I have freak Chinese basses. One of them is an 8-string bass (a la Hendrix and JPJ). The bass sounded and played well, but the output of the pickups was impossibly low. The bass was nearly silent. Now, with CompCut mode, I can boost the output of this quiet bass to the level of my other basses without adding a hint of colour to the tone. That's right; the same tone, but instead of being quiet, it's fat, loud and totally clean. How can I not give this a 10? I can't find one fault in the tone.

The sheet medal used to make the pedal is as strong as it gets. However, the dip-switch and stomping buttons will inevitably wear out, and there's no way around that. Even though it'll take awhile, it'll happen out of the blue some day. Makes you a bit paranoid, dunnit? For that, I give it an 8.

You send them an email, and before the next day, you'll get a response.

I play heavy music, and I don't like subtle effects. This pedal gives me everything I've ever wanted out of a distortion pedal. There's no other pedal quite like it; circuit-wise, it's about as simple as it gets, yet it does everything right. It's the vintage Fender of distortion pedals. The pedal was handmade, and the builder/owner of the company signed my pedal and wrote the serial number with a felt pen. As cheesy as it sounds, this pedal takes my clean tone and pisses it off. It doesn't change it, it doesn't put it somewhere, it just makes it angrier. It doesn't need digital circuitry or a blend function. For what it is, it's perfect. If I had an Ampeg SVT Classic, it'd be even better. It's not a cheap pedal (and I feel I got a bit ripped off, price-wise), but I don't regret buying this pedal for one second.

With enough twiddling, it's easy enough to discover the range of the pedal. Maybe a few too many controls for my taste, but I can hardly complain about that.

I run an American Jazz --> EHX Q-Tron --> Overdrive --> SWR basic black.

First of all, not only is the pedal completely silent when off (true-bypass), but even when it's on it produces almost no hum without an input signal. Really impressive.

The sound is very open, dynamic, sensitive, and musical. The effect can be very subtle or thoroughly coat your sound.

I purchased the Bass Drive after reading the reviews on this site. However, I was somewhat disappointed and surprised. Though it is a good sound, it absolutely does tear away at your low end (and significantly colors your tone). I ultimately gave up trying to balance it with the rest of my setup, as I was trying to compensate for the loss of penetration through my band's sound (avant-garde / experimental). Admittedly, my 1x15 may be enhancing this problem.

Additionally, when the pedal is cranking, the definition of the notes is lost in a wool/fuzz that is a bit to one dimensional for an application that needs some cutting grit. I found it incompatible with my Q-Tron.

Looks beautiful and feels solid. I didnt keep it for long, however, so I really cant say for certain.

This pedal is sensitive enough that you really have to see what works with your own setup.

Ultimately, I settled on the EBS Multi-Drive. While it's a much noiser animal, it is an incredibly tight and focussed sound that delivers the low end in a way that the Bass Drive cannot.

def the easiest pedal to use out there. there is not a lot of work envolved in trying to find that "right" sound. you will find it very quickly. once it's turned on it's amazing.

from the minute i turned this thing own i was hooked. i leave it on at all times through my 05 musicman sterling, 78 p bass and my 78 gibson rd bass. my sterling is my main bass which i have gone through two of in the pass 12 years of playing, but this pedal makes them all shine. i plug into an ampeg SVT classic through a 8x10 cab. which most people know an svt already sounds great. with this pedal it's a whole other step up. i love how fat and low end my set-up is and i tried many bass disto pedals, ALL lost the bottom end until i found the bassdrive.

very reliable, have had this for about 6 years now, stuck it to a board and traveled with it in a case at all times, and have had zero problems

never had to use them.

i play rock, somewhere between foo fighters and coldplay. i've used this pedal on all our records (www.eyesaround.com) this is the best pedal investment i've made since playing music. if it breaks i will get another one the next day. it is essentiall to my sound. of which everyone compliments me on. musicians and fans alike all say i have my own sound which i have stived long and hard for over the years, i credit the bassdrive for a lot of it.

Very easy to use although it took me little while to fully appreciate the different settings.

This thing is amazing!I use it with an American Jazz with Sadowsky srtings through an Eden wt800 head and 410xlt cab which has always sounded fantastic but VERY clean. These days I'm playing mostly playing alt rock and needed some grit. Well the Bassdrive has plenty of it.

This thing is built solid and looks great.

Haven't dealt with them but from what I've read it's great.

I've been playing bass for 18 years and I've never had a response like I had the other night. After a gig the other night I had several people, all seasoned musicians, tell me they were blown away by my tone. A good friend of mine who I respect greatly and has an interesting way with words said this about the show. He said, "Man your tone was hilarious, that Eden has always sounded really great but it sounded like a huge nasty SVT, f**king amazing!" Exactly what I was looking for!!! I truly love the way this thing sounds. It's very musical and doesn't kill the true sound of my bass like lots of cheaper pedals. I love being able to go from a little grit to a killer overdrive when I hit the boost switch. I searched for a long time and looked at a lot of pedals before I decided on the Bassdrive. Evey review I read said this pedal was great and they were all right! I am %100 satisfied with the Bassdrive. I would absolutely buy another one if something happened to it. It has become completely essential to my sound!

It took me a few minutes to dial into the proper settings for me.
Very easy to use. It looks like I may have the older model with the toggle switch for CompCut, FM, and Vintage. Mine is s/n 2459 made 12/05. The manual is a 2 page paper that is really all you need.
Some reviews said the knobs turned too easy. I have not had any problems with the knobs. Set them in place and they stay where you set them.

Sound quality is outstanding, with very little noise. I use it with my Ric 4003, into my Traynor YBA-200 tube amp. This pedal really tightens up your tone, playing finger style or with a pick.
I can't see how I lived without it.

Seem to be built very well. It feels and looks like it's built like a tank.
All metal housing, with no plastic crap.

I just bought it, and have not had the need.

I play blues, and classic rock. The pedal works really well with both styles of music, especially blues! If it where lost or stolen I would buy another. Buy an 18v adapter with this pedal and see what a differance it makes. By far the best effects pedal I have heard for bass. Yes, it is a little expensive, but worth ever penny.
Buy one, you won't regret it.

as soon as it arrived it was placed in my rig and turned on, a few knob turns later and i was sailing, very simple pedal to use

the manual is informative though i think if you have gone to the troub le and expense of getting anything fulltone made, you already know how to run it and the manual is their for formality sake

i use whatever gear i think sounds good, i dont feel the need to bore people with a list of all my crap but long and short of it is i use this pedal for both guitar and bass of varying price ranges and pickups

either way, it is pretty much silent (unless you crank the boost to max, but all distortion does that) and sounds great always. it seems more like the bassdrive coats your sound rather than mudding it up or fuzzing over it (like some more well known stomp boxes) as a result, its more a mix of your actual guitars tone and the bassdrive combined, not moulded together.

also, that it features 3 modes of overdrive adds a little more versatility to the pedal and your sound should you need it

for this i have to give it full marks, on all my gear it is quite simply awesome

id think given the nature of the buttons, it will give me some aggro in a few years time but like an earlier review said, it comes with the territory.

it feels pretty solid and roadworthy so would out on a gig without a back up if i didnt have a choice but lookily i have other overdrive pedals i can take along as you never know, some dick my spill his pint on it or something

never dealt with the guy, though ive heard hes very helpful so in the event i have to email him, i have high hopes haha

i dont play any particuar style but its loud and i enjoy it so thats all that matters i think and ive been making noise pollution for just over 3 years now and considering the band im in write acoustically, i dont find it helps or hinders writing

i love the sounds sincerity and rumble and the dirt it gives any guitar is pretty awesome too. If it got swiped, i would not be amused at all and i would probably like to harm whoever took it with a rusty shaving instrument, in any event, id look for a new one

i did consider other pedals, namely MXR and line 6 but what really got me with the bass drive was that it wasnt over the top and didnt smother tone, so it won out

one thing i did dislike about the bass drive was the price. I managed to find a person willing to sell it to me new for a steal compared to the ridiculous amount the only uk fulltone distributor seels for. if you do live in the uk and want this pedal, id really advise you to shop around, it may be hand made but still, ?209 is a bit much for an overdrive pedal.

id still recommend anyone with a yearning for a bit of warm dirt gets this pedal

This is a very easy pedal to get a good sound out of, especially because it has 2 stages. The only downer is that it's got a push-pull volume pot for compression cut, so if you want to tweak volume hands-free while playing, you have to be very careful. More on that below...

First off, the true bypass is suh-weet. This is also the best bass distortion I've ever heard. I turned it up to 25% and it was shaking things off my wall :) The ONLY bad things about the sound is that the comp. cut pot loses a lof of volume when you push it down and engage compression. Maybe that's just the way compression works, it could also use a little more high end, but that's just me

It's solid as the Great Wall of China. I'll end up replacing the switches eventually, but by then I'll probably be all old and arthritic

haven't needed them

I play rock and roll, whatever flavor tastes best at the moment. This is a bad-ass distortion. It's first stage will do overdrive, and kick on the second "boost" stage, and you get full-on distorted bass. It also loses no bottom end, which ever single other pedal I'd ever tried does. The only fault is the push-pull comp. cut thing, but I'm sure I can get it modded to have a toggle for that and a normal pot for volume. SO....if you see one of these anywhere, buy it. You will not regret it, your neighbors might though;)