As a bass player, it’s nice to add some grit and dirt to my sound when the need arises. Unfortunately, there are many pedals out there that may sound good at home, but get lost in the mix. From low-end loss to a barely perceptible effect, it’s hard to find a good drive at a good price.
Thankfully, Pigtronix is here to save the day with the Bass FAT Drive.
I’ve had their Philosopher Bass Compressor on my board for about a year now and love what it contributes to my sound. With a great compression circuit that responds very well to the lower frequencies of a bass signal, it seemed a no-brained to check into their drive offerings, and I was not disappointed.
The pedal set up is simple enough: controls for Volume, Gain, and Tone, and a “More” switch. The controls are very responsive, with unity Volume at a solid 12 o’clock, and the Gain and Tone controls able to give you a wide range of sounds.
Gain controls to output signal of your instrument, of course, pushing it for a solid boost. It’s never perfectly clean, but it does help push your amp or DI to give a slightly hitter signal, still with plenty of low-end intact.
Tone controls the amount of drive on your signal, and this is where the pedal differentiates itself from other overdrives I’ve played. Keep it rolled all the way off and just mess with the Gain and Volume and, like I said, the pedal can double as a pretty nice boost. Increase the Tone, though, and you can get some nice dirt, perfect for a really grindy effect that works remarkably well with pickstyle playing, and even push it to the extreme to get some nice distortion.
If you want things to get really crazy, though, flip the More switch. This increases output and response and really makes the pedal go wild. I’ve always differentiated drive, distortion, and fuzz as different beasts, but this switch effectively turns the pedal into a fuzz monster. It can still be dialed in as a gain boost with a touch of dirt, but anything past Noon on the Tone and Gain controls makes this a pretty great fuzz. Each note is clear and distinct while still having a heavy, saturated sound. It’s truly great.
As nice as those features are, the best things about it are that its touch-sensitive, so the drive won’t always color your tone if you’re playing with dynamics, and most importantly it retains low-end like crazy. I fooled around with all of the settings and couldn’t find a single point where I lost any low-end signal; no matter what, the highs were clear and crisp and the lows were nice and boomy.
The pedal runs at 9 or 18 volts and comes with a 19v wall-wart power supply, and retails around $150 new. If you want a nice drive that can pull triple-duty (boost, drive, and fuzz), you can’t go wrong with the Bass FAT Drive, especially for the price.
*Special thanks to Pigtronix for loaning this pedal for review purposes*
Specs:
100% Analog wide range BASS overdrive
Multi-Stage Tube Emulated Clipping
Touch Sensitive Performance
Hi / Lo gain mode switch
Passive LPF Tone Control
True Bypass Switching
18VDC 300mA supply included
Chassis Size = 2.4” x 4.4” x 1”
Circuit Design by Howard Davis
Sound Design by David Koltai
Voltage: 9-18V DC
Current Draw: 38mA @ 9V 120mA @ 18V
