MXR Collaborates with Ian Martin Allison on the perfect Bassline / Bass Synth Pedal - which yes has a 6-string Guitar Tracking Mode too!

I’ve seemingly been gradually building up a backlog of MXR Pedals - which already include the Layers Harmonic Sustainer and Joshua Ambient Echo and a couple of other more long-termers. I almost forgot that I had picked up the Rockman X100 in March - but indeed I still have a few of those targets to land.

I though I might be putting this one on the list too as most UK dealers don’t have them indicated in stock until August!  - but I spotted a lone example on the Coda Music Reverb.com Store - seems every other supplier is getting there’s in late this month or early next. While it looks like Coda had received a sample pedal or two - which I paid a little over the odds for - while as I’m typing this - it’s not been shipped yet - so I am often nervous until I have definitive evidence that my pedal is going to land on schedule. And if I’ve not been scammed in any way - then the pedal should in theory be with me late this week or early next!

I had been toying with getting the EQD Chelsea LCD Soundsystem style Bassline Synth  but this MXR one seems a lot more capable and more my style - the 8 presets alone are worthy of the admission price - as I’m so familiar with each of those. And as a DJ of more than 30 years I do love my basslines!

Not all Bass Effects work with regular guitars though - so I was initially a little wary - but indeed there is also a standard 6-String Guitar Tracking option (with 24 frets) so this is surely the perfect pedal for all my bassline needs. I do of course also have the Boss SD-1 and SD-2 which are both great - but not quite as instantly satisfying as this. Everything here seems to have been perfectly considered and engineered - and you most certainly have superior sounds here with very decent note-tracking throughout!

I will recap on those 8 essentials factory-loaded presets first - they’re verily based on 8 of the very best Bassline sounds ever created - where the Presets are split into 4 Green and 4 Red ones - per the visual - and per the corresponding single LED positions which light up!

THE PRESETS :

• Thriller - Michael Jackson
• Boogie On Reggae Woman - Stevie Wonder
• Chameleon - Herbie Hancock
• Flash Light - Parliament
• Sledgehammer - Peter Gabriel
• Army of Me - Björk
• Head like a Hole - Nine Inch Nails
• Ghosts N Stuff - Deadmau5

There are 9 controls on this pedal - with the 6 x variable knobs having secondary (Violet) and tertiary (Red) options - as triggered by holding down either the ’Voice’ or ’Shape’ buttons - and then moving those knobs - per the below arrangement! We have a further push-button to circle and save the 8 Presets, and a side-slider-switch to set the function of the CTR port :

Controls - VOICE : Add Additional Oscillators + triggers secondary (violet) functions, LFO SHAPE : Triangle / Sawtooth / Square + tiggers tertiary (red) functions; MIX } Dry/Synth Mix / Voice Mix, Compression, SUB MIX } Synth/Sub Mix / Noise Mix / Output Gain; CUTOFF } 4-Pole LPF Resonant Filter Cutoff / Filter Envelope Degree / Gate Sensitivity Degree; ENVELOPE } Attack & Decay / Fade-In Time / Dry Thru FX; RESONANCE } Resonance Degree / Glide / 3 Tracking Modes (4-string, 5-string, & Guitar 6-string); MODULATION } Modulation Degree / Modulation Blend / Output Mode (Mono, Wet/Dry, Stereo), Presets 1-4 Green (Funky) > 5-8 Red (Electronic), hold push-button to save, CTR Tap Tempo / Expression or R-Audio-Out - slider switch on left side of pedal!

Ports - In (Mono-TS), Out Mono-TS / Stereo TRS, CTR - Tap Tempo / Expression or R-Out Audio.

This pedal is a total triumph for me at least by features and sounds - as so far extrapolated from demos - hopefully I will have hands on mine relatively soon - unless of course I have been scammed! UPDATE! Coda Music really came through for me here - and the pedal has been shipped out already!

The MAP Price for the Bass Synth is just $269 - which is a good price as far as I’m concerned - while I paid a little over the odds to get hands on one quickly - I paid £297 including local shipping In the UK. I’ve been caught out by these sorts of things in the past - so I won’t count my chickens until the pedal fully lands - I’m really expecting great things here.

You can of course read up more on the Bass Synth on the MXR Website - and browse the excellent manual!

For me at this moment - this is a perfect pedal - and I really love those 8 Reference Bassline Sounds - they’re Immense!

MXR pedals always take a while to come into stock in Europe - usually a month or two! While Americans get them immediately upon release - very much another example of ’America First’. You can only do that so many times - before you become ’America Last’ for the entire rest of the world!

I very much look forward to having this one on my board!