Hello, Origin fans! Like the proud parents we are, we’re going to show you more baby photos of our new BASSRIG pedals. Hopefully you’ve all seen these new releases by now, and maybe even bought one (or both)!
But, for those of you who have no idea what we’re talking about, we have just launched a pair of Analogue Amp Recreation pedals, aimed squarely at capturing the greatest valve bass amp tones history has to offer – to be precise, a tip of the Origin cap to Ampeg’s world-beating SVT and Fender’s glorious black panel amps of the mid-1960s.
The idea is that, instead of lugging around a five-foot-tall lump of vintage worry, bassists can drop one of these pedals straight onto their pedalboard and waltz into any venue with the perfect bass tone ready to go. If the sturdiness, depth and aggression of an SVT floats your boat, grab a BASSRIG Super Vintage. If you prefer the warmth and feel of classic Fenders – like the Showman and Bassman – then the BASSRIG ’64 Black Panel ought to do the trick. Anyway, now you know what you’re getting into, let’s have a look at how to get one into your rig…
The easiest way to look at it is that a BASSRIG pedal behaves just like the real amps they’re based on and will completely replace the “amp sound” in your signal path. Or you can add a very vintage sound to a very modern rig, without completely upending your carefully crafted “hi-fi” clean tone. There are numerous ways to drop one into your setup, and we’re going to describe them all.
Your Main “Amp Sound”, Direct to PA, Mixing Console or Audio Interface.
The BASSRIG pedals really are Analogue Amp Recreations. This means that any sound the real amp can do, these can do it too! Clean, distorted, somewhere in between, they’re all covered with frightening accuracy. They’ll take pedals like a real valve amp and are built to be the new centrepiece of a direct-to-PA bass setup. The Analogue Amp Recreation philosophy extends to the on-board cabinet simulator too, which drives the XLR-equipped DI output.
Using a very nerdily concocted analogue filter, the BASSRIG outputs a frequency-perfect replica of a frankly monolithic vintage bass cab (an 8×10 in the Super Vintage and a 2×15 in the ’64 Black Panel). Feed this straight to the desk and your front of house engineer will be grateful you just made their job easier. Your back won’t be complaining either.
Combined with the feel and response of the recreated amp circuitry, this carefully engineered cab sim makes sure the BASSRIG pedals feel like the real amps, taking the compromise out of going direct – and the DI output still has another trick up its sleeve.
The FX/FX+BYP switch on the front panel lets you choose what happens to the cab sim when the pedal is bypassed. In FX mode, the cab sim is disabled, giving you a completely clean, studio-quality DI signal while the BASSRIG is off. Set to FX+BYP, the cab sim stays active all the time, meaning you can use the BASSRIG to add cabinet simulation to any other drives and preamps you might have in your arsenal.
Direct Rig? No Thanks. I’ll Stick With My Amp, Please.
Yes, the BASSRIG pedals can replace an amp, but they are just as happy with an amp. Perhaps you need a mixture of tones over the course of a gig, ranging from super-clean, modern tones to vintage warmth and drive. You may have even struggled to balance the two, either due to fizz from your distortion when your clean sound is just right, or you’ve rolled back the treble to get the perfect drive tone, only to lose the brightness of those new strings you just fitted – it must be that time of year! Well, we’ve thought about all of this and come up with the AMP OUT EQ.
This proprietary filter is applied after the whole “Amp Recreation” circuit, on the ¼” output (which does not feature the cab sim circuit). Its controls allow you to essentially cancel out the voicing of your amp so that engaging the BASSRIG completely transforms your rig, without making tonal compromises to accommodate it. Like to leave your tweeter on for your clean sound? Flick the HORN CUT switch on to steeply roll off the “fizz” from your overdrive tone. Do your amp’s bass and treble settings make your drive tone too bright or too boomy? Just dial them out with the AMP OUT EQ’s LF and HF trimmers. The AMP OUT EQ turns your amp back into a blank canvas, leaving all the main controls of the BASSRIG to function just as they should.
It’s worth noting that all this talk of “clean and drive” could just as easily be “vintage and modern”. These controls work just as well for switching between two very different flavours of clean tone. For example, a clonky ‘60s pick tone and a full-range modern slap sound. In short, we want to help your amp, not fight it!
The Dreaded Backline Amp
Another very handy use for the AMP OUT EQ is to give you some consistency between backline amps. Let’s say you’ve chosen the BASSRIG as your “core tone” but don’t want it to sound different with every venue’s backline.
The LF and HF trimmers are not just for dealing with an amp’s EQ settings. They also work great for compensating for the differences in cabs. The LF control can fatten up a little combo to sound like a big stack, or dial out the boominess in a large cab when you don’t want it to sound 
quite so huge. The HF knob can also tweak the important frequency range where you’ll find speaker presence (or lack of it).
And don’t forget, you’ve got that HORN CUT switch to filter out any excessive high end, should you find yourself with a tweeter you just can’t turn off! All of this means you can accommodate the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to rental rigs or fly-ins, all without ruining your favourite BASSRIG settings. Especially if you’re running the DI output too…
Running Both Outputs
This is where the BASSRIG pedals really excel – for running a consistent, cabinet simulated signal to the PA while monitoring separately through your amp on stage. Let’s just recap the signal path within the BASSRIG to hammer the point home:
- Your bass signal (or signal from previous pedals) enters the BASSRIG.
- It passes through an entire Analogue Amp Recreation – the “head” part of the “bass rig”. This is also where the clean blend is implemented.
- After this, the signal is split between the DI OUT and the AMP OUT.
- The cab sim is applied only to the DI OUT, for sending a “finished” bass tone to the PA.
- The AMP OUT EQ is applied only to the AMP OUT, tweaking your tone to match your amp.
This configuration lets you run two independent signals, each appropriate for its own purpose – and allowing the core tone of your BASSRIG to sound its best. We’ve even added a DI GROUND switch to take care of the ground loop hum that can occur when connecting two outputs at once. Got a hum? Flip the switch to LIFT.
Note: when using only the DI OUT, make sure this is set to GND
Right. Instructions over. What did we learn today? Simply that the BASSRIG pedals will sound just like a real amp, feel just like a real amp, and take pedals just like a real amp. Only now you can run a direct feed to the sound desk, superimpose a vintage tone over your own amp (without compromising either) and take the anxiety out of house backline gigs. If you like vintage valve bass amps, then you’ll like the BASSRIG. And you’ll save a fortune with your chiropractor.
