Digitech Bass Driver

[EdwardHimself]

Specs:

This is a digital pedal, from Digitech's "X-series" that uses microprocessors to emulate the sound of various bass distortion pedals. As well as the conventional knobs for level, tone and "blend" (wet/dry mix), you have a "morph" knob that allows you to go from a light growl to a full on fuzz. Note how there is no gain knob. This is important, as I will explain later. There are 2 outputs; one for the amp, and another for the mixer with a cabinet modeller. In terms of construction, it is basically the same as a boss pedal. It is made out of metal, 71x126x52 mm and weighs about 625 g.

7/10

Sound

Ok, so what you have here is a pedal that is intended to emulate a range of different bass distortion sounds. Firstly, you have the low setting on the morph knob which is supposed to emulate an SVT growl, this is the lowest gain setting with a bit of a softer sound. Next is about the halfway point which is supposed to emulate a modern solid state distortion pedal like a BOSS odb3 or a ProCo rat. Finally, you've got the full setting, which is to emulate a fuzz pedal. Now, you might think this would make this a jack of all trades, master of none, and you would be right. It's not that the distortion sounds are bad in themselves, but remember what I was telling you about the lack of a gain knob? What they have actually done here is rather clever in a devious sort of way; there was no way they were going to make this pedal sound good in the "transition" stage from clean to distortion. It is simply not of high enough quality or processing power. By turning the gain down on my bass, I have found the sound on low gain to be extremely flat and lifeless. Really, it's not too bad if you want a high gain solid state distortion sound or a full on fuzz sound, but if you want a nice soft low gain sound, this really is not the unit for you. Also, I don't know if there is an issue with this particular pedal, but the noise is terrible! I have only used this pedal using the internal battery so certainly nothing to do with any power supply noise issue. Even with a noise gate engaged, the 50-cycle hum is almost as loud as the distortion itself when the morph knob is set to more than about halfway. In fact, using the mixer output, the hum is even worse. There is horrible loud hum, even when the pedal is not engaged, which is a shame, because the cabinet model does not sound too bad really.

5/10

Reliability and durability

It is all metal, which is good news for durability. However, what is not good for durability is the fact that like some of the more modern BOSS pedals, they have replaced the proper nice little mechanical switch with a tiny little PCB mounted button. Certainly can't imagine it lasting very long if you stamp on it, which is pretty easily done at a gig; you could even smash the whole PCB if you're not careful I reckon. Also, the pots are of low quality, with plastic shafts. I am not sure I would trust this at regular gigs, not that I would probably use it anyway, due to the issues with noise. Not sure about the battery life as I have not used it very long, but an ominous sign is the fact that it comes packaged with a notice telling you that the battery should be used "mainly for demonstration and practice purposes!" In other words, don't expect to rely on the battery.

4/10

Overall

Sadly, I am not impressed with this pedal. I was initially quite impressed with the sound; the reason I purchased this over other similarly priced pedals was because I preferred the sound samples I heard on the website over the others. Certainly, if you only wanted to use this pedal for high gain sounds such as bass soloing. However, the lack of low gain capability and the issues with the noise have really let this pedal right down. Would I buy another? I am not even going to keep this one!

3/10

Edited June 29, 2012 by EdwardHimself

[CPBass]

Good review,

Thats blown the sale Ive got on the forum

The money was Basschats too....must be someone out there who wants it.

[EdwardHimself]

[quote name='Voodoosnake' timestamp='1340976796' post='1712330']
Good review,

Thats blown the sale Ive got on the forum

The money was Basschats too....must be someone out there who wants it.
[/quote]

Sorry about that! I must say I am interested to know whether you have had these same issues with the buzzing and stuff though?

[CPBass]

I was just joshin' Not really had any issues with it mate but to be honest, I'd need to use it. its been connected to my bass for less than 10 mins. Mine was a gift so kinda bought in error.