Bass harmoniser pedal - does it exist?

[barry021574]

Is there a bass effects box that can produce harmonies over a root note? I know there are sub-octave pedals, but I'm looking for something to put in some extra "fill" when the guitarist in our 3-piece goes off on a solo.

[Doddy]

Something like the Fishman Fission Bass Powerchord?

http://www.fishman.com/product/fission-bass-powerchord-fx-pedal

[xgsjx]

There's the EHX HOG & the Eventide Pitchfactor & I'm sure Boss & TC Helion make things too.

[bartelby]

I so want a HOG. But it's a tad too expensive...

[Happy Jack]

The Fishman mentioned by Doddy is them filling the gap left by Akai ceasing production of the Unibass, which did very much the same thing.

You might pick one of them up either here on Basschat or on eBay. Unlikely to be cheap though.

[redbandit599]

I've just got an Akai Unibass UB1 for this purpose, they are discontinued but there are a few about. I got mine on here by contacting a member who had one for sale on an old post that looked like it had never been closed out, and sure enough it worked and I got one for sensible money rather than the Ebay rate!

Still experimenting with it at present, and the jury is out. It can add an octave above plus a fifth or a fourth, and has it's own distortion and noise gate. The distortion is a bit 'cheesy' and I found running it into the bass rig clouds the bass a bit too much (but I might be able to tweak this once I use it more in a band setting). Clean it's a bit nasty, doubt that it will ever get any use clean.

Tracks pretty well as long as you have a good strong input signal, other wise it invents new notes. Probably best when used with pretty straight ahead lines though. It's monophonic so chords are out, way out....

What I'm going to try is running the octave signal out into the PA and using a (cheap but quite well reviewed) Behringer GDI 21 guitar amp modeller along with the built in delay/reverb of our pa. Had one quick go like this and it sounds more likely to produce usable results. My tone conscious guitarist (who was out front) declared it "a bit boxy, but that can be good in the right place." So, it must have some potential.

One things for sure it'll be able to syncopate and keep time better than our second guitarist can...

[Truckstop]

The Mooer Pitchbox does harmonies above and below.

With a touch of distortion it sounds very convincing. Clean, perhaps a little warbly? Especially the higher harmonies. It's only £50 off eBay so definitely worth a shout!

Truckstop

[GarethFlatlands]

There's a smart harmony setting on the Line 6 M5, not tried it out in any great detail though.

[EskimoBassist]

Smart harmony on the M series isn't terrible, I've used it a bit on my M9.

[barry021574]

Thanks everyone - really useful ideas.
What a great forum this is!

[pantherairsoft]

The Pitchfactor is my weapon of choice. Does multi-voice harmonies including a 4 voice setting with delay. It also has whammy settings, an octaver, synth section, detune and a million other things. It does however cost a fortune!

[bartelby]

[quote name='pantherairsoft' timestamp='1348344990' post='1812686']
The Pitchfactor is my weapon of choice. Does multi-voice harmonies including a 4 voice setting with delay. It also has whammy settings, an octaver, synth section, detune and a million other things. It does however cost a fortune!
[/quote]

Have you seen these:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSRaUZWiIEM[/media]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl6Kd-65rX0[/media]

I'm guessing you have.

[pantherairsoft]

[quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1348383798' post='1812848']


Have you seen these:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSRaUZWiIEM[/media]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl6Kd-65rX0[/media]

I'm guessing you have.
[/quote]

Yeah. Oddly I found the hog tracked awful with any other effects in front of it but the Pitchfactor tacks perfect even with my mental signal chain being fed into it. I preferred the tone of the Pitchfactot too. I've spent a few weeks with a HOG. It's an excellent pedal, but doesn't have 20% of the Pitchfactors veesatility and won't track toffee when fed sub octave into fuzz into bit crusher into envelope into tremolo... And that matters to me.

[dudewheresmybass]

Isn't there a bass harmony machine? Can't recall the manufacturer though

[pantherairsoft]

[quote name='dudewheresmybass' timestamp='1348390858' post='1812929']
Isn't there a bass harmony machine? Can't recall the manufacturer though
[/quote]

Digitech. The BHM4 Bass Harmony Machine. It was a 1U rack unit. I only ever tried it in a store (Academy of Sound years and years ago). It was cool. But it was a long time ago and I thought anything that made noise was cool!

[bartelby]

[quote name='pantherairsoft' timestamp='1348393418' post='1812964']
Digitech. The BHM4 Bass Harmony Machine. It was a 1U rack unit. I only ever tried it in a store (Academy of Sound years and years ago). It was cool. But it was a long time ago and I thought anything that made noise was cool!
[/quote]

I only remember that from a Will Lee advert in Bass Player a long time ago..