EHX Bass Battalion - Anyone tried one out

[kendall]

I have been looking for a Bass Preamp which will also give my tone some growl/grunt when needed.

I like the Darkglass B7k but I am struggling to justify the cost in my mind.  As a halfway house I have been looking at the EHX Bass Battalion, does anyone have any experience of one of these?

Any views/comments/insights gratefully received.

Thanks

 

 

[Josh]

I currently have one, even though I have replaced it, but I’ll still happily share my thoughts  

I bought mine after watching quite a few different video reviews, at the time I had managed to get through a Darkglass Alpha Omega, Sansamp VT Bass DI, and a Sansamp Deluxe Programmable Bass Driver. Each pedal was great for certain tones, but I struggled to find that perfect type of distortion. The Alpha Omega was far too much of everything and I really struggled to find a sound I liked. The VT Bass was nifty but the drive was more tube like and not gritty enough for me. The BDDI was a bit better, but I found it heavily coloured my tone and that in order to get that Sansamp sound, you had to really compress your tone and I felt I was loosing too much of my tone. 

After a couple of videos of the Battalion, straight away I much preferred the distortion on it, and the added features of compression and a noise gate, as well as an extensive EQ section for both clean and distortion. I managed to sell the last Sansamp and it paid for it comfortably. Straight away when I plugged it in, it felt more neutral, my clean tone wasn’t too coloured by any tube emulation, it gave that tiny bit more control over my tone instead of only relying on the amp. The distortion was instantly more to my taste, it was merely finding the sweet spot for the blend and I was loving it. I used it for in-ear rehearsals many times and never had a problem dialling in my tone. 

The compression is actually pretty good for what it is, I use a TC Spectracomp for my compression so I never needed it too much. The fact you can’t adjust the compression ratio/threshold etc...does put some people off from using it, but set to about 10 o’clock seemed to be the best place for me. The noise gate is a cool extra, but as some reviews make note of, it’s not the best, it’s functional but a bit clunky and can give unwanted noises in your signal chain.  

I’ve only recently replaced it with a Darkglass B7K Ultra V2 after being impressed by the new cab sim options and more options for mid control. So since then it’s been sat on my desk looking sad for it self.

I would recommend it for its price and features alone, it’s a great bit of kit even if you don’t use everything on it.

I hope that helps mate  

[kendall]

Hey Josh - thanks very much for taking the time to give me your thoughts.  As it happens, I had an unexpected bonus from work, so the B7K Ultra is within budget now.  However, I think I will take the time to give the EHX a whirl.

Cheers buddy!  

 

[Josh]

3 hours ago, kendall said:

As it happens, I had an unexpected bonus from work, so the B7K Ultra is within budget now

 

If that’s the case, then get yourself the B7K Ultra V2! You will not regret it