krispn Posted December 2, 2022 Share Posted December 2, 2022 (edited) So I recently picked up the Fender FullMoon distortion pedal to try out as a bass preamp as it features a 4 band eq BMT and a High Treble control which works like a LPF. There’s a switch for symmetrical or asymmetrical clipping and a bite switch which adds more gain/drive to the upper eq frequencies to help stand out in a band mix. Oh and it features a foot switchable boost function which is basically just a level boost rather than feeding more gain into the drive stage. At a basic all at noon setting and the gain down at about the 0900 position the pedal sounds great. Starting with the mids cutting or boosting works as you’d expect - it feels really well voiced for bass guitar. The scoop isn’t overly pronounced but helps sculpt a nice slap tone. Pushing the mid fills out that zone where the bass feels present and powerful without the honky or nasal quality some bass-specific mid eq points can emphasise. The treble sounds like it’s set at a ‘musical frequency’ none of this super high ‘unusable’ stuff at 12kHz but very mix friendly. The high treble allows you to fine tune the zing but honestly even with the treble dialed up and the the high treble ‘wide open’ it’s not shrill or unpleasant. Turning the hi treble down just tames the higher frequency in musical way and from what I can gather this is a feature designed to help fine tune the pedal to different the types of amp’s. The bite switch add more gain to the upper mids/high to help the sound stand out and for my taste both the bite and texture switch engaged delivered the most pleasing sound - I should add I’m doing all this tweaking with a passive Jazz bass and it’s a really good match sonically. The texture switch is a clipping selector as mentioned above. The Bass control also sounds like it’s in that musical frequency range (likely in about 100Hz rather than what you’d find on a bass specific preamp which tends to be in about 40Hz-80Hz) and keeps the bottom end intact with out being too flabby. I’ve a little bit more more tweaking to do in relation to the lows at volume and will definitely give the pedal a try out live this weekend even if only at sound check to hear it at volume and refine some settings. I have a TC Spark Booster and find it to be a very versatile two band bass preamp - voiced at frequencies which are bass friendly. I see this pedal as being a similar utility pedal with a four band eq which can work very effectively for bass without pushing the usual ‘bass specific’ frequencies but ones which compliment the natural voicing of a bass guitar. For a pedal which can be found used for £120 give or take a bit of a haggle it’s a very competent and complimentary unit which many bassists could happily use as an alternative to units specifically for bass costing much more. I’ve not really use the pedal for high gain sounds but I do have access to a clean blend and having the ability to add in the clean bass tone really takes the pedal to new heights certainly on the settings I’ve been trying. I’ll be trying out with some low gain sounds basically one with a slight mid scoop and a second setting pushing the mids to about 3 o’clock to hear how the fits in with the band with the other controls fine tunes accordingly. I’m quietly confident it’s gonna work a charm! Edited December 2, 2022 by krispn Edit to price based on reverb.com listings. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krispn Posted December 6, 2022 Author Share Posted December 6, 2022 Just running the bass and FM pedal into Logic... So considering the actual 'natural voice' of the bass's unaffected signal then adding the FM and comparing the two on the eq freq analyser the FM is pushing between 80-150 region on the bass, in and around 200-400 on the mid, highs around 800-1.2 so kinda what I was hearing and the high mids (LPF) just rolls off highs to find the sweet spot for the top end. It's actually voiced very similar to how the bass signal looks/sounds with the pedal off - complimenting the bass's 'natural' voice. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shagnum Posted September 13, 2023 Share Posted September 13, 2023 Thanks for posting this. I’d been using the Fender Engager boost to push hi mid frequencies on a hybrid head with a basic EQ and was looking for a pedal to add some grit without adding too much drive/saturation. I stumbled on a YouTube video for the Full Moon and this review. So far this pedal works a treat at low gain settings - I’ve got gain around 10. I agree the EQ points sound nice and I don’t notice much bass loss at lower gain settings, it’s pretty transparent. By the way, I’ve been playing around with the boost function, to me the pedal sounds a bit more open/clear with boost engaged and boost level all the way down, or are my ears tricking me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krispn Posted September 13, 2023 Author Share Posted September 13, 2023 I know the boost is after the drive so it’s just volume rather than driving the gain/dirt. It’s a solid unit and had to hear its working for you. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shagnum Posted September 13, 2023 Share Posted September 13, 2023 Yeah I know it is, if I had one wish with this pedal it would be independent boost and switchable pre/post. I don’t know if it’s the slight volume boost or something in the circuitry but it sounds a bit more clear with the boost engaged. May just be me haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krispn Posted September 13, 2023 Author Share Posted September 13, 2023 I no longer have the pedal but from memory I think I had the boost off most of the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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