EHX Nano Bassballs

[Tee]

I'm thinking of getting a pedal which will add a bit of 'something different' in a song or two, or on a chorus here and there. I would love to get an EHX Micro Synth, but it seems a bit steep for something i might not use often. I thought the Bassballs, being a lot cheaper, could do the trick. I know it has one trick, relative to the Micro Synth, but would anyone recommend it? Also do they suck tone in bypass mode? Thank you.

Edited October 28, 2009 by Tee

[Silent Fly]

Have you though about a phaser?

Another option could be a Zoom b2.1u...

[holio.cornolio]

[quote name='Tee' post='638880' date='Oct 28 2009, 10:45 AM']I'm thinking of getting a pedal which will add a bit of 'something different' in a song or two, or on a chorus here and there. I would love to get an EHX Micro Synth, but it seems a bit steep for something i might not use often. I thought the Bassballs, being a lot cheaper, could do the trick. I know it has one trick, relative to the Micro Synth, but would anyone recommend it? Also do they suck tone in bypass mode? Thank you.[/quote]
They're pretty good and can be a little bit synthy as long as the part you're playing has plenty of space and not too many notes. If you wack the distortion on, and turn the sensitivity (or whatever the pot is labelled) all the way up you get some phasey, filtery, fuzzy sounds, but it is very much a 1 trick pony. If you're playing gets busy, then unless you're in a p-funk covers band it's probably not the thing.
Do they suck tone in bypass mode? A bit, but you could always get some sort of true bypass looper to overcome that if you felt it was really a problem.

[thisnameistaken]

The Bassballs' bypass is fine (not sure if it's true-bypass), it doesn't suck tone.

As to whether you can find a use for one, well, that's hard to answer. I use mine more like a modulation effect than an envelope filter - it's towards the end of my chain and I feed dirty signals through it so they get a bit gutteral and nasty. Funnily enough it works great with a Bass Micro Synth feeding into it.

It achieves the effect by using a pair of narrow band-pass filters, so it will thin out your sound and rob some bass. If you're planning to use it during loud sections where everybody's going hell for leather then it won't work very well. I suppose it's a lot like using a phaser on bass, it works best when there's not much else going on that can swamp it.

[billphreets]

i have a bassballs and i love it! granted it is a `one trick pony` but you CAN get a great sound out of it.. i play a lot of funk so it sits nicely alongside my q-tron and mxr188 ; )

[Tee]

Thanks for all the feedback. I'm taking the plunge.

[warwickhunt]

[quote name='Tee' post='639752' date='Oct 29 2009, 09:17 AM']Thanks for all the feedback. I'm taking the plunge.[/quote]

Have you gotten sorted with one? I have one but I also have a Small Stone Phaser and that does the job of the Nano for what I need any way. I just need to go plug the two in side-by-side to confirm I don't need it and it may be for sale (complete with wooden box).

[Tee]

Got one today thanks.

[Gareth Hughes]

Hey Tee -

Whilst the BassBalls is a bit of a one trick pony, it CAN learn new tricks!!!!! I had a mod done to mine by the wonderfully talented Bigwan here, so the two filter points are now user selectable. Doing this gives you more control over the low-end of your signal. If you want to try this without the mod, just open up the pedal and have a fiddle with the two trim-pots inside. Mark them tho before you start so you can return to the factory settings.

gareth

[Mr. Foxen]

Put a EHX Octave multiplexer before it and let your bass feed back and you get some nuts noises, if one frequency starts to dominate the feedback, the OM tries to drop it and octave, and the bassballs tries to shift its filter point, so the sound constantly changes.

[Tee]

[quote name='Gareth Hughes' post='641075' date='Oct 30 2009, 01:46 PM']Hey Tee -

Whilst the BassBalls is a bit of a one trick pony, it CAN learn new tricks!!!!! I had a mod done to mine by the wonderfully talented Bigwan here, so the two filter points are now user selectable. Doing this gives you more control over the low-end of your signal. If you want to try this without the mod, just open up the pedal and have a fiddle with the two trim-pots inside. Mark them tho before you start so you can return to the factory settings.

gareth[/quote]

Thanks, yes i've heard about the internal trimpots. I haven't managed to play with it yet (hopefiully tonight), but i imagine you can accentuate and reduce the two different filters individually with them?

[Gareth Hughes]

[quote name='Tee' post='641176' date='Oct 30 2009, 03:08 PM']Thanks, yes i've heard about the internal trimpots. I haven't managed to play with it yet (hopefiully tonight), but i imagine you can accentuate and reduce the two different filters individually with them?[/quote]

Yep, you basically move the frequency points that the filter accentuates. So contrary to the factory settings you can get a SERIOUS amount of subby bass from the pedal. But it is at the expense of the overall effect - as one filter goes to the extreme the other filter gets overwhelmed, for want of a better description. Same goes the other way - you can make the pedal sound like you're playing thru a telephone.

[Minky]

I'm pleased with my Bassballs, picked it up for a bargain on eBay and so far so good. It's quite a responsive little thing, the harder you pluck the funkier it sounds. I'm sure I'll be able to put it to good use with some guitar and drums playing alongside