Small Basstar user's manual.
Please read carefully this manual, it explains how to use the pedal at its best.
Please feed the pedal with a 9v or 12v center negatve power supply.
About the Small Basstar sound
The Small Basstar has something of Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hyde… It works very well for guitar AND bass.
With a bass, it inherits of the Glorious Basstar qualites, going from nice crunch to heavy
saturaton, always with a clear attack and nice bottom. With a guitar, the Small Basstar is a more on
a nice vintage tone, dynamic and precise blues rock overdrive, with a stoner feel on some setngs.
The most intriguing feature is the mix knob that no other overdrive pedal for guitar has, but that
one can see on bass overdrives. In fact the Small Basstar actually split the instrument’s sound in
two. On one side there’s the bass and the attack from the instrument, that will remain clean
whatever the gain’s knob positon is. On the other side the trebles from the instrument are
saturated with the gain knob and eventually sofened with the ton knob. These two separates
signals (Bass+ attack saturated treble) are then balanced with the mix knob.
Also the saturaton’s color can be radically changed with two setngss
Either with the MID (H L M) switch in the middle of the pedals it changes the frequency at which
the bass from the treble from H=800Hz, M=400Hz to L=200Hz. This changes radically the tone of
the pedal.
Or under the pedal are two mini dip switches. See page “what are these knobs for?” .
Getting started.
With his strange setngs this pedal can fell a little weird a the beginning. I suggest to begin by
testng the extreme setngs to understand it well. All these setngs are with the volume between
12 and 2 o’clock.
First listen to the bass and attack band, with the TONE, the GAIN and the MIX at 7 o’clock and the
MID switch in “L” positon. Listen to the pedal’s sound, you should ear only the bass of your
instrument and a little attack. Move the MID switch to ear how it adds or remove mids depending
on it’s positon.
Then move the MIX at 5 o’clock, listen how the signal changes to a medium treble sound. The
move again the MID switch and listen how it changes the treble band.
Then rise the GAIN up to his maximum (5 o’clock). Once it’s at the maximum, test the mini
switches under the pedal and hear how it changes the saturaton color.
Now, move the tone untl you get something that suits you. Then back down the MIX to 7 o’clock.
In this positon, find that the bass is stll clean and there’s a tny bit of saturated signal on. Then rise
up the MIX untl you find a balance between bass and treble that suits you. And then keep on
experimentngg
