DigiTech Bass Synth Wah (Review) www.astrings.co.uk

So while visiting A Strings a music store near (Ish) to me I happened to browse over in the direction of this pedal and I had to review it!

First Impressions.

Sturdily built chassis but the knobs seem to be of a much lower quality. It does what it says. It’s a bass synth, wah pedal. It has 7 pre-sets which you can customise using three knobs – Sens, Control & Range. Although some of the sounds seem to be a bit over the top there are some very useful ones including a very nice sub bass and the “synth 1” setting.

Usefulness

If your playing in a pub band or alike it probably isn’t the most useful pedal, but it can be used as a cheaper version of an octave pedal. Which is always a good thing! I’m currently using it on one track with a band I’m in and it works well. If your in a tribute band or need some of that 80’s cheesy synth goodness its a great choice at this price range. On the over hand if your looking for a wah type effect or just a plain old envelope filter this is the pedal for you!

Sounds

1. This is your standard envelope filter and it does sound great. With a few tweaks of a few knobs I had a great wet Bootsy tone with plenty of bass coming through.

2. As above but with an added octave down this gives you a full on dirty funky grooving tone, perfect for your 80’s guilty pleasures.

3. Synth 1 is a great and varied bass synth using the three knobs you can dial in a whole array of synth tones from hard hitting leads to deep dub grooves.

4. Synth 2 is much the same as synth 1 but with more attack and chaos. I’m very impressed with the sweep available using the range knob.

5. Filter 1 I have played around with quite and got some great “fuzzy” synth tones out of.

6. filter 2 has more attack than filter 2 but bumping up the Sens knob gave me a rather loud attack and a very harsh cutting synth tone.

7. A great sub bass sound plus the sub octave gives you the “Big Bottom” tone.

Downsides

The control knobs as mentioned before. Plus a few of the sounds are a bit “cheesy” The octave down doesn’t track as well as other octave pedals (as expected)

My Thoughts

A great little pedal especially for the price. Even if your not looking for a synth pedal the envelope and octave features are a great addition to any bass players arsenal! Although I’m only using it on one track right now I can see it being used a lot more in the future.

This pedal can be purchased from http://www.astrings.co.uk for £45!

The audio to go with the 7 examples of the pedal can be found here – http://www.soundcloud.com/phillcourtmusic