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5 Pedals to get YOU started

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5 Pedals to get YOU started

You got the quick rundown in the reel
above, but I’ll share a couple more thoughts
on what you can actually do with these 5
pedals in this reference sheet!

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Boss | OC-5 Octave

With octave pedals, there are really primarily 2 main settings.

1) That electronic, neo-jazz sound, popularized by the likes of Tim

Lefebvre, Jonathan Maron, Janek Gwizdala, John Davis, and others,
which puts you in Synth Bass territory.

You achieve this sound by using

• no direct
• no octave up
• no 2 octave down
• only the 1 oct down
(see settings on the left)

2) A more of a dual sound, that has your clean signal blended in along
side the synth bass (1 octave down). This will sound more like bassists
such as Tony Levin, or Darryl Jones.

You achieve this sound by

• having some direct level
• 1 octave down
• no octave up
• no 2 octave down

and playing an octave higher than you normally would.

(see settings above)

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Darkglass | Duality Fuzz

This pedal is basically very simple. You’ve got levels on the outer ring,
and the duality knob on the inside, that controls the blend between two
different fuzz circuits. Let’s talk about this fuzz in more detail.

1) On the left side, the tone you will get will 2) On the right side, the tone is wide open,
be really gated and ‘velcro-y & spitty’. ‘brutal’, and a ‘blasty fuzz’.

Additionally, if you flip the pedal over, you can pop the cover open using a
pick and make additional adjustments to your fuzz. The filter setting controls
the amount of high end, and the blend can finetune how much ‘clean signal’
you’re getting.

As a general rule, you’re

intended to ‘set and forget’
about the back, but of course
you can easily access it and
switch out the settings
if you wish.

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Aguilar | Filter Twin V2 Dual Bass Envelope

This pedal warrants some exploring and experimentation to discover the various sounds and tones you
can create with it. We’ll talk you through what the knobs essentially do.

Threshold Velocity Left

The Threshold determines at which level
the effect (filter) kicks in. Ian likes to set his
threshold low, which requires him to dig into
his strings with a little more power.
This knob controls the speed with which the
note falls. (The arrows next to the knob are also
pointing down.)
Velocity Right

Blend This knob controls the speed with which the

note rises. (The arrows next to the knob are
The Blend knob controls the blend between
pointing up.)
your two velocity level.

In practice, this means that if you want your

note to always go down (we recommend you
just use the effect to best understand what that
means exactly), you’ll have your blend knob
turned all the way to the left, and vice versa to
have your note sound up.

Here’s how to achieve some ‘classic’ sounds:

80’s Synth Bass Sound

• the note going down (see blend)
• the velocity going down pretty short
(see left velocity)

Rock’n’Roll Sound
• more toward the up sound (see blend)
• a slower up sound (see right velocity)

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ZVEX | Basstortion
The ZVEX Basstortion pedal is a very powerful distortion pedal and you
won’t lose any bottom with it. We’ll share Ian’s favorite settings for it, but
obviously experiment with it yourself to see what you prefer.

1) This pedal has a lot of volume on tap, so you may

want to get it about even with bypass & effect.

2) Ian prefers having his settings on bright, because it

gives a bigger sound. Dark cuts out some high-end.

3) He keeps Tone at about 12 o’clock, halfway up.

4) Finally, Drive. The settings on this knob are very

dependent on both taste and how you intend to use or
apply your distortion.

If you intend to keep your drive on throughout, adding

some edge to your tone, you’ll probably want to keep it
around the 11 o’clock area.

If you turn it up all the way (5 o’clock),

you’ll get a raging distortion,
‘ratty’ as Ian calls it.

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MXR | BASS CHORUS DELUXE

This pedal has a very wide-ranging capacity, though Ian has a specific preferred
setting for it. Obviously, you can mess with that and see what suits you best!

1) Ian typically runs the X-Over, which means the low-

end won’t be affected. He’s usually not running the
Flanger mode, however.

2) He usually keeps Bass and Treble on 12 o’clock. If he

wants to take some low-end off of the chorus, he might
shift Bass to about 11 o’clock, and similarly if he wants to
brighten it a bit, he’ll turn the Treble to about 1 o’clock.

3) Intensity controls how much of the Chorus signal is

happening. Because this pedal can be quite extreme, Ian
likes to the Intensity at about half-way, maybe even a
little less.

4) He generally keeps the Rate quite low, which is the speed at which
the tone modulates. The higher you set the Rate, the faster it
repeats, which can have an almost LFO like effect once you reach a
certain speed. Ian prefers to keep it at about 10 o’clock.

5) By contrast, Ian typically keeps the Width quite wide (approx. 2

o’clock), which gives him a wide, slow chorus.

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