BLACK CAT PEDALS
BASS OCTAVE FUZZ PEDAL
BY JORDAN WAGNER
Ask a bassist, and he will probably tell you that the needs and wants of bassists have largely been ignored in the pedal
world—at least until relatively recently.
Guitarists seem to get all the cool toys and
nifty gadgets, while bass players have often
been relegated to carving their tone out of a
less-abundant assortment of accessories. But
the picture hasn’t really been that dark for
bassists. In the ’70s, companies like Maestro
recognized that bassists, like guitarists, were
always looking for something new and different. Black Cat Pedals also sees this need,
and issued the Bass Octave Fuzz, a modern
and compact re-creation of the Maestro
Bass Brassmaster.
Echoes of the Past
It’s no wonder that the Bass Octave Fuzz’s
main inspiration is the Bass Brassmaster
pedal, which originated in the late ’70s. The
Brassmaster has been used by some of rock’s
most famous bassists, including Chris Squire
of Yes and the Who’s John Entwhistle.
Since the Brassmaster’s debut in the heyday
of aggressive and progressive rock, it has
become a highly sought-after collector’s
piece, likely commanding hundreds of dollars. Its sputtery, sometimes synth-like sound
defined an era of rock ’n’ roll when bassists
began to take a stronger role in a world
dominated by huge guitar tones.
The Bass Octave Fuzz employs the same
control scheme as its ancestor, using three
knobs and two toggle switches to manage its
wide range of tones. The Bass control is effectively a mixer control to balance the effected
and dry signals, and I was happy to have this
simple but useful feature available on the
Bass Octave. It allowed me to alter the mix of
clean bass tone with the distorted signal for
plenty of nuanced tonal tweaking, and my
desired mix really came through with only
slight adjustments—depending on the amp
and bass being used. It’s an indispensable
control and thankfully being added to more
and more bass effects manufactured today.
The other two knobs—Drive and Fuzz—
work in tandem to produce the pedal’s fuzz
Bass, Drive, and
Fuzz control knobs
Filter and
Harmonic
toggle
switches
effect. The Fuzz control doesn’t affect the
amount of fuzz as it implies, but rather controls the volume of the fuzz tone itself. It’s
the Drive knob that manages the additional
signal gain needed for the desired distortion.
The Filter and Harmonic toggle switches
are the unique features of the Bass Octave.
They’re designed to react in the same fashion
as the Brass and Harmonic switches on the
original Brassmaster, altering the harmonic
range and intensity of the octave-up effect.
Using different combinations of range and
intensity can produce tones that not only
sound drastically different from one another,
but also change the playing feel considerably.
Getting Down to Brass Tacks
Grabbing a 1987 Kramer Striker USA
bass, I plugged the Bass Octave into a
Gallien-Krueger 700RB-II bass head cabled
to a 1970 Orange 8x10 cabinet. Both of
the toggle switches were set to their left
positions, and all of the controls were set
directly at noon. A massive wall of fat fuzz
hit me in the back after plucking the low E
string, with the grit and snarl of unwieldy
early ’70s fuzz tones. Interestingly, the pedal
was dead silent as I turned the Drive knob
up to higher settings. It also remained super
tight on the low frequencies—even while
doing chord work.
