SWELL PEDALS
B-PEG V3 BASS PEDAL
BY BOB KELLY
It wasn’t long after learning my first arpeg- gio that I started thinking about what
my rock ’n’ roll life was going to look like.
When I first opened up Van Halen’s Diver
Down and saw that photo of a packed
stadium and a happy band, I knew it was
for me. And as I got a little older, learned
a few songs, and watched countless videos
on MTV of bands playing to thousands of
adoring fans, I realized I had to have a proper bass rig to satisfy my eventual fandom. I
knew I needed an Ampeg SVT.
Fast-forward to three days after my 23rd
birthday when, in a freak accident, I crushed
a vertebra in my back. Not long after recovering from the accident, I was determined as
ever to buy my first “real” bass rig. But as
soon as I tried to lift the SVT I was checking
out, I knew I would never actually own any
gear that weighed that much. I’ve heard many
musicians joke that they are only paid to move
equipment back-and-forth, and that playing is
just a bonus. With that thought in mind, I’ve
always purchased gear I could move without
the help of a forklift. My dreams of owning
that SVT sound were unfortunately dashed
with the constraints of my lingering injury.
Fortunately, those dreams were recently
reignited. With the release of the new B-Peg
V3 overdrive from Swell Pedals, I found
that getting that SVT-esque sound was possible while still being easily transportable.
Dual footswitchable
gains
to hear audio clips of the pedal at
premierguitar.com/jul2012
CLICKHere…
Toggle switches
for fat and cut
The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of
Similar to Swell’s other pedal offerings, the
B-Peg V3 Overdrive is housed in a sturdy,
powder-coated metal encasement and its die-cast aluminum construction and interlocking
lid ensure complete RF shielding. Even with
the pedal’s internal 12AX7 tube, the rugged
design of this 100 percent analog unit left me
little to worry about when transporting and
handling it from gig to gig. With a Fender
Jazz through a Trace Elliot GP12 SMX 4001
head and an SWR 4x10 cab, I used the B-Peg
right out of the box and ran it through its
paces at four live shows—two small clubs and
twice in festival settings.
Remember, This Is a Teenage
Fantasy, So Make It Easy
For anyone who’s always wanted the big
sound of an SVT, but not wanted to pay for
it, or in my case, heft the “bigness” of it, the
B-Peg V3 pedal delivers in both tone and
ease-of-use. And within seconds of plugging it
in, I knew exactly what it could do. Alongside
the gold-plated Switchcraft jacks for the input
and output is a record-out jack with speaker
simulation, all of which are top-mounted.
And though the B-Peg V3 does come with a
power adaptor—often a bonus when it comes
to effects pedals—it does not run on battery
power. That’s not a deal breaker for me, but a
small disappointment nonetheless.
A great feature of the B-Peg V3 is the pair
of separate gains that are selectable via true-
bypass footswitching. Need one sound when
playing the verse, and something a bit more
aggressive for the chorus? Done. And the
dual gains can be switched back and forth
quickly and easily with the clearly marked
controls. The on/off footswitch illuminates in
red indicating the pedal is powered up, while
the Gain- 2 footswitch lights up in green
when the second gain’s settings are engaged.
Am I easily impressed? Maybe. But there is
beauty in simplicity, and as a gigging musi-
cian, I love when something is engineered to
be “idiot proof.” Amidst the confusion of a
poorly lit stage, it can be easy to forget which
stomp does what. Using a pedal I wasn’t
familiar with in a live setting, it was nice to
have my options be so clear.
I Sound Like Me, but Awesome
Using the Gain- 1 control knob for settings
below 12 o’clock and the Gain- 2 for anything above noon, the B-Peg V3 filled up
and rounded out the pickups on my Jazz
with a fuller and warmer tone. The gain settings below 12 o’clock amplified my entire
sound and filled out the low end nicely,
