Category: Reviews

Reviews

Xotic EP Booster: Pedal Review

A Little More of Everything There are pedals you buy because you want an effect, and then there are pedals that quietly become part of your rig. The Xotic EP Booster is one of those pedals. It’s tiny, has a single knob, and doesn’t look particularly exciting on paper. There isn’t even anything specifically bass-oriented about it. Still, the EP Booster has found its way onto plenty of bass pedalboards over the years. Check the price on Amazon Now –> More than just a boost The EP Booster is based around the preamp section of the legendary Maestro EP-3 Echoplex. Players discovered a long time ago that the Echoplex’s preamp added character, fullness and harmonic content to their instruments even when they weren’t using the delay. Xotic took that idea and built it into a tiny standalone pedal. The Boost control gives you up to +20 dB of gain, but the pedal becomes much more interesting when you turn the volume down and listen to what it’s doing to the signal itself. The EP Booster has a noticeable character. It’s subtle, but there’s more weight around the notes, a little extra harmonic content and a smoother feel to the top end depending on how you configure the internal switches. The always-on approach Set the Boost control around unity gain and the EP Booster becomes a very different proposition. With the pedal engaged, the bass sounds slightly fuller and more substantial. The difference isn’t huge, and that’s part of the appeal. There’s no dramatic EQ curve or obvious saturation. The fundamental character of the instrument remains intact. Switch the pedal off after playing for a while and the difference becomes easier to appreciate. The bass can suddenly seem a little flatter and less lively. Switch it back on and the extra character returns. This is the sort of pedal that can sit at the beginning of a signal chain and simply stay there. Why it works well on bass Clean bass tones can sometimes become almost too clean. Modern bass rigs offer enormous amounts of clarity and headroom, which is fantastic, but a little analogue character can make the instrument feel more engaging. The EP Booster adds some of that character without pushing the sound into overdrive territory. I particularly like what it does with articulate playing. Fingerstyle, chords and upper-register lines retain their clarity while gaining a little more density. The effect is also subtle enough that it doesn’t interfere with the basic sound of the bass. That makes the EP Booster an easy pedal to leave switched on throughout a set. Don’t ignore the internal switches There are two DIP switches inside the pedal that alter its voicing, including the gain and high-frequency response. They’re worth experimenting with, especially on bass. Different instruments can react quite differently to the EP Booster. A warm passive bass may benefit from a little extra presence, while a bright modern instrument may sound better with a smoother setting. It’s a simple pedal, but these options give you enough room to find a setting that works with your particular bass and rig. Is it worth having on a bass pedalboard? If you want a completely transparent clean boost, there are better options. The EP Booster has its own sonic character, and that’s something you need to like. For an always-on preamp that adds a little weight, harmonic character and smoothness to a clean bass tone, though, it’s an excellent option. The simplicity is also part of its appeal. There’s very little to adjust, it takes up almost no space and it doesn’t require you to rethink your entire signal chain. Set the level, choose your internal voicing and play. After a while, you may find yourself wondering why the bass sounds slightly less satisfying whenever you switch it off. Final thoughts The Xotic EP Booster is a remarkably simple pedal that can have a surprisingly noticeable effect on a bass rig. The +20 dB of boost is useful when you need it, but the more interesting application is running the pedal around unity gain and letting the EP-3-inspired preamp character become part of your basic tone. For bass players who like clean, articulate sounds but want a little more weight and personality, the EP Booster is well worth trying. Sometimes a pedal earns its place on a board simply by making you reluctant to turn it off. The EP Booster does exactly that. Pros Cons Get your Xotic EP Booster on Amazon right now!

August 27, 2026 No Comments

Reviews

Washburn Scavenger Reissue Review

The Weird Bass That Gets Everything Right Disclaimer: This bass was kindly provided by Washburn for the purpose of this review. However, this does not influence our opinions or the content of our reviews. We strive to provide honest, unbiased, and accurate assessments to ensure that our readers receive truthful and helpful information. TL;DR If you’re looking for another modern P-style bass, this isn’t it. The Scavenger is unapologetically different. It looks like something straight out of the late ’70s, sounds remarkably close to a great Precision Bass, sustains forever, and has one of the most effective passive tone controls I’ve used in quite a while. It’s not perfect, it’s definitely on the heavy side, but it’s one of those instruments that makes you want to keep playing because every note seems to hang in the air just a little longer than expected. Product Specifications The Washburn Scavenger features a mahogany Wing Double Cutaway solid body paired with a mahogany neck and rosewood fingerboard. The neck has a 16″ radius, 22 frets, 6 mm pearloid dot inlays and a 41 mm nut width. The scale length is the standard 34″. Electronics are deliberately straightforward, with a P-style split-coil pickup controlled by a single volume and tone knob. The bass comes with a gloss body finish and satin-finished neck, and is available in Black and Ruby Red. The Scavenger comes strung with D’Addario EXL165 strings. First Impressions Some basses immediately feel familiar. The Scavenger doesn’t! Its asymmetrical “Wing” body shape is unlike almost anything else on the market today. It’s exactly the sort of instrument that divides opinion before anyone even plugs it in. Personally, I love seeing manufacturers revive designs that don’t simply imitate another Precision or Jazz Bass. The Scavenger has a personality all its own, and in a world filled with safe choices, that’s refreshing. Thankfully, it has far more going for it than just its looks. Design & Heritage The Scavenger is part of Washburn’s Wing series, a collection of instruments that helped establish the company’s distinctive approach to electric guitar and bass design in the late 1970s. The original Scavenger was very much a product of its era. Its unusual double-cutaway body, large hardware and distinctive styling were a departure from the more traditional bass designs that dominated the market at the time. Rather than trying to follow the established Precision and Jazz formulas visually, Washburn went in a very different direction. This reissue keeps that identity intact. That’s important because it would have been easy to modernize the design to the point where it lost what made the original interesting in the first place. Instead, the Scavenger looks like it belongs to another era while benefiting from the consistency and build quality expected from a modern instrument. And while the styling is firmly rooted in the late ’70s, the playing experience doesn’t feel dated. The 34″ scale, comfortable neck and straightforward P-style electronics make it immediately familiar once it’s in your hands. In that sense, the Scavenger manages to strike a nice balance between vintage character and a modern, usable instrument. Build Quality & Feel Washburn has done an excellent job with the overall construction. The first thing I noticed was the neck. Despite being brand new, the satin finish feels wonderfully broken in, almost as if you’ve been playing it for years. Your hand glides across it, making long practice sessions and fast position shifts feel very natural. The mahogany neck also feels reassuringly solid, complementing the substantial mahogany body. Comfort-wise, the unusual body shape works better than you might expect. Whether sitting or standing, the bass balances nicely and never feels awkward despite its unconventional design. The only caveat is for those who enjoy playing the bass in the “classical guitar” positioning. Those will find it difficult to balance due to the shape of the body. The other drawback I found is the weight. This isn’t a lightweight instrument. The all mahogany construction gives the bass plenty of substance, and you’ll certainly notice it after a long rehearsal or gig. Thankfully, the balance prevents it from ever feeling cumbersome. Tone – Surprisingly Familiar Looking at the Scavenger, you’ll almost immediately imagine how it sounds. The P-style split-coil pickup delivers much of the bite, punch and authority you’d associate with a great Precision Bass. The pickup position gives that away almost instantly. There’s a focused midrange that cuts really well through a mix, while still retaining plenty of low-end weight. Fingerstyle playing has definition, pick playing becomes wonderfully aggressive, and digging in rewards you with that unmistakable growl that has made the Precision Bass such a studio and stage staple for decades. It feels like Washburn took the P-Bass formula, wrapped it inside an unmistakably original design, and added its own character. Sustain That Borders on Ridiculous The biggest surprise for me wasn’t the tone. It was the sustain. I genuinely wasn’t expecting notes to ring out for as long as they do. Whether it’s the combination of the dense mahogany body, the high-mass bridge, the string-through-body construction, or a combination of all 3, the result is remarkable. Notes simply refuse to die. Sustained chords bloom beautifully, melodic passages become more expressive, and slower bass lines feel almost effortless because every note hangs in the air. It’s one of those characteristics that becomes more impressive the longer you spend with the instrument. A Tone Control You’ll Actually Use The passive tone control on the Scavenger is very usable. Even the smallest adjustments produce immediately noticeable results. Wide open, the Scavenger delivers an aggressive, bright voice with plenty of upper-mid presence that works brilliantly for rock and modern styles. Roll it back just a little and the sound becomes warmer while still retaining clarity. Turn it down further and suddenly you’re in classic Motown territory, with a thick, rounded thump that’s incredibly satisfying. Close it completely and pair it with a set of flatwound strings and you’re left with an intentionally dark, almost muffled sound

August 19, 2026 No Comments

Reviews

Swiff Audio WT09B Wireless System Review

Can Swiff Audio Do It Again? Disclaimer: This wireless equipment was kindly provided by Swiff Audio for the purpose of this review. However, this does not influence our opinions or the content of our reviews. We strive to provide honest, unbiased, and accurate assessments to ensure that our readers receive truthful and helpful information. A couple of months ago, I reviewed the Swiff Audio WT09A, a compact 2.4GHz wireless system that surprised me with how well it handled the demands of bass. The WT09A wasn’t perfect, particularly with the slight smoothing of the upper mids and the way particularly hot active basses could push its input stage, but overall it made a very convincing case for affordable wireless. Now Swiff has followed it up with the WT09B. At first glance, very little has changed. The WT09B keeps the same compact plug-and-play concept, magnetic charging case and instrument-friendly 1MΩ input impedance. The big difference is hiding in the wireless technology: while the WT09A operates on 2.4GHz, the WT09B moves to 5.8GHz and upgrades the audio transmission to 24-bit/48kHz. Swiff also claims latency below 5.5ms and a range of up to 200 feet line-of-sight. So, is the WT09B simply a WT09A on a different frequency, or is it a meaningful upgrade? Check the price on Amazon now! First Impressions If you’ve seen my WT09A review, there’s very little new to say about the physical side of things. The WT09B is still impressively small and lightweight, with the transmitter plugging directly into your bass and the receiver connecting to your amp or pedalboard. The magnetic charging case remains one of my favourite details of the Swiff system. It keeps both units together and protected instead of allowing them to disappear somewhere inside your gig bag. The whole package feels much more substantial than its price would suggest. And that’s something Swiff seems to understand well. Packaging and feel. The packaging is premium and these products don’t feel like cheap wireless gadgets. They’re designed as pieces of gear that you can actually throw into a working rig. 5.8GHz: What’s the Difference? The WT09A uses the familiar 2.4GHz wireless band, while the WT09B moves to 5.8GHz. Swiff’s reasoning is straightforward: the higher-frequency band is considerably less crowded than the 2.4GHz space, which is shared with an enormous number of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices. The WT09B also provides six channels with automatic pairing and can support up to four systems simultaneously. In practical terms, this is intended to make the WT09B a better choice for environments where wireless traffic is already heavy. And this is where I think the WT09B makes the most sense as an upgrade rather than simply another version of the same product. How Does It Sound? One of the things I liked about the WT09A was that it didn’t immediately scream “wireless” when used with bass. The WT09B continues that trend. The low end remains full and authoritative, and the instrument retains the dynamics and attack that made the WT09A such a pleasant surprise. The WT09B is specified for 20Hz–20kHz response and 24-bit/48kHz transmission, so there is certainly no shortage of bandwidth on paper. Compared directly with the WT09A, the biggest difference isn’t something I’d describe as a dramatic change in tone. Instead, the WT09B feels extremely clean and immediate. That’s exactly what I want from a wireless system. I don’t want a wireless sound, I want my bass sound. Playing Feel Swiff specifies latency below 5.5ms for the WT09B. That’s slightly higher than the sub-4ms figure quoted for the WT09A, which might look strange on paper. In actual use, however, latency isn’t something I found myself thinking about. Fingerstyle playing feels natural, ghost notes remain responsive, and slap doesn’t develop that disconnected sensation that can make some wireless systems unpleasant to use. Once you’re playing, the WT09B simply gets out of the way, and honestly, that’s the highest compliment I can give a wireless system. The Real Advantage For me, the biggest reason to choose the WT09B over the WT09A isn’t that it suddenly sounds dramatically better. It’s the RF environment. 2.4GHz is everywhere. Phones, Wi-Fi networks, Bluetooth devices and countless other pieces of equipment are competing for space in that spectrum. 5.8GHz doesn’t eliminate interference, but it gives the WT09B a less congested environment to work in. That becomes increasingly relevant when you’re playing in rehearsal spaces, venues or stages where you’re surrounded by wireless equipment. The ability to run up to four WT09B systems simultaneously also makes it considerably more interesting for bands than a basic single-system wireless solution. Battery Life The transmitter uses a 425mAh rechargeable battery and charges via USB-C, with the charging case keeping the system topped up between uses. Battery life isn’t going to make me abandon a good wireless system, but it’s something worth keeping an eye on if you’re using wireless for long rehearsals or multiple-set gigs. The good news is that the charging case makes keeping the system charged considerably easier. Put the units back in the case after playing and you’re ready for the next session. WT09A vs WT09B So, should you buy the WT09B if you already own the WT09A? Probably not. The WT09A is still a perfectly capable wireless system, and if you’ve already got one and it’s working reliably in your environment, there’s no reason to replace it simply because Swiff released a newer model. But if you’re buying your first Swiff wireless system, I’d choose the WT09B. The 5.8GHz transmission, 24-bit/48kHz audio, six-channel system and four-unit capability make it the more future-proof option. Final Verdict The WT09B is an interesting follow-up to the WT09A because Swiff hasn’t tried to reinvent the product. Instead, they’ve taken a compact wireless system that already worked surprisingly well for bass and addressed one of its biggest potential limitations: the increasingly crowded 2.4GHz spectrum. The result is a wireless system that remains small, simple and affordable while moving into a more interesting class of wireless technology. For bass players, that’s a

August 14, 2026 No Comments

Reviews

Jad Freer SARTO: Pedal Review

The Art of Getting Out of the Way Disclaimer: This pedal was kindly provided by Jad Freer for the purpose of this review. However, this does not influence our opinions or the content of our reviews. We strive to provide honest, unbiased, and accurate assessments to ensure that our readers receive truthful and helpful information. There are two schools of thought when it comes to bass preamps. The first says a preamp should be part of your sound. Give me tubes. Give me transformers. Give me harmonic saturation, vintage mojo and just enough grit to convince me my Class D amp secretly wishes it were a 300-pound fridge from 1972. The second school says a preamp should simply make your bass sound like your bass! For years, and probably still to this day, I’ve mostly gravitated toward the first camp. I love pedals with personality. I love plugging into something and immediately thinking, “That’s cool!” Whether it’s an Origin BassRig, a tube preamp, or an overdrive that’s always on, I’ve never been shy about adding colour to my sound. So when Jad Freer reached out and asked if I’d like to review the new SARTO, I’ll admit my first reaction was curiosity more than excitement. Not because I doubted the quality—quite the opposite. I’d already spent plenty of time looking at the CAPO and the LUCE and knew Jad Freer had built a reputation for making incredibly well-engineered gear. But the SARTO isn’t selling you “warmth” or “vintage tone.” In fact, it’s barely selling you a tone at all. It’s selling transparency. Does that sound boring to you? I can guarantee you it isn’t. After spending the last few weeks with the SARTO on my pedalboard, I’ve come to appreciate something that most bass players—including myself—don’t spend enough time thinking about. Sometimes the best piece of gear is the one you stop noticing after five minutes. It’s not trying to impress you We’ve all played pedals that impress you in the first thirty seconds. The lows get bigger. The highs get shinier. Everything suddenly sounds more “produced.” It’s exciting, and sometimes that’s exactly what you’re looking for. The SARTO doesn’t do that. Instead, the first thing I noticed was that… nothing really happened. And that’s not criticism, that’s actually the highest compliment I can give it. I plugged in my passive P Bass, set everything flat, adjusted the output to unity and started playing. There wasn’t a dramatic change in EQ. No extra compression. No obvious thickening of the mids. If someone had walked into the room, they probably wouldn’t have known I’d switched anything on. What I did notice after playing for a while was that everything felt slightly more effortless. Notes seemed to speak a little easier. The attack stayed intact. Dynamics remained exactly where my fingers put them. It reminded me less of plugging into a bass pedal and more of plugging into an exceptionally good studio console. Why that matters more than most players realise We spend thousands chasing the perfect instrument. We agonise over pickup height, string gauges, cabinet choices and amplifier voicings. Then we happily run everything through the first buffered pedal we happen to own. That’s not necessarily a problem—modern buffers are generally excellent—but every stage in your signal chain changes something, even if it’s only a little. The challenge for a designer isn’t making a circuit that sounds exciting. It’s making one that disappears. That’s a much harder job. The SARTO starts with a ridiculously high 10 MΩ input impedance, and while that’s a headline feature for upright bassists and anyone using piezo pickups, it’s easy to dismiss if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool electric bassist. I almost did. Then I started swapping instruments. With my passive P Bass, the difference wasn’t dramatic, nor should it be. A good bass into a good amplifier already sounds good. But there was a sense of openness that became more obvious the longer I played. It wasn’t brighter. It wasn’t louder. It simply felt like less of the instrument was being left behind. That’s the thing about transparency. It’s hard to notice. It quietly removes little compromises you didn’t realise you’d accepted. If you’re playing upright, an acoustic bass or anything with a piezo system, the benefits are likely to be far more obvious. Piezos absolutely hate being loaded down by low-impedance inputs, and the SARTO gives them exactly the kind of environment they want to see. That’s clearly one of the reasons Jad Freer designed it this way. But even if you never touch a piezo in your life, the philosophy still makes sense. Start with the cleanest possible foundation, then decide what colour you want to add later. The EQ is smarter than it first appears At first glance, the SARTO’s EQ doesn’t look particularly revolutionary. We’ve all seen that before. The shelving bass control lets you choose whether you’re shaping the extreme lows around 40 Hz, the more familiar punch around 80 Hz or the warmth that lives closer to 160 Hz. The treble section follows the same philosophy, letting you decide whether you’re adjusting presence, string noise or true top-end air. That flexibility means the controls behave differently depending on the bass you’re playing. I found myself reaching for different shelf frequencies with a passive four-string than I did with my five-string, not because one sounded better, but because the pedal lets you decide what you’re actually trying to influence instead of forcing every bass through the same fixed EQ points. Then there’s the midrange. The sweepable mids cover an enormous range, from 100 Hz all the way to 10 kHz, but the clever bit isn’t just the frequency range. It’s the way the filter behaves. The variable-Q design feels remarkably musical. At lower frequencies it lets you make focused corrections without upsetting everything around them, while higher up it becomes broader and more natural. Some parametric EQs feel like surgical instruments. The SARTO was definitely voiced by someone who actually plays and

July 20, 2026 No Comments

Reviews

Valeton VPS-6 Fully Isolated Power Supply: Gear Review

Why the isolation actually matters! Disclaimer: This equipment was kindly provided by Valeton for the purpose of this review. However, this does not influence our opinions or the content of our reviews. We strive to provide honest, unbiased, and accurate assessments to ensure that our readers receive truthful and helpful information. The Valeton VPS-6 is a fully isolated multi-output power supply designed for pedalboards that combine both analog and digital effects. For bass players in particular, it sits in a category of gear that doesn’t directly shape tone, but instead determines whether your entire rig behaves with stability or slowly turns into a troubleshooting exercise. For bass players in particular, where low frequencies expose noise, grounding issues, and power inconsistencies far more clearly than guitar setups, the VPS-6 is less of an accessory and more of a foundation. Upgrade your bass pedalboard with reliable isolated power—see customer reviews and today’s deals for the Valeton VPS-6 on Amazon. First impressions: “Finally, a clean foundation” For bass players, isolation is not a luxury—it’s survival. Low frequencies expose noise in a way that guitars can sometimes hide. A slight ground loop? You’ll hear it as a constant low hiss under your tone. A bad daisy chain? Suddenly your compressor pumps in a way it absolutely shouldn’t. Plugging into the VPS-6, the immediate takeaway is simple: the board stops arguing with itself. No shared ground weirdness. No “why does my octave pedal freak out when I turn on the preamp?” moments. Just clean, independent power per output. Real-world pedalboard use (bass context) This is where the VPS-6 actually earns its keep. A typical bass board today might include: Mixing analog dirt + digital processing is exactly where cheap or semi-isolated supplies fall apart. That’s also where Valeton’s own ecosystem starts to become relevant. Running something like: …is exactly the kind of setup that exposes weak power immediately. With the VPS-6, everything just behaves. The multi effects units don’t whine. The analog pedals don’t pick up digital clock noise. And importantly for bass: the low end stays stable, not “wobbly because the power is dirty.” Why the isolation actually matters (especially for bass) A lot of cheaper “isolated” supplies are… let’s just say optimistically labeled. What you get there is often partial separation, shared transformer sections, or inconsistent grounding. That’s where you get: The VPS-6 avoids that by giving each output its own isolated path, meaning pedals don’t share electrical “conversation lines.” For bass players running DI into FOH, this matters even more. Engineers don’t love mystery noise, and nothing kills a good groove faster than someone saying “can you fix your hum?” Living with it on a real pedalboard A few practical, non-spec-sheet observations: And yes, it feels like one of those “buy once, cry once” pieces of gear. The Valeton ecosystem effect This is where things get interesting. Valeton’s newer ecosystem feels like it’s aimed at players building modular boards instead of single-purpose chains. The VPS-6 fits into that mindset perfectly. It’s the kind of unit you buy when you’re not just powering pedals—you’re building a system. And that leads to the obvious thought many players end up having: “I want a pedalboard to totally space out, power a couple of pedals, run a Valeton GP series unit, and still keep my analog chain dead silent.” That’s exactly the use case where the VPS-6 stops being “a power supply” and becomes the foundation of the whole rig. Bass player verdict The Valeton VPS-6 doesn’t try to be flashy. It doesn’t add tone, it doesn’t inspire creativity directly, and nobody in the crowd will ever ask what power supply you’re using. But if you’re a bass player running anything more complex than a tuner + compressor, it does something arguably more important: It removes uncertainty. No noise guessing games. No “is it the pedal or the power?” debugging mid-rehearsal. Just consistent, isolated current delivery so your tone chain behaves like a single instrument instead of a collection of arguments. Final take The VPS-6 sits in that sweet spot where it’s affordable enough not to feel boutique-ridiculous, but solid enough to trust on a gigging board, and flexible enough to handle modern hybrid bass rigs. Because at the end of the day, the goal isn’t just power. It’s silence where silence should be—and punch where punch matters! Ready to eliminate pedalboard noise? Check the latest price and availability of the Valeton VPS-6 on Amazon.

July 17, 2026 No Comments

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