Standing behind the lead guitarist playing root notes, trying to keep up with the drummer and having to carry the heaviest gear to a from the gig is pretty much the standard sketch for the average bass player. Well, that and feigning interest as guitarists wax lyrical about their latest wah, ground breaking delay and how much money, love and attention they have lavished on their pedal boards. Now luckily the lovely boffins at MXR bass innovations, the bottom end loving branch of Dunlop Engineering have provided the bass player with the tools to step out of the shadows. The latest monster to break its chains and escape from the lab is the M89 Bass Overdrive and at Westside MI we are pretty pleased it did.
This little box has a simple and effective lay out with tone, volume and drive controls as well as a clean control that is ingeniously equipped with a pre-set EQ curve to bring out the optimal clean signal, which is perfect for blending with your dirty signal. It’s a clever concept from MXR as they’ve realised that a pristine clean signal is not necessarily the best signal to blend with drive. It’s more bottom end friendly than a fuzz and will be spot on for those craving a tube like overdrive. With its ease of use (its idiot proof) and the range of tones you can achieve from this little box it’s about time bass players of the world started waffling endlessly about what their own pedal boards, with the M89 Bass Overdrive certainly being the first name on the team sheet.
Get your arse down to Denmark street and check it out!