Using the Bassbone with Two Basses

	Bassbone's powerful EQ overrides amp's EQ

Think of channel-1 as ‘straight-through’ whereby you will use the EQ and volume on your amp to control your primary bass. You would set your amp volume and EQ settings to the levels you would normally use. Channel-1 features a 3-position voicing switch. This offers choice between flat (bypass), and two preset EQ contour curves to help capture popular sought after tones that may be difficult to achieve with some amplifiers. One would start by setting up channel-1 in the EQ bypass mode and then try the EQ contour presets. You may find that inserting these will stimulate new sounds that you have not yet encountered. Channel-2 is the override channel. This features a powerful EQ that lets you counter and or assist the EQ on your amplifier when connecting your second bass. Once you have established the amp settings for your primary bass, you would then select your second bass and depress the toggle switch to select input-2. Each of the high, mid and low EQ controls are extremely active and provide incredible amounts of cut and boost power that let you dial-in the sound you want.

Using the Bassbone with One Bass

	One bass can sound like two instruments

By only connecting a bass to input-1, Bassbone automatically feeds both channels like a two channel bass amplifier. This lets you transition between channel-1 and channel-2 by simply depressing the toggle foot switch. For instance, you would set your ‘main sound’ using your amplifier EQ and level while using channel-1 and then transition to channel-2 for special effects, creating massive bass textures or maybe adding mid range for a solo or a more percussive style bass.

Boost and Effects Loop

	Booster can be used with or without FX

The Bassbone is equipped with an separate power booster that can be used for soloing or special effects. To add more fun and flexibility, there is a 3-position selector switch that lets you assign the footswitch to 'Boost', 'Loop' or 'Both' (FX loop + power boost). Being able to engage both boost and the effect loop with a single foot action adds tremendous flexibility while reducing the amount of ‘tap dancing’ of footswitches on stage. For instance you may want to kick the bass up a notch and introduce a flanger at the same time. This also has the advantage of keeping noisy effect pedals out of the signal chain when not being used.

Using the Power Booster

The Bassbone's power-booster circuit is designed to go from unity gain (signal level in equals signal level out) to +8dB of gain boost. This allows you play regular passages clean, then click-in the boost to get the exact amount of 'take-control-of-the-world' power-boost!

Using the Effect Loop

The effect loop features an insert jack like the ones used on professional mixers. This employs a standard tip ‘send’, ring ‘return’ Y or insert jack with a stereo TRS (tip ring sleeve) at one end and two standard ¼” mono jacks on the other end. The advantages of using an effect loop to connect pedals include reduced pickup loading (for a more natural bass guitar sound), less noise (because your sound is going directly to your amplifier), and the ability to have different pedal set-ups on stand-by (to engage the effect loop precisely when needed). Combining pedal effects with the power booster can be both powerful and dramatic. With the touch of a button, one can produce thunderous tones that can completely change the dynamics of the performance.

Using the Tuner Output

	1/4" 'dummy' plug

The Radial Bassbone also incorporates a separate tuner out and because it is buffered, the tuner circuit is completely removed from the primary audio signal path, thus reducing the effect of added load on the circuit.

It is possible to use the effects loop as a footswitch enabled 'tuner mute' by (a) using a switcher like the Radial BigShot™i/o in the effect loop or (b) inserting a dummy 1/4" plug into the effect loop jack while the 'BOOST ASSIGN' switch in either the 'Loop' or 'Both' positions. Method 'b' would, of course, be at the expense of loosing the boost and FX loop circuits. The signal would continue to the tuner-out while muted to the amplifier and XLR out. Sliding the assign switch to the 'Boost' position removes the FX loop so the dummy plug would have no effect, and 'Boost' would work as normal. Removing the dummy plug returns the use of the FX loop circuits.

Silent Tuning Using One Bass

When using the Bassbone as a single channel preamp, there is an easy way to set it up for silent tuning. All you do is connect your bass to input channel-2. When you want to tune, simply depress the input toggle footswitch and since nothing is connected to input-1, your sound will be muted while the input-2 signal will still flow to the tuner output. Simply depress the toggle footswitch again and you are back to normal.

Using the XLR Output

The Bassbone's built-in Radial direct box is equipped with a separate XLR male output to feed a mixer. This is a 600-ohm mic level output that is designed to run along side microphone signals in a snake without causing crosstalk.

It is important to note that the XLR output of the Bassbone is post-everything. This means that all of the Bassbone EQ and volume settings will be heard on the XLR output. This is of particular advantage when playing gigs without a sound engineer as the bass signal going to the mixer will be boosted or altered to follow your Bassbone settings. An example would be on a solo where the engineer would normally increase the bass volume. By engaging the Bassbone’s power booster, the level would increase on your bass amp and at the mixer at the same time.

The XLR out is particularly cool for studio session work or small coffee house gigs where bringing an amplifier would be an extra hassle. Simply connect the Bassbone’s XLR output to the mixer and use the Bassbone as your miniature amp. All your EQ settings are now right at your feet!

The XLR male connector is wired to AES standards with pin-1 being ground, pin-2 hot. A ground-lift switch disconnects the ground on pin-1 at the output to help reduce hum and buzz caused by so-called ‘ground-loops’.

Using the Bassbone for Recording

If you have read through the various pages on this site, you know that the Bassbone is in fact a preamp designed specifically for bass guitar. The magic lies in the warm sounding EQ and ultra quiet operation. Connecting the Bassbone's balanced lo-Z direct out to your mixer or favorite mic-pre blossoms into the ideal front-end for direct recording. Simply plug in and play!

How will it sound? Well, that depends on how you set the tones. Will Lee uses the Bassbone for many of his session gigs and you can hear it on recordings by George Benson and Billy Joel. Nathan East recently recorded album cuts for Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Alicia Keys using the Bassbone. Suffice to say that some of the world's best bassists use the Bassbone every day to do their job for the simple reason: 'no frills, no hype - it just works!'