Origin Effects Bass Rigs

OE’s all‑analogue bass pedals pack the sound of a stack into a stompbox.

Origin Effects may be familiar to you as the company who had the inspired idea to build an 1176 into a guitar pedal. They’ve since come out with a range of top‑quality (and commensurately priced) stompboxes, and their latest models cater to bass players, with the Bass Rig Super Vintage promising the sound of an Ampeg SVT, and the Bass Rig ’64 Black Panel being based around Fender’s Showman and Bassman models.

The two are nearly identical in terms of I/O and features. Both sport a single instrument input, a DI output on XLR, and an amp out jack. The DI out incorporates an analogue speaker simulator, while the amp out is taken directly after the preamp stage, and includes some EQ options to allow it to work optimally with either a traditional bass amp or a full‑range backline setup.

Knobs labelled Output, Blend (wet/dry mix), Drive, Bass, Mid and Treble do exactly as you’d expect, with the EQ sitting before the overdrive and thus giving you a huge range of tones to play with. The Amp Out EQ section applies only to the jack output, and includes HF and LF trim pots, as well as a three‑way ‘Horn Cut’ toggle switch, which allows you to high‑pass filter the amp output at either 2 or 4 kHz (or not at all, if you’re using a traditional cabinet). Also common to both pedals is a further pair of mini‑toggles, one of which engages a ground lift while the other concerns the behaviour of the on/off footswitch. The latter’s FX and FX+Byp options decide whether the speaker sim stays active when you bypass the pedal; in FX mode the whole pedal is bypassed, while in FX+Byp, you keep the speaker simulation when you deactivate the pedal, which is handy if you want to use it as a distortion effect.

Where the Super Vintage and ’64 differ, in terms of controls, is the two toggles at the top of each. On the former, the upper‑left switch sets the EQ’s mid frequency to 220Hz, 800Hz or 3kHz, while on the ’64 it selects between Black Panel (“a controlled, scooped tone”) and Tweed (higher‑gain, more mids) circuitry. The upper‑right switch on the Super Vintage can engage either a top boost (post preamp) or a low‑cut filter (pre‑preamp), while the equivalent on the ’64 either adds a drive‑dependent top boost (whose effect reduces as you increase the amount of drive), or, in the Fat setting, “reconfigures the circuit from Showman to Bassman spec”.

Both pedals require a 9V DC 150mA power supply, of the usual centre‑negative variety. No PSU is provided.

Before long I’d forgotten about reviewing the thing and was playing for the pure joy of it.

In Use

So, how do they sound? In a word, excellent. I tried the Super Vintage first, and before long, I’d forgotten about reviewing the thing and was playing for the pure joy of it — I can honestly say I haven’t enjoyed noodling around on bass that much in a long time. I’m not an amp snob, and when I gig I often forgo an amp altogether for the sake of convenience, so I’m very used to the sound of a straight DI. The lovely warm tone I was hearing from the Super Vintage was nothing less than inspiring, and if I had one I’d think nothing of ditching my amp altogether.

The EQ controls have a wide enough range to satisfy most demands, with the mid frequency selector allowing you to scoop or fill out the sound, or notch out mechanical noises, with ease. The Drive knob behaves predictably and progresses smoothly through all of its travel, but it’s in the interaction between the EQ and Drive controls that the magic lies. The Bass and Mid controls, in particular, can have a huge effect when you’re being liberal with the dirt, with the EQ coaxing some lovely harmonics out of the ensuing Drive circuitry. There really is a world of tones available here, and all of them are lovely.

Origin Effects Bass Rig ’64 Black Panel.It was a similar story when I tried the ’64 Black Panel, except that the onset of overdrive was rather more abrupt than on the Super Vintage, so I had to be a little more careful when setting the EQ and Drive controls. That said, at higher gain settings I was able to achieve some wonderfully raucous and metallic sounds that I couldn’t on the Super Vintage, and which would happily grace any punk record.

As someone who uses roundwounds, and measures the lifespan of bass strings in years rather than weeks, my preferred tone is very much on the warmer end of the spectrum, so for me the Super Vintage was absolutely ideal. If you prefer more bite to your bass, you’d do well to check out the ’64 Black Panel. Both, though, are fabulous, and will serve you very well indeed in both live and recording scenarios.