New EBS Billy Sheehan Bass Distortion Pedal

Just got it yesterday! I'll bring it into our studio later this week to test it out!

 

      

I tried it out for the first time yesterday with the guys and WOW!!!! This thing delivers exactly what it promises! It is quite literally Billy in a box!

I was skeptical about a single channel unit for bass distortion, as you've all heard my ranting about losing signal integrity when you divide the output along two paths, but this does not appear to be an issue for the EBS pedal. I am guessing they managed to cook up some serious buffering, as the two tones do not appear to suffer at all, although it is a bit of a balancing act getting the clean and distorted tones blended just right.

For starters, this thing is quiet, and I mean, DEAD quiet. I expected some noise, but got next-to-none.

The built-in compressor kicks major arse. They totally nailed this one.

The clean tone gets only a slight coloration of tonal quality, but I don't think most people would notice. Al, I believe you made the same observation, and I totally get what you are saying.

And, the distortion is pure genius. This thing is completely tailor made for bass, and it is obvious from the get-go. The tone is rich with tons of grind, but also reads really clear, with no fuzz or mush. Harmonics ring out, and this thing will even feedback. One thing that immediately came to mind is that this is truly authoritative tone.

I've tried many different distortions over the years, but this EBS pedal easily blows all of them well out of the water.

Eric, try plugging your neck pick up into the clean loop and your bridge into the normal input and use the clean knob to balance low end and level to balance overdrive.
This is how I run it and I find it to be the most effect way for me at least. I'm glad you like it! You should join the Yamaha Attitude page on facebook. There is alot of talk about this pedal on it and you can see how people use theirs and even Billy Sheehan himself posts on there time to time. Some people use a EQ to boost the mids in the overdrive loop. So much stuff you can do with this pedal. I have a Micro Pog and a Digitech bass chorus in my overdrive loop.