I’m a bass player who tends to stay away
from pedals. It’s just a personal preference—a sense that simpler is better, and
the signal chain should stay as clutter-free
as possible. So when the Bass 10 by DDyna
showed up on my doorstep for review, I had
to check my ego at the door and jump into
this pedal for what it is, not what I wanted it
to be. And boy, was I pleased.
DDyna is relatively new on the pedal
scene and the company is probably best
known for its Thinman overdrive. The Bass
10 is billed as a compressor, but to pigeonhole
this device as a compressor alone is like
saying a Precision Bass is strictly for rock
’n’ roll. The all-analog, true-bypass Bass
10 also has a 4-band EQ and a switchable
overdrive. So with my pedal bias set aside, I
was thrilled to find out where this one pedal
could take me.
Busy Bass Box
With its 10 knobs staring you in the face,
the Bass 10 can look a little daunting. For
a non-pedal guy, this ordinarily would be
enough to send me running, but I found
the controls very logically grouped. The top
four knobs are the EQ section (Bass, MidL,
MidH, And Treble), the three controls on the
left of the lower row (ODVol, Depth, Drive)
control the overdrive section, while the three
on the right (CVol, CRatio, Sust) control the
compression. DDyna eliminated a little more
guesswork out by using white, red, and blue
accented knobs for each function.
Wider Perspectives
To get a feel for the many flavors of the
Bass 10, I placed it variously between a ’75
Fender Jazz Bass Reissue, Warwick Streamer
4, and ’00 Music Man StingRay, and an
Eden 500 WTX with 410XLT cab, an
Ampeg B-18, and straight into Cubase with
no plug-ins or preamps.
Jumping in at the top, I started with
adjustments to the 4-band EQ. The level
controls are bandpass filters that offer up
to 18 dB of attenuation in each band with
which to experiment. It doesn’t take long to
dial in a great tone to suit a particular bass/
amp setup, and given a few minutes to tinker,
you’ll find a pretty wide range of tone to
suit your taste.
The primary job of this pedal—at least
in name—is compression. And the Bass
10 handles the task very nicely with three
simple controls: Volume, Ratio, and Sustain.
Compression means different things to bass
players and guitar players. And for bass
players, really squashing a bass tone to gain
punch can strip a low end of harmonics,
overtones, and other nuances. The Bass 10
has a very relaxed squeeze, so to speak, so
even when the ratio is cranked the pedal
maintains the tonal integrity of the relationship
between bass and amp.
I personally wouldn’t recommend setting
the Ratio knob to 10, but rolling it back to
the mid-level range, the Bass 10 produced
some pleasing results, coaxing both definition
and muscle out of various bass/amp
rigs. Under the influence of the Bass 10,
the StingRay became a virtual slap machine
by taking on a more concise popping character.
The Warwick, meanwhile, tended to
become smoother and more controlled. As a
lower-output passive instrument, the Fender
seemed to benefit most from the Sust (sustain)
knob, and the P-bass came alive with
the sustain dialed to about 6, becoming more
muscular and bossy without sacrificing any
harmonic character. It seems that with this
pedal, like life, moderation is key.
Get Dirty
The dirty side of the pedal is, well, just
that. DDyna is best known for its guitar
overdrives, and that experience pays off in
the Bass 10. The red-knobbed OD section
is, like the compression section, made up
of three simple controls—Volume, Depth,
and Drive. Some OD pedals kill bottom
end, but that is certainly not the case here.
The overdrive is warm and big, especially
when running the Fender through the
Ampeg. But you’ll want to keep the Drive
somewhere in the middle unless you’re into
particularly snarling grungy or post-punk
tones.
The Depth control is interesting. It has
two limit levels—a fixed one for high volume
levels, and a variable level for using
at lower volumes. And it opens up a lot of
possibilities, whether you are a touch player,
full-bore thumper, or need to move between
those identities in a single performance.
The distortion is affected significantly by
the compression settings. With the Drive
and Depth at 5, and the compression basically
off, the distortion takes on a subtle
grit. When the compression controls are
moved up to the halfway point to complement
the overdrive, the signal breaks into a
dirty, punchy sound that would please any
aspiring Larry Graham. With more aggressive
settings, the signal can get downright
sick, especially with the Drive on full bore.
My distortion of choice on this unit is with
the Depth and Drive and all the compression
controls around 7. This seems to deliver
the fullest, most practical tone.
The Verdict
The DDyna Bass 10 is packed with features
that can help you move and expand your
tone in a ton of different directions. The
pedal could benefit from some additional
features, like a switch so you can use the EQ
independently and an XLR output for using
the unit as a direct box. But if you’re looking
for a smooth, even compression pedal
to broaden your bass rig’s tonal palette, this
pedal packs a lot of sonic versatility into a
single box.
Buy if...
you’re looking for a simple way to
shape the tone of your bass and
expand performance dynamics.
Skip if...
you prefer your signal chain to consist
of nothing more than a cable.
Rating...
