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The 7 Best Bass Synth Pedals for Live & Studio Sound [2023 Guide]

Max McAllister
The 7 Best Bass Synth Pedals for Live & Studio Sound [2023 Guide]

A synth pedal for bass (or guitar) is one of the best and most colorful effects you can add to your board. Built to emulate the sound of synthesizer, a synth pedal lets you use a fretted instrument as the input signal — instead of, traditionally, a keyboard. It’s an awesome way for musicians looking to experiment with unique sounds and production elements who may not be keyboard proficient.

What Is a Bass Synth Pedal?

Synth pedals are, again, one of the most outlandish (in a good way!) effects money can buy. Unlike more common and recognizable sounds, like chorus or flanger, you could record a “synth” line on your bass or electric guitar and the average listener would probably never know it wasn’t a “real” synthesizer. That isn’t to say the character of the bass/guitar won’t still be there; it retains the fundamental characteristics of the input source, but mangles it up quite a bit.

A synth pedal converts the input signal from your instrument into a manipulable waveform. Usually you’d place a synth pedal as close to the beginning of your chain as possible. That way it receives the cleanest signal from your instrument. You can then tweak the synthesized sound using the pedal’s parameters, which include oscillators, filters, wet/dry blend, envelope shaping, and more.

What Does Bass Synth Sound Like?

Synth bass is really quite versatile, and if you’ve listened to any form of electronic music, or even more classic tunes from the ’70s and ’80s, you can recognize it. Some adjectives to describe it are rich, fat, punchy, gritty, round…and the list goes on.

Again, though, that’s assuming you’d use a bass guitar to play a synth bass line. Depending on the pedal and its settings, you could achieve lush soundscapes with ambience and sustain, lead synth sounds, and a whole lot more…in which case you’re approaching regular old synthesizer territory. Your keyboard player will love you!

The 7 Best Bass Synth Pedals for Live & Studio Sound [2023 Guide]

1. Electro-Harmonix Synth 9

The EHX Synth 9 derives its name from the nine iconic synth sounds from the ’70s-’80s that it emulates. This easy-to-use pedal lets you dial in synthesizer sounds quick, tracking up to the 23rd fret, high E string on guitar, and down to the open A on bass. Latency-free tracking means flawless transferal from fingers, to pedal, to wild synthesized output.

2. BOSS Bass Synthesizer (SY-1)

The BOSS SY-1 is an industry-standard polyphonic synth pedal for guitar and bass. Part of what makes it so great is the ability to choose between 121 sounds seamlessly, without any prior knowledge of synthesis. You just start by setting one of its 11 core sounds, and then cycle through 11 variations. This pedal can achieve analog synth sounds, basses, leads, organs, and pads.

3. Source Audio C4 Synth Pedal

Source Audio’s C4 harnesses the power of a modular synthesizer inside a pedal. It looks dead simple at first glance, with just four knobs and a three-way switch. You can derive a lot of tones just from that, but Source’s Neuro Editor for desktop/mobile is where it gets interesting. The software unlocks the full potential of the pedal, including extensive editing ability and a growing library of presets from the Neuro community.

4. DigiTech Dirty Robot Stereo Mini Synth Pedal

DigiTech’s Dirty Robot is a funky-cool synth pedal that you can come across affordably on the secondhand market. It offers two voices, the first replicating ’70s/’80s sounds, and the second going for more vocoder/talkbox style effects. The synth pedal lays everything out with four knobs, so again, there’s no prerequisite synth knowledge required to create something great.

5. Keeley Synth-1 Reverse Attack Fuzz Wave Generator

The Synth-1 combines synthesis, fuzz, and reverse-style effects in one pedal for guitar. The monophonic synth engine can be set to square, sawtooth, or triangle waves, and tracks single notes. Tone-shaping is available via a filter knob, a wet/dry blend knob, and a Chaos switch that fires off into broken fuzz territory.

6. Electro-Harmonix Bass Micro Synth

EHX’s Bass Micro Synth pedal includes four voices: Guitar, Octave, Sub-Octave, and Square Wave. Unique to this pedal is that all of its parameters are mixable via 10 sliders, for a virtually limitless array of sounds, from vintage Moog to new ground entirely. The slider layout makes it totally approachable.

7. BOSS SY-1000 Guitar Synthesizer Pedal

If you want the ultimate in bass/guitar synthesis tech, enter the BOSS SY-1000. This feature-packed unit lets you layer up to three unique instrument sounds simultaneously. Not only that, but it comes loaded with emulated amplifiers and effects, making it a synth pedal meets multi-effects unit for extreme versatility.

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