Electro-Harmonix Bassballs Reissue

very easy to use

Not a noisy unit but really only has 1 basic sound with a distorted version to the same sound as variation. I tried this with my 72 Jazz with active EMG's into Ampeg gear.
Reminds me of Bootsys solo sound on Govt Mules Deep End vol 1 album. You really dont get much else from it.

If it died at a gig I'd probably throw it at the stage hand and tell him to file it under B.

Dunno, dont care. If it dies its in the bin.

I play Rock/classic rock/blues/funk etc etc
I've played for over 25 years, 10 for a living.
If it were stolen or lost I would probably order a beer and forget about it.
It was fun for 5 mins to jam along and have the same sound as Bootsy.
I picked it up cheap from ebay mostly out of curiosity.
I gotta say that the hype I've read about it falls a long way short for the money.

Its a bit of a novelty but seriously if you expect more than a funky novelty sound to use in a short solo out of this unit, dont bother.

My opinion is to spend more time effort and cash on your natural sound than worrying about 1 dimensional novelty sounds.

Sorry to be so negative about this. I am a fan of Mike Matthews and admire what he's done greatly, its just this unit doesn't do much for me.

Not as easy as one might think. OK it has got just one knob and one switch. But this little guy is quite a pain at first. But after you've got the hang of it it's easy.

This is my setup: Fender American Telecaster - Bass balls - Trex Mudhoney - Ibanez Fz7 Fuzz - Zvex Fuzz Factory - Marshall Mdfx 30.
To some up the sound quality is very hard, because this pedal has got no comperion. There is no other effect like it.
But it is save to say that this a very interresting little pedal. It has got 2 sepperate filters: one sort of phaser/chores like, and one sort of wah like. This is what makes it so special. You can get a huge amound of different sounds out it. Some very phiacdelic,, some very funny and some very wild. It depents how you play.
This is truly a filter it totaly reacts to the way you play, let alone what kind of pedal you put behind it.
I play blues, rock, and indusrtiel. So this is perfect for me.
But you have to get to know this thing because you can get very ugly sounds out of it. Put some time in to it. After that it's all good sweet stuff

No problems yet.

A great thing to play around with, just get one it is not that expensive. And a lot of great bands use this effect like Placebo and Radiohead just to name a few.

As simple as it gets, just one knob and a distortion on-off switch

The sound of it is amazing. It makes no noise, even if i have my ODB-3 with gain in 10 and bassballs with the distorion on and sensetivity in 10 [you should try that, it makes a funny sound] When i first got it a played some scales on the bass and it sounded exactly as the bass intro on N.I.B by black sabbath, and when a turned the distortion on it sounded exactly like the the main riff that butler plays after the bass intro....

I don't know, i just got i a few days ago, I bought the american because i heard the russian was crap....

never had to deal with the company

I whoul say it's a great effect for bass players that are looking for new sound from there basic setup. It sound great!

There's no manual, but you don't need one! One switch and one knob. It takes just a short amount of time to find a good sound, but with some more time and experimentation with other pedals, you can get much cooler sounds. It's a little annoying to adjust the sensitivity, but once you get used to it, you'll memorize its sweet spots.

I have a Fender Precision Bass and Custom Fender Stratocaster Guitar, and I use a Fender Bassman amp (75 watts). The only other effect pedal I use is a Boss Blues Driver. Don't use the "balls" effect in the fx loop, because it weakens the effect (although you may get feedback). With bass and "balls" alone, you have to turn up the mid or treble on the bass itself (in order to here the effect), and then turn the knob on the pedal a little bit under the light (7-8 o'clock) to get a pseudo-wah sound, basically a gurgly "WOW" or "WOAH" sound. The switch just adds distortion, but thins out the sound. With a guitar, there are more possibilities. Use a distortion pedal set all the way up before the effect, sensitivity all the way down but with the switch up, you get a cool kind of singing, tubey octave fuzz. With the same setting but with the "balls" distortion, it gets brown nasty and distorted clipping (way cool) but thinned out. With "balls" first, sensitivity all the way up, and the switch up, you get a nasty screaming sound, and it gets even more brown and screaming with the distortion switch. With a just the bassballs and the guitar, its just kind of a gurgly "WOW" sound, so in my opinion use this with other effects. Um...I dont really pay attention to it, but i don't think this is a "true" bypass, and when you have all this distortion and stuff before the amp, you WILL get feedback, and using the bassballs on high settings with high distortion can get piercing screams at times, so be careful while experimenting on high settings.

Works fine, but serious giggers or pedal abusers may want to check out the USA model instead.

Haven't had to deal with them.

I initially bought this for bass because autowahs were too expensive and i was too lazy to learn how to work a pedal. this isn't the same, but the "Ow" sound is good enough for me. It sounds WAY better with distortion effects instead of by itself, but it makes those other effects sound great.

Very easy to use. I've got the American reissue, just one knob and a switch. If you can play with yourself, you can play with this.

Very responsive to your playing, getting groovy vocal sounds that change depending on you attack is killer. Nice for solo's as the distortion switch gives you a few extra db's, but it is useful only for the one sound. It's not noisy at all. I'm currently running through a Fender Pro 300t, into a 4X10 David Eden XLT and a 1-15 David Eden. I use an active BBNE2 bass from yamaha.

The thing is built like a bricksh**house. I use it to hunt my food, one good knock usually kills a moose.

Never dealt with em.

I play lots of different types, but it seems to work best when taking leads, and funk songs. I've been playing for 8 years. I also own a Q-tron, Micro-synth, phaser, Morley Dual bass wah, digital delay, tremolo, a whole wackload of crap.
I'd buy the thing again if it was ripped off. I was looking for a groovy filter, and something that'd give me a little more boost when taking a solo. The thing is pyschadelic, the only thing I wish it had was a distortion blend control, but other then that it's all groovy.

easy as one, two,three.If you can play with yourself you can play with this thing.

I have run this pedal thorugh a hartke 4ooo wit a 4x10 and a spector 5 string and also through a guitar setup.I am very pleased with the results on both.Very funky pedal but like somebody mentioned before you really have to be a finger player to enjoy the full range of the pedal.With the guitar setup it added a lot of harmonics which I thought sounded really cool.The only problem is the volume boost in the distortion and my main problem is the loud ass click it makes when you turn it on/off.

I have owned it for 5 yrs now and it has never given me a problem.I have never really gigged with it but I,m sure it would hold up allright.

Never had to

Overall I'd say it's a good buy if you get it under $60.I havent tried any other envelopes except the DOD and that one sucks ass.I would replace it if it were stolen because I use it on newer stuff i've been working on and because it wouldnt be too expensive to replace.biggest problem for me is the goddamn click it makes when you turn it on....but no pedal is perfect.

One dial, one distortion switch and one on/off foot switch. Couldn?t be much easier, however see comment below about the sensitivity knob.

Pretty darn funky. Not a wah. Different. Not very versatile, but that?s OK. Does one thing, but does it well. Basically you have two options, distortion or not. I wish the distortion switch was a foot switch so you could change on the fly. I?m a pick player, but I think this effect sounds better with fingerstyle. This effect gives you a sharp, piercing attack which is nice with your fingers, but over-exaggerated with a pickup. When picking if you want to kill the harshness, you have to turn the sensitivity so low that much of the fun sounds of the effect are lost. Still usable though if you get the sensitivity set just so.
Regarding the sensitivity dial, I have one minor complaint. If you move the volume knob on your bass, you change the volume of the signal that goes into the pedal, which drastically changes the sound of the effect. In other words, you may get the sensitivity knob on the Bassballs just right, but then if you move your volume knob on your bass, your pedal settings have to be changed again. To maintain the same effect, you have to turn the sensitivity knob down when you turn your onboard volume knob up. Turn your bass? volume down, then you need to turn the sensitivity knob on the effect up. The moral of the story is that it?s tough to keep that sweet happy medium setting, especially if you?re a picker.

I wish it and every other pedal on the planet was true bypass. When will the industry learn that?s what we want?!

I wish it had a volume knob and/or a blend to mix the dry signal with the effected signal. There's a very slight volume boost when turned on too, but it's not terribly bad. Not nearly as bad as the Mini Q-tron.

I have the Russian version. So far, so good. Haven?t had it long enough give a rating. Seems a little flimsier than some of the Fulltone and EBS stuff, but time will tell.

No experiences.

Fun, funky, freaky effect. Not a drippy, squishy bell bottoms effect. More pissed off and mean sounding. I haven?t yet found a place for the Bassball's sound in any of our original songs, but I?m sure I soon will. I?ve only had the thing a couple days. It?s not something that most people will use often because it?s pretty obnoxious, but it?s boatloads of fun when you do find the right spot in a song for it.

it has got a knob on it for sensitivity, and one switch for distorsion (im talking about the russian version here)

the knob is very sensitive, and i can only get VERY! good sounds out of it by turning it, but once im on the 12;00 stand, and further, nothing changes.

i don't know if there's a manual for this, but ehm, my grandmother could even use it without so... pretty easy to use yess

when i play my fretless base, it sounds very easy..
and when i put my ibanez on it, it has a nice pop n wah, for the solo's sort like agressive, when i turn up the mids on my eq, but when i take the mid out, it sounds nice, like an normal auto-wah.

it isn't noisy at all, but when i put it off, i think somehow, im still hearing a little bit wha, so better be careful if you don;t like that!

and one more thing, when you put the distorsion on, you get a immense boost! your base has become as loud as an aeroplane.. damn...

i also like to play sir psycho sexy - from the chili peppers with this pedal.

well.. seems pretty solid to me, and its been around for about a year with no problems so... i think a 10.

??? never dealt with

i like this pedal, its cheap, has nice sounds, is easy to handle.. yeah.. that;s what im talking about... but the only thing is that i think it isnt true bypass.. and that can be a major problem.

if it was stolen i think i get another one... or save some money to get me a lot of ebs stuff, tough thats fucking expensive.

i wish it had a better bypass, but im VERY critical in that, because other basist i know cvouldn't hear it. i think that;s just me, but once turned on, it's a great pedal.

If you can open a door and turn on a light switch, than you can use this pedal.

Sound is sensitive, you must be careful how to dial in correctly in appreciation to your individual playing style, and equipment. If you know the sound of the pedal, and you like it then you buy it. If you think you can get this in place of an envelope filter, you'll be upset, it is NOT an envelope filter. All the people saying it sounds like a mutron, or lovetone meatball are complete idiots.
You need an envelope filter in order to make those sounds, and they don't come cheap, unless you're willing to settle for swill.
However it has a unique sound which, used correctly, sounds good, but the switch is a bit noisy.

I am pretty comfortable with it, as I am with electro harmonix.

I like the sound I can get out of this pedal. I first heard mike gordon from Phish using this in some jams(it doesn't come out often) It has only one function, but it's pretty funky. I'm happy with it, for what it is. At 1st I had it in the middle of my effects chain(for bass) and it lost some contour, so I moved it 1st and it sounds good there. There is definate dynamic charachteristics to it, it reacts to your playing making you half of the effect. I think it was intended for pickers, because you get a more responsive sound with a pick, rather than with fingers. I do not use a pick and haven't for 12 years but I just started to because of the sound you get from this with a pick. I am also going through some changes, looking for new sounds and ways of playing so that is also why I was more apt to trying the pick.

When I plugged it into my reg. guitar I did not like the sound during a lead, but you can get a unique sound for some rhythms. It seems to harsh for guitar and best left to bass. This unit also complements a host of other effects like flang, you will be happy with combination exploration.

This is damn simple. You turn the sensitivity knob up to get an obvious effect, turn it down for a more subtle effect.

Distortion switch goes up, down, up, down, up, down. Simple really.

You dont get a manual, just a little piece of paper telling what the distortion switch and sensitivity knobs do. As if you didnt know.

I use mine with my slightly mashed up Squier Strat and my Fender Frontman amp, wid a Zoom 505II.

Mine was a bit mashed. I got it on eBay brand new with warranty card and all, but there's a couple of proooblems. Its meant to have distortion when the switch is up, clean when its down. The problem is that its clean in the up position, and in the down position, theres a tiny bit of gain, but nowhere near enough to be called distortion.

I was expecting a synth type sound, but thats not what i got. Its a mixture of a Flanger and an Autowah really. If you hit the strings hard it sounds like a flanger going down quite slowly. If you hit higher strings, or dont hit them so hard, it sounds quite wah-ey, and you can also get a mixture of both. You really control the sounds you get by how you play basically, though overall it does have a good sound.

Looks pretty solid, spose i could use it without backup...

I play all kinds of music really, but mainly kinda emo metal and blues. It's good for someone who likes effects like me, but if i had tried it first i dont know if i would have buyed it. if it were stolen or lost, i would get another Russian made one, though i might get an NYC one.