Tone Report Weekly Issue 108 | Page 23

In my opinion, the blender is the second most important effect pedal you will ever buy as a bass player. The only reason it isn't the first is because you need a single pedal—any pedal—to make use of it. Bringing in a clean bass signal to mix with an effect opens up the bass guitar to unlimited creativity because you don't have to abandon the key role you play in the rhythm section of your band. Thanks to the brilliant boxes I'm about to overview, you can keep the low end anchored and still push the envelope. With each, I'll share my own little blender recipe you can experiment with. MBS PARALLEL UNIVERSE BLENDER I previously got a chance to demo this pedal, and you can read that review right here on Tone Report. The Parallel Universe falls into the category of a more feature-enhanced blender, with the ability to adjust the signal input and output levels. I thought it worked great in the capacity of a bypass option for expanding the possibilities of a vintage pedal you may not want to modify. TRY THIS: Run a phaser into a delay pedal in the send/return