GEAR REVIEW
BACKBEAT RUMBLE PACK FOR BASS | Michael Hodge
KEY FEATURES
• Wearable Bass Shaker
• Feel the Notes When Wearing In-Ears
• Rechargeable Battery
• Doubles as Practice Accessory
Backbeat is an invention created by Yerko
Sepulveda. After struggling to hear his bass in a
live setting, he had the idea to make a wearable
bass shaker that attaches to your strap.
BackBeat vibrates like a kick drum shaker,
so you can actually “feel” the bass in a real
tactile fashion.
OUT OF THE BOX:
The BackBeat comes neatly packed with a
14 Volt wall wart charger, a 3 foot 1/4” cable,
and an instruction sheet. The unit has a sleek
black metal housing roughly 6’” long, 3” wide
and about 2” thick. There are two color options
black and silver. It’s about the width of a thick
bass strap. On the face are two knobs, Thump
Intensity and Headphone Volume with a small with drums since many engineers plug you into Next up, I tried BackBeat with a pair of in-
push/push Power switch in between. On the a direct box with an amp in another room to ears tracking with drums. Again, it added a
bottom are, a charger input, 1/4” Bass In (Red) prevent bleed. The mounting clips are tight, nice thump experience, and I could “hear/
and 1/4” Bass Out (Black) Jacks and two so I had to pry it onto my thick bass strap. At feel” myself with a lower in-ear volume. I then
1/8” Mini TRS External Input and Headphone least it’s not going anywhere. After attaching took it to church and showed it to a couple of
output. On the side is a blue LED Power BackBeat to my strap, I grabbed my trusty ‘72 bass players. Our church is an arena situation
indicator, and the unit is True Bypass in case Jazz, to see what it would be like plugging into where the bass is already huge in the room.
the power does ever run out. BackBeat weighs the BackBeat input turned up all the way and It still added a welcome feeling for the bass
in at 15.7 oz and is powered by a lithium-ion playing through it. player, though not as noticeable because of
the giant PA already shaking the stage. We did
battery good for about 3 &1/2 to 5 hours with a
90-minute charge.
IN USE:
I could really “feel” the notes, and actually also notice that on a five-string bass, especially
hear them through the unit behind me. Next, the low B string you feel the vibrations more
I plugged in a pair of FOCAL Listen Pro intensely. When you move to up the G string the
headphones into the headphone jack. They vibration is not as strong since higher notes by
have a solid bottom end already, so adding the nature don’t have the same low energy.
When I play bass, it’s mostly in the studio. It Backbeat added to the experience. I could feel
can be a struggle to feel the low-end tracking the thump with a nice extension down low.
150
May 2019
Finally, back in the studio I grabbed my iPhone
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