These pedals are perfect for my style of playing. The BASSTARD lets me easily switch from a warm, tube-like growl to a dynamic, “in-your-face” metal tone, with options to fine-tune mid-frequency, damping, and blend my original bass sound.Barend Courbois
The Bastard by Thorn Sound Labs from Nashville, USA. Beautiful, beautiful, highly flexible bass overdrive pedal, totally honoring the natural sound of your instrument while adding beautiful colors of any given kind. I'm really in love with this one.Lars Lehmann
Damping
Dialling in the Damping control steadily removes very low-end frequencies without taking away the body of your tone.
It moves you from flubby, old-school amp feel to a tighter, more modern response, and because it sits before the gain stage, it directly shapes the character of the drive.
Headroom
Modelled on the difference between high- and low-wattage amps, the Headroom control works as a broad character shift.
Turn it left for a darker, lower-gain, more compressed feel, or right for a brighter, more open tone with more gain.
Mid Frequency
Paired with the Mid control, this lets you zero in on the most critical frequency range of a guitar pedal. Each position has its own distinct voice, and here’s a rough guide to what you can cut or boost, subtly or dramatically:
300 to 400 Hz Congested to boxy, narrow room character
450 to 600 Hz Classic honk and old-radio mids
700 to 900 Hz Throaty, nasal, vocal formant territory
1 kHz to 1.2 kHz Core focus and forward presence
1.5 to 2 kHz Bite, snarl and attack, can turn aggressive quickly.
Class
Based on the subtle differences between Class A and Class AB tube operation. Class A runs hotter and distorts slightly earlier with a touch more compression, while Class AB feels a little more open and holds clean headroom slightly longer before breaking up.