EHX Bass Battalion or Analog Alien Bass Station?

[disgrace of bass]

Putting on one side the relative differential in pricing of these two pedals, does anyone have a view on their performance and have any of you personal experience of either (or both!)

 

I'm after a Comp/Eq/Dirt combo, and I'm struggling with choosing individual pedals, and like the idea of these 'all in one" solutions. 

 

My requirements are to fatten the sound and increase sustain with just a bit of fuzz breakup, and have control over eq. I also want to deliver out into a DOD Meatbox octave/synth, then into a chorus, before hitting the amp.

 

Amp is a Laney Nexus SLS. Basses are Cort Elrick NJS5 and  Schecter P4 Exotic (both active)

 

I have also routed a delay and reverb (with HP Filter) through the amp fx loop as well, but they only get used occasionally. 

 

I have to say I like the spec of the battalion,  particularly its ability to switch the eq post/pre/parallel to distortion, but the lure of a 'boutique' option is strong! The compressor/limiter on the Analog Alien looks more controllable (3 knobs as opposed to 1 on the Battalion)

 

I'm open to ideas and your suggested alternatives. I play finger and pick, I don't slap.

 

Cheers 

The disgrace of bass (still!)

[Baloney Balderdash]

Personally out of those two I would get the EHX Batallion.

[Osiris]

I briefly had the EHX Battalion a couple of years ago and couldn't get rid of it fast enough. As a clean preamp it's very good, the 4 band EQ is sensibly voiced and works well.

 

But that's all that was good about it. The distortion could best be described as cheap and nasty. Imagine the cheapest, fizziest distortion pedal you could buy played through the cheapest, crappiest little starter guitar combo that were common back in the 80's, and you'd be in the right ball park sound wise. It was so bad it was actually funny - until I remembered that I'd paid good money for it. It sounded decent on the couple of YouTube videos I saw prior to buying it but there were no doubt doubt judicial amounts of post-production applied to polish the immense turd that it is in the real world. 

 

The compressor cut huge amounts of high end and definition from the signal and was unusable on the clean channel, unless you wanted your bass to sound like it was being played through the neighbours TV through the wall. It helped a little when trying to tame the over the top fizzy distortion, but not enough to make either of them viable for anything other than, well, anything really. And because you can't switch the compressor on and off with your feet, or have any control over it other than on or off, it's a pointless addition to the pedal. 

 

Having been through numerous pre-amp pedals over the years this one remains the most underwhelming unit of them all by a mile. 3 out of 10 for the clean channel but otherwise avoid at all costs - unless you really must have that cheap and nasty 80's transistor guitar amp sound. 

[disgrace of bass]

One for and one against the EHX...😆

 

I'm getting the feeling I need to look elsewhere...it may be my prejudice but I've always fought shy of EHX in the past, and the above doesn't inspire me taking the leap...think I may be back to 3 separate pedals?

[Osiris]

1 minute ago, disgrace of bass said:

One for and one against the EHX...😆

 

I'm getting the feeling I need to look elsewhere...it may be my prejudice but I've always fought shy of EHX in the past, and the above doesn't inspire me taking the leap...think I may be back to 3 separate pedals?

 

Have a look at the Fender Downtown Express, that's a cracking unit. Very flexible 3 band EQ section and the drive sound is excellent, IMO. More of a full, warm vintage vibe than modern scooped clank, but all the better for it, IMO. The compressor is OK, nothing special but does the job but it's still infinitely better than the one on the Battalion!

[thisisswanbon]

Doesn't tick the all in one box... but I run a DemonFX Call76 (totally original design as I understand 😬) into a Laney Digbeth preamp.  The digbeth has a lovely switchable tube emulation and FET channel with 4 band and tilt eq systems and sounds great!  You can get this combo for well under £200.

 

I'm loving this combo (I run other pedals too and the digbeth is last in chain) and honestly can't imagine there being anything better at either pedal's price point.

[disgrace of bass]

Any opinions on the Walrus Audio Badwater? 

Fender sounds an interesting choice - I have to admit snobbery had kept me away from it but it sounds like that is misplaced prejudice on my part.

[Baloney Balderdash]

...

Edited November 21, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash
not worth it...