New MXR bass synth pedal released

[mattpbass]

35 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

 

Do you have the MXR also? An A/B of the MXR vs the v4.5 FI VIP would be very useful / helpful for many, particularly as there's only £20 in it price wise new.

I do currently, only intend to keep one, but I’ll report back when I have both to compare. For context I play actual bass synth on every gig currently, not wanting or expecting these to be as good or replace that, just a fun alternative to play around with. 

[Quatschmacher]

10 minutes ago, mattpbass said:

I do currently, only intend to keep one, but I’ll report back when I have both to compare. For context I play actual bass synth on every gig currently, not wanting or expecting these to be as good or replace that, just a fun alternative to play around with. 

The FI is an actual synth and its VA engine can be played from a keyboard. True, it doesn’t have anywhere near all its parameters accessible from the panel, but is very much a fully-featured mono synth as far as its sound-creation capabilities are concerned.

 

I pitted it against my Subsequent 37 in a blind audio test and most people could not tell which was which. 

Edited Saturday at 14:07 by Quatschmacher

[mattpbass]

4 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

The FI is an actual synth and its VA engine can be played from a keyboard. True, it doesn’t have anywhere near all its parameters accessible from the panel, but is very much a fully-featured mono synth as far as its sound-creation capabilities are concerned.

 

I pitted it against my Subsequent 37 in a blind audio test and most people could not tell which was which. 

Yeah I understand that it’s a synth, I just meant I use a physical keyboard (including a Subsequent 37 amongst others), which from a playing precision side of things is still a lot less compromised compared to a bass and pedal, including this MXR pedal, and I assume the FI4 too. 

[SumOne]

On 31/01/2026 at 10:09, AndyTheBassBison said:

The honeymoon period is over and I’m still loving this pedal although it isn’t perfect. Tracking isn’t quite good enough to do ‘ain’t nobody’ live so I’ve gone back to using my oc5 in modern/poly mode for that song. I find the octaver setting on the mxr is good but isn’t a replacement for the OC5.

That's interesting as my synth bass pedal conclusion usually is:

 

Honeymoon period = 'most fun effect pedal ever, hours of tweaking, this'll sound amazing live'.

 

Then after a few weeks 'the sounds are actually a bit cheesy, I spend too long tweaking it instead of playing, not sure I can trust it live and it feels a bit disconnected/tracking can be an issue'

 

After a couple of months 'Sell it as I'm better off with envelope filters, octavers, overdrive, modulation etc. that feel immediate and reliable and like Bass guitar effects instead of a cheesy outdated synth'.

 

I think this MXR and the latest Future Impact version might change my thinking though.

[Linus27]

I've had my MXR synth pedal for about a month now and I finally got the time to try it out last week 😆 It's a great pedal and so much fun. I really wanted it for the Michael Jackson presst which is great but I adore the Hdrbie Hancock and Stevie Wonder presets more. The Sledgehammer preset is also really useful.

 

However, despite it being an awesome pedal, I don't really have much use for it. I play fretless and I'm too much of a traditionalist with my chorus, octave and bit of reverb. So mine will be up for sale soon. Brilliant pedal though and very clever.

[Al Krow]

3 hours ago, Linus27 said:

I've had my MXR synth pedal for about a month now and I finally got the time to try it out last week 😆 It's a great pedal and so much fun. I really wanted it for the Michael Jackson presst which is great but I adore the Hdrbie Hancock and Stevie Wonder presets more. The Sledgehammer preset is also really useful.

 

However, despite it being an awesome pedal, I don't really have much use for it. I play fretless and I'm too much of a traditionalist with my chorus, octave and bit of reverb. So mine will be up for sale soon. Brilliant pedal though and very clever.

 

Gotta 'fess, the juxtaposition of your post right below @SumOne's did make me smile. He needs to be awarded the BCP^* accolade!

 

You shouldn't have any trouble shifting your MXR if recent sales have been anything to go by!

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Al Krow
^* Bass Chat Prophet, in case you were wondering!