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Great Clean Sounds
I'll be using this pedal for both practice and live gigs.
I really love a clean bass sound, and this pedal delivers exactly that. It offers plenty of options to shape your tone, making it easy to dial in a great bass sound in many different ways. I tested it with a passive Fender Jazz Bass (with noisy single-coil pickups) and an active five-string Lakland with humbuckers. In both cases, I found my preferred settings through different approaches.
Tone and Character
In terms of sound, this is a very "honest" pedal. It’s not the kind of gear where you just plug in and it instantly sounds perfect. You get a clean signal, similar to plugging directly into a mixing console. You have to work with it a bit to find the sweet spot. To my ears, the pedal focuses slightly on the high-mids.
It also provides a lot of volume by default. Because of this, the bypass feels more like a strong buffered signal rather than a true bypass. The pedal "wants" to be heard; it pushes the gain and amplifies everything, which can also bring out more noise. You can achieve different textures by playing with the regular Gain and the -12dB Pad. To me, the drive channels sound best with high gain and no pad. With the pad engaged, the sound feels a bit limited, whereas without it, the tone is "airier."
The Noise – Don’t Panic!
When I first tried it, I almost sent it back to Thomann. My first thought was, "My God, how can a pedal be this noisy?" I thought it was completely unusable. However, after experimenting with several power adapters and cables, I realized this pedal is extremely sensitive to the quality of the power supply.
I found that using a standard 9V battery eliminated the noise completely—even my noisiest bass sounded clean. Eventually, I bought a Boss PSA-230S adapter, which has a built-in noise filter (ferrite bead). With this, it works perfectly and is completely noise-free. Naturally, at extreme settings, there is some slight hissing, but that’s normal. I’ve read that even the official Palmer adapter can be noisy, but it works flawlessly with the Boss.
Features and Value
It’s packed with great features. For example, I use the Bass Thru output for my tuner and the FX Insert (effects loop) for my compressor. This way, they don't interfere too much with the clean signal. The parametric mid control is excellent. The Saturate knob thickens the sound nicely; it’s essentially a limiter, and I like what it does. It softens the signal slightly and adds warmth if the tone feels too harsh.
Final Verdict
A more expensive pedal would definitely sound better. However, the Palmer produces a decent sound quality, and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.
In terms of price-to-performance ratio, this pedal is excellent. I absolutely recommend it.
I really love a clean bass sound, and this pedal delivers exactly that. It offers plenty of options to shape your tone, making it easy to dial in a great bass sound in many different ways. I tested it with a passive Fender Jazz Bass (with noisy single-coil pickups) and an active five-string Lakland with humbuckers. In both cases, I found my preferred settings through different approaches.
Tone and Character
In terms of sound, this is a very "honest" pedal. It’s not the kind of gear where you just plug in and it instantly sounds perfect. You get a clean signal, similar to plugging directly into a mixing console. You have to work with it a bit to find the sweet spot. To my ears, the pedal focuses slightly on the high-mids.
It also provides a lot of volume by default. Because of this, the bypass feels more like a strong buffered signal rather than a true bypass. The pedal "wants" to be heard; it pushes the gain and amplifies everything, which can also bring out more noise. You can achieve different textures by playing with the regular Gain and the -12dB Pad. To me, the drive channels sound best with high gain and no pad. With the pad engaged, the sound feels a bit limited, whereas without it, the tone is "airier."
The Noise – Don’t Panic!
When I first tried it, I almost sent it back to Thomann. My first thought was, "My God, how can a pedal be this noisy?" I thought it was completely unusable. However, after experimenting with several power adapters and cables, I realized this pedal is extremely sensitive to the quality of the power supply.
I found that using a standard 9V battery eliminated the noise completely—even my noisiest bass sounded clean. Eventually, I bought a Boss PSA-230S adapter, which has a built-in noise filter (ferrite bead). With this, it works perfectly and is completely noise-free. Naturally, at extreme settings, there is some slight hissing, but that’s normal. I’ve read that even the official Palmer adapter can be noisy, but it works flawlessly with the Boss.
Features and Value
It’s packed with great features. For example, I use the Bass Thru output for my tuner and the FX Insert (effects loop) for my compressor. This way, they don't interfere too much with the clean signal. The parametric mid control is excellent. The Saturate knob thickens the sound nicely; it’s essentially a limiter, and I like what it does. It softens the signal slightly and adds warmth if the tone feels too harsh.
Final Verdict
A more expensive pedal would definitely sound better. However, the Palmer produces a decent sound quality, and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.
In terms of price-to-performance ratio, this pedal is excellent. I absolutely recommend it.
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