Aguilar Agro Bass Overdrive

The Aguilar Agro is a bass overdrive pedal from Aguilar Amplification, built to deliver what the maker calls "All the aggressive bass overdrive tones you want, without the low end loss!"¹ It covers a wide spread of gain, from warm, tube-like overdrive to full-on distortion, and its four controls let you set how distorted the tone is, how loud it leaves the pedal, where the midrange sits and how much attack the top end carries¹².

The pedal is an all-analog circuit, and its design has a specific lineage: it replicates the Saturation channel of Aguilar's AG 500 bass head in stompbox form³⁴. Guitar World's reviewer Nick Wells found the overdrive effect itself "versatile and sounds great," with the low end retained when the pedal is engaged⁴.

Bass overdrive without low-end loss

Low-end loss is the classic problem with putting a guitar overdrive in front of a bass rig: the clipping circuit eats the fundamentals and the note thins out. The Agro was designed around that problem from the start. Aguilar's product page pitches it as aggressive bass overdrive "without the low end loss"¹, and No Treble's launch coverage described its range as running from warm, tube-like overdrive to full distortion³.

Guitar World's Nick Wells put that claim to the test in his review and reported that the low end is retained when the pedal is engaged, concluding that "The overdrive effect itself is versatile and sounds great."⁴ In Guitar World's earlier round-up of distortion pedals for bass, the same controls were credited with helping the bass sit where you want it in the mix⁷.

The controls

The Agro puts four knobs on top, plus an engage footswitch that illuminates a blue LED when the effect is on⁴. Saturation and output level are separate, which is what lets you push the distortion hard without changing your volume.

The Contour control is the midrange shaper, and it is the knob that makes the pedal sit well in a band context. Guitar World's bass distortion round-up found it "perfect for manipulating the mid-range to help you sit where you want to in the mix," with the Presence knob controlling the amount of attack and lots of clarity left intact⁷. Premier Guitar's launch announcement described the Presence knob as adding "the desired amount of 'attack'"⁶.

Power and connections

The signal path is simple: one 1/4" input jack and one 1/4" output jack². Power comes from a universal 9-volt power supply only, which is not included with the pedal; there is no battery option².

From the AG 500 Saturation channel

The Agro is not a generic overdrive circuit. No Treble reported at launch that "The AGRO is based on the saturation channel of Aguilar's AG 500 bass head"³, and Guitar World's review confirms the brief: "The brief, Aguilar tells us, is to replicate the Saturation channel of their AG 500 head in a pedal"⁴. For players who know Aguilar's amp work, the pedal is a way to get that amp's grind channel onto a pedalboard without hauling the head.

The Agro's circuit is based on the saturation channel of Aguilar's AG 500 bass head, with the brief, as Aguilar tells it, to replicate that Saturation channel in a pedal⁴⁷. The pedal offers separate Saturation and output level controls, with the Saturation control offering what the maker describes as a tremendous range of distortion¹⁵.

The new-look Agro

The current Agro comes in a matte black chassis with bevelled edges, a new-look Agro logo and premium machined knobs, an enclosure the review describes as creating a great first impression⁴. The pedal carries an engage switch that illuminates a blue LED, alongside the usual input, output and DC power sockets⁴. Its retail price is $334.99⁴.

The Agro sits in Aguilar's wider bass pedal line alongside the Tone Hammer preamp, the TLC compressor, the Octamizer octave pedal and the Filter Twin envelope filter, all part of the maker's all-analog pedal range⁵. For more on the category, see bass pedals and overdrive pedals.

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