Electro-Harmonix Bass Preacher

The Electro-Harmonix Bass Preacher is a compact analog compressor and sustainer designed especially for bass guitar, released by Electro-Harmonix in 2016¹. It can subtly transform the dynamic qualities of a bass or take them to the extreme, from transparently leveling out notes so they sit in a track to creating an intensely squashed sound¹. With only two knobs and a three-way switch, it is one of the simpler entries in the EHX bass line, aimed at players who want evenness and sustain without a panel of threshold and ratio controls.

What it does to your sound

A compressor evens out the difference between your loudest and quietest notes, and a sustainer lengthens how long a note holds. The Bass Preacher does both jobs in one box. Electro-Harmonix describes its range as running from transparent leveling, where notes sit evenly in a track, to an intensely squashed sound at heavy settings¹. The pedal produces a maximum gain reduction of -21 dB, with the Vol knob supplying makeup gain to bring the level back up².

Its input sensitivity ranges from -10 dBu to +2 dBu, which EHX says makes it a fit for both passive and active basses of varying output levels¹. In practice, that means a hot active bass will not overwhelm the circuit, and a quieter passive instrument still gets enough signal to compress.

The controls: Vol, Sustain and the Attack switch

The control set is deliberately small: two knobs and one toggle.

The footswitch toggles between effect on and true bypass mode, and a red status LED illuminates when the effect is engaged¹. The input jack also accepts the output of another effects pedal, so the Bass Preacher can sit anywhere in a chain¹.

There is no threshold, ratio or release control. Premier Guitar's reviewer counted the simple control set among the pedal's pros³, which is the trade-off this design makes: fewer decisions at the pedal, less fine-grained shaping of the compression curve.

How the Fast, Medium and Slow attack settings sound

The ATTACK toggle changes the timing of the onset of compression, with three selectable settings: Fast, Medium and Slow¹. Attack timing determines how much of the note's initial hit passes through before the compressor clamps down.

• Fast: the compression engages immediately and produces an intensely squashed sound²
• Medium: a compromise between the two attack envelopes²
• Slow: the compression engages more slowly, allowing more initial transients to come through²

For a fingerstyle player chasing an even, leveled tone, Fast gives the quickest grab. For a pick player who wants to hear the attack of each note before the sustain kicks in, Slow lets the transient through first. Guitar World's editors recommend the Bass Preacher for exactly that: pick players wanting to keep initial attack and help sustain⁴.

The Bass Preacher shares this three-way attack concept with its guitar-oriented sibling, the EHX Soul Preacher, which EHX describes as a compact compressor/sustainer with variable parameters, true bypass, and three selectable attacks coupled with silky, long sustains⁵. On the Soul Preacher's page, EHX characterizes the three positions as roughly a 20ms rise time on Fast (an aggressive, fast and musical hit), about 50ms on Medium (smooth and defined), and a musical 100ms rise time on Slow for a softer feel⁵. Vintage Guitar reviewed the Nano Series Soul Preacher in 2007, finding it offered excellent, professional-grade sounds and U.S.A. build quality at import prices⁶.

What reviewers said

Premier Guitar reviewed the Bass Preacher in a Quick Hit, calling it a compact box and listing its simple control set among the pros³. The review was run through a Fender Precision into a Gallien-Krueger 800RB head and TC Electronic RS410 cab, recorded with a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 into an iMac running Garageband³.

At launch, Premier Guitar's news coverage noted the maximum -21 dB of gain reduction and the input sensitivity range fitting both passive and active basses², and Guitar World's NAMM 2016 coverage reported the pedal's $105.50 U.S.A. list price and that it was available now⁷.

Where it sits in the EHX bass line

The Bass Preacher is the compressor option among EHX's bass pedals, which span drive and fuzz units like the Bass Big Muff Pi and Deluxe Bass Big Muff Pi, filter and envelope pedals like BassBalls and the Bass Micro Synthesizer, octave tools like The Mole, and preamp/DI units like the Battalion. For a bassist building a board, it covers the dynamics job that the drive and filter pedals do not¹.

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