Pigtronix Bass FAT Drive

The Pigtronix Bass FAT Drive is an analog bass overdrive pedal from Pigtronix, first shown at the Winter NAMM show in January 2013 as part of the company's first line of bass-specific pedals¹². It is built on what Pigtronix calls its CMOS clipping concept, which the company says sculpts a larger than life sound that breaks up based on your playing dynamics¹. Bass Musician Magazine described the clipping as Multi-Stage Tube Emulated Clipping³.

The circuit design is credited to Howard Davis, with sound design by David Koltai⁴. The pedal is fully analog and was listed at $189 with a $149 street price⁴⁵.

How the CMOS clipping works

Pigtronix says the FAT Drive circuit uses cascading gain stages that round and compress the signal as it begins to clip, whereas classic overdrive designs cut off the top and bottom of the waveform. The company describes the result as a very tube-like overdrive⁶. On the Bass FAT Drive, that clipping concept is paired with a bass specific low pass filter that Pigtronix says provides total transparency and a robust bottom end¹.

The controls: Volume, Gain, Tone and the More switch

The control layout is a traditional three-knob overdrive setup: Volume, Gain and Tone, plus a More switch⁴⁶.

The Tone control on the related FAT Drive serves as a low pass filter for shaping the high end and overall character of the drive; turned all the way up it disengages entirely, letting the raw tone through⁷. The pedal also carries a Hi/Lo gain mode switch, which reviewers describe as adding even more gain for deeper saturation³⁸.

What the More switch does

The More switch is a mini-toggle that, in Bass Gear Magazine's words, "actually doubles the gain of the distortion"⁵. Pigtronix describes it as providing an extra wide range of touch sensitive gain¹. Performer Mag's reviewer found it behaves differently from a boost:

Chris Devine, Performer Mag⁹

On the related FAT Drive, Premier Guitar found the More toggle adds a lot of versatility, ranging from classic, TS-style tones to full-bore distortion⁶.

Power: 9 to 18V DC, 38mA at 9V

The Bass FAT Drive accepts 9 to 18V DC and draws 38mA at 9V or 120mA at 18V⁴. It shipped with a wall-wart power supply, which Pedal of the Day listed as an 18VDC 300mA supply⁴.

History: three bass pedals at NAMM

Pigtronix showed the Bass FAT Drive at the 2013 NAMM Show in Anaheim, California, alongside the Philosopher Bass Compressor and the Bass Envelope Phaser². These were the company's first bass pedals, a trio of bass-specific releases¹¹⁰. Bass Musician Magazine characterized the set as bass-centric pedals that are simple to use, take up a small footprint and are reasonably priced⁸.

What reviewers said

Reviewers consistently praised the pedal's low end retention. Pedal of the Day's reviewer found "most importantly it retains low-end like crazy," with no point where low-end signal was lost, highs clear and lows boomy⁴. Bass Gear Magazine's reviewer found that with Gain turned down and Tone at 12 o'clock, it produced a very big Ampeg-style warm tube sound that he used to get an old Black Sabbath bass tone, and concluded the pedal has more versatility than the average distortion pedal⁵. On the related FAT Drive, Premier Guitar's reviewer found the strong low end can really beef up a wispy tone⁶.

Bass FAT Drive and guitar

The Bass FAT Drive is voiced for bass, with its low pass filter tuned for the instrument's range¹. Players looking for the same CMOS clipping circuit for guitar can look at the Pigtronix FAT Drive, the original guitar version of the design, which shares the Volume, Gain and Tone layout and the More switch⁶⁷.

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