Ian Allison

Ian Martin Allison is a session bassist, content creator and educator, and a member of the crew at Scott's Bass Lessons¹². His session and recording credits include work for Eric Hutchinson, JS Ondara, Haley and Jeremy Messersmith¹. He is also a pedal designer in his own right: he co-designed the MXR Bass Synth²³ and collaborated with Walrus Audio on the Mantle analog bass preamp/DI⁴.

His bass sound is built around one constant: an Origin Effects Cali76 compressor that never leaves his chain. As he puts it on Origin Effects' artist page:

The Cali76, always on

The Cali76 is the first thing Allison plugs into, always¹. Origin Effects' Cali76 pedals are recreations of the Urei 1176 studio compressor in pedal form, following the same analog circuit topology adapted to work in a stompbox⁶⁷. Origin Effects describes the result as "studio quality compression in a pedal"⁸, and the pedal's job in a chain is to deliver a consistent level to the pedals further downstream, keeping dynamic edge-of-breakup tones prominent in the mix⁹.

Allison's own unit is a large-format Cali76-TX-LP, serial number 16, which he calls a bit of a unicorn and his favorite Origin pedal¹. He says it has been on every live gig and record he has made for the past four years or so¹. When he cannot bring the big box, he travels with the Cali76 Compact Bass, which he digs a lot¹, and he has also picked up the Cali76 Stacked Edition, which he calls his favorite Origin compressor offering apart from the TX-LP¹.

The Cali76 line has history behind it. The large-format Cali76 is the pedal that put Origin Effects on the map back in 2012¹⁰, and the company offers three Cali76 Compact pedals, each with a unique combination of controls but the same quality of tone¹¹.

Ian Allison's Cali76 settings

Allison's approach on the TX-LP is an aggressive compressor setting with a clean blend matched to it. His recipe, in his own words:

The equal-level clean blend is the heart of his compressed, clean-blended bass sound: the compressor tightens the dynamics while the blended clean path keeps the untouched character of the bass in the overall signal¹.

The rest of the chain: 3Leaf and the HX Stomp

After the Cali76, Allison's bass signal feeds a few 3Leaf pedals: their Octave, and the Doom2, which he describes as "like a synthy low gain octavia fuzz"¹. From there the chain runs into a Line 6 HX Stomp, which he uses for drives, other synth sounds, filters, modulation and reverb¹.

The HX Stomp itself is an amp modeler and multi-effects pedal, a downsized version of Line 6's flagship Helix processor using the same HX modeling technology¹². It delivers the sound of Helix amps, cabs and effects in an ultra-compact pedal¹³, and it carries a 1/4" expression pedal input that also accepts aux switches for additional footswitches; with a split Y cable up to two expression pedals can be connected¹⁴. MusicRadar's review found it useful both standalone and as part of an existing pedalboard¹⁵, which is exactly how Allison uses it: as the multi-effects end of an otherwise individual-pedal chain.

His signal chain, in order:

1. Origin Effects Cali76, always first¹
2. 3Leaf Octave¹
3. 3Leaf Doom2, a synthy low gain octavia fuzz¹
4. Line 6 HX Stomp, for drives, synth sounds, filters, modulation and reverb¹

For recording at home, he keeps it simple: "I just use a simple UA Arrow and I LOVE it"¹.

Co-designing pedals: MXR Bass Synth and the Walrus Mantle

Allison's involvement with gear goes beyond playing it. The MXR MB301 Bass Synth was developed with him, a session bassist, content creator and educator, and is designed to circumvent the flaws he found in existing bass guitar-oriented synthesizer pedals². MXR's collaboration with him covers bassline sounds, modulation, an envelope filter/auto wah, sequencer-style functions and a 6-string guitar tracking mode³. He designed the pedal's presets and appears in the demo video, where he says it would be a hard-working item on any wedding band bassist's pedalboard¹⁶.

He is blunt about how it compares with the alternatives. Of the pedal's tracking and response he says:

On the development process, he says the team worked tirelessly to tweak every parameter, and:

He makes a similar claim for it against individual pedals or multi-FX blocks, saying it gets closer to legit synth sounds, and in some cases is totally indistinguishable from an incredible keys rig¹⁸.

His second collaboration is the Walrus Audio Mantle, an analog bass preamp/DI. Guitar World describes the pairing as Walrus Audio teaming up with Allison, who most recently caused panic-buying with the MXR Bass Synth, to deliver the flavor of elusive tonal radiators in a preamp pedal, courtesy of transformers, stepped preset EQ and what the maker calls musical gain⁴. Allison, who describes himself as an absolute DI fanatic owning probably 50+ DIs and preamps¹⁹, says he needed the product to exist and is thrilled that it now does, calling it absolutely killer²⁰. Bass Magazine carries the same endorsement at the pedal's announcement²¹.

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