Valeton Dapper Bass Effect Strip

The Boost/Comp/Tuner switch was a bit finicky at the start, but I was able to loosen the bolt on it, move it around, blow some air through the gap to maybe dislodge some dust, find where it likes to sit, tighten it down, and it's working reliably again.

I got the Dapper Bass to get a tuner, a preamp, and a DI for the bass so I can record with it easily, but as it turns out the other effects on it are pretty useful and great.

The Boost/Comp on this has a lot of oomph in it, and even with both the boost and comp all the way down it's basically a "make my bass feel better" switch. Probably my favorite effect on the whole strip if I'm honest. I'll probably end up using this more than the premp section of the bass.

The tuner is good, not great. Not the most precise, but it works well enough and is easy to use.

Dirty Q is fun and easy to play around with, but hard to find practical uses for. It's a very sensitive envelope filter, and the fuzz effect, while also fun, makes it a bit goofy sounding.

The preamp section is Sans Amp-ish and gives a good amount of EQ control with a nice warm gain sound (like a wool sweater that's a bit itchy). With everything at noon, there does seem to be a bit of a volume drop off, but there's more than enough in both the volume knob and gain knob to make up for that. With all the tone flat, it has a noticable effect on the tone, making it a good bit darker, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The bass I got, the Harley Benton MB-4 Deluxe, is a bright bass on its own, and the premp section here helps tame it a bit for when that birghtness is not wanted as much.

The octave really makes it rumble when turned up, but I wish it were one octave down and one octave up instead of two octaves down.

The chorus only has a depth knob, but it has a great range on that one knob. It goes from nice and subtle to a big smooth wavey sound. Definitely useful, if only a bit of a one trick pony.

I bought this with the intention of using it live as a multi-effects pedal and DI box. it's very sturdy and easy to use. the sounds were a little dissapointing though.

The chorus effect is fine, nothing fancy but it's oke.
The octave effect is unusable. it doesn't sound good and there are some weird sounds due to certain octave notes randomly dissapearing and reappearing, kind of like a stutter.
The bass amp section is actually rather nice.
The equalisation isn't very effective but I'm very happy with the gain function. It sounds good specially when used just a little bit.
The enveloppe filter is cool, nothing to complain about here but I personally just don't use it.
The boost/compressor section is what I use the most often. works well, it is what it should be.
The tuner is good, accurate, easy to use. I love that it mutes the sound when you activate it. Having an option to mute your sound is in my opinion one of the most practical things in live situations.

Overall I'm a little dissapointed with some of the sounds in this pedal. I use it currently mostly as a DI box and to tune or mute my bass when I'm playing live and in church, but some of the effects are definately decent enough to use in certain situations...

So, yesterday after work I got home early enough before my gig to have a quick play with this. So far I have only tried It with my upright, but hoping to have a proper play with this and my electric bass later today. Basically, I got in and played with it for long enough to get some settings I liked and like enough to take it along last night.

A tad daunting putting my faith in this without properly trying it and deciding to test it live at a gig but oh well.

It's a great little bit of kit though and I love it. From my basic limit test here's what I thought of all the sections in turn...

The tuner - hold the comp/boost switch to kick in the tuner. For its first time it took a few seconds to wake up and realise what it was doing, but after that it was fine. I'll A/B it with my polytune clip later on, but all sounded fine. It also activates a mute whilst tuning.

Comp/boost - this was the only section I didn't use last night. Before the gig I found that the boost switch really can add some though, without altering the tone at all. The compressor needs a bit more time to play with.

Dirty Q - It's their attempt at a baseballs. With an upright it doesn't work as well (in fact with the fuzz engaged it doesn't work at all), but I imagine it'll be good with an electric bass. For upright though, I found that with the sensitivity turned up to anything beyond 11 o clock all you get is high pitched pops and clicks. Keep it at ten to eleven and you get an awesome little envelope filter/auto wah. I used it briefly for the second half of a solo but would rather practice a little more with this before using it live again. *NOTE - the Fuzz can only be used with the filter and cannot be used as an independent fuzz*

Bass Amp - Again, would need to try this on its own, preferably straight into headphones to see how good this is. Last night I had it set so that for a couple of our original songs, I could have some boosted bass and scooped mids. For the tracks I used it on, with the settings I had, it made my upright sound like my electric and it can add its own boost too. My plan with this section is to find some settings I really like, dial them in and have it as an always on.

Octave - One of my favourite bits on this so far. I've very little experience with octave pedals, so I've not really got any comparisons I can make. The first knob is your blend/volume, the second is level for one octave below and the third knob is the level for a second octave down. With a bit of tweaking you can get a sound similar to a meatbox but without destroying anyone's speakers or trousers. Where we do a cover of Gangsters paradise, I've currently got it set just right for the bass sound on the record. After hearing it my singer/guitarist described it a second "haunting"

Chorus - Simple one knob chorus. Sound great though and got a fair bit of use throughout the night. The knob seems to only control depth, so there's no way to alter speed, but that isn't really needed. It's not a fast chorus and on upright sounds great both plucked and bowed.

My plan with this is to try it with my electric next, incorporate it as an extra to my pedalboard (using the effects loop on this) and toy with running the thru output to a Headphone amp as a personal monitor.

Would I recommend it? Yes. Definitely. It's a great piece of kit, bloody sturdy for its size (during our break I left it on tuner, to come back to find a few lights on where some woman had drunkenly walked on it. No problems at all. Like I said, despite the size it's solid), very lightweight, and fits nicely in the laptop bag I use for carrying my leads, head, invoices and spare bits. The lights are cool too.