Providence Brick Drive BD-1 Bass preamp overdrive pedal
Incorporates the Vitalizer B impedance circuit and a DI!
Providence Brick Drive BD1bass preamp and overdrive pedal · Source: http://www.providence-america.com
Providence are based in LA and make a range of guitars, basses and also pedals. The new BD-1 Brick Drive is about to be released and includes their Vitalizer B and Dual Bass Station circuits incorporated into this new preamp.
The BD-1 features a bass preamp, the Vitalizer B circuit and the Dual Bass Station EQ section plus a DI box, all in one brick-coloured pedal. The pedal has a lot of controls on the front panel: Main Level, Drive Level, Mix and Drive on the top row, followed by the EQ section Bass, Mid, Treble and Presence.
Then there is a Bypass/Mute toggle switch. When set to bypass it sends the signal directly to the outputs without going through the Vitalizer circuit. There is a mini-pot controlling Mid Frequencies . The two foot switches are used to engage the effect and to toggle between the clean and drive settings.
Impedance
The Vitalizer B circuit itself is used to switch a passive high impedance signal to an active low impedance one. The Brick Drive also has an internal 21V circuit which Providence claim will give a better dynamic range as well.
The Mix control is used to blend between the clean and drive circuits and allows you to dial in your desired tone. They suggest trying a little drive added to a clean signal to give it more depth. Conversely, adding some clean to drive should add more definition. You will probably want to experiment with this one and find some settings that work for you.
The EQ section looks fairly standard and has controls for all the usual suspects: Bass, Mid, Treble plus a Presence control to add some more harmonic content. The circuit itself is based on Providence’s Dual Bass Station pedal.
Input and Outputs are on quarter-inch jack plug with an extra Thru output which you could use with a tuner, for example. The XLR output provides the DI signal.
Live and Recording
The BD-1 incorporates a DI box and this features a ground lift switch to avoid ground loops. Because of the Vitalizer B circuit, I would suggest you switch to low impedance mode i.e Vitalizer B circuit turned on. You should be able to avoid a lot of external noise because a low impedance active signal is far better at noise rejection than a passive one. So in theory, this pedal could be very flexible for players that work in noisier environments with maybe not the greatest wiring, like pubs for example!
It’s an interesting looking pedal and one that appears to cram a lot into one box. I have yet to hear any audio demos and Providence are currently stating on their Facebook page that it will be available soon, but no official release date has been announced as yet.
RRP USD $259.00 coming soon
BD-1 Brick Drive: Providence site
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