EarthQuaker Devices - Scrolls Bass Odyssey

There are bass preamp/overdrive pedals, and then there's whatever Kentaro Nakao had in mind when he sat down with EarthQuaker Devices to build this thing. The Scrolls Bass Odyssey isn't trying to be a Swiss Army knife for the sake of it — it's a deeply considered, all-analog tone machine that actually understands how bass players think about their sound. Nakao is widely regarded as one of Japan's most respected bass tone architects, and his fingerprints are all over this design. The idea was simple in concept and ambitious in execution: build a single pedal capable of sculpting a bass signal into virtually any sonic profile imaginable — from the pillowy warmth of a vintage flip-top 15" cabinet to the punchy, focused snap of an active bass through a solid-state full stack. Whether you're chasing something historic or something that doesn't exist yet, Scrolls gives you the tools to get there. The right side of the pedal handles your Drive channel, and it's more nuanced than a typical bass overdrive. The Blend knob keeps your clean low-end intact no matter how hard you're pushing the gain — a critical feature that too many drive pedals ignore entirely. But the real character control here is the Bandwidth knob. Dial it counterclockwise and the clipping settles into the low end, giving you something warmer, rounder, and more vintage in character. Crank it clockwise and the clipping shifts up into the high frequencies — tighter, more focused, with a crunch that cuts through a dense mix without turning your low end into mush. The Tone control works as a low-pass filter on top of all that, so you can take the edge off when you want it, or leave it open and let the Drive breathe. The left side is where things get genuinely impressive. The EQ section is audiophile-grade — not a marketing phrase here, just an honest description of how transparent and surgical it feels. Bass, Middle, and Treble controls all sit at center detents for flat response, so you always know exactly where you are. The real secret weapon is the Vari-Freq control: a fully variable frequency band sweeping from 20 Hz all the way up to 10 kHz, paired with its own boost/cut knob. That's a tool for finding and eliminating the exact frequency that's making your tone sound muddy in a particular room, or for zeroing in on the sweet spot that makes your bass sing in a recording. Three push-button switches add quick tone-shaping options — Deep for an 80 Hz low-end thump, Bright for a 5 kHz upper-frequency shimmer, and Process for a low-mid scoop that opens up the modern, hi-fi bass sound that sits so well in contemporary production. Internally, the Drive feeds into the EQ — and between them lives an effects loop, so your modulation stays in the right place in the chain while the EQ still shapes everything at the end. There's a buffered Parallel Out for splitting a clean signal to another destination, and a balanced XLR Direct Out with analog cabinet filtering and a ground lift, making Scrolls fully capable of running ampless on stage or plugging straight into your interface at home. It's a genuinely complete signal solution. Every unit is built by hand at EarthQuaker's facility in Akron, Ohio — one at a time, by people who actually know what they're doing. It's the kind of pedal you plug in once and immediately start rearranging your entire rig around. --- **Specifications** - **Brand:** EarthQuaker Devices - **Model:** Scrolls Bass Odyssey - **SKU:** EQDSCRLV1USA - **Construction:** All-analog, hand-built, one at a time - **Bypass:** True bypass (Drive: relay switching; EQ: on/off switching) - **Drive Controls:** Level, Blend, Drive, Bandwidth, Tone - **EQ Controls:** Level, Vari, Vari-Freq (approx. 20 Hz – 10 kHz), Treble, Bass, Middle - **EQ Switches:** Deep (80 Hz boost), Process (low-mid scoop), Bright (5 kHz boost) - **Outputs:** ¼" instrument out, buffered Parallel Out, balanced XLR Direct Out with analog cabinet filtering and ground lift - **Effects Loop:** Yes — positioned between Drive and EQ sections - **Power:** 9V DC, 2.1mm negative center tip - **Current Draw:** 70 mA - **Input Impedance (Drive):** 500 kΩ - **Output Impedance (Drive):** 100 Ω - **Input Impedance (EQ):** 10 MΩ - **Output Impedance (EQ):** <1 kΩ - **Parallel Out Impedance:** 100 Ω - **Direct Out Impedance:** 100 Ω - **Boxed Dimensions:** 6.5" x 5.25" x 3.25" - **Boxed Weight:** 1.43 lbs - **Warranty:** Limited lifetime - **Origin:** Akron, Ohio, USA