Stellartone Bass Micro Pedal ToneStyler / Vari-Tone BMP-606

This item is a little hard to find. Stellartone stopped making a pedal format of their tone-styler roughly 7 years go. This is a 16-position bass guitar tone styler (vari-tone) with notched positions. That is more positions than the current bass models seem to have. My bass that most "enjoys" this pedal has an onboard Stellartone, so offers on this little guy are welcome. Thanks!

To my ear, the extreme roll-off settings leave a tighter low end than a traditional passive tone control rolled down all the way. The middle settings seem to leave more mid-range intact.

This device sounds very different with various pickups. It will only work first in the signal chain from a passive bass. If you own several passive basses, this is a useful tool for tonal variety.

Despite the instructions, I have used a regular length instrument cable to place this in the signal chain, with good results. A notched passive tone setting is very useful to help recall a setting you like while you are recording. I like to place this in front of an outboard preamp and record that straight to DI. Using a preamp to boost the frequencies that were cut by the Stellartone will create some interesting colors.

The housing and grippy knob are very well constructed.