The endless scroll...
Life's a journey – an odyssey, if you will. Sometimes you're battling a cyclops, other times you're sailing the Mediterranean for the indeterminate future. One constant, however, is the ever-evolving bass rig. True, so often the answer lays in the simplicity of good gear and "the fingers," but how commonly does that put the search to bed? How often does the anxiety towards action, change, and the promise of more just over that horizon drive the humble bass rig to be taken apart and put back together with a constant conga of new gear additions?
This is something the folks over at EarthQuaker Devices are all too familiar with. Masters of the bass guitar realm that they are, EQD delivers today an effect to hopefully inspire some winding down on the eternal quest that is bass rig building. Maybe not all – but certainly some – and for all the right reasons.
This is the EarthQuaker Devices Scrolls Bass Odyssey Bass Preamp.
2026: A Bass Odyssey
Introducing the EarthQuaker Devices Scrolls Bass Odyssey Preamp
EarthQuaker Devices has been off to the races in 2026. About halfway through the year and we've already been treated to two knockouts from EQD. Both reinventing some standby effect pedal tropes in interesting, expressive, and useful ways, the EarthQuaker Devices ZEQD-Pre and Towers already turned their share of conventions on their heads for a different look at foundational effects. These two releases – a vacuum tube-fitted preamp and a dynamically-filtered reverb – funnily enough hint at some of the design outlooks we're dealing with today. Comprehensive yet intuitive, the EQD Scrolls Bass Odyssey covers some bases that can go underexamined – because, well, they're so simple, right?
The EarthQuaker Devices Scrolls is a bass-forward preamp and overdrive pedal designed in collaboration with Kentaro Nakao. Famed bassist of Japanese bands Number Girl and Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her, Nakao has been around the world and back with his bass. His expertise manifests with the Scrolls as he and EarthQuaker Devices set out to make a pedal that translates any rig to any scenario. The Scrolls is a dual-headed overdrive and EQ pedal designed for bass. Providing the two things that every bassist needs – EQ frequency control and at least some drive – the Scrolls carries out its mission of bringing good bass to any venue – stage, studio, practice, wherever.
With a blissfully simple setup and plenty of routes to take for a tonal trek, the Scrolls Bass Odyssey sets out. The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, after all!
Control Your Scroll
EarthQuaker Devices Scrolls Bass Odyssey Preamp Design and Controls
Across the Scrolls' classically "EQD" casing, we're met with its two-headed plan of attack. On one side, the Scrolls features a deep, bass-forward overdrive. On the other, a robust EQ. These effect sections are independently engaged through their own dedicated footswitches, where they can just as easily be dropped on a board for a show as they can be finagled and taped down for use in the studio. Let's talk about these two narrative paths.
EarthQuaker Devices Scrolls Bass Odyssey Overdrive
To the rightmost side of the Scrolls, we have its Drive section. An amp-style, tube-friendly overdrive that works just as well going into an amp sim or a DAW, Drive is effortless at every level.
- Level – The overall volume of the overdrive. Right for more, left for less. Drive – The amount of gain in the overdrive. Right for more, left for less.
- Tone – The treble frequency in the overdrive. Right for more, left for less.
- Bandwidth – The EQ presence of the overdrive's clip. A little more complex than a "right-or-left" scale, Bandwidth allows for highlighting of specific clipped frequencies in your overdrive's signal. Crank Drive a touch and roll through Bandwidth to place extra emphasis on its clipped character in lower or higher-end frequencies.
- Blend – The amount of wet overdriven signal. Hinting at the precision and neatness the Scrolls has to offer, a dedicated overdrive clean blend control works to introduce affected wet signal offering opportunities at more legible balances of effect.
EarthQuaker Devices Scrolls Bass Odyssey EQ
To its left side, the Scrolls features its EQ section.
- Level – The pedal's output volume control when its EQ side is active. At noon, the Level acts at unity gain. From there, it's clockwise for a boost, counterclockwise for a cut.
- Three-Band EQ – A treble, bass, and mids EQ section. At every level, the Scrolls' EQ section offers deep yet headache-less EQ control that becomes tangible and useful quickly.
- Vari-Freq – A variable EQ frequency selector. Highlight a frequency throughout the pedal's EQ sweep and boost or cut it.
- Vari – The boost or cut of said variable frequency.
- Deep, Process, and Bright – Three two-way EQ push-button switches to easily swap into more prominent lanes of bass boost, mid cut, or treble boost, respectively.
Scrolling in the Deep
EarthQuaker Devices Scrolls Bass Odyssey Preamp Tones and Playability
As we alluded to, the Scrolls is designed with two pretty essential elements to any bass rig: EQ and gain. With these two ingredients, we can get along to quite a few places all under the Scrolls' two footswitches.
The Scrolls excels in forging fiery bass tones with plenty of room for shaping and nuance. Its Drive section summons the kind of authentic, amp-like warmth rising all the way up to a controlled burn. This kind of tube-style thickness and warmth introduces charming, driven character to breathe life into any riff. Run the Scrolls into your favorite tube head and get the kind of amplified oomph you need to cut through in a live mix or sit it in front of your DAW and get a similar level of tube-like authenticity. Drive's sweep is incredible vast and versatile as you work, particularly, its Drive, Bandwidth, and Blend controls to stoke a driven flame and shape it to best suit your situation. Through the pedal's streamlined, intuitive control scheme, Scrolls dishes out amp-like warmth and touch sensitivity as well as it does heated, crunchy burnout for making yourself heard onstage.
Supersized DriveMoving into the EQ section, quite a bit of the tone-shaping and versatility of Scrolls comes to light. Even if you aren't big into finagling with every small facet of your EQ shape, you can instead view the Scrolls' EQ section as an expansion of its Drive section, where the driven and distorted tones possible expand exponentially with each turn of an EQ dial. Use the Scrolls' EQ dials to make your drives friendly, respectable, and amp-like, or heated, cantankerous, and deep-fried.
The Scrolls' EQ section, expectedly, does a lot for recording purposes. Plant the Scrolls right before the ¼" input on your interface and the pedal becomes a quite effective one-and-done desktop device that gets you along to getting your ideas down without any hang-ups. Smooth out unfriendly frequencies, spike them if you're looking to cause a stir, or just manicure your EQ here and there just to keep it under control when inspiration strikes and the Reaper project file beckons. Totally, the control the Scrolls allows makes it a dream onstage or in the studio – whether you need that exciting, live sound immediacy or that in-depth studio calculation.
Scrolls Oblivion
EarthQuaker Devices Scrolls Bass Odyssey Preamp Further Functions
Like many other EarthQuaker Devices pedals, the Scrolls doesn't just give you a great tone and leave it there. EQD works more of its magic with the Scrolls with a number of features and connections to build it out even further for more in-depth uses that your average bassist is more than likely to fall head over heels for. Let's talk about a few of those.
- Parallel Out – For both live performance and recording purposes, the Scrolls features a ¼" buffered parallel line out. Always active, this output allows for simultaneous routing of clean signal out to other destinations like separate amps, separate pedal chains, tuner pedals, whatever suits your fancy.
- XLR Direct Out – What's more, a dedicated XLR direct output compounds on this stage-and-studio-readiness with a subtle onboard filter made to simulate a bass speaker. Just enough to add elements of cleanliness and authenticity without making your XLR signal sound naked or over-processed, this XLR provides great backups for mixing board, PA, or monitor purposes.
- Effects Loop – Closing out this built-in modernity, an onboard effects loop send and return allows for closer and cleaner introduction of time-based effects like modulation and delay into the Scrolls' signal flow before the EQ section but after the drive section. This added function compounds on the Scroll's amp-like authenticity for an unencumbered tonal experience up-close-and-personal, when the opportunity arises.
EarthQuaker Devices Scrolls Bass Odyssey Preamp Final Thoughts
Never ones to forget about the bassists, EarthQuaker Devices pen yet another love letter to the universal bass experience. The Scrolls simultaneously covers your bass basics while expanding on such foundations in a way that is expressive, exciting, and endlessly useful. Every bass needs something to tango with its EQ and give it a kick in the pants. With the Scrolls, EarthQuaker Devices meets bassists where they'll always be, in one way or another, with the kind of instantly inspiring tone and intuitive control they've become so revered for. The Scrolls might look imposing from a distance, but rest assured, it's a walk in the park every time.
There is something to Scrolls having a subhead, "Bass Odyssey." We must ask, is this odyssey one more tangible, or metaphorical? Does it refer to an endless cycle of tone-chasing? Maybe the grander journey of a musical life? Perhaps that no bassist's work is truly ever done? Was the scroll blank the whole time? Were the real scrolls the friends we made along the way?
With EQD's Scrolls, has your bass journey ended? In a way, it's just begun.
