EarthQuaker Devices recently teamed up with Japanese bassist Kentaro Nakao (Number Girl, Crypt City) for the Scrolls Bass Odyssey – a bass-specific preamp and tone-shaping pedal designed to cover ground from Motown to metal in a single, compact unit.
In a new deep dive video, EQD founder and president Jamie Stillman described the development process as an extended collaboration to find something that would work as both a satisfying result for Nakao and a solid introduction to the bass world for EarthQuaker. He noted that while the company had made bass-friendly pedals before, like Bloom and Chelsea, those were built primarily with guitar in mind — Scrolls, by contrast, was designed entirely around bass from the start.
The pedal splits into two channels. On the EQ side, players get active Bass, Middle, and Treble controls alongside a Variable Frequency control capable of cutting or boosting anywhere from 20 Hz to 10 kHz, useful for dialing out mud or adding presence. Three push-button switches offer instant tone shaping: Deep adds an 80 Hz boost, Process scoops the low-mids for a more modern voice, and Bright kicks in a 5 kHz boost for extra attack. The EQ section is designed to sit fully transparent at noon, preserving the bass’s natural tone until engaged.
The Drive channel delivers tube-amp-style overdrive, built around a rare overdrive circuit from Nakao’s own pedal collection. A Blend knob lets players mix clean and driven signal together, while a Bandwidth control determines where clipping occurs — counterclockwise for warmer, low-end-focused clipping, clockwise for a tighter, more present crunch.
Scrolls is built to function as a full signal-chain hub, with three simultaneous outputs: a buffered parallel out for sending clean signal to an amp, DI, or tuner; a standard ¼” output; and a balanced XLR out for running directly to front of house or a recording interface. That XLR output includes a touch of analog filtering meant to emulate the response of a bass speaker cabinet — a detail Stillman said was added because most XLR outs tend to sound harsher and less true to what’s actually coming out of the amp.
An effects loop sits between the Drive and EQ channels, letting players place modulation or time-based effects after the Drive stage while still retaining full use of the EQ section.
Nakao said the project grew out of his need for a fully portable rig, given how often he plays venues in Japan with unpredictable backline and difficult load-in access — stairs up or down to venues being a common obstacle. He pointed to the pedal’s Vari-Freq and Bandwidth controls in particular as the tools that let him fine-tune his tone for whatever room he’s playing.
Get the Scrolls here for $349.
