Bass pedals to build yourself. Hear them first.
Kastor FX designs effect pedals for bass and publishes them as build projects. You can play every pedal in your browser before you buy a single part – with your own bass, through a simulated amp, and with parts you can swap.
Same bassline, once dry, once through the Dioskur.
Press play and switch back and forth while it runs. Both versions are equally loud, so you hear the sound, not the volume.
Dioskur: gain, wet and tone at 3 o'clock, all parts as in the schematic. The pedal is the circuit model from the player, the amps are Neural Amp Modeler captures.
No more buying blind.
Play it
Plug your bass into your audio interface or use one of our recordings. The circuit runs as a model in your browser. Knobs and footswitch work like on the real pedal.
Try variations
On the workbench you swap parts – other diodes, other capacitors, a different voicing – and hear right away what changes. One click compares it with the schematic.
Understand it
Every pedal comes with its signal path stage by stage, excerpts from the schematic and articles on the basics. You can read along, but you don't have to.
Build it
If you like the sound, get the project package – a booklet with the build guide and the reasoning behind every value, the parts list and all KiCad files. You order the PCB and the parts wherever you like.
No kit, open files
Kastor FX doesn't sell hardware. Instead you get the whole circuit – schematic, PCB layout and why each part is there. Build it as it is, change it, or make your own version.
Dioskur – parallel overdrive for bass
The clean path always runs at full level. Wet adds germanium drive on top, a tilt tone sets the whole picture darker or brighter. Your bass stays a groove instrument – with growl.
in progress The prototype plays on the breadboard and the PCB is drawn. The player and the build package come next.
Three pedals for the start
This site is growing. The player, the workbench and the first project package will go online here as soon as they are ready.