Good morning everyone - I am a beginning bass player - about a year, and struggle with practicing. Are there any Bass players here that have purchased this and find it helpful? I would imagine its a great boost for timing and grooves… let me know. thanks!
Yes, it’s great. I’ve been playing bass for 6 years and just got a BB last week. It’s been a great practice tool but I had to get my head around how it’s organized. Once I figured out why songs are divided up into chunks or loops, operating the BB got a lot easier.
If you’re up for it, I recommend doing the Norbert foot switch hack so the pedal doesn’t have to sit on the floor. It’s easier to adjust during practice if you don’t have to bend to the floor to get at the knobs.
I just posted the rest of my settings in the Tips/Tricks section if you want to see what works for me.
Ok cool. I’m on the road right now but will look. What’s the hack? I plan on getting both the pedal and the switch - I’m trying to avoid complexity! 
One thing that might be of interest is the ability to adjust the controls on the pedal without having to reach all the way to the floor. Because it’s a pedal, that idea seems to run counter to the basic design but it turns out that a relatively simple hack can give you that feature.
The switch inside the pedal is a momentary switch and only uses two contacts on the switch. User Norbert figured out which contacts are used and added a jack to housing that allows the user to connect an external pedal to those contacts. In the same thread, another user figured out that Norbert’s wiring was backwards (ground vs +) and identified a better way to wire the switch. (More on this below.) Based on those two observations, I added a jack to the side of my pedal that allows me to hook up a ‘sustain’ piano pedal (or any other momentary foot switch) so I can locate both the main pedal switch and the BB 2-button foot switch on the floor while having the pedal available at my natural height.
Here’s a link to the ‘Norbert hack’ thread, which includes a video:
http://mybeatbuddy.com/forum/index.php?threads/norberts-beatbuddy-hardware-hack.2109/
So far, I use this when practicing. I put the pedal on the top of my bass cab so I can reach the pedal while seated. I put the sustain pedal on the floor along with the 2-button BB foot switch. During practice, I’m constantly adjusting the tempo or trying new beats with the songs I’m playing so it’s much better on my back having the pedal at a natural height.
If you plan on doing this and can solder, I recommend soldering the jack wires directly to the switch. It’s much simpler IMO vs buying various connector parts and trying to get them to fit. Note that in Norbert’s video, he has the red (hot) and black (ground) wires reversed. If you check the continuity, the spot where he attaches the red wire is actually ground and the spot where he attaches the black wire is the signal. Also, I put my jack on the side rather than the bottom since I’m going to have cables running to the sides already - I wanted to keep the bottom side of the pedal clear so I could rest it on something - e.g. a music stand - without having cables running underneath.
Here’s the thread where I posted my settings:
http://mybeatbuddy.com/forum/index.php?threads/posting-my-settings.5051/#post-18485
If you are a beginning bass player, leave the Beat Buddy as is. Try it, use it and after a time determine if you need to change it.
I really enjoy using my BB with bass and have kept it stock and aside from downloading stuff; have no intent to change or alter the device.
As far as it being helpful, the BB is EXTREMELY helpful. When playing along with it, it’s very natural and inspiring especially compared with a conventional drum machine or a metronome. I composed my first full length song on it (composed and recorded), if your so inclined search “electric sock puppets” on soundcloud.
I’m going to practice tomorrow night and we’re going to use the BB because the drummer can’t make practice during the week (job). There’s no way I can constantly bend down to the floor while wearing my bass guitar to fiddle with the knobs while we work out which kits/songs we’re going to use and which tempo works best. Having the extension for both the main pedal and the BB two-button footswitch is a huge help in this kind of situation.
I will put the two pedals on the floor and will rest the BB on the drummer’s throne (or maybe something a little higher) so it’s within easy reach. Once we get the kit/song/tempos nailed down, I can build sets/folders with everything preset for performance when we need it. I have the two-button footswitch set up to move through the song list when the BB’s not playing.
Bass player here. I’ve had the BB for about a year now. Whenever I practice I find a beat that goes with the song or exercise that I’m working on. It absolutely helps with timing. It’s an awesome tool and I would highly recommend it. In my practice room I run the BB into a small mixer and then through a pair of JBL LSR305 Studio monitors. Awesome sound.