The Crow Hill Company has added Icky Bass to its free Vaults collection.
Icky Bass is more than just a cool name for a bass instrument. It’s actually named after the White Stripes album “Icky Thump.”
The instrument uses recordings of a rare Fender Rhodes Piano Bass run through Jack White’s signature Knife Drop fuzz pedal.
And just a friendly reminder that, like all Vaults releases, this one is free for a limited time. These libraries don’t stay available permanently, so download it now if it sounds useful.
The Fender Rhodes Piano Bass has an interesting backstory. Harold Rhodes introduced it in 1960 as a portable keyboard designed to cover bass lines in live performance, predating the full-sized Rhodes pianos most people know, which arrived in the mid-1960s.
Despite its capabilities, it never caught on widely. Most bands preferred a traditional electric bassist, and once the larger Rhodes models matured in the 1970s, the Piano Bass lost its practical niche.
Surviving models are rare and collectible today. The most well-known use of the instrument is by Ray Manzarek of The Doors, who played bass lines on it with his left hand while simultaneously playing organ with his right.
For this library, The Crow Hill Company ran the Rhodes Bass through the Eventide Knife Drop, a collaboration between Eventide and Jack White that combines fuzz with an analog-style synth voice capable of sub-octave textures and aggressive filtered tones. It was recorded at Crow Hill HQ through a Neve 1073 DI.
As always, the Vaults interface keeps things simple. The main Knife dial blends between the clean Rhodes Bass signal and the full Knife Drop fuzz. Zero gives you the pure electric piano tone, and cranking it up brings in the raw pedal sound.
The Expression dial gives you finer control over the bass’s timbre. And finally, all of the smaller dials are effects.
There’s the Autowah, which creates a sweeping wah response based on your playing dynamics; Chorus for a thicker, wider sound; Phaser for a swirling hollow modulation; and a convolution Reverb.
If you’ve been following the Crow Hill Company’s Vaults series, you know how it works. These libraries are free for a limited period and then move to the archive. Icky Bass is a good one, so download it while it’s listed.
Download: Icky Bass (FREE)
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Last Updated on March 6, 2026 by Tomislav Zlatic.
