D2TS

Hello all, My pedalboard currently has 8 standalone stompboxes (6 powered with a SoundLab Pedal Power 450, 2 powered by 9v battery), a Digitech Whammy IV (not sure of the current mA draw, probably massive) powered seperately and a Boss DD20 (200mA draw) also powered separately. I want to find an easier way to power them all so I don't need batteries or other adapters if possible. I was considering a DC Brick but I didn't know whether it could power the DD20 and Whammy, and it only has seven 9v outputs, plus it's expensive. Has anyone ever used the Visual Sound 1-Spot? Apparently it can take a draw of 1700mA and could power all of my pedals at once. I don't think it has a surge protector but the 4-way plug socket I always use does have a surge protector anyway. Does anyone know whether it would work? Any other advice would be hugely appreciated. How do you power all your effects?

you could have the pedals you trigger less (that are either on or off for an entire song so only need triggering at the start) mounted on something like a particularly sturdy music stand so you could operate them with your hands, then have the ones you have to trigger mid-song on the floor beside it, so there's less pedals to hit by accident. You could then increase the surface area of those pedals with a simple modification. Some sort of spring-loaded bar running horizontally across the stomp box perhaps. Or you could have pads with a certain number or size of studs on the floor in front of each pedal, which (if you played barefoot perhaps) would help you to quickly identify which one is which. Sort of like a very basic form of foot braille. Or simply pads of different material in front of each one (carpet, wood, metal, rubber etc.) that again if you played barefoot would be a quick way of identifying each pedal.

[quote name='crag42' post='954989' date='Sep 13 2010, 04:25 PM']Hi Guy's I'm a bassist of many years but just started trying out effects pedals now.... So i have a question... I have bought an overdrive pedal and used it for 1st time last week in rehearsal... it sounded great only problem i had was..... when i kicked in the pedal the volume through my amp increased quite a lot from clean to effects...... why is that and how do you combat it?.... I must stress i know nothing about pedals and workings of them...... so if it's plainly obvious i still wouldnt have a clue...lol.... Also i just plugged in and played.... hence not really studied the instructions Any help much appreciated guys Craig[/quote] you should be able to change the volume and gain on the pedal to get the sound and level you want. I suppose an overdriven sound would typically be louder than a clean one but it's up to you.

I see a lot of different opinons about effects loops and pedal order. My amp has an effects loop that I don't use. The chain I use is: Bass > Tuner > Synth > Whammy > Distortions 1, 2 and 3 > Delay > Amp I get a fair bit of unwanted noise, particularly from the Digitech Whammy, going through the input that I don't get if I put them through the effects loop. However, I've been told to never put distortion or effects that increase volume through an effects loop (and I use some pretty loud sounds) and I want my Whammy to go before distortion as one of the pedals has a glitch effect that is controlled by the pitch going into it, so I can't just put the whammy through the effects loop. It seems to me that effects before amp = tone loss and noise and effects in loop = possible amp breakage and tone loss in distortion effects. I don't know what to do. Any ideas/comments/suggestions/debunking of "tone loss" or "that will break your amp" myths? Just what is this intangible, abstract idea of "tone" that us bassists seem so obsessed with chasing anyway? lol.

[quote name='cheddatom' post='912687' date='Aug 2 2010, 11:28 AM']So what does the Roland control other than the whammy?[/quote] Just the whammy. You can just change the settings. To be honest I don't really use it for that but I just wanted to show all my pedals together for this thread. I usually connect it to a Microkorg. That way I can play some bass notes with it when I'm playing something else.

My current setup [url="http://www.freeimagehosting.net/"][/url] [url="http://www.freeimagehosting.net/"][/url] Behinger TU300 Chromatic Tuner Boss SYB-5 Bass Synthesiser Digitech Whammy WH-4 (controlled via midi using Roland FC-200 Foot Controller) Boss ODB-3 Bass Overdrive Marshall Guv'nor Plus Mid-Fi Electronics Glitch Computer Behringer DD400 Digital Delay [url="http://www.freeimagehosting.net/"][/url] And I seem to be having some trouble uploading the night shot but it wasn't very good anyway

anyone else find that they want to reorder their pedals from one song to the next to get a particular sound?

It's just about what works for you. A lot of bassists like to find a good clean consistent tone and stick to it. You often come across the assumption that a bassist who uses effects is going to ruin every song with an overblown unnecessary bass effect. I don't really see any sound you can get out of your instrument as unnecessary. If you want to play your bass guitar shifted 2 octaves up with huge phase effect and an ebow, the bass police may tut and shake their heads but if you think it works then go for it. I like to use subtle effects to get the right tone for each tune, and I also like to use overblown unusual effects where I deem appropriate, or play with a bow or putting screws behind the strings and tapping them with a drumstick or whatever. But where a song just needs a clean steady bass tone I put as much effort into getting that just right. I suppose I don't consider myself a bassist so much as a bass guitarist, i.e. someone who plays the bass guitar (however conventionally or unconventionally) rather than someone providing the consistent low end.

DeviEver Godzilla. It's octave plus distortion but it sounds amazing

I second the behringer chromatic tuner. For most pedals I'd say splash out on something a bit more durable but I really like the behringer chromatic tuner, digital delay (much glitchier than the boss pedal it's based on, probably an unintentional side-effect of it being a cheap copy) and the midi foot controller

I appreciate when a straight forward solid bass tone is needed but I like to use different sounds. It's just about whatever sounds good. If you come up with an interesting bass sound that you want to use then I say give it a go. My setup (which needs expanding) Tuner (for tuning) Boss SYB-5 for synth bass sounds Boss ODB-3 for some distorted tones but mostly as a booster Marshall Guv'nor Plus actually a guitar fuzzbox but I like the distortion on bass with the sub-bass dial cranked up ideally a digitech whammy would go here to enable me to get the best out of the... Mid-Fi Electronics Glitch Computer for occasional bursts of glitchy nintendo sounds Digital Delay for when I use a cello bow or coin for legato timbres

I use that wobbly d&b sound on a tune. To get it from a bass guitar I use an SYB-5 bass synthesiser with a short attack LFO sound and hammer a killswitch really fast

I'd say play where the sound is best and you'll eventually get used to it. A lot of the time you might want the trebly sound of playing right against the bridge anyway. If you want a smoother bass tone you can use a compressor, although I'd recommend waiting until you're really familiar with your instrument before looking at effects.