FX...really need them?

[Blademan_98]

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1329663029' post='1545471']
Good job you never said "Big Muff"
[/quote]

Coffe, keyboard, screen, nuff said

[Paul S]

One of my bands had a girl drummer for a while, bit of a ladette, and all this stuff was obligatory when setting up. She'd start by asking if I'd got my Big Muff out, I'd ask her the same, then always told her I preferred a Big Muff to a Fuzz Face and it went downhill from there usually. She was my wife's line manager at work, so just idle chat.

Edited February 19, 2012 by Paul S

[Prime_BASS]

I'm building an effective board as we speak. for an experimental thing I'm doing but still want a traditional bass sound so I won't need lots of signal distroyers.

In my band I have a compressor and thats it. I don't think I'd want to gig without it TBH as it helps keep an even level in sound. I dig a lot, more than most bass players think necerssary, and as such I get fatigued and the com,pressor helps even out when I hit a string too soft or too hard. It's just essential.

[thodrik]

Percentage of my effects that I need?:

About 10%. I have about 6-7 variations of preamp/overdrive/distortion pedals (Boss ODB3/Aguilar Agro/EBS MetalDrive/Sansamp Bass Driver/EBS Valvedrive/EHX English Muff'n/I have an old Bass Pod somwhere). I will generally only use two at a time, three if I'm feeling fruity.

I have a Boss Noise Suppressor, Bass Chorus and Aguilar octave pedal too, these rarely get used these days (I sometimes walk 40 mins to and from rehearsal so can't be bothered with the extra weight).

I like the ability to mix and match what I have, but I could probably live without them. If I had a nice two channel Valve Amp or something like the EBS Fafner II or Mesa Big Block 750, I could probably happily run without any effects whatsoever, since most of my effects are essentially trying to achieve the sound or a driven tube amp.

[LukeFRC]

I thought I wanted effects, had some, sold some, bought a bass floor pod, found I only used 2 things on it, so built them in a home made way, a SVT clone, and a chorus, I also stuck in a BMP in there too. Hardly use it to be honest, but this sat had to play paradise at a wedding so the BMP came in handy

[leftyhook]

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1329683382' post='1545944']
I thought I wanted effects, had some, sold some, bought a bass floor pod, found I only used 2 things on it, so built them in a home made way, a SVT clone, and a chorus, I also stuck in a BMP in there too. Hardly use it to be honest, but this sat had to play paradise at a wedding so the BMP came in handy
[/quote]

BMP? wassat? duh!

paradise as in coldplay? double duh!

[LukeFRC]

[quote name='leftyhook' timestamp='1329900873' post='1549179']
BMP? wassat? duh!

paradise as in coldplay? double duh!
[/quote]

Big Muff Pi,
and yes

[thisnameistaken]

I don't really think of my pedals in terms of 'need' and 'don't need'. I mean, if I didn't need some of them I wouldn't have them.

My board is sort-of an instrument. I've got an OC-2 and an Octavius Squeezer which provide the basic sounds I need, then an M9 and a Bugcrusher which decorate those sounds (ring mod, phaser, pitch shift, delay, reverb, chorus, etc.). If you took one piece out it would take away a ton of sounds.

It's like asking if you really need two pickups on a bass, or EQ. Sure you can get by with just a P pup wired straight to your output jack but there's nothing wrong with having more options.

[shizznit]

My staple diet of FX pedals are an octaver, envelope filter and fuzz. Anything else is just for giggles!

[Low End Bee]

Short set tomorrow. None of the songs uses FX. Just the TU2 in the bag. Feels good.

[Mog]

I couldnt live without my wah and M-80. TBH almost everything else on the board that wasnt used regularly was taken off.
Still have 10 pedals on there.........................

[leftyhook]

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1329903125' post='1549211']
Big Muff Pi,
and yes
[/quote]How embarrassing.
I own a Big Muff Pi !!
Not gigged it yet. I would imagine a decent synth sound with my OC-3 and chorus.

[Doddy]

Effects that I think are essential? None.
Effects that I think are useful? Lots.

I can happily and easily gig with no effects at all and regularly do. Even when I take my board to
a gig I may never step on a thing.
Like I've said many times before,I like having effects as options.I'd hate to be asked to use something
specific,or hear a sound in my head,and not be able to get it.

[sk8]

1) 100%
2) Yes but it wouldn't sound right

[uncle psychosis]

Aside from not being a massive fan of effects on bass---I love being able to turn up to do a gig with nothing more than my bass on my back and a DI box in the gig back pocket. Makes life very easy

[51m0n]

I like a touch of compression (no really I do, you'd never know though), on all the time.

Other than that the rest is purely so I can make stupid noises innit

[soldersqueeze]

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1329918825' post='1549686']

Other than that the rest is purely so I can make stupid noises innit
[/quote]

+1

I have a shedload of pedals, but never take more than 3 or 4 to a bass gig (EQ, Octave, Overdrive and that's about it, though sometimes it's fun to add pedals to freak out the other bands- I used to have two big muffs on my board and never used them, but other bassists would boggle at the sight of it ). That's the problem with a pedal board- it just seems to grow and grow, like it's becoming self-aware.....

[fonzoooroo]

I run a rack mount compressor ALL the time - 1 side compressing, the other limiting. My preamp's a POD XT, which gives me "whole song" effects, and different sounds for different basses.

My pedal board rarely leaves the house... but when it does I've got Roland MIDI in there, which is lovely for "filling out" when the synth player does piano-y stuff for example, with swooshy stuff...

I'd love to need to use the 'board more... It's just that folk rock and blues/pub covers don't need it!

[thumperbob 2002]

I find if I just go straight into my amp it sounds rather ordinary so I always use my Pod XT Live with compression and O/D ( which is the Sansamp Effect )

Still sounds unaffected but it gives me my tone- Dont think the audience would know though. But maybe if I turned it off. Use Octaver on a couple of songs now I have gone back to a four string for that low Eb.





[b][i]Addition from Patherairsoft (apologies for hijacking your post - I wanted to add to this topic without bumping it to the top...)[/i]

[i]As this topic has been covered over and over recently, here is the sticky discussion thread: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/177691-the-old-do-i-really-need-effects-or-whats-the-point-in-effects-argument/"]http://basschat.co.u...fects-argument/[/url][/i]

[i]Please continue discussion there rather than here...[/i][/b]