What Percentage Of BC'ers Use Effects?

[PTB]

I got rid of all my talent boosters some years ago, took up the double bass and went on my merry way.

A few weeks back, I watched the Classic Album show about Peter Gabriel's So. During a chat with Tony Levin, he played the Sledgehammer line on his Cutlass & said there was an octave pedal on it. It sounded so good! Guess what I've just bought?

[paul_5]

O/D, Fuzz, chorus, octave, filter and synth bass pedal.

I voted 'yes'.

[Conan]

I've just bought a graphic equaliser pedal.... does that count as an "effect"?

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='Dr.Dave' timestamp='1357728351' post='1927222']
May well be true but not in my case. I want a sound that pleases me (no idea if it's good bad or indifferent , that's all just opinion) and id easy to acheive. I might roll a bit of bass off if the room's big and boomy but other than that the knobs don't get moved for months at a time. It really is how I choose an amp. If I have to swing on the knobs I don't buy it. I love to play - I hate fiddling with gear. It's just gear. Maybe you can get attached to an instrument that you have such a tactile relationship with but not amps. Black boxes with knobs on. Who wants to be thinking about that when there's a job of work to be done.[/quote]

I'm the same, believe it or not. With the effects I mostly just find the sounds I want and then use them. Sometimes I'll tweak around to find something new but for the most part things get set and they stay that way.

[quote name='Dr.Dave' timestamp='1357728351' post='1927222']I expect it's the same thinking that means the fx stay at home. All this tap dancing.... pah. Just another link in a chain that makes it ever more likely something will go tits up. They suck your sound too. Never yet heard a 'true bypass' that didn't lie.
[/quote]

The trick is to have a really good line driver that is always in your signal chain. Relying solely on true bypass will mean your sound suffers from cable capacitance, but buffering it at the board means it will run to the amp with no losses. Then all your other pedals can be true-bypass so they don't interfere with anything.

FWIW I've never had a failure on my pedal board, although I do have it set up so I can completely bypass everything with a mechanical switch so if the whole board goes down one stomp and I'm going straight to the amp.

[51m0n]

Love the debate on whats an effect. IMO it all is, [i]if that is how you use it or intend it to be perceived[/i], how you play the bass can be an effect: thumb and palm muting for a section, plucking in a different place to change timbre rather than stomping on an eq pedal, striking the string with your thumb, playing with a pick on the chorus, any of it at all really, using the volume knob to sweep notes in to get a bowing effect. Are these not all really 'effects'?

Similarly overdrive, its a choice you make as to how you set up your gain staging if you are getting overdrive from a preamp, but its still effecting the timbre. So strictly speaking whatever you use to alter the basic clean tone of your signal is an effect, even eq. I appreciate a lot of people don't really get on with this idea for one reason or another, and thats ok, but for me thats how it is. I mean Tony Levin's tone on Sledgehammer is massively effected, yet its really just an octaver a compressor and fretless played with a pick, which one of those isnt an effect the way he is using it?

In my band I use clean bass mainly, but I am also guilty of using two envelope filters, a meaty distortion, a phaser, a flanger and a chorus, not all at the same time, and sometimes I turn an effect on for just a couple of notes in a two bar groove, but thats because I want those two notes to have that different timbre. And before anyone suggests the punters wont be able to tell, ask Charic about the distortion I use, by gum they can tell a couple of counties away when its on full chat even for a moment . Then again its a 3 piece funk band so I can get away with as many or as few full on effects as I like, I never do anything without the compressor on and the limiter in as well though, although the limiter is only there to catch peaks that are super extreme for protection purposes.

[dmccombe7]

Roland m/fx - use comp all time with reverb added when playing fretless.
Like the flexability of being able to fool around at home.
I tend to have a few preset bass sounds like clanking Glenn Hughes Deep Purple sound and Sabbath Heaven & Hell along with few others to give me a 1 button change but they aren't used very often TBH.

Dave

[xgsjx]

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1357766205' post='1928195']
Love the debate on whats an effect. IMO it all is, [i]if that is how you use it or intend it to be perceived[/i], how you play the bass can be an effect: thumb and palm muting for a section, plucking in a different place to change timbre rather than stomping on an eq pedal, striking the string with your thumb, playing with a pick on the chorus, any of it at all really, using the volume knob to sweep notes in to get a bowing effect. Are these not all really 'effects'?
[/quote]

The OP did say at the start this thread only refers to dedicated FX pedals.

I never used to use any fx (other than me>bass>amp>cab). Was always in rock bands.
Then when I co founded an Americana/Folk/Jazz project, I found myself using a multi fx pedal quite a lot as it was just me, a guitarist/singer & a mandolin/tin whistle/bodhran.

Now I'm starting a new Breakbeat/Acid Jazz band & the sounds I'll use range from plain ole bass right through to using all my pedals to sound like a subby synth.

It's subject to the song & style of music. I think if you're fully against effects you're possibly either old, unimaginitave, or just in a band that doesn't require any bass effects.

[KevB]

I voted no even though I have a Bass Attack pedal in line to the amp. Never considered it to be an 'effect' really. I guess we all have our own definitions.

[surfinbernard]

I hate them with a passion! Each to their own but I want the full fat signal going into the amp. Every effect I have tried has just degraded the sound. The only one I would consider is a valve preamp, not really an effect but it could be driven harder to dirty it up a bit, I still wouldn't use it at the cost of even a shred of fatness though.

[paul torch]

[quote name='surfinbernard' timestamp='1357818998' post='1928830']
I hate them with a passion! Each to their own but I want the full fat signal going into the amp. Every effect I have tried has just degraded the sound. The only one I would consider is a valve preamp, not really an effect but it could be driven harder to dirty it up a bit, I still wouldn't use it at the cost of even a shred of fatness though.
[/quote]

I felt this as well until I included a boss LS2 in the chain. It alows me to keep my original tone and just blend in as much as the effect that I need without losing any of the bottom end.

[obbm]

For years I gave gone without effects but recently decided that some of our songs needed a little something to fill them out so I've just stated using an EH Octaver, Mesa Boogie V1 Bottle Rocket and a Boss Chorus on a pedalboard, plus I've ditched the dbx compressor for the moment and added a Boss half rack graphic EQ in the amp's Effects Loop.

[Skol303]

Yep I frequently use FX: OC-2, Big Muff, Morley Wah, others... but more recently I've tended to add FX in post-production, rather than while recording. I find it gives me more control and frankly, I can get a shedload more FX for my money by buying software plug-ins rather than pedals. Although I do love pedals

[BassTractor]

[quote name='PTB' timestamp='1357754034' post='1927909']
A few weeks back, I watched the Classic Album show about Peter Gabriel's So. During a chat with Tony Levin, he played the Sledgehammer line on his Cutlass & said there was an octave pedal on it. It sounded so good! Guess what I've just bought?
[/quote]

"So" and a Cutlass.
Plus Tony's fingers of course.

[Leonard Smalls]

I use a Yamaha FX770 as a pre-amp and compressor with 5 presets in it.
The I use a Rocktron Utopia immediately after that - most used sounds are distortion, wah, phase, octave and chorus, and in the amp FX loop I have a QTron just in case it needs that little bit extra...

[Norris]

I have a Boss GT-10B that I got for a project & hung onto. I mainly use it for valve emulation with various levels of pre-amp drive and occasionally a bit of chorus.

[VTypeV4]

None at all for me..

I do use an external EQ unit but i wouldn't consider it an FX unit. I don't use any compression these days either, I find the valve amp I use offers enough natural compression for me not to bother for live work.

For recording I might add compression in the software unless I'm using a Trace amp which has dual band built in.

Many years ago I had a Zoom 506 which was fun but I never used it in a practical situation. I sold it to a friend. I also still have my Boss LMB3 compressor and an enhancer which I used to use lots but don't feel I really need any more..

[seashell]

As I may have intimated in another thread, I can't cope with more than 2 knobs on me bass, never mind dancing on pedals as well!
So no FX for me....yet.

[Mark_Bass]

in the covers band I try to limit peddle dancing, if a song has a particular bass effect (take audioslave for instance) then I try and get close with what I have. I've brought a few over the years and with my original bands limit to fuzz if I feel it works .
I never try to shoehorn effects for the sake of it

[Conan]

Slightly OT, but I recently read in another thread that it is not a good idea to put pedal FX in your amp's effects loop - and that these are designed for "line level" rack units.

I've never heard that before and just wondered what people's experience was in that area?

[Leonard Smalls]

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1357892070' post='1930004']
Slightly OT, but I recently read in another thread that it is not a good idea to put pedal FX in your amp's effects loop - and that these are designed for "line level" rack units.

I've never heard that before and just wondered what people's experience was in that area?
[/quote]

I hadn't heard that either, but spose it makes sense! My Qtron seems to work fine there, though it distorts rather easily. I'll do another fiddle and see whether the Rocktron and Qtron should be in line with the bass, and FX770 into the FX loop...

[Lozz196]

None for me. Not that I don`t like effects, just in the music I play they`re not needed. I go through phases with compressors, but have come to realise that they`re not really for me. Other than that I might add a touch of chorus on a slow song when recording, but live, nah!

[mikebass84]

I use the Zoom B9.1UT pedal and previously used a Boss ME50B. I mainly use to for a bit of chorus/Flange, reverb and a nice bit of OD or Distortion to fill out the sound during guitar solos

[Telebass]

I voted yes, but only because I switch in a Boss octave pedal for Summer of '69. Saves bothering with a 5-string or detuner. Otherwise, apart from being a dedicated wireless guy, I'm firmly in the Dr Dave camp. Also why I like Markbass amps. Nice and simple...

[Billy Apple]

The only effect I use is to sit on my hand till it goes numb. Then it feels like someone else is doing it

[stu_g]

i have used a boss cs-2 compressor for many years i felt something was lacking in my sound till i found it ive used it for about 20 yrs plus