Effects dilemma - best solution?

[Bass Culture]

I apologise in advance as this may possibly turn into yet another 'best multi-fx pedal?' thread. Anyways...I use minimal effects ordinarily, just an old Boss CE-2 and an sfx-modded Bad Monkey, both of which are used for a bit of 'colour' on one or two numbers only in our poptastic covers set. Recently I've thought about adding an Octaver too, and really can't see needing/wanting anything else beyond that. I've no use for amp sims or anything. I have approached Tom at Cog and he's given me a price for a pedal that would combine his T-65 Octaver with a Chorus, and also one that would add distortion too. To be honest I would just love to pull the trigger on that option but given the minimal use it will get I'm trying to consider more cost effective options.

I've used some multi fx pedals before - namely a Zoom B9.1ut, which I just gave up on as I found I had neither the appetite nor time to learn how to use it properly, and a Zoom B1on, which is great at home but really annoys me that it appears to have be 'doing something' to pass a signal - albeit only the tuner, which I find difficult to activate quickly due to the combined foot strokes needed on both pedals. I was thinking of a Zoom B3 as being the best of all worlds but, again, does it need to be 'doing something' to get a sound out of it?

The appeal of separates is that they are easy for a numpty like me to understand - when they're off you just hear your bass, when they're on, bass + effect: easy! For that reason I like the idea of the Cog multi-fx solution but I'm reluctant at spend that kind of money on something that's not going to get [i]that[/i] much use. I suppose I could simply stick with the Boss and Bad Monkey and add something like an EHX Micro Pog (I like the idea of octave up and down) but would the B3 offer the same functionality?

Frankly there's too many choices for an fx cretin like me to get my head round. What do you guys and gals think?

Cheers,

BC

[dannybuoy]

A B3 would be a good choice, it does require to press two pedals at once like the B1on from memory to bypass it - but I think you can also plug in an external footswitch to control bypass, and also since each stomp has its own switch, you can just turn each effect off individually.

I wouldn't recommend a multi FX like COG can build - it's a lot of cash and it's not very flexible in future if you want to switch out a pedal or insert another effect somewhere in the middle.

Separates is still the best solution for most people including me! Sounds like you have a decent chorus and overdrive, I'd just buy an octave and be done with it. Octave effects on the Zoom suck by the way, I found them to have too much latency with the effected sound coming in a short delay after your clean tone.

[Bass Culture]

Interesting, that gives me something to think about - thanks. Anyone else got a different perspective? Or the same for that matter?
Mark