pedalboards, are they worth it?

[GM10]

Are there many of you guys out there who don't use any pedalboard effects at all?

[Lozz196]

Yep, if I`m using my own amp - Aguilar Tonehammer 500 - it`s bass, lead, amp for me. I have an Aguilar Tonehammer DI/Preamp but that`s only for when I`m using a provided rig so I can still get my sound, as many amps don`t have drive on them.

[Cameronj279]

Most people I know don't bother with any form of pedals. If it wasn't for the fact I use some weird sounds in my band I wouldn't bother with mine.

[darren]

I never used to for years. These days I always have a bit of chorus and overdrive on as standard.

[chris_b]

I don't.

I've never owned a pedal. Am I missing something?

[GM10]

My Markbass Little Rocker gives me overdrive when needed. I've also got VLE and VPF options. Here's my board. The compulator gives an extra bit of bite in certain tracks.

[attachment=206175:Gatley Golf Club Nov 2015 013.JPG]

[JTUK]

I keep taking mine out...and then unplug it and do the gig natural.

[casapete]

Once used a chorus pedal for a couple of songs, but other than that never use 'em.
Got a graphic eq which comes in handy if I have to use someone else's amp though, saves
messing up their settings. Same as Lozz above really.
Am always a bit confused when people buy an expensive amp head and then use an expensive
pedal in front of it as well in order to get their sound - seems a bit OTT to me. I just
buy an amp I like the sound of with nothing added, in my case GK stuff.

[Leonard Smalls]

I use a pedalboard, together with a rackmount multi FX and rack compressor.
On the multiFX I have preset eqs so I can jump from clean to rock snarl to funk toppy sound to deep reggae tone accurately.
Then the pedalboard is used for wah-ed Bootsy sounds with or without distortion (3 x envelope followers!), and the large pedal multi RX is mainly used for volume swells or manual wah.
I think I just like twiddling with knobs...

[BrunoBass]

My board is very simple: just a tuner (Korg Pitchblack), overdrive (Ibanez PhatHed) which is on at a low drive setting on 90% of the time in our set, and a Big Muff Deluxe which I use on a couple of songs. It's all mounted on a Pedaltrain Metro 16 and that's all I need.

[Roger2611]

Yep! A TU tuner, a chorus pedal an octave pedal (used for that Pino sound) and a Tech 21 VT pedal......mostly it's the tuner and Tech 21 pedal that gets used

[0175westwood29]

For me mines a must, i have sounds i cant get from my amp on it own, and sounds that are song specific, so i couldnt gig with my band without it......well i could but it would sound wrong to me.

[DaBassMonsta]

I use a TU-3 Tuner, EHX Pitchfork for drop tuned songs and EXH Nano Bass Muff for the fuzzy goodness. Used to use a pedalboard but to save stage space I sit them on top of my amp.

[JapanAxe]

Used to have drive, auto-wah and phaser, but now - just a decent lead. No, you're not missing out at all!

[Paul S]

I'm in 3 bands, 2 are simple bass>amp. For the other band I use a chorus for maybe 5 tracks. Doesn't sound the same without.

[Bobthedog]

Is a pedalboard worth it? For me it is as it allows me to store all those pedals I have bought but do not use in one handy place!

Edited November 29, 2015 by Bobthedog

[Dan Dare]

Pedals? What are they?

[Lw.]

I was considering getting a pedal board - I just use a tuner & pre-amp pedal (looper at home for writing but not much use live yet) but I just leave them on top of my amp at the moment. I don't really need any more fx at the moment but if I start using me I'll move them on to board.

[AndyTravis]

In my position they're invaluable.

I'm on the middle sized diago one.

Ultra handy, and helps setup times - the only thing is, you end up buying pedals all the time...😂

3 this week. Silly.

[elephantgrey]

But without pedals, how do you guys bitcrush things?

[mingsta]

Really depends. I could quite easily go without FX as I played for years just going in to an amp with nothing else. I gig once or twice a month nowadays and it's useful to have a volume pedal, clean boost, tuner and compressor. I use octave, chorus, envelope filter and mild overdrive for a handful of songs, but I doubt anyone notices apart from me and the band. Mainly it's just a good laugh, albeit expensive, building up a pedal board, it's like lego for bassists. The smart money is on a small multi fx like the zoom b3 if you're not a heavy user, much more user friendly than some of the multifx beasts of old and good sounds if not quite up there with separates.

Edited November 30, 2015 by mingsta

[colgraff]

I use a rackmount for my main sound and pedalboard for song specific stuff. As I get older, I find myself using effects more. Not sure what that implies except that maybe I can afford better quality stuff so it sounds better, maybe?

[chriswareham]

Bass -> Compressor -> Distortion -> Chorus -> Amp

Although I do roughly half of my band's gigs without the pedals if I'm not in the mood to lug the fairly hefty pedalboard case along.

[bassist_lewis]

I play in probably 10 different bands, wedding, jazz fusion, soul, disco, ceilidh, theatre, etc etc. I could do all of those gigs without a single pedal if I had to (I use a clip on tuner to save space and for acoustic instruments) but pedals add an extra dimension to the music, like a bit of crunch when I use a pick or an octave pedal to add some beef. I only have an octave, overdrive and an envelope filter on my pedal board but IMO that's all that is necessary for bass guitar. My feeling is that the bass needs to keep the foundation solid for keys, horns, guitar, voice, etc to go wild on top, whether that be meldoically, harmonically or timbre-ally (??).

[CamdenRob]

Bass-lead-amp for me