Post your pedal board - Basschat style!!

[Wilson_51_]

Got through a new (to me) pedal today and  I have managed to squeeze it on to my board. Cog Tarkin 66! It’s replaced a big muff clone. It’s absolutely mega. 

polytune 3

Tarkin 66

wilson freaker wah

VTBass

with a cioks dc5 power. All on a nano+ pedalboard 

 

[JohnFitzgerald]

My bass pedal board is also a bass pedal board.

Home built Arduino powered midi bass pedals with space on the top for my GT1B.
The Rocket analogue synth brings the fat from the pedals.

the band lineup I'm in allows me space to noodle when I'm not holding the low end down on the bass guitar itself.

 

[burno70]

Woah! That's awesome. Love to hear that in action. Have you got any sound clips or vids?

[JohnFitzgerald]

I have a short clip of the bass pedal when it was unfinished, earlier this week.
I only had the brainwave of using it hold my GT1B after this.

We were just messing about with a couple of arrangements and I thought a low note or two would fit right in.

Use your good headphones. It produces lows that a phone speaker will completely miss.

 

[mikebass456]

On a similar 'Rush' based theme, I've just added the Geddy Lee YYZ pedal to my board.

It arrived yesterday, set it up with one of the suggested configurations from the handbook, stuck it on the board and went out gigging last night with my R**kenbacker 4003 going through it.

All i can say is i have finally found the sound I've been looking for our of my 4003 all these years!

The only other pedals in the chain are a boss chromatic tuner, digitech compressor and a boss noise limiter.

Anyone else had a life changing pedal related moment?

[JimBobTTD]

With my BBBOD, yes! Love that pedal. 

Nonetheless, interested in this YYZ pedal. How does it differ from a standard Sansamp? Can you define the sound...any YouTube videos which come close to the sound you are getting? Which era of Geddy is it most like?

[mikebass456]

I used to have the sansamp rack unit, which used to give me better clarity of top end while still keeping the bottom end full.

with regard to the YYZ  pedal, it seems to be the ability to be able to blend the drive and clean sounds, plus the 'tight' button to give more definition to the sound.  As I mentioned above, I pretty much set it to one of the recommended combinations and just plugged in and went with it for last night's gig, with superb results straight away.

there are quite a few YouTube videos out there demonstrating the pedal, which I did have a quick look at, which show the range of sounds available, compared to the straight signal in.

as with all pedals, it gives the basic platform for you to make your own sound, and as I play fingers not plectrum, it sounds great when you dig in a bit more.

I'm no expert on effects, but this really did give me the sort of bass sound that I wanted from around the Moving Pictures/permanent waves era, but as it's a new pedal, allows for the dirtier sounds that have developed over the later albums.  

Overall, I love it, and wish I'd had it 20 years ago!!! 

[Cuzzie]

2 hours ago, mikebass456 said:

On a similar 'Rush' based theme, I've just added the Geddy Lee YYZ pedal to my board.

It arrived yesterday, set it up with one of the suggested configurations from the handbook, stuck it on the board and went out gigging last night with my R**kenbacker 4003 going through it.

All i can say is i have finally found the sound I've been looking for our of my 4003 all these years!

The only other pedals in the chain are a boss chromatic tuner, digitech compressor and a boss noise limiter.

Anyone else had a life changing pedal related moment?

Cali76CB compressor

Tech21 DP3X 

Tech21 PSA 2.0

I imagine the Morningstar MC6 shortly will be added to the list to integrate what I need.

Honestly Tech21 knock it out the park 

[mikebass456]

Absolutely! The main reason why I moved the sansamp rack unit on was because of my shortcomings in being able to use it to its full advantag e -  tech 21 is definitely the business !

[Cuzzie]

If you can midi tech21 it’s then the business.

I would say that’s the only flaw of the DP3X, but with the PSA, that’s cured.

As a grab and go- DP3X is the best

[mikebass456]

Must admit I wasn't aware of this unit, but to be honest I'd already decided the YYZ having seen it on YouTube and in various online reviews, the sound range it was offering was right where I wanted to be.

I'm very much a grab and go with such things, I can't sit down and work things out, so midi is far beyond me!

Also, it fitted in the spare gap in the pedal board, the dp3x looks like a board on its own. 

Getting the coffee and hobnobs prepared now, ready for a full checking out of the YYZ .........😜👍

[Cuzzie]

24 minutes ago, mikebass456 said:

Must admit I wasn't aware of this unit, but to be honest I'd already decided the YYZ having seen it on YouTube and in various online reviews, the sound range it was offering was right where I wanted to be.

I'm very much a grab and go with such things, I can't sit down and work things out, so midi is far beyond me!

Also, it fitted in the spare gap in the pedal board, the dp3x looks like a board on its own. 

Getting the coffee and hobnobs prepared now, ready for a full checking out of the YYZ .........😜👍

I really considered the Geddy in its various forms from Rack to any of the pedals, and was nearly going to get the rack recently until sense prevailed!

Sounds like a fun afternoon

[Sibob]

On 28/02/2020 at 10:06, thebassist said:

Hmm interesting Si - thanks for this.

Sorry for being a dummy but I guess you can run your pure amp 800 without a preamp if you wanted to? Just no bass/treble/high mid/low mid control right?

Sorry, missed this.
Yes, you can run a bass straight into the PureAmp without a preamp. You'd simply be hearing your bass (be it passive or active) through the GR power amp, no amp EQ, just it's initial gain-stage.

Si

[Al Krow]

I've kept things very simple for live band work so far i.e. just bass --> amp & cab. Pedals have pretty much entirely been for home creative use for me to date.

However I've put together a budget mini board centred around an inexpensive Zoom B1X-4 multifx and powered by a Harley Benton Iso5, which slots easily underneath the HB 50M board. I went for the HB board instead of the usual Pedaltrain as it has a perfect width for the Zoom multi.

Board has all the bits I'm likely to be needing for live use: Smoothhound wireless--> Boss LS2-->Zoom B1X-4-->Digitech Mosaic

The Zoom is in the LS2's 'A' loop to allow me to blend in as much clean to combine with the Zoom's effects. That's a must for a lot of the Zoom drive patches, particularly my fav Rat Tail, but it will be a "nice to have" to keep some authentic low end with other fx.

One area that the Zoom is pretty pants at IMO is pitch shifting, including octave up (although it's not too bad at octave down) and the Mosaic is on the board for that particularly duty. Looking forward to giving it a spin just as soon as the next non cancelled gig materialises!

Edited March 14, 2020 by Al Krow

[dannybuoy]

@Al Krow putting digital FX in a blender can be a bad idea. A few ms delay blended back on itself will produce a comb filtering effect - think of the sound a flanger would make with the sweep frozen in time. Try setting up an empty patch (not sure if it still goes though the digital conversion when in bypass mode) and then adjusting the blend to see if you can hear any difference!

[Al Krow]

42 minutes ago, dannybuoy said:

@Al Krow putting digital FX in a blender can be a bad idea. A few ms delay blended back on itself will produce a comb filtering effect - think of the sound a flanger would make with the sweep frozen in time. Try setting up an empty patch (not sure if it still goes though the digital conversion when in bypass mode) and then adjusting the blend to see if you can hear any difference!

True. But very easy to dial the clean signal right down if that ever becomes an issue for a particular fx patch: remember the LS2 offers independent volume control for both clean and fx, so you can still go fully wet by simply doing that. Or alternatively just have the LS2 set to output 'A' only. 

Comb filtering is going to be a non issue for dirt though, right? And plenty of folk throughout history (or at least since the invention of the LS2 decades back!) have been blending clean with their dirt to preserve low end, albeit mostly with analogue dirt pedals. 

On a separate note, the comb filtering effect doesn't seem a million miles off what folk are deliberately trying to do when they bi-amp? So it could actually be a good thing?! But I'll have to have a listen to see if I can actually hear occurring in the first place.

I suspect it will be most noticeable on pitch shifting (which I absolutely won't be doing on the Zoom anyway) and octave down, when the additional latency should also be relatively obvious. 

Edited March 15, 2020 by Al Krow

[dannybuoy]

Comb filtering is going to be a non issue for dirt though, right?

It can be an issue, especially if using mild overdrive that doesn't differ that much from your clean sound. Mixing a sound with a delayed copy of itself is a bit like applying an EQ with a  bunch of notches like this:

And plenty of folk throughout history (or at least since the invention of the LS2 decades back!) have been blending clean with their dirt to preserve low end, albeit mostly with analogue dirt pedals.

No problem using an LS-2 with analog pedals, just when mixing an analog signal path with a delayed digital signal.

On a separate note, the comb filtering effect doesn't seem a million miles off what folk are deliberately trying to do when they bi-amp? So it could actually be a good thing?!

I don't think anyone tries to get comb filtering deliberately when bi-amping... Often that'll be done entirely analog (e.g. DP3-X, or 2 amps) or with both high and lows going through the same digital processor (e.g. a Helix). But even if you put just your highs though a digital pedal, you wouldn''t get much in the way of comb filtering since the 2 signals would be so different that they wouldn't interfere that much with each other.

I suspect it will be most noticeable on pitch shifting (which I absolutely won't be doing on the Zoom anyway) and octave down, when the additional latency should also be relatively obvious. 

A different kind of latency. The comb filter effect comes from very short delay times due to the basic analog/digital conversion, which is normally so quick as to be imperceptible. Pitch algorithms have a much larger latency that's very noticeable because they need to slice up and analyse the incoming signal. You'd get comb filtering if you had the dry signal dialled up on the Zoom and then mixed that with analog dry signal via the LS-2 though.

[GisserD]

It's also worth checking that none of the pedals in a paralell loop invert phase. This should be immediately obvious upon listening, but it's worth checking before any pedal purchases designed for loop use. I was stung once. Never again.

Extremely helpful thread here....

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/list-the-pedals-that-invert-phase.796444/

[Al Krow]

Cheers Gents - thanks for taking the time to post the above, appreciated! Well the board is set up and ready to go so I'll be having a play and be listening out, although the dirt I've got set up e.g. the Rat Tail is anything but subtle! 

There is a broader point here about parallel loops more generally, right? Loads of us are doing that without any concerns. From what dB is saying, it seems to me that this is only going to be an issue when digital pedals are in the loop of another pedal, it should be a non issue if a digital pedal has an analogue pedal in its loop?

[GisserD]

17 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

From what dB is saying, it seems to me that this is only going to be an issue when digital pedals are in the loop of another pedal, it should be a non issue if a digital pedal has an analogue pedal in its loop?

Correct. 

As long as the AD/DA conversion isn't happening in a paralell loop you wont get any problems. 

[Al Krow]

2 hours ago, GisserD said:

It's also worth checking that none of the pedals in a paralell loop invert phase. This should be immediately obvious upon listening, but it's worth checking before any pedal purchases designed for loop use. I was stung once. Never again.

Extremely helpful thread here....

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/list-the-pedals-that-invert-phase.796444/

Wow that list has been kept up to date for a decade! Impressed!

Well my two Tech 21 pedals are both analogue and not on the invert phase list so on my other larger board, which is also going to be centred around a multi fx (I think you're getting a bit of theme from me here!), having the Red Ripper fuzz in the Boss SY-1 loop to keep a clean synth sound in the chain should be just fine.

[Al Krow]

Ok following up on the above discussion - so I've had a listen out for any annoying 'comb filtering' resulting from putting the digital B1X-4 in the LS2's loop and tried it with the 15 or so patches I've got set up.

Conclusion: - if there was any 'comb filtering' it was barely noticeable (by me anyway!) and completely swamped by the effects themselves. The benefit of being able to blend in clean to preserve both (i) authentic bass tone and (ii) low end, particularly on the drive patches, was immediately obvious.

=> very happy with the set up and no hesitation in recommending folk doing something similar with their Zoom multifx.

[Al Krow]

Been a bit of a pedal board fest for me this weekend! Metro 24 board also now set up and following the same theme as the budget mini board (which is going to be first one I'll be taking out on the road) posted above i.e. centred on a multifx.

Signal chain: Smoothhound-->Boss SY1 with Red Ripper in its parallel loop--> HX Effects-->SA Manta-->VT DI. One Spot CS6 underneath and own dedicated PSU for the Helix.

 

[TomWIC]

Been many years since I posted my board, after going down to a barebone basics board. It’s still pretty much that...but a bit of an indulgent one.

Line6 G30 -> Korg Pitchblack Pro Custom -> Darkglass Hyper Luminal -> Darkglass B7K -> Darkglass Alpha Omega -> ISP Decimator

Only had the one rehearsal with the Hyper Luminal so far so still kind of getting to grips with it, but I liked what I got out of it from the settings in the photo.

[Cuzzie]

4 hours ago, TomWIC said:

Been many years since I posted my board, after going down to a barebone basics board. It’s still pretty much that...but a bit of an indulgent one.

Line6 G30 -> Korg Pitchblack Pro Custom -> Darkglass Hyper Luminal -> Darkglass B7K -> Darkglass Alpha Omega -> ISP Decimator

Only had the one rehearsal with the Hyper Luminal so far so still kind of getting to grips with it, but I liked what I got out of it from the settings in the photo.

Hyperluminal is a very good compressor, and without doubt the BUS compressor is the jewel in the crown - get it hooked up to the PC and tinker further and you will have a very good tight sound waiting for you