blue Posted May 22, 2017 Share Posted May 22, 2017 (edited) Having a cool pedal board is great, managing when and how you employ or execute pedals for the gigging musician is another story. How many of us have tweaked our pedals at home with good results only to get to a gig and you hit your dirt or chorus and it sounds bloody awful. Then there's the issue of how different basses will hit your pedals differently. For example; 1. passive vs active pre-amp, 2. single coil vs humbuckers 3. solid body vs semi-hollows 4. wireless relay vs traditional lead Are you using the effects pedal to enhance the song or the sound of your band or just "Willy Nilly" engaging and effect on a whim? This is a little project for me, getting more than a barely functional level of managing my pedals. Comments, thoughts and suggestions. Blue Edited May 23, 2017 by blue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0175westwood29 Posted May 22, 2017 Share Posted May 22, 2017 So having a big board I'm always changing setting to get things sounding at there best mainly delays, verbs or modulation drive stuff is normally pretty simple to sort. For me if I'm gonna use a second guitar with a lower output say I'll have a way of boosting that sorted out so everything matches at least with volume it will sound different it's a different bass. Using the pedals tho I'll have worked out what I wanna use ( I have a switcher boss es8) in presets but I'm all for on the fly adding an effect if I'm feeling it might be cool! But I never use a pedal just to say I used it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blue Posted May 22, 2017 Author Share Posted May 22, 2017 I also like to run my pedal decisions by the other band members. Blue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0175westwood29 Posted May 23, 2017 Share Posted May 23, 2017 [quote name='blue' timestamp='1495493186' post='3304258'] I also like to run my pedal decisions by the other band members. Blue [/quote] This is useful as if say both me and the guitar want to use chorus it could be a bit much so I'll back of Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blue Posted May 23, 2017 Author Share Posted May 23, 2017 [quote name='0175westwood29' timestamp='1495517880' post='3304309'] This is useful as if say both me and the guitar want to use chorus it could be a bit much so I'll back of [/quote] True, and I can't expect everyone to agree with me just because I think an effect or combination of effects sounds good. Blue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0175westwood29 Posted May 23, 2017 Share Posted May 23, 2017 [quote name='blue' timestamp='1495518833' post='3304312'] True, and I can't expect everyone to agree with me just because I think an effect or combination of effects sounds good. Blue [/quote] I'm lucky my bands trust me with sounds but yeh someone might be like maybe try this instead or do you have something that sounds like this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blue Posted May 23, 2017 Author Share Posted May 23, 2017 [quote name='0175westwood29' timestamp='1495519849' post='3304319'] I'm lucky my bands trust me with sounds [/quote] I don't trust myself with sounds. Blue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheddatom Posted May 23, 2017 Share Posted May 23, 2017 If you want a consistent pedal board you're not having to tweak all the time, you need a way to balance the outputs of your basses, or just use one. I mean in terms of tone as well as volume Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GazWills Posted May 23, 2017 Share Posted May 23, 2017 (edited) Personally, I never make a decision on a pedal without hearing it at full volume at band practice. As you say - some pedals sound great at home but disappear in the mix when used in the real world (out of the bedroom!). Equally, my rat-based distortion sounds killer at full volume, pushing the tubes on my rig, but underwhelming through my little solid state practice amp at home. Most importantly, from my experience at least, I think you need to build your pedalboard around a consistent setup (i.e. same type of bass, same amp and cab), as just changing the bass, or the amp, or the cab, is enough to dramatically change how a pedal sounds, and your opinion on it. Never ceases to amaze me how using somebody else's cab at a gig (but my bass, head, etc) can make such a change to how my pedals (dirt, especially) sound. I HATE all of my dirt pedals through cabs with 8 or 10 inch speakers, and don't really care for 15's. Has to be 4x12! I'll sometimes ask for the opinions of band mates, when I'm trying one pedal off against another. The most important consideration for me is how my sound and the guitarist's sound mesh together. It's about trying to find sounds that mesh together to create a wall of noise haha I don't tend to use stuff 'on the fly'. I play originals, and part of writing each song is finding the effected tone that works best to compliment that song. I'd say 95% of my bass parts are effected, to some degree (though a big chunk of that is a light distortion as my amp is incredibly clean). Edited May 23, 2017 by GazWills Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blue Posted May 23, 2017 Author Share Posted May 23, 2017 [quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1495526317' post='3304382'] If you want a consistent pedal board you're not having to tweak all the time, you need a way to balance the outputs of your basses, or just use one. I mean in terms of tone as well as volume [/quote] Totally agree. Blue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blue Posted May 23, 2017 Author Share Posted May 23, 2017 (edited) [quote name='GazWills' timestamp='1495528699' post='3304411'] Personally, I never make a decision on a pedal without hearing it at full volume at band practice. As you say - some pedals sound great at home but disappear in the mix when used in the real world (out of the bedroom!). Equally, my rat-based distortion sounds killer at full volume, pushing the tubes on my rig, but underwhelming through my little solid state practice amp at home. Most importantly, from my experience at least, I think you need to build your pedalboard around a consistent setup (i.e. same type of bass, same amp and cab), as just changing the bass, or the amp, or the cab, is enough to dramatically change how a pedal sounds, and your opinion on it. Never ceases to amaze me how using somebody else's cab at a gig (but my bass, head, etc) can make such a change to how my pedals (dirt, especially) sound. [/quote] Sometime you can't win. I recently had my board re-set. There were some bad cables and I had split power from one input and my board was giving me a lot of grief. Now it's totally cool. I've been working with tone prints and mixing a little dirt, bass octave, pinch of delay and overdrive for sustain. I have a big gig opening for a pretty big name scheduled and I have to use the backlined amp provided. Seems like all my tweaking will be for naught. Blue Edited May 23, 2017 by blue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0175westwood29 Posted May 23, 2017 Share Posted May 23, 2017 [quote name='GazWills' timestamp='1495528699' post='3304411'] Personally, I never make a decision on a pedal without hearing it at full volume at band practice. As you say - some pedals sound great at home but disappear in the mix when used in the real world (out of the bedroom!). Equally, my rat-based distortion sounds killer at full volume, pushing the tubes on my rig, but underwhelming through my little solid state practice amp at home. Most importantly, from my experience at least, I think you need to build your pedalboard around a consistent setup (i.e. same type of bass, same amp and cab), as just changing the bass, or the amp, or the cab, is enough to dramatically change how a pedal sounds, and your opinion on it. Never ceases to amaze me how using somebody else's cab at a gig (but my bass, head, etc) can make such a change to how my pedals (dirt, especially) sound. I HATE all of my dirt pedals through cabs with 8 or 10 inch speakers, and don't really care for 15's. Has to be 4x12! [/quote] both points! always like to make a point of trying pedals at full volume! modulation and delay are ok but drives for sure are a volume thing! and this is why a standard rig is good for me its all about 10's i can get my board working thru a 410 however i love an 810! i however havent used a 412 cab so i do really wanna do that! also my rig is ashdown aswell so some would say its darker than normal so with a diff setup im guessing my sound would be really bright! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiophonic Posted May 23, 2017 Share Posted May 23, 2017 I use an LS2 to balance the volumes of 2 effects loops and 2 basses. 12 O'Clock for active, 1.30 for passive, 1.00 for passive with a phase 90 running. The amount of tweaking is minor although I need to give it an eyeball ahead of each song. Comp is always on and out of the loops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blue Posted May 23, 2017 Author Share Posted May 23, 2017 Not to get off topic. Just a word about the MRX M85 Bass Distortion Pedal. I really like the separate wet and dry controls. I like the way you can keep your clean low end where you want it. Blue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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