I've had it with effects pedals

[Dr.Dave]

I wouldn't be without my rack tuner. From time to time I get the urge to use a little chorus in a couple of songs live. I like it but I like the sound uneffected too - so I end up not setting up the pedal and eventually flog it. I don't like the idea of the lead not being behind me either - though that's easily solved if I wanted to.

Compression is something I would use if I were in a different band - to smooth out my mis hits a bit. But I'm not - so I don't!!

Thought also I should try a bit of fuzzed up bass on some of the numbers in the ZZ trib - but again , too idle to do anything about it except think.

I like the sound of (well tuned!) bass - GK - whatever speakers don't break. That's me. Dinosaur.

I'm full of admiration for bassists that use effects tastefully - heavy on the tastefully. I think too that if I didn't gig so much , playing around with effects would stop me getting too bored with bass when practising. I don't practise bass at all at home at the mo. We don't rehearse as a band. CD on in the car - bang it out at the soundcheck - throw it in the set and see if it floats. Works for us - you'd have to ask the williams if it works for them.

[Protium]

[quote name='drthirkenstein' post='359646' date='Dec 20 2008, 03:43 PM']the shorter the signal path between your bass and your speakers the better it will sound.[/quote]

Cool, I might try gigging using a patch cable between bass and amp then

[umph]

[quote name='Protium' post='359667' date='Dec 20 2008, 03:59 PM']Cool, I might try gigging using a patch cable between bass and amp then [/quote]
i've heard patch cables lose low end and you should only use titanium reinforced kevlar military grade space continium cables if you want the TRUE tone of your bass

[silverfoxnik]

[quote name='umph' post='359672' date='Dec 20 2008, 04:04 PM']i've heard patch cables lose low end and you should only use titanium reinforced kevlar military grade space continium cables if you want the TRUE tone of your bass[/quote]


Holy FX, Bassboy, sounds like a job for OBBM...

[twentyhertz]

I think a pedal tuner or some other silencing tuner should be made mandatory for any gigging musician.

Other than that, I liked using a couple of pedals - a GLX Limiter (Boss LMB-3 Clone) to keep things a bit tighter, a Russian Big Muff when things need to get fuzzy, and a USA Small Stone for the more psychedelic sounding passages. I play mostly Stoner Rock/Doom, so a big fuzz and some kind of spacey modulation pedal are just like staple gear

[:amaze:]

i've got "more pedals than any guitarist i know" according to my drummer. and "there no way i could ever use them all" according to another bassist friend. really, though, i only have 6-7 on my pedalboard and 2 or 3 that i dont use anymore.

[cheddatom]

I used to gig with 20 odd pedals and I got loads of compliments from other bassists on my sound.

[fede162162]

Bass (passive) - preamp - Power amp - Cab with tweeter.


I don't even have got an Eq!!!!!

[steve]

[quote name='Adrenochrome' post='354278' date='Dec 14 2008, 04:18 PM']So I use a Zoom multi FX with compression and noisegate on all the time. This also has a handy muted tuner. Out of about 30 songs we do I use chorus for 1 or 2 songs and distortion for 1. The clean sound with comp still sounds like my bass and really evens things out. A simple set-up that works for me.[/quote]

I've recently gone down the same route with a Zoom B2.1u, I need some drive for a couple of covers, and a heavier, fuzzier drive for a couple of others, the rest I play clean. The zoom gets close enough to the effected tones as far as I'm concerned and it's easy to set up and cheap as chips.

[Happy Jack]

Erm ... would anyone like to buy some pedals?

[Bobo_Grimmer]

[quote name='cheddatom' post='355011' date='Dec 15 2008, 02:49 PM']Lots of people advocate the use of two rigs - clean, and effected. I tried this, sending purely clean bass to my peavey 1 x 15" combo, and purely effected bass to my johnson 2 x 12" guitar combo. It sounded OK. I messed with it for ages trying to get a great sound, but nothing I did got close to the sound I was getting using a blended pedal board running into the peavey AND the johnson on a crossover.[/quote]


+1

I use'd to have similar problems with effects. I found myself always turning them off again just never quite being happy with what i was hearing from the amp till one day an idea hit me! why don't i try running the effects high pass and in parallel with my clean tone. YAY! now my effects are clear and so is my bass. Not all effects work like this remember. like fuzz. that kind of effect relies on the setting of volume and tone from the instrument.

[lee650]

I spent years using diffrent kinds of FX, a couple of incarnations of boss multifex to a big pedalboard stuffed with EBS effects, had a big phase(no pun intended) of putting together a dream pedalboard, cost me a fortune and i didnt use them an awful lot because my gigs didnt require them, so ive sold them all off, my last one (EBS MULTICOMP) is about to go making me completely effect less, im sur ill get more in the future coz i love em and if im really desperate my tascam bass trainer has them in if i fancy a mess about, im also for the first time in 14 years using an amp without a valve in it, amazing how this tone journey never ends, this site doesnt help either, always something better around the corner, enjoy your toys everyone - lee

[thisnameistaken]

I think it depends how you use them. I switch on effects mostly to replace my bass sound, rather than augment it. If you still need to sound like a bass guitar, that's when you run into problems.

[Lfalex v1.1]

[quote name='fede162162' post='463377' date='Apr 15 2009, 08:44 PM']Bass (passive) - preamp - Power amp - Cab with tweeter.


I don't even have got an Eq!!!!![/quote]

I see your minimalism, and I'll raise you;

Bass (whichever) - Mixer - headphones!

With an MP3 player mixed in for jamming purposes.
I don't even use a DI - the mixer's pre has adequate gain and a shorter signal path. Doesn't need EQing. Even using a switched off MXR M-80 or Hartke VXL sounds less "direct".
I'm [i]still[/i] seeking a good OD or distortion. My Ampeg SVP Pro sounds good, but not in a hi-fi sort of way. Plus it seems to be voiced in such a way as to favour Fenders & Musicmen! Maybe if it were switched with a clean unit (A/, but that sounds like another £500+ for another pre and switching!
I do have an ME-8B kicking around, and have sold on Muffs, compressors, distortion pedals etc.

[iamapirate]

hmmm, the guitarist in the band I'm in at the moment uses an Ibanez RG series with a tremelo going through a Marshall with lots of gain and distortion (but funnily enough doesn't play heavy metal) and he has the chunkiest sound in the world, so I don't have any need for distortion or overdrive. Actually, 90% of my EHX BMS gets lost in his tone (except when I have it on a very long sweep high to low. then it just sounds legendary). I think that just aving a clean tone is a lot more useful than trying to out-do his distortion or whatever.

</my 2p>

[steve-soar]

Wise, young Man.

[OutToPlayJazz]

[quote name='bassman2790' post='352773' date='Dec 12 2008, 03:56 PM']I used to have a modest number of effect pedals (chorus, exciter/limiter, compressor, overdrive)...then I convinced myself I just had to have a Boss GT-6B. About a month later, I questioned why I would need the choice of umpteen different distortions, compressors, choruses etc etc and the Boss went on eBay. Back to my pedal board then....

This morning however, I set up my pedal board, amp and cabinet and started to experiment with different settings on my Tech 21 VT bass pedal and my Exciter/Limiter, but the more I twiddled, the further away I got from a sound I liked. In frustration, I unplugged from the board and plugged directly into my amp....eureka! That's the sound I'm looking for....

Why do I have all these pedals when I only use a little bit of chorus for about 30 seconds in one song? It's madness The pedal board will definitely be staying at home tomorrow when I set off for the gig.[/quote]

I know exactly what you mean. I had a multi-effects board in the 90's that I never used & ended up selling. More recently I had a Zoom B2 which I ended up giving away to a lad on BC for the cost of the postage. Again, unused. I basically have no need for these things whatsoever. I really like my sound & people I work with really like my sound. Why change it? I've never used compression (I'm sure a few engineers have added some to my sound from time to time) & never used effects to enhance/change my sound on stage.

All these pedals & multi-effects are all fine & good for a bit of a mess-around at home, but there's no substitute for a well set-up, good sounding bass through a good amplifier or preamp.

All I do have these days is a Digitech JamMan, which is a part of the act at times where I do a looped solo. Thinking about it, I never even use the effects on my BassCube, either. What's the point?

[EskimoBassist]

Right from the very beginning, I have always played and gigged with effects. It was unbelievably alien to me, when I played an acoustic set a few weeks ago, to NOT have anythign in front of me to stomp on. Usually, even when I play much more chilled out, acoustic venues, I still have a nice tuner, compressor and my own Pre/DI.

Effects pedals must be the single greatest expense for me and I guess I have become a little addicted. That said, I think I can appreciate when and more importantly when NOT to move away from my clean, albeit compressed, signal. I have a whole myriad of pedals and believe it or not every single one gets used at everything single gig that I play, with a full band, of course excluding acoustic performances.

It would be nice not to have to cart round my fully laden Diago Tourman to every gig though, at least once in a while, but I guess because of the music that we play, as an Alternative Prog Rock outfit with only one guitar, that's a luxury I can't afford. My Bass really fills out the sound, so perhaps I can be excuse for having more pedals than sense?

Either way though, it feels refreshing to leave my board at home every now and then.

[maxrossell]

I'm mainly a guitard, and even I've gone through this revelatory phase. I used to have a Dunlop Wha, a Noise Suppressor, a Super OD, a Metal Zone (I know) and A DD-3, and occasionally I'd also have a Digitech Whammy hooked up, all of this into a three channel amp. Before that I used to run a Digitech RP2000 modeller floor unit.

One day I went mental, sold the lot and bought an Orange Tiny Terror, which is a single-channel 15watt valve head with three knobs on it - volume, tone and gain. My setup went from 41 dials to 3 overnight. The result? My playing improved more in a month than it had done in the previous four years.

I'm not sayin that effects don't have their place. But when I look at a lot of the guys around me, what I see is a lot of "I bought the damn thing, so I'll use it as much as possible". That combined with guys who aren't gear-geeky enough to know how to get the best out of stuff is a lethal combination.

In the future I honestly can't see myself putting anything at all between a guitar or bass and an amp.

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='472915' date='Apr 26 2009, 08:24 PM']All these pedals & multi-effects are all fine & good for a bit of a mess-around at home, but there's no substitute for a well set-up, good sounding bass through a good amplifier or preamp.[/quote]

They don't have to be a substitute. You can have a good sounding bass, a good amplifier and also effects - that's allowed.

One of the bands I'm doing at the moment I take a bass, amp and a pedal tuner because that's all it requires. The other band I also take a pretty large pedal board, because I need it. The guys who run that band don't listen to a lot of music with bass guitar in it, so I need to do more than just sound like a bass guitar.

You might not need effects but that doesn't mean nobody else does.

[OutToPlayJazz]

[quote]You might not need effects but that doesn't mean nobody else does.[/quote]

Indeed - That's what I was saying! They're mostly pointless for me, but I'm sure that in the right context some people find that they have their uses. I mean, Bootsy without his auto-wah and flanger would be unthinkable!

[lowdown]

I never like to use pedals usually....
But doing shows i have had to provide from time to time,
An Octave pedal..
And quite often a Chorus pedal.
I think some times WTF do they want that for..
But then in context they can usually work.
So my feeling is always be prepared...

Garry

[cheddatom]

I just get bored with a standard bass sound. Playing through the same tone for an hour or longer? How monotonous!

[OutToPlayJazz]

Hmmm... I think I'm starting to see the point...

I put on some bids this week at an auction house for some bits and bobs from a Music Shop liquidation sale. I didn't win any of them, apart from an ex-demo (attached to a big display plinth) Line 6 Bass Pod XT live. I only paid a fraction of the new price for it, so I thought what the hell? I'll give it another go...

I've just spent about an hour and a half playing with the sounds & amp modelling and my findings are... If I need a dub bass sound or a more classic sound for recording, it's a great tool. The synth sounds are atrocious, but that's just my personal tastes kicking in But after a good long play, I found that using my jazz passively with the Line 6 is useful, but an active bass like my Status basses doesn't gain anything. I switched the Line 6 off & plugged one of my S2's directly into the basscube. Ahhhh that's better.

So all in all, for the comparitively cheap price, it'll be useful for recording jobs, but live I'll continue with either a Status direct into the amp or my Jazz through my Sadowsky preamp.

Rich.

[Beer of the Bass]

A cautionary tale: I bought the Zoom 506 when they first came out (1996 or so?), and I used to use it all the time with my first band, mostly for a bit of compression, sometimes some chorus or an octaver. One week I forgot to bring the Zoom to a rehearsal, plugged straight into the amp, and the drummer said "Hey, your bass sounds f****ng great today. Have you changed something?". I don't think I used the Zoom again after that, though I did get into individual stompboxes for a while.
Somebody please tell me multi-effects have got better since my old Zoom. I dug it out of a cupboard a couple of years ago, and it sounds awful even on bypass...