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Pedals or straight to amp?


Storky

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2 hours ago, Bassfinger said:

Live Imused tomuse an overdrive pedal, but my new Orange amp has a decent overdrive built in, so other than a Behringer tuner I am pedal free on stage.

 

At home I use a Boss overdrive and an elderly Korg multi function pedal.

 

Which Orange amp do you use? If I crank the gain on my Terror bass it sounds wooly and unpleasant but I'm thinking there's something wrong with it.

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I've gone straight into my amp for years, but have always loved to tinker with effects pedals at home and have owned several multi-FX to get familiar with various types of effects and their parameters. I've especially always loved drive pedals, but never really used them live. I like the mild tube drive I get from my Ampeg preamp and it's usually been sufficient. Almost two years ago I got a gig with a doom metal band, and wanted to mimic the bass sound from their previous album as closely as possible live so I dusted off my Darkglass B7K and brought that with me on stage and LOVED it. I got loads of positive responses from other musicians too, both in the band itself and from the other bands performing that night. I have since bought a Pedaltrain Nano and a TC Electronic Polytune 3 Noir and added a compressor and a chorus that I already had laying around, and it serves me well! It's powered by a simple 1-Spot and daisy chain, and I'm using EBS patch cables with very flat jack plugs. 

 

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11 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

Which Orange amp do you use? If I crank the gain on my Terror bass it sounds wooly and unpleasant but I'm thinking there's something wrong with it.

Cranking stuff always loses me. No need to crank it though.

 

If the good stuff comes on nice and gradual and moderating the plucking goes from just warmed to a bit growly then it's a keeper.

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5 minutes ago, Downunderwonder said:

Cranking stuff always loses me. No need to crank it though.

 

If the good stuff comes on nice and gradual and moderating the plucking goes from just warmed to a bit growly then it's a keeper.

 

My Terror goes from clean straight to wet fart and then on to various degrees of shart.

I have to run it clean and use a preamp pedal for gain.

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On 07/09/2021 at 08:53, SteveXFR said:

 

My Terror goes from clean straight to wet fart and then on to various degrees of shart.

I have to run it clean and use a preamp pedal for gain.

The best thing I ever did to my TB was to fit a pair of East German RFT 12AT7s. It resulted in lots more clean headroom before any break-up sets in. Fat too.

Edited by Tee
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21 minutes ago, Downunderwonder said:

What are the stock tubes?

They were cheap 12AX7s, unbranded I think, so distortion came on quick/early on the dial.

 

But the current TB has a clean switch.

Edited by Tee
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IIRC, the very nature of 12AX7s is to break up early, which is why they’re favoured in a lot of the amps of those of a skinny stringed persuasion. Valves (or tubes for our North American brethren) are a veritable rabbit hole, with not only type, but origin. Good stuff.

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Just now, Downunderwonder said:

12At7's have half the gain available from memory. Do you still get full volume at the point they hit breakup? 

 I never had any volume issues gigging it. If anything it was clearer at louder levels. They are loud anyway, with the originals delivering 500w at 4 or 8 ohms.

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5 minutes ago, ezbass said:

IIRC, the very nature of 12AX7s is to break up early, which is why they’re favoured in a lot of the amps of those of a skinny stringed persuasion. Valves (or tubes for our North American brethren) are a veritable rabbit hole, with not only type, but origin. Good stuff.

 

I've seen a few comparison videos showing different brands of the same type of valves in the same amp and the difference was pretty negligible, you'd certainly never hear the difference in a band mix

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33 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

I've seen a few comparison videos showing different brands of the same type of valves in the same amp and the difference was pretty negligible, you'd certainly never hear the difference in a band mix

Very true, but it’s fun to investigate these things. I completely revalved a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe once, I could just about hear a difference at home (as you say, at a gig, I wouldn’t have been able to tell), the big difference was swapping out the generic Emminence speaker for a Jensen (different transducers make the biggest differences IMO).

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Playing in a indie covers band I go via a small pedalboard which has:

 

Tuner

Compressor

Graphic EQ

Octaver

 

I rarely use the pedals.

The compressor is used to fatten the sound a bit on certain songs

The graphic is used to cut through really noisy songs where the two guitars are fighting the bass.

The octaver is used for a couple of songs where the original is double tracked.

 

I never touch the amp during a set to adjust my sound.

 

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My big band board is simple - 4 pedals.

 

Tuner

Envelope filter

compressor

octave

 

I've always got the compressor on. I swap between fingers, slap, and pick during a set and it's useful to smooth the very different levels out.

 

The octave and the filter are on when I need them. Usually one or 2 tunes.

 

 

My covers band board is far more extensive so it can cover everything from a simple clean Blues Brothers tune, to an FX laden Muse song. Synths, EQs, Fuzz-Wah, distortion, phaser, octave, filters, signal blenders etc.

But it's heavy, so only when I need it!

 

 

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I played most of my "carreer" like this: bass -> tuner -> amp

But during the past 3-4 years, I gravitated towards this:

 

Bass -> Tuner -> Compressor -> Preamp -> Amp

 

I have a mini-pedalboard with a Korg Pitchblack tuner, Darkglass super symmetry comp, Darkglass Harmonic booster preamp. Zip-tied to a veneer board and tucked inside an old laptop bag. This is my "sound in a bag", I use this for recording, live, home training with a USB interface + headphones, and band practice. I usually drive the amp with a flat eq and rely on the harmonic booster for the eq and sound. And since it also has a kind of "cab simulation" going on, it's really great for recording as well.

 

I don't really "use pedals" in the way that is usually implied (stomping on/off), I just dial in my tone using my "sound in a bag" depending on the situation (live/recording/band practice/pick or fingerstyle) and run with it :)

 

For me pedals is a "yes", for flexibility and portability. I can take off with my sound bag and a bass in a gig bag and you can pretty much throw me into any situation.

 

20210913_105519.thumb.jpg.53fada3a8aae4552a3addcf1a171d91e.jpg

Edited by JBoman
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Depends on the amp. At smaller gigs I go straight  to my Orange, via the tuner, which has an excellent overdrive built in. 

 

At larger venues and outdoors I use the Hartke, in which case I then use a Behringer overdrive. 

 

If im quietly practicing at home through the Bryce practice amp Omise an old Korg board with chorus, compression and flanger.

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