Recommend a Flanger

[TeresaFR]

I'm considering adding a flanger to my pedalboard, and I could get a Boss BF-3 for cheap off of a friend, I'm a little weird about the aesthetic of having a Boss-style enclosure on a board that isn't entirely in that aesthetic. So, with that in mind, could the good folks here please recommend me a good flanger pedal for bass, please? I already have a chorus I love so I don't need something that does both.

[itu]

tce SCF.

[Velarian]

What make is your chorus? Perhaps the same manufacturer’s flanger will be suitable for bass and will match the aesthetic?

[Baloney Balderdash]

As the ancient Chinese proverbs goes:

 

"When tone has to match the socks you are wearing music suffers"

 

"Listening with your eyes is like plopping with your nose"

 

 

Edited September 17, 2022 by Baloney Balderdash

[Doddy]

9 hours ago, TeresaFR said:

 I'm a little weird about the aesthetic of having a Boss-style enclosure on a board that isn't entirely in that aesthetic.

What's wrong with having a Boss Flanger on your board? Boss make some great sounding pedals, so if you can get a great price on a BF3, get it.

Honestly, I've got loads of pedals, but for Flanger I still really like the old Boss BF2 and the Ibanez FL9.

[TeresaFR]

5 hours ago, Velarian said:

What make is your chorus? Perhaps the same manufacturer’s flanger will be suitable for bass and will match the aesthetic?

EHX, so I am considering the Neo Mistress - which would actually fit the space available.

[TeresaFR]

Look, there's nothing wrong with having any Boss pedal on your board (even a Metal Zone, if that's what you want), and perhaps we should all of us divorce our pedal choices completely from the design of the casing (or the graphic atop the casing), but given the number of people showing off their very pretty basses on here or awesome pedalboards, one must assume aesthetics does play a part for a lot of people. Not more than sound, absolutely not, but it's not for no reason that EQD, Walrus Audio etc. spend time on making their pedals look amazing. It's also not without reason that so many of us chose basses that visually appeal to us. To be clear, I wasn't saying I was wanting to sacrifice tone for appearance, not at all - I want both and so I came and asked for recommendations from people who would hopefully know. 

[Baloney Balderdash]

6 hours ago, TeresaFR said:

Look, there's nothing wrong with having any Boss pedal on your board (even a Metal Zone, if that's what you want), and perhaps we should all of us divorce our pedal choices completely from the design of the casing (or the graphic atop the casing), but given the number of people showing off their very pretty basses on here or awesome pedalboards, one must assume aesthetics does play a part for a lot of people. Not more than sound, absolutely not, but it's not for no reason that EQD, Walrus Audio etc. spend time on making their pedals look amazing. It's also not without reason that so many of us chose basses that visually appeal to us. To be clear, I wasn't saying I was wanting to sacrifice tone for appearance, not at all - I want both and so I came and asked for recommendations from people who would hopefully know. 

No you was not saying that, but it does limit your options, and potentially might very well be at the expense of the absolute perfect effect for you from a tone perspective.

 

But of course that depends on how specific you are in your taste when it comes to sound, if you just want a generic good sounding effect, and not the one absolutely perfect for you, then of course it wouldn't really limit your options.

 

And that was kind of my point, beside most of all just being humorous in my initial reply and not too dead serious about it in the first place.

 

Edited September 17, 2022 by Baloney Balderdash

[TeresaFR]

21 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

No you was not saying that, but it does limit your options, and potentially might very well be at the expense of the absolute perfect effect for you from a tone perspective.

 

But of course that depends on how specific you are in your taste from a sound perspective, if you just want a generic good sounding effect, and not the one absolutely perfect for you, then of course it wouldn't really limit your options.

 

But that was kind of my point, beside most of all just being humorous and not too dead serious about it.

I think you were reading too much into my initial statement, but that's okay. The digital medium can be hard to navigate.

[Quatschmacher]

How versatile do you need it to be? Are you bothered if it’s analogue or digital? Do you need presets? Are you on a tight budget? 

[2elliot]

I had the Boss Flanger BF3 but sold it pretty quickly.  When in use it drowned everything out and made the sound really thin. I now use an MXR Flanger, the big grey one. It's excellent.

[BigRedX]

At least the Boss pedals are ergonomically sound and don't look as though they have been designed by a 5-year old from both an aesthetic and practical PoV.

[TeresaFR]

14 hours ago, Quatschmacher said:

How versatile do you need it to be? Are you bothered if it’s analogue or digital? Do you need presets? Are you on a tight budget? 

Great question. It doesn't need presets, it doesn't really matter whether it's analogue or digital. I'd be using it as an occasional effect rather than an always on effect, and I'd be using it for the classic wooshing sound. Budget isn't a significant issue as I can just save up for it. It does need not to be huge, so standard pedal size or smaller is for the best. Thanks.

[TeresaFR]

10 hours ago, 2elliot said:

I had the Boss Flanger BF3 but sold it pretty quickly.  When in use it drowned everything out and made the sound really thin. I now use an MXR Flanger, the big grey one. It's excellent.

I'm surprised at that from Boss, they sound like they'd be super reliable judging by their popularity. But hey, I like EHX and not everyone gets on with them and that's fine.

[TeresaFR]

9 hours ago, BigRedX said:

At least the Boss pedals are ergonomically sound and don't look as though they have been designed by a 5-year old from both an aesthetic and practical PoV.

I don't know which company you have a beef against, or maybe it's just my pedalboard you feel affronted by, but if it's the former then that's between you and them and if it's the latter then please recognise that no one's forcing you play or even like my pedalboard. If you don't like Korg, Wampler, EHX, MXR and Tech 21 that's absolutely fine. A line-up of Boss pedals would look great and presumably sound great too but to this particular autistic person, a Boss pedal would look out of place on *my* board and that would affect how much I'd want to play it - which I recognise would be a negative. So please, cool it.

[Quatschmacher]

5 hours ago, TeresaFR said:

Great question. It doesn't need presets, it doesn't really matter whether it's analogue or digital. I'd be using it as an occasional effect rather than an always on effect, and I'd be using it for the classic wooshing sound. Budget isn't a significant issue as I can just save up for it. It does need not to be huge, so standard pedal size or smaller is for the best. Thanks.

Take a look at the Source Audio Mercury (or Lunar/Gemini). They all do the same sounds, just the top-level knobs differ.

 

Chase Bliss Spectre is a through-zero flanger, though discontinued I think. Analogue with digital controls.

 

TC electronic do a flanger. 

[itu]

5 hours ago, Quatschmacher said:

TC electronic do a flanger. 

They have actually three, if we exclude their multiunits: Thunderstorm (the big, heavy, and cheapo), Vortex (toneprint in bigger or smaller box), and the original SCF (Stereo Chorus/pitch modulator/Flanger).

[2elliot]

11 hours ago, TeresaFR said:

I'm surprised at that from Boss, they sound like they'd be super reliable judging by their popularity. But hey, I like EHX and not everyone gets on with them and that's fine.

Boss pedals are reliable. They are very tough pedals and work well. The flanger wasn't for me but I still use other Boss pedals on my board... some times I'll also throw in my original Clone Theory.

[Franticsmurf]

I have the EHX Neo Mistress and I've been trying for a few months to get a decent sound with my set up (Sterling Ray 34HH with compressor) but I find it heavy handed and I haven't been able to come up with the more subtle sound I'm looking for (as an occasional effect rather the often used sound). I also have the EHX Bass Clone and I found the sound I wanted from that very quickly. I assume that as the Neo Mistress isn't specifically a bass flanger, it struggles with the bass frequencies.

 

I'm currently playing with a Zoom MS60B, using it to find the kinds of sounds I'm after with the intention of finding the dedicated pedals to reproduce them. However, the MS60B is proving to be ideal for what I'm after and I think, for the amount of use these spot effects will be getting, the Zoom will be my solution. 

[skidder652003]

Behringer flange pedal. They look cool as.........

[paul_5]

I’ve got a preference for EHX when it comes to modulation (their small stone and blond are my faves), but don’t really use a flanger, so can’t really comment.

 

I’ve had the TC thunderstorm though, and found that it was really flexible, just not the sound I had in my head - turns out that was a phaser.

[BigRedX]

On 19/09/2022 at 00:03, TeresaFR said:

I don't know which company you have a beef against, or maybe it's just my pedalboard you feel affronted by, but if it's the former then that's between you and them and if it's the latter then please recognise that no one's forcing you play or even like my pedalboard. If you don't like Korg, Wampler, EHX, MXR and Tech 21 that's absolutely fine. A line-up of Boss pedals would look great and presumably sound great too but to this particular autistic person, a Boss pedal would look out of place on *my* board and that would affect how much I'd want to play it - which I recognise would be a negative. So please, cool it.

 

Not aimed at you personally but at the "boutique" pedal market in general.

 

I posted these in another thread:

 

How to make a "boutique" pedal.

 

1. Find a design from the 60s or 70s and copy it. Make sure that your version uses at least one germanium transistor even if the original pedal didn't have any.

 

2. Make sure that one of the controls and one socket is in a completely ridiculous place. Say they need to be there in order to improve signal cross-talk from the original design.

 

3. Give the pedal a name that only a 13 year old boy will find amusing - ideally some kind of knob joke.

 

4. Give all the controls unintuitive descriptions like "spatter" or "fragrance" and write them on in a barely legible scrawl. Do not put any other markings on the controls, and if you're not using chicken head knobs then have ones without any position markers on them.

 

5. Pedals with three or fewer controls on them should be in huge chunky metal cases, with the controls positioned at random and in an order not consistent with the signal flow. Pedals with lots of controls should be in a case so tiny that it is virtually impossible to adjust one without inadvertently moving at least one other (also see point 2).

 

6. Get a five year old to do the graphics. Ideally every pedal should have a different "graphical design" even though the electronics inside are identical.

 

7. Charge at least £200 for it even though the parts and labour cost to make them is a fraction of that.

 

8. It should also include one additional control which supposedly allows the pedal to sound both like the original version and any other variations on that design that existed during the production runs. In reality this control either only has one useful position (the others all producing a horrible unmusical racket) or the variations are so subtle that no-one can really hear any difference between them.

[BassThing]

On 18/09/2022 at 13:44, 2elliot said:

I had the Boss Flanger BF3 but sold it pretty quickly.  When in use it drowned everything out and made the sound really thin. I now use an MXR Flanger, the big grey one. It's excellent.

 

That'll be the M117R, good enough for Steve Severin*, so more than good enough for me.

 

*and plenty of other people like John McGeoch, EVH etc.

[2elliot]

On 30/09/2022 at 19:55, BassThing said:

 

That'll be the M117R, good enough for Steve Severin*, so more than good enough for me.

 

*and plenty of other people like John McGeoch, EVH etc.

That is exactly why I bought it. Banshees are one of my favourite bands.