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distortion and wah pedals


scott22890
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I have an Ibanez GSR 200 bass guitar with a Fender Rumble 15w amp. I want to get a pedal for playing metalcore and thrash metal, what do you guys recommend? I have heard that the Boss OBD-3 and the EHX Bass Big Muff Pi were good distortion pedals and the Dunlop Crybaby Bass Wah is a good wah pedal, what do you guys think? I was also wondering if I could hook up a distortion pedal and a wah pedal together? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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[quote name='scott22890' post='680919' date='Dec 11 2009, 05:47 AM']I have an Ibanez GSR 200 bass guitar with a Fender Rumble 15w amp. I want to get a pedal for playing metalcore and thrash metal, what do you guys recommend? I have heard that the Boss OBD-3 and the EHX Bass Big Muff Pi were good distortion pedals and the Dunlop Crybaby Bass Wah is a good wah pedal, what do you guys think? I was also wondering if I could hook up a distortion pedal and a wah pedal together? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.[/quote]

My advice is that as long as you're playing through a 15w practice amp, the difference between good effects and bad effects is all relative. If I were you I'd save the money you were going to spend on effects and upgrade your amp to something bigger and better asap, and then start thinking about what effects to put through it, because there's no point in spending good money on nice effects if you're going to put them through a tiny little underpowered amp.

Otherwise all of the effects that you've listed are very good, but whether or not you like them is going to be a matter of trying them out.

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[quote name='cheddatom' post='681066' date='Dec 11 2009, 10:33 AM']He didn't say he was in a band.

All I will say is that my most productive years learning guitar and bass were spent practicing through a zoom multi-effects pedal into my headphones - could be the right choice for the OP.[/quote]

Sure, but I think the point is that there's not much point in distinguishing between good and bad effects if you're going to put them through a £70 amp.

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[quote name='maxrossell' post='681076' date='Dec 11 2009, 10:40 AM']Sure, but I think the point is that there's not much point in distinguishing between good and bad effects if you're going to put them through a £70 amp.[/quote]

He's asking for reccomendations for distortion and wah pedals. I don't think he's talking about boutique true bypass £200 dirt boxes.

Yeh, you'll never get any low end out of a crappy practice amp, and obviously you won't be able to practice with a band but if you want to play with effects while you're learning and building up a rig, then £70 on a multi-effects pedal is a good idea, as opposed to £150 on a distortion and wah, or saving up for 2 years before you can afford a decent amp.

Most rehersal spaces provide a bass amp.


Having said all that you can get 100W 15" combos out of the paper for £60 on a good day.

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I'd go for the Big muff too from those choices, but i'd add the Ashdown LoMenzo hyperdrive to the list.

the ashdown has a wide variety of sounds available, and retails around the £60 mark.

as for Wah, i own dunlop 105Q, and it's good, but i think the ibanez weeping demon might fit your choice of style a little better.
it gets a good bit of love here and TB, it's extremely adjustable, and costs about £110 new.

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[quote name='cheddatom' post='681099' date='Dec 11 2009, 10:58 AM']He's asking for reccomendations for distortion and wah pedals. I don't think he's talking about boutique true bypass £200 dirt boxes.

Yeh, you'll never get any low end out of a crappy practice amp, and obviously you won't be able to practice with a band but if you want to play with effects while you're learning and building up a rig, then £70 on a multi-effects pedal is a good idea, as opposed to £150 on a distortion and wah, or saving up for 2 years before you can afford a decent amp.

Most rehersal spaces provide a bass amp.


Having said all that you can get 100W 15" combos out of the paper for £60 on a good day.[/quote]

This is what I'm saying - £70 on a multieffects will be cool for a bit of practicing, but if he gets asked to play in a band next week, he'd be better off with the bigger amp. Gotta try to think ahead with buying, even when you're starting out.

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[quote name='maxrossell' post='681417' date='Dec 11 2009, 03:17 PM']This is what I'm saying - £70 on a multieffects will be cool for a bit of practicing, but if he gets asked to play in a band next week, he'd be better off with the bigger amp. Gotta try to think ahead with buying, even when you're starting out.[/quote]

No, I want the last word!

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[quote name='scott22890' post='680919' date='Dec 11 2009, 05:47 AM']...I have heard that the Boss OBD-3...[/quote]

If you go to eBay and search on "Boss Hog" in the Musical Instruments section you'll find ODB3 clones for sale whcih are virtually identical (internally) to the Boss. Here's a quick link to one for sale at the moment - [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BASS-GUITAR-OVERDRIVE-PEDAL-GLX-Boss-Hog-Metal-Effects_W0QQitemZ270499931261QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Guitar_Accessories?hash=item3efb0d647d"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BASS-GUITAR-OVERDRIV...=item3efb0d647d[/url]

They're also sold under the names GLX and Harley Benton and Beta Aivin and are much cheaper than the Boss, if you're just starting out and are on a strict budget I think this would be a better bet for you and you can put the money you save to one side for when you want or need a bigger amp.

This is a review (albeit of their compressor pedal) which goes into the details of their general construction and quality. [url="http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/glxbeta.shtml"]http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/glxbeta.shtml[/url] . The guy who does these reviews is a compressor geek (meant in the best possible way) who's views are held in very high regard over on Talkbass.

Hope this helps,
Steve.

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Get a 2nd hand Zoom multi fx pedal for about £20-£30 & then you'll know what you want later after you get a better amp. I had a zoom 708 & it was the best £26 I've spent. Does a decent amount of different distortions & overdrives etc & has a reasonable wah as well as several other good useable fx such as delay, chorus, synth & compressor.
I agree with Max as it's pointless spending more until you have a decent rig & you'll be surprised & impressed with a cheap multi fx pedal.

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Thanks for all the advice guys. I think I'm gonna end up getting a big muff and a weeping demon. As of right now I'm just practicing by myself at my house and every once in a while I play with a friend of mine who has a guitar, but we're thinkin about getting a little band going soon. As for amps what are a few you guys recommend and how many watts should I get to play in a band?

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[quote name='scott22890' post='681717' date='Dec 11 2009, 09:10 PM']Thanks for all the advice guys. I think I'm gonna end up getting a big muff and a weeping demon. As of right now I'm just practicing by myself at my house and every once in a while I play with a friend of mine who has a guitar, but we're thinkin about getting a little band going soon. As for amps what are a few you guys recommend and how many watts should I get to play in a band?[/quote]

That's going to depend. Number of watts alone is not usually the best indicator of how loud an amp can go - although for playing in a rock band situation your strict minimum will be something like 100w-150w or thereabouts if you want to be heard. For instance the number of speakers in an amp also has an effect on the amount of db volume, because more speakers shift more air. A pair of 10" speakers will be more volume-efficient than a single 15" speaker, because they move more air, and 10" speakers also tend to have a slightly increased midrange response (midrange is more audible than bass end) - but the tradeoff there is that you may "feel" less bass with a smaller diameter speaker.

For amps to start out with, you could look at Peavey, which are very cheap second hand but still quite good. A lot of the bass players I know started out playing in bands with a Trace Commando. I'd advise staying away from Behringer, because although they're very cheap, they're also quite underpowered and they don't use durable components.

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get the maximum amount of wattage you can dude, being a rig or a combo.


my first real amp was a peavey 115max which was 50watts, although this could be heard playing with a band, it wasnt really good enough.


I now use a h&K bk200 200watts which plays fine at smaller gigs and an ashdown 600h with an ampeg 4x10hlf cab for the slighly bigger doos.

so basically you will always chase wattage, so get the biggest badboy you can get.

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try the ibanez phat head distortion. cool clean setting along with an OD and distortion settings. as for a wah i'd suggest a morley.
get to a store and tell them you've £300 to spend on a distortion and wah pedal and they'll be more than happy to let you try stuff out.you can always say you didn't find anything you fancy when your done. a little white lie never hurt nobody :)

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[quote name='The Funk' post='682672' date='Dec 13 2009, 12:15 AM']Snarlin' Dogs Bootzilla Wah - does wah and distortion.

Wah and distortion together sound great![/quote]

i honestly think that when you get the right settings it can actually sound like a dog growling, both the distortion and wah are top class and as soon as i get my wah switch fixed (it makes a horrible audible pop when activated) it will be on at every gig i play woo hoo.

+1 on bootsy pedal

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