Cheap Essential Pedals

[JT436]

Hey everyone! Right, looking to get an effects pedal as a present for my bassist as it's his 18th on Saturday. To give you an idea of our needs we play indie rock, but recently we've been bringing in a lot more atmospheric post rock influences.
At the moment the only pedal he has is a Big Muff Pi, so there are still a lot of basic things that he's without. I'm not a bassist, so I don't really know what would be the best thing to get him now.
My budget is about £90 absolute tops, but somewhere closer to £70 would be preferable.
Ideally analog effects with true bypass, but for that price I know it's asking a lot.

Thanks!

[peddles]

A poly tune mini would be essential, pretty cheap.

[Ubersheist]

Envelope filter is a good one, and would be top priority for me (but I play lots of funk). Make sure it's bass specific or "low pass," not band-pass.

A Wah or other filters could work better for him. Filters like wahs or envelope or maybe an lfo filter (as long as they're low pass) with the muff ahead of it in the signal chain really opens up sonic possibilities a whole lot!

Also, you could probably find a used boss syb-3 or an older synth pedal for under 75$ us, which should be well within your budget.

A bigger priority is a tuner if he doesn't have one.

Other then that, maybe compression.

[Gabeja15]

a GFS GFT-90 tuner (~$40) and a Behringer BSY600 (~35) and you'll have cash to spare

[topo morto]

Blender. Will make any other pedal sound decent on bass

[figuredbass]

You can't go wrong with a chorus.

[fleizenkruz]

a phaser (mxr phase 90) or chorus (boss ceb-3)

[Eric!]

get dat dude a real fuzz!

[BrandonBass]

u cant go wrong w a tuner. Korg pitchblack for the win

[oerk]

Chorus would be my choice, though a tuner would be the most useful.

Don't get a Boss Synth, they are not for everyone. Chances are he won't like it.

[eyecandy]

I'd recommend a tuner pedal, or maybe a hartke vxl bass attack di, or a sansamp =)

[crapusername]

Perhaps a delay or reverb.
The Marshall ones sound great with bass and are keenly priced - they should sit within your budget, even more so secondhand

[csanders]

My purchase history for pedals (mostly playing at home, some work with a church band):

1. Korg Pitch black
2. Russian Big Muff clone
3. Boss LS-2 (add some bottom to the muff)
4. Boss CE-5 chorus ensemble
5. SourceAudio BEF Pro (awaiting delivery)

Since you're leaning the atmospheric route, I'd say a good chorus for a subtle effect. Maybe some reverb. I love my CE5 for the more slow, spacey songs we play for meditative reflective post-sermon songs. Just adds some subtile fatness and presence to the low end which I think rounds the band out nicely. Just my opinion.

[beatsbears]

I used to play a good deal of Post-rock. I'd say look for a used delay/reverb, and if you can find one with looping capabilities, all the better.

[runmikeyrun]

tuner

[Inverse Kinetix]

I know it's not what you asked for, but I'm having massive fun with my Zoom b3 and an expression pedal. Keeps me entertained for hours on end. Especially with the looper.

[wshines1892]

I'd look at the Hartke Bass Attack, an MXR M80 DI, or possibly a Tech 21 BDDI if you can get someone to pitch in some money with you. Or even a Digitech Bad Monkey overdrive would be cool. I know the bassist from Tokyo Police Club uses one to get his tone, so give them a listen to tell if it's similar to a sound he's going for.

Going outside of what I've tried personally but am getting as soon as I get some play money, I'm looking at a Behringer Vintage Tube Monster overdrive for drive and a bit of light compression.

Now I know I bring up the B word, which is a touchy subject around here, but honestly Behringer is pretty cool for not a lot of money. For something very similar to the Tech21 BDDI, I won't say identical so I don't offend anyone, you could even look at the Behringer BDI21. There are some A/B tests out there of it and the Tech 21 unit and some people say it's identical. For $40 US, I don't think you could go wrong though.

[lowendblues]

Zoom B1 (around $50 new)
Hartke VXL Bass Attack ($99 new)

You get a kickass preamp / DI and a good sounding multi-effect unit for around $150.

[blastjv]

Just get him a tuner. Almost all of the other suggestions are for effects that he may or may not like. Let him pick those out on his own according to his preference. I love my Korg Pitchblack, but there are lots of great tuners out there.

-JV

[Zooberwerx]

A decent compressor and/or chorus are useful and can be had on the cheap (used).

Riis