Effects and their uses

[Beginner Bass]

Personally I'm supprised nobody has made a sticky of this. For all the "What effects should I get for playing (Insert genre here)?" threads, there hasn't been a sticky made of it. Basically I think someone should make a thread of genres and what effects, if any, are commonly used in said genre (i.e. modern alt/indie rock-Synth, fuzz). Those were just the first effects and genres that came to my head. Just and idea. There will probably be people attacking me with troll. But the point of this isn't to say what's good and bad, but to give a beginner a good starting point without having to go out and buy 30 different pedals.

[TheWoodShed]

Originally Posted by Beginner Bass

Personally I'm supprised nobody has made a sticky of this. For all the "What effects should I get for playing (Insert genre here)?" threads, there hasn't been a sticky made of it. Basically I think someone should make a thread of genres and what effects, if any, are commonly used in said genre (i.e. modern alt/indie rock-Synth, fuzz). Those were just the first effects and genres that came to my head. Just and idea.

That is a subjective judgment, so it would be hard to do.

[Mudfuzz]

Personally I find those types of threads defeatist.

Maybe I'm just weird [ok I know I am so what] but the whole point of FX is experimentation! You mess around and try things intill you get to something you like.

If you want a specific sound then that's fine but I think genre-tizing it a bad thing. A sound it a sound. The style shouldn't determine the sound and the sound shouldn't determine the style.

End of Line...

[OriginalCrash]

Well, it's not necessarily subjective, as the OP asked about what effects are commonly used in specific genres and not what effects sound good in certain genres. But yes, even then it would be quite difficult to have a comprehensive, accurate, and objective answer to that, so I reckon that's why it hasn't been done yet.

[Smurf-o-Deth]

I'll do a few, give us a start:

Funk: Use what works for you.
Blues: Use what works for you.
Folk: Use what works for you.
Punk: Use what works for you.
Rock: Use what works for you.
Hip Hop: Use what works for you.
Zydeco: Use what works for you.
Country: Use what works for you.
Metal: Use what works for you.
Jazz: Use what works for you.
R&B: Use what works for you.

[nad]

Listen to the Smurf.

Fuzz bass started in country music. Genre restrictions are for pikers.

[Hector_G]

Originally Posted by Smurf-o-Deth

I'll do a few, give us a start:

Funk: Use what works for you.
Blues: Use what works for you.
Folk: Use what works for you.
Punk: Use what works for you.
Rock: Use what works for you.
Hip Hop: Use what works for you.
Zydeco: Use what works for you.
Country: Use what works for you.
Metal: Use what works for you.
Jazz: Use what works for you.
R&B: Use what works for you.

So what you're trying to say iiiis.......

[Gashaponcito]

I agree with everyone that you can use whatever you want whenever you want but most genres have basics...
Alt Rock - Fuzz
Classic Rock - Tube Overdrive
Funk - Envelope Filter/Wah
Ambient Stuff - Delay/Chorus/Phaser
Power trios - Pitch shifter + Distortion
Electronica/Dance/D&B - Synth (Octave/Fuzz/Filter)

[Mudfuzz]

Originally Posted by Gashaponcito

I agree with everyone that you can use whatever you want whenever you want but most genres have basics...
Alt Rock - Fuzz
Classic Rock - Tube Overdrive
Funk - Envelope Filter/Wah
Ambient Stuff - Delay/Chorus/Phaser
Power trios - Pitch shifter + Distortion
Electronica/Dance/D&B - Synth (Octave/Fuzz/Filter)

I take the same board with the same FX for: blues, metal, pop, funk, folk, other, ect.

basics are meaningless, get a hammer.

[René_Julien]

Originally Posted by Mudfuzz

I take the same board with the same FX for: blues, metal, pop, funk, folk, other, ect.

basics are meaningless, get a hammer.

I even used fuzz in jazz. To fill in for saxophone parts.


At least... I thought it was jazz and I thought I was filling in for a saxophone.

[Beginner Bass]

I agree that you can use whatever you want on anything. On the other hand these also could provide good starting points for a beginner just getting into effects. For example, if some kid wants to play classic rock, and he goes out and get the most insanely distorted god-awful creation the world has ever seen, turn everything to 12, blow his speakers to shreds, and have a sound that is the very definition of "not classic rock", and then chances are some of a few things will happen:

• Will have poor results
• Will lose faith in anything small, plastic, and with a little button on it
• Will never buy another effect and miss out on a lot of fun, all because of one bad choice of what fits the context of the siuation

None of these are good. On the other hand, he could get perhaps a nice warm tube drive, the opposite of the first happens happens, and he gets a tone that fits his music. Then chances are he will:

1. Have good results
2. Will understand that when used right, pedals are good
3. Will buy another pedal with a good idea of what he wants, and have fun

Thee are good. So what I'm saying is yes if you want to take out 10 different distortions with each knob at it's absolute maximum for a blues song, you can. But if you do that the first time you buy a pedal, you will have probably wasted your money and have a case of my first example. I'm saying that some pedals make better starting points than others.

[JimmyM]

The most important thing that I learned about effects on bass early on is that very few people complain if you use a clean sound. However, nowadays you need some sort of distortion unit if you want to play modern music. That's really the only mandatory effect for bass, and there are many times you don't even need that.

But they're fun and they can give you ideas and enhance your creativity, so if you want to use them, give them a shot. But add them slowly. Nothing worse than someone who buys a ton of pedals and has no idea how to use them. I learned that lesson the hard way when I went back to using effects a year ago. I added a whole bunch of new sounds on my multi-fx all at once, and none of them were dialed in right for the band and none of them sounded good. So I concentrated on each sound one at a time and took my time with it, and things got a lot better.

So if you want to experiment with them, make sure you have the first one working good before you go to the next one.

[Jared Lash]

I see where you're coming from Beginner Bass, but there's a few problems with trying to do something like this.

1) People won't agree. Considering how often people ask for something like "tube like overdrive" and get recommendations for the Tech 21 XXLB or ZVex Wooly Mammoth I don't see how you'd choose who is "right" about which effects.

2) People have different ideas about what effects work in particular genres which themselves are hard to define. Look for an old thread about which effects are best for "psychedelic music". Pretty much every possible effect type was recommended.

3) As shown over and over again people don't read the stickies that we already have.

4) You can play funk like Rocco with no effects or like Bootsy with an octaver, overdrive, fuzz, 10 filters, wah, phaser, delay etc. To me people shouldn't buy effects just because someone in a similar genre uses them but because there are sounds they want to achieve.

[nad]

Originally Posted by Beginner Bass

For example, if some kid wants to play classic rock, and he goes out and get the most insanely distorted god-awful creation the world has ever seen, turn everything to 12, blow his speakers to shreds, and have a sound that is the very definition of "not classic rock"

Sounds like Jack Bruce really.

[Beginner Bass]

Originally Posted by Jared Lash

1) People won't agree. Considering how often people ask for something like "tube like overdrive" and get recommendations for the Tech 21 XXLB or ZVex Wooly Mammoth I don't see how you'd choose who is "right" about which effects.

2) People have different ideas about what effects work in particular genres which themselves are hard to define. Look for an old thread about which effects are best for "psychedelic music". Pretty much every possible effect type was recommended.

3) As shown over and over again people don't read the stickies that we already have.

4) You can play funk like Rocco with no effects or like Bootsy with an octaver, overdrive, fuzz, 10 filters, wah, phaser, delay etc. To me people shouldn't buy effects just because someone in a similar genre uses them but because there are sounds they want to achieve.

1.) You do have a point there.

2.) That is true. The reason I didn't say in the description "What effects
are good for what genre?" is because of just that. One guy will say that to play metal you need 5 distortions running at 50000 db, while the other would say the only thing you should ever put between your bass and your 2369005489654-watt head is a booster pedal, then another guy would say get an expander, etc. What I was hoping for was a clear, concise, objective statement, rather than a personal opinion.

Good: A common effect in electronica music is an octave divider.

Provides a fact.

Bad: Distortion is a good effect to use in metal.

Gives an opinion.

3.) Unfortunately, that's right. But if so, then why do we have them?

4.) That's right. But let's say you're looking around and hear let's say, some Sludge metal band. You like their bassist's tone. You then look around and hear other band's with bassists with similar tones. You realize that''s a pretty common sound in Sludge, so you go on and find out what kinds of effects they use, and you get some. You then star messing with them and find you find a tone that sounds similar. But say you want a bit more mids. You tweak it and then you find you have made something that, in your eyes, is better than what you originally were looking for.

[Beginner Bass]

bump

[Bassmike62]

Originally Posted by Beginner Bass

But the point of this isn't to say what's good and bad, but to give a beginner a good starting point without having to go out and buy 30 different pedals.

According to what I see around here and talking with other bassplayers, a tuner and a compressor are must pedals. Also, a noise suppressor is useful if you have high gain pedals (you can loop the fuzz, OD, distortion, compressor or whatever you have). After that, it becomes purely a matter of taste. I play rock (blues, classic, alt...), use a SansAmp bass driver as a preamp and I like to use chorus ("on" almost all the time with light settings) and an octave. I also toy around with a flanger and the EHX bassballs when I want to add funky lines.

But then again, other TB'ers might play the same styles and use other different effects. I actually bought the bassballs after reading about its almost cult-status in this forum...and I'm hooked !

Best of luck and pleasure with your experiments, dude.

[K2000]

It's a nice idea in theory, but on the downside it tends to make everyone sound the same, and discourages experimentation.

Think outside the bun and make your own list. If you have specific questions about specific pedals, those are preferred to TalkBass making a list of acceptable choices.