essential bass effects

[cfnewcomer]

hello. the holiday of christmas approaches and i would like to get the bass player of my band a pedal. he is poor and at this point has no effects in his setup, which is an old short scale EKO bass into a vintage ampeg head and 8x10 cab.

i was thinking of getting him either some kind of compressor or an overdrive/fuzz thing?

which would be more immediately useful or essential for him to have?

i was going to choose between these:

ehx black finger, metaphors, bass big muff, way huge swollen pickle, mxr m-80 bass... and is there a cheaper pedal comparable to the zvex woolly mammoth?


what does anybody think?

thanks!

[stylonpilson]

I don't think that the word "essential" means what you think it means.

S.P.

Edit: sorry, this sounds dismissive. What I meant to say was: what makes you so certain that he wants effects in his signal chain?

[crack-boom]

a compressor is always nice

[cfnewcomer]

i know he does want some effects. he likes effects. he was a guitarist before playing bass in our band and had a lot of guitar effects, which he sold to buy his bass and amp. so neither of us really know anything about bass effects and which ones would be good to have. he's tried a bunch of my guitar pedals on his bass but none end up sounding very good (frantone cream puff, various boss overdrives/distortions, a rat, crowther hotcake, old russian big muff), probably because they werent made for bass...

[jimmy rocket]

Originally Posted by cfnewcomer

i know he does want some effects. he likes effects. he was a guitarist before playing bass in our band and had a lot of guitar effects, which he sold to buy his bass and amp. so neither of us really know anything about bass effects and which ones would be good to have. he's tried a bunch of my guitar pedals on his bass but none end up sounding very good (frantone cream puff, various boss overdrives/distortions, a rat, crowther hotcake, old russian big muff), probably because they werent made for bass...

Sometimes you just have to think about the effects a bit differently when you're using them on bass. Fuzz for example, on guitar I crank the fuzz knob and dial back the vol, but on bass to get a good fuzz I back the same pedal off almost all the way on fuzz and increase the vol. Same pedal, works on both, but set differently.

When I saw the light and converted to bass playing I found that overdrives were not the easiest pedals to transfer over to bass. Thinks like tremelo, delay and chorus made the jump much easier.

That said, a compressor is a nice start but it's not really an "effect." A BBE Opto-stomp would be nice.

[crapusername]

what kind of music do you as a band play, and what kind of music is he into?

[vin*tone]

I love my EHX Black Finger..... You can crank the pre stage to get fuzz/overdrive.

[cfnewcomer]

we sound kinda like

the who meets my bloody valentine. or autolux.

he likes those bands. and like, deerhunter. and M.I.A.

for my guitar, i use mostly a hot cake and some minor delay. sometimes a moog ring mod, a whammy, some filters to get synthy sounds. the other guitarist uses an OCD and LOTS of reverb and LOTS of delays. i just wanted to get him something to start with to help his bass sound be more legit. something that can help achieve a really nice, controllable bass tone and perhaps a real fat, badass, non-tone-compromising fuzz to stomp on sometimes...

[Infernal Affair]

I think a fuzz would be suitable for your type of band. You could check out the Bass Big Muff, but there's a ton of fuzzes out that that work well with bass, even if they weren't intended for it originally (like the Supercollider).

I've tried the original US Muff on my bass before and while it's cool, I lost a ton of low end. With the Bass Big Muff there's a mode that combines the fuzz and dry sounds so it doesn't lose that low end. Think "Starlight" from Muse. Chris from Muse ran his bass signal to two amps to get that sound but it's doable on the Bass Big Muff.

[rcubed]

At least a couple of fuzz pedals, phaser, chorus, octaver, couple of delays, some of filter or wah. That should cover a lot.

[RickenBoogie]

A pedal like the MXR M80 is quite useful, as it has a DI, 3 band eq, and a second distortion channel with a gate and blend control. Alot of bang for the buck.

[sikamikanico]

vintage ampeg you say? with tubes?

well, with that, he's got a very popular bass tone already (eko shortscale? mmm, I just bought an eko barracuda, semi-acoustic medium scale... nice )

anyway, if you say you didn't like the results of a russian muff, muff and their clones are not for you/him. it should help to add a blender pedal, but if you don't like the tone or whatever in the first place, look for a different fuzz.

never tried the MXR 80, but it sounds interesting. it reminds me, that ampeg head probably doesn't have a proper DI, right? so, a good DI would also be a nice choice (I don't know how's the DI on that MXR...)

other than overdrive, fuzz, and compression, nice bass effects (nice imo = useful + popular or common) are an envelope filter, chorus, octaver and phaser.

but, it would make a very good start if you can tell us what kind of a head is that ampeg and, what kind of gigs you play (or are likely to play in the next year or so - sometimes a good DI can be a life saver).

[cfnewcomer]

thats what he's got. vintage eko cobra and ampeg svt vr head, ampeg 8x10 cab.


we havent played any shows yet, but probably will in the next 3 or 4 months. the places we'd likely play all seem to have pretty legit sound setups. i know he would probably be offended if any sound guy wanted him to go DI, tho maybe a pedal with a DI out like a punch factory might be a good option?

[sikamikanico]

well, I think compression (especially tube compression) is not needed, neither is overdrive (there should be plenty available from the head, though I don't know this head, I just checked it quickly on internet).

so, as a gift, I'd buy him something used or returnable, because it's always a lottery, if the user cannot hear the pedal before buying. so if you choose for him, there is a good chance he won't be fully satisfied. maybe not even you...

anyway, i'd want to try an octaver or filter with that head, maybe chorus. chorus (or maybe even phaser) would probably work nice with your music. with two guitars though, he doesn't have to fill out any space in sound, so he might as well stick to the bass and amp tone... in that case, buy him a tuner or DI

one thing that could be interesting is that MXR 80, if you can use the DI to send a clean signal to the mixing desk. combine that with a mic sound and you should have great results - dry (clean) DI and wet mic signal but then you need a reliable person behind the mixing desk, someone who knows how to blend to bass signals together...

[bassforce]

Boss Tu-2 or Korg Pitchblack are the essentials

[okTem]

I agree with all the above eventhough they contradict There's no right or wrong about effects IMO and IME

I recently added EHX Small Stone, EHX Micro POG and MXR Carbon Copy to my setup. They turned out to be great pedals. I use my chorus pedal frequently to express some phrases in songs..

You could prefer a modulation effect rather than any other tone shaping boxes as your fellow bass player shouldn't have any tone issues since he's got the amp head of my dreams

A chorus always finds its way thru.. Also, he may get some hammond like sonds outta POG. POG works better with a phase pedal or chorus by the way.. Else, you could also consider EHX Bass Micro Synthesizer as it is an analog synth box and huge fun to play with.

Good luck on your quest. and please feel free to PM me for any questions...

[ShowKing]

he's poor and he has an ampeg svt vr + ampeg 8x10

a bass chorus might be nice?

for me my sadowsky preamp is the most effective pedal i use to be heard and sit in the mix but mayb his gear can already be heard well enough?

[TheMutt]

I'd suggest one of four types of effects, each having their own usefulness in a band setting (IMO and IME, as always YMMV):

Modulation (chorus/flanger/tremolo/phaser/vibrato)

Chorus: EHX small clone, *Analogman clone chorus, EHX clone theory, BOSS CEB-3/CE-5/CH-1, *Digitech XBC.

Flanger: *Dunlop M-177R analog flanger, *BOSS BF-3/BF-2, Guyatone FL-3.

Tremolo: Catalinbread Semaphore/Valcoder, EHX Pulsar, Earthquaker Devices Hummingbird/Pulse Machine.

Phaser: *EHX Small/Nano Stone, Subdecay Quasar, *MXR Phase 45/90/100.

Octaver

Digital - good tracking, handles chords: *EHX Micro POG, *EHX POG, *EHX HOG.

Digital - okay tracking, can glitch on chords: BOSS PS-3/5, Digitech Whammy & variants.

Analog - mostly okay tracking, will octave skip on chords/ringing strings: EHX Octave Multiplexer, Foxrox Octron, EBS OctaBass

Fuzz

*MXR Blowtorch, *Malekko Heavy Industry B:Assmaster, Wren and Cuff Pickle Pie:B, Crowther Prunes and Custard, Colorsound Tonebender, Electronix Messdrive, Fulltone Bass Drive.

Envelope filter/wah

Envelope Filter: *EBS BassIq, *EHX QTron/Qtron+, Musitronics/Haz Mutron III(+), Lovetone Meatball, Robot Factory Meatwad, Barge Concepts the Grinder, 3Leaf Groove Regulator, *Boomstick Bottom Feeder. 

Wah: Morley wah, Dunlop 105Q, *Wilson bass Wah, Fulltone Clyde.

There's definitely more options out there, but I've listed some of the more ranted about effects in each catagory, and I put a * next to the ones that I have owned in the past, or currently own. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. But a search will probably net you a ton of information and sound clips to listen to.
Also, the effect pedal sound clip datbase in the wiki is a great resource for sound clips as well.

[sikamikanico]

Originally Posted by sungjin891118

he's poor and he has an ampeg svt vr + ampeg 8x10

a bass chorus might be nice?

for me my sadowsky preamp is the most effective pedal i use to be heard and sit in the mix but mayb his gear can already be heard well enough?

guess why he's poor

I don't think sadowsky pre would fit that bass and amp and their music and all...

[TheMutt]

Originally Posted by sikamikanico

guess why he's poor

I don't think sadowsky pre would fit that bass and amp and their music and all...

At least nobody suggested he get a SansAmp VT Bass...