Help the effects noob....

[bleeding]

As the title states, I know basically 0 about effects....

If I wanted to pick up some effects to play around with, what are good ones to start with? Is a mulit effect pedal good to start with - or might there be a few specific pedals that would be good investments?

I play through an svt-cl head with an 8 10 cabinet. About the only effect that gives is really thick sound......

[All_¥our_Bass]

the Digitech BP80 is a very nice pedal to get familiar with effects with.

[Zappstorius]

I'd recommend a cheap multi unit to figure out what you like. Zoom, Digitech. Much better idea than diving into stompboxes right away.

[bongomania]

Your best bet honestly, IMO, is to spend some time reading through several days worth of this forum. There's so much being talked about that it will give you a better idea of what all you're dealing with, plus certain effect names and abbreviations (LBM, SABDDI, BOA) will start to crop up repeatedly which shows what units a lot of us are using or interested in. Once you've done that reading then you'll have an idea what to look into, and one of the best ways to do that is to use the "search" function on those effect names and abbreviations to read all the threads about them.

By the time you've done all that, you won't be such a noob anymore and you'll probably have some more specific questions to ask. Then we can help!

[nad]

Seconding bongo's recommendation. That's what I usually do, I search search search and read read read, then do what I need to do. Case in point, I recently needed a DI, so I read about 20 threads last night and purchased a Radial JDI without making a single post. Knowledge is keen.

Alternate advice:

I always recommend a distortion pedal first, but with a big honkin' SVT stack such as that, anything you get may come up short. Well, except perhaps a Blue Berry. Instead of that, maybe a chorus, phaser, or envelope filter. Something used and cheap to start with.

[MakiSupaStar]

+1 to Nad and Bongo. It also helps to let us know what kind of music you play.

[Jared Lash]

Originally Posted by bleeding

As the title states, I know basically 0 about effects....

If I wanted to pick up some effects to play around with, what are good ones to start with? Is a mulit effect pedal good to start with - or might there be a few specific pedals that would be good investments?

I see this advice a lot, and I'm sure it worked for some, but personally I don't like the idea. Primarily because cheap multi-effects often do one or two things well but do other things terribly which gives you a skewed sense of how effective different effects are on bass. Plus I don't like the idea of spending $80 or more for something that I know I wouldn't ultimately keep. I'd rather find one pedal I really like and go that route.

Check out the soundclips in the Wiki, do some searches and as Maki suggested, give us an idea of what kind of music you play or want to make and you'll get more targeted help that way.

[derelicte]

play with every pedal at Guitar Center!!!

not a big fan of the multi units. at all.

but if i were, i'd give the Zoom b2. (with pedal) a try. And maybe a boss multi.

[bleeding]

I mostly play alternative rock stuff, and I am part of a praise/worship band....but I definately not limited to those genre of music...

[bleeding]

HRM, the EBS mulitdrive pedal sounded pretty sweet!

I wonder if i can get my SVT to sound like that with the tubes!?