I wasted hundreds! The only effects I really need/use is....

[de la mocha]

This baby to make everything even when playing slap bass which is very rare.

That's it. After wah pedals, distortions, chorus, and multi-effect units, I found out that for me, personally, I prefer the hi-fi super clean bass sound with no effects. Just a nice clean tone.

It was an expensive lesson finding my way, but the only unit I'd probably purchase is the boss EQ pedal and call it a day. After hundreds of dollars wasted on the gear-go-round, I will keep only two pedals on my pedal board!

I'm not knocking anybody with pitch shifters, flangers and fuzz effects. We're all individuals with our individual styles. I'm just shaking my head at the fact that I spent hundreds of dollars for nothing to find that for me, less is best!

[derelicte]

i'll take some pedals off ya! what have you got??!

i call dibs on analog delay!!!

[SteveC]

I go back and forth all the time. I've bought and sold many pedals - some more than once. I keep going back to a clean signal. It just seems to work for me. I'd like to have some cool effects, but I think they get lost outside of the practice room. I still have my chorus and phaser, but I never use them anymore.

For my jazz stuff, I tried using come subtle chorus, but it didn't seem to make a big difference at the gig, and when playing standards all night there isn't much call for effects.

I could probably make better use of them with my cover band, but we do pretty straight ahead stuff. Yeah, a Big Muff would be good for the ONE Ben Folds Five tune, but I just can't justify the purchase or hauling of gear for that. The audience doesn't seem to care, so I just go direct and play as good a line as I can.

[RickenBoogie]

I'm with you, sometimes it seems like a huge waste of time, and money. At one time, I was running two full boards of boxes, until I realized how little stage room I have. Sometimes there's not even room for one. I'm keeping the one board now, and it's relatively big, but there's a limit to what I can live without.

[dunamis]

Like the OP, I find that a litle compression is about it for me as far as effects are concerned.

The one exception: I have an Analogman Chorus that is a great sound for certain songs. I used it at a recent wedding for some slow songs we did with just vocals and piano. If you get one of these, make sure you get the 'deep switch' option-- it really makes a big difference.