Just joined the club!

[One Bad Monkey]

Like many here, I had a multi-fx unit (specifically, a BassPod XT Live) that I used for many years in the theatre circuit, as my "gateway" to using effects. Mainly, I'd use a lot of amp modeling for my church gig (where the rig was pretty much bass --> DI --> FOH) and toss in some chorus, delay, other types of ambient effects now and again.

Over the past couple of years, I've noticed (I'm assuming, like many) that I'd gravitate towards the same handful of effects, and many times using the amp modeling as more of a overdrive channel than an actual amp model. So with that, I started doing a lot of reading, checking out pedals at GC when I could, listening to clips, and buying some stuff here and there.

So, here is my first foray into building an actual pedal board. The board itself is built from parts of our old entertainment center that I took apart when we bought a new TV over Christmas. I made it small because I'm going to use this setup in church and don't need a lot for there. Plus, I have a soft Gator case that previously held my old EA iAmp Micro that this board will fit into. So, it worked out.



If the dry-run this Sunday goes well, I'm seriously thinking of cleaning the XT Live up and selling it off, in order to fund some more pedals and wood to build a bigger board. In January, I got asked to join an alternative, art-rock group, and as such will be using effects a lot to help color the sound.

[One Bad Monkey]

The past couple Sundays have been great using this setup. The Radial DI has made my bass sound a lot closer to what I hear from my amp, with a lot more presence and nuance. I've really only used the trem a couple of times at church, but it's definitely added some lushness to the sound when needed. Now comes building a bigger board for the art-rock group, and debating if I want to keep this separate, or build the other board in such a way that I can link them both together.

[Mark Olson]

Cool stuff! Personally I'd really recommend having separate boards for different projects so you can make sure to have everything in your desired order and you're not carrying anything you're not going to be using enough to make it worthwhile to haul. But that's me.

[One Bad Monkey]

Thanks, Mark. That's what I'm probably going to do, and then just have to remove the pedals from the smaller one (in the art/rock band, I double on electric and EUB, so will need the BassBone) to the bigger one. If I do it enough, might warrant some doubles on pedals, but back and forth is okay for now.

Now comes the "wish list" of pedals, the checking of finances, the frowning...

[Mark Olson]

Sounds like a good plan! If you need any pedal recommendations people are pretty willing to help out with those on this forum. I've owned roughly $30,000 worth of pedals, but I've sold off everything I don't NEED, and currently only have 8 pedals, of which I only bring four with me to a gig even though I'm the lead instrument and I use a lot of effects. My advice is to try stuff out, get a feel for the music you're going to be doing, and just have a few things that you know you'll really use a lot. After blowing so much money, probably enough to pay my college loans on pedals (I had a free ride so not much debt), I've discovered I don't think it's worth spending money and hauling around things that are only going to get used on one or two songs.

[One Bad Monkey]

Again, many thanks! Here's kind of the list of pedals I would use regularly in the band. I've got a couple of ideas for some specific pedals, but figure I'd leave them out to see what other people may recommend.

And for those interested, you can check out the band here. It's a lot of world-influenced music (mainly due to the drummer being a KILLER percussionist as well), and the others being very into other types of cultures (I think the singer sings songs in four different languages? I counted french, greek, japanese and english). Given the lineup, a lot of my effects would be more to add to a general ambiance, or provide a lush, solid foundation for the other stuff going on.

Pedals I'd use regularly:
Chorus
Phaser
Delay
Tremolo (got)

Pedals I'd like:
Single looper (I could then use my NE-1 preamp as more of an on/off thing)
Auto Wah

I think that's it. We really don't do a lot of things that would require any sort of fuzz, distortion or overdrive. But, having a subtle overdrive pedal would probably be nice to have just in case.

[Mark Olson]

My personal favorites for the type of pedals you're looking for would be the Analogman Mini Chorus with Deep Mod (for the most excellent, warm, lush chorus), EHX Nano Small Stone for a phase shifter (works excellent on bass and is affordable to boot), and the MXR Carbon Copy Analog Delay; I find analog delays to be more "lush" than digital ones, whereas the digital ones are more accurate albeit digital. The MXR is a simple delay, and if you think you could utilize all the features of a more complex delay, I really liked the Line 6 DL-4 Delay Modeler best as far as digital delays go with lots of features.

For auto wah (I assume you mean an envelope filter), I've actually had really good luck with the EHX Micro Q Tron. Some players seem to have a hard time dialing it in, but I found it easy to dial in and get a great sound out of, and I have some soundclips of it around here somewhere. I've owned much more expensive envelope filters, but personally, for the sound I want, I didn't see any point in keeping around anything more expensive/bigger/more complicated/etc.