Pedal bored

jimmy rocket · #1 05-14-2009, 08:05 AM

Fellow effects junkies. You know the feeling you get when you see an effect you just have to have for whatever reason? It may be the design, or the promise of tone nirvana, or the novelty of the thing, but your eyes become wide, and your palms sweat as you click the button confirming your internet effects order.

You open the pedal and it's a thing of glory! A masterpiece of electronic engineering. It is utterly ... boring?

What is the one effect you most wanted, and then found either uninspiring or completely useless in your context?

For me it would be the DOD FX25b. It is a fantastic pedal, that always promises funk nirvana. As it turns out however, I am not a funk bassist and it sits largely unused until I sell it. Then in a few months one pops up on e-bay and I buy it again and the cycle continues.

Oh, also phasers categorically fit this description for me.

And you?

CrispyDelicious · #2 05-14-2009, 08:12 AM

Fuzz. Everyone here talks about fuzz so much, I figured I must be missing out. I'll take OD, I'll take distortion, but actually plugging into a fuzz pedal left me so underwhelemed I honestly thought it was a Talkbass conspiracy.

EDIT: The EHX BBM, to be specific. Yawn. So much hype, for what, I still can't determine.

oldprussians · #3 05-14-2009, 08:19 AM

Agreed..... After analysing the players I much respect and try to emulate I realised that I need just 3 or maybe 4 effects..... which I shall publish later......

jimmy rocket · #4 05-14-2009, 08:32 AM

I can really get it done with a tuner and a cord between me and my amp, but I like the idea of effects, and I like to play, so I'm constantly on the merry-go-round.

two fingers · #5 05-14-2009, 08:35 AM

I don't use effects at all. (not knocking them, glad you like them) But your title made it worth clicking. Well played.

RickenBoogie · #6 05-14-2009, 09:17 AM

Without a doubt, it would have to be my Moog Bass Murf. Great pedal, no doubt, but I was so utterly underwhelmmed, and disapointed, that I traded it off for half of what I paid for it.

Spacelordmother · #7 05-14-2009, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimmy rocket

Pedal Bored

I'm always in a phaser/flanger go-round. I keep GASing, but nothing sounds or fits like I think it will...

cheapbasslovin · #8 05-14-2009, 11:22 AM

Chorus, flanger, compressor.

I routinely want these. I like the sound of the chorus and flanger when I play solo. I don't like the sound of them when I play in a band.

The comp thing is a different monster. So many people swear by them, but whenever I use one I find myself wondering why I can't turn the threshold up above all my peaks. I read the fealabs thread by Bongo and want it even though I've never liked any compressor enough to justify buying it or even using it. I just gotta learn that they're not for me.

jgroh · #9 05-14-2009, 11:36 AM

I was seriously gassin for an octave pedal, notably the newer mxr one. While contemplating buying one, I came across a line 6 bass pod xt live here on TB for the same price so I bought that instead. Im not comparing the Pod's octave pedal to any others, but wow, I could really care less about using an octave pedal. Good thing I dont use the Pod only for effects.

jimmy rocket · #10 05-14-2009, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheapbasslovin

Chorus, flanger, compressor.

I routinely want these. I like the sound of the chorus and flanger when I play solo. I don't like the sound of them when I play in a band.

The comp thing is a different monster. So many people swear by them, but whenever I use one I find myself wondering why I can't turn the threshold up above all my peaks. I read the fealabs thread by Bongo and want it even though I've never liked any compressor enough to justify buying it or even using it. I just gotta learn that they're not for me.

Compressors are a similar beast for me. I always have an opto stomp on my board, but it's only on half of the time. After a variety of compressors that's the best one I've found, but every once in a while I just want to let my bass breathe.

SteveC · #11 05-14-2009, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimmy rocket

Compressors are a similar beast for me. I always have an opto stomp on my board, but it's only on half of the time. After a variety of compressors that's the best one I've found, but every once in a while I just want to let my bass breathe.

I don't even have a board, but I do keep a BBE Opto Stomp around. One month I use it, the next I don't, but at least I've learned not to sell it and buy it and sell it and buy it...

Quote:

Originally Posted by two fingers

I don't use effects at all. (not knocking them, glad you like them) But your title made it worth clicking. Well played.

Me, too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldprussians

Agreed..... After analysing the players I much respect and try to emulate I realised that I need just 3 or maybe 4 effects..... which I shall publish later......

I don't even need that many.

varunkapahi · #12 05-14-2009, 01:06 PM

yeah! happens often! so i sell those pedals and get nastier sounding ones

FreaqyFrequency · #13 05-14-2009, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jgroh

Im not comparing the Pod's octave pedal to any others

And, really, nor should you. While I've never used the POD, I'd be willing to bet that comparing the octaver on that to the M-288 BOD is much like comparing your neighbor's broken down Geo to a Porsche. In my experience with multi-effects, the octave sounds inside have NEVER been usable, or even desirable to play with.

bigchiefbc · #14 05-14-2009, 01:15 PM

Compressor. I was GASing on a comp for a while, tried a bunch of them, and ended up realizing that I don't really want compression at all. I don't even remember why I GASed so hard for it.

**Bryan R. Tyler** · #15 05-14-2009, 01:49 PM

Probably the Octavius Squeezer. It has so much potential, but when I got it, the gain control was so limited that I couldn't get any of the envelopes to open up with my active basses, the octaver wasn't what I'd hoped for at all, it froze up all the time, and editing/creating effects was like doing calculus (and I love editing the effects on my Boss VF-1- a unit many give up on because of all the parameter changing you have to do).

rcubed · #16 05-14-2009, 02:15 PM

I'm good at buying effects. But the effect that comes closest is the Brassmaster clone I built. It's been off my board for awhile not. I still like it but it needs a volume knob for it to be useful at low volume playing.

warwick.hoy · #17 05-14-2009, 03:34 PM

I find little use for effects other than Fuzz, OD and Octave. If I had the ear or creativity of someone like Bill Laswell....or John Davis....I could probably use a lot more different types of FX.

I think also the thing to remember is that certainly chorus and flanger may seem anemic on their own....but combined with other pedals....

The EHX BMS is high on my gas list....hopefully the "pedal bored" phenomenon doesn't happen.

Mudfuzz · #18 05-14-2009, 06:07 PM

I always research to the point of drooling before I buy so this doesn't happen to me often, top of my list though is the DOD fx35 Octoplus, for me it is just meh.

skulletwhip · #19 05-14-2009, 06:11 PM

This happened with me with the Big Muff, and the Bass Micro Synth.

groooooove · #20 05-14-2009, 06:12 PM

ive bought effects that i love, and are great, but theres so many on the market that i end up wanting to by more and in turn, needing to sell one

fuzzes are like this, although my electronix messdrive has always been the one on my board, i often fantasize about other, more conventional muff-like fuzzes..

im like that with all dirt boxes. theres so many to choose from, its hard to hold onto one for too long, before something else seems to good to be true..