Super deep but articulate bass (octave pedal or bass boost?)

[savinggrace]

Is it better overall to go with an Octave pedal or a Bass boost to increase overall deepness of bass (at least perceived-wise)?

Which one is clearer and more articulate in general?

An example would be a Xotic Bass Rc vs. MXR M-288

[phatbass]

Depends on what your after. An Octaver is more a definite "look at me" effect; if what you want is just more bottom end I reckon you can't go past one of these:

http://www.aphex.com/pedals.htm

I have one and, 'though I don't use it on 100% of my gigs, it's one of my "keep forever" pedals. It gives you more perceived bottom, without a "sea of mud", and you can see your speakers are working a lot less hard (well, I can on my Eden D210XLT). It's one of the few pedals that IMO actually lives up to the hype.

[BassInUrFace]

EHX Mole.

[TinCanBassMan]

Have you considered using an EQ pedal? I just use the BOSS 7-band but there are many others. It gives me lots of flexibility to tailor the sound for any venue.

Edit: Should mention that I recently picked up the MXR M288 and love it... but as phatbass says, the octaver is a completely different animal than any kind of EQ or boost effect. Very cool but VERY obvious.

[Mark Latimour]

Sfx ultra tone. Max lent me one which I am now buying off him. This thing is great for giving you and enhanced bottom end sound. It's an excellent purchase given it's small footprint.

[smo]

A ported 15 inch speaker (or two) and down-tuning dude.

Effects will never get you that DEEP DEEP low if your kit isn't capable of in the first place.

[savinggrace]

Originally Posted by smo

A ported 15 inch speaker (or two) and down-tuning dude.

Effects will never get you that DEEP DEEP low if your kit isn't capable of in the first place.

This is a good point. I play out of a Berg410 and I tune all my strings down a step (but that is far low as I will go).

[dannybuoy]

Deep and articulate = bass and treble boost = Aphex Bass Xciter or BBE Sonic Stomp!

[OrangeSun]

I take it you've tried turning up the bass knob on your amp? hahaha

[OrangeSun]

You can kind of get an organ basspedal style tone running a Boss Bass EQ pedal with a spiked low end into a moog lowpass filter set down around 60 or 70hz

[bovine mind]

Originally Posted by dannybuoy

Deep and articulate = bass and treble boost = Aphex Bass Xciter or BBE Sonic Stomp!

Do these really do anything beside a bump in the lower and higher mids/treble?

[bigblondeafro87]

Proper amplification and speakers, a moog LPF, and a decent compressor will help give you a deep yet defined tone.

[dannybuoy]

Originally Posted by bovine mind

Do these really do anything beside a bump in the lower and higher mids/treble?

There are many threads arguing about this, but the Aphex does have some kind of optical limiter built in to compress the lows, and adds harmonics to the top end rather than just boosting treble. The BBE is supposed to 'time align' different frequencies but various people have called this out to be BS.

I opened up an Aphex Xciter once and it easy to see how the thing does it's job. Pixies.

[phatbass]

Originally Posted by bovine mind

Do these really do anything beside a bump in the lower and higher mids/treble?

As an Aphex user, and a full on sceptic, I can categorically state that it does more than just EQ the sound. It does make your rig sound bigger than it is.

I often wonder how it does what it does, but in the end I just accept it does it's job well.

[bovine mind]

Both responses are enough to try it with disposable income when available, cheers.

[eyecandy]

+ 1 on the Aphex

[gjbassist]

++1 for the Aphex.

The Electronics Submarine might also be a good choice.