for what purpose do you use effects?

[kreider204]

Just curious to collate some numbers here. For what purpose do you use effects?

Subtle sound sculpting? Such as a touch of distortion to make the sounds a bit ballsier, or a tad of chorus to thicken the sound?

Full on effect? Such as cranking your fuzz to 11, or maxing out your chorus for a warbly vibrato?

Both?

Neither - but you like to troll effects forums and let everyone know that you're cool because your effects are "a cable" or "a tuner"?

[superdick2112]

My main effects processor is a Boss pedalboard with a tuner, noise gate (for my basses with single coils), EQ and chorus pedals. The programmable chorus is set fairly mild & is on all the time. The EQ (also on all the time) is programmable, and I have 6 EQ curves stored for on-the-fly tone changes.
Occasionally I'll use a flanger or envelope follower for some not so subtle effects.

[MSUsousaphone]

There should be and All of the Above at the end.

[scottfeldstein]

Subtle and full-on for sure. Often I just want a little rock out grit and occasionally I want a wacky envelope filter or synthy sound.

[jmattbassplaya]

Depends. I typically don't use effects because I can't be trouble to set them up, but I think I may end up using them more often in the near future.

[JimmyM]

Sometimes I like a subtle grind, sometimes I want heaviness.

[Crystalman85]

That depends on what kind of music you play and what effects you use. I play hard rock and heavy metal music and I only use 2 effects. distortion and chorus. I use them both to grungy and heavy sound. using distortion with chorus widens and thickens my sound. I use distortion for heavy songs that I play and when it come to clean parts, I use a clean chorus sound. here are 2 songs I recorded with my band where I use effects.

This song I use distortion with chorus.
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=12003852

Here's a song where I use a clean chorus sound for an intro and kick on distortion for the heavy parts of the song.
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=12046937

[jason1980's]

I only use effects on actives really. I usually use amp models to shape my sound and also add another set of EQ to fine tune my sound even more and to add alot more possibilites. When I am using my active, the sound will usually be what could be defined as "modern" and can sound pretty processed but it is usually what I am going for with my active bass. Sometimes I like my Sansamp sound but alot of the times I don't think it fits with the music I am currently playing (mainly on the really high end of the neck).

My passive Fender on the other hand I usually just plug straight in with no effects at all, it may sound weird that I do that but I do love the natural tone I get with it and usually going for a bit more old school sound.

[HolmeBass]

A bit of OD or some flanger can be pretty subtle. An octaver into that same OD into a envelope filter with the Polytope is not subtle at all. Really loud fuzz to push the band into a frenetic jam is also not subtle, although I wonder if it's more the gain than the tone, still it just works.

[Floyd Eye]

I am in a 3 piece hard rock cover band.

[Fliptrique]

Tube overdrive (ebs valvedrive) - full on distortion (taurus abigar) - chorus/flanger (taurus vechoor) and a wah (g-lab).

Ebs is always on, abigar sees a lot of work, the wah and flanger are mostly for fooling around. I plan to add a taurus octave pedal once it is released.

[howlin]

Don't really have need for effects per se. Am waiting for an EWS Tri-Logic 2 pre-amp to get a bit more out of my passive P-bass. Once that arrives I plan on switching the TonePrint on my BG-250 to the Roscoe Beck octave effect. I like just touch of octave to give it a touch buzz similar to the sound that a B3 gets in the lower octaves.

[knumbskull]

their main purpose is to prevent me from becoming overly encumbered with money. works a treat.

[backtobass]

I do VERY subtle most of the time but there are two songs my band does where I get my bass to sound like an old Moog synth. It was easier than adding a keyboard to our quartet.

[rhopper]

I use effects quite a bit while playing live as we play a wide variety of 80's covers. My most used and adjusted pedal on any given night is my chorus. I also use a poly octive, envelope filter, distortion and a compressor (used only to keep pedal levels in check only)

I agree with the OP, the tuner is not an effect. Mine makes a good mute switch though.

[Pandafist]

Pedals do all kinds of things, and I like all kinds of pedals.

[Johnny Crab]

Jet Flanger gets used in a few places because it adds to the songs' textures.

An Octave effect(down 1 octave) gets used LIVE when I don't have a 5 string(99% of the time) with me and either the song requires a 5 or the lower end notes enhance the song(s). The Octave here tracks well to low A and sometimes low G. Tracking below low A is best done with fast, short-lived notes or the thing starts "hunting". It is entertaining to see musicians faces when a low B is hit on a 4 string and then a low A.

Slight echo and/or reverb get used LIVE when we do a song 3 piece instead of 4(our normal). It adds fullness but not in the way an 8 or 12 string bass do(i.e. Tom wih Cheap Trick).

[mcm]

Never been an effects guy, but just got a Dunlop wah. Been inspired by the guitar sounds of late 60's early 70's JB, sly, dyke, and funkadelic. The purpose is just to sound funky as hell. Dang it's nasty.

[mjac28]

Originally Posted by MSUsousaphone

There should be and All of the Above at the end.

+1 Hey brother I'm digging the new avi

[Unrepresented]

Most of our new album has me using a minimum of "tone shaping" dirt pedals, and building from there.