A question of usefulness

[Billfordofau]

I'm looking at getting one or two simple but maybe useful effects to supplement my board. I have the usual dirt (Fuzzrocious stache, rat tail, demon, BDPG), a digitech bass synth wah which I use for an envelope filter, angry robot sounds and sometimes an octaver, a compressor and a EQD dispatch master.

I'm debating between an EQD Hummingbird for some Tremolo action or a MXR Phase 90 for some phaser action. I guess my question is, which do you find more useful for bass applications?

 

[NoiseNinja]

The phaser, hands down!

I just love phaser sound on bass.

Personally I'd prefer the Small Stone Nano over the Phase 90 though, but to each his own.

 

[Oneirogenic]

Phaser definitely. You may like a chorus of flanger in addition or instead of a phaser.

 

[Billfordofau]

I have a couple choruses (chori?) which I like OK, but not enough to keep on my board consistently. Love the way the EQD Sea Machine sounds, so I might pick one of those up eventually also.

 

[sprag]

Phaser

 

[Mostresticator]

Phaser mixes with fuzz like chocolate and vanilla.

 

[JimmyM]

Phaser, although for bass I would prefer one with a clean blend so the signal doesn't get completely washed out as the phase cycles.

 

[FretNoMore]

For "music" - phaser
For "fun noise" - tremolo

 

[blindrabbit]

Grab yourself an SA Orbital and in one box you'll have chorus, flanger, phaser, vibe, tremolo...all the modulations!

 

[NoiseNinja]

Phaser, although for bass I would prefer one with a clean blend so the signal doesn't get completely washed out as the phase cycles.

I second on this, I really like the sound of my Small Stone Nano, but before I found out to add clean blend with my Boss LS-2 it was pretty useless, cause it periodically sweeped away my lows, making big holes appear in my sound.

 

[10cc]

If you wanna spend a little money, I'd go with one of these. Hard to beat that analog sound.

 

[smperry]

I like tremolo more if I had to choose between the two.

 

[Swimming Bird]

Yeah, definitely trem, especially if you're running that much dirt. Phasers are cool, but I've never liked one enough to not trade away.

 

[Nephilymbass]

I think the answer on how useful a particular pedal is is going to always get a variety of answers. People use effects for different purposes in a lot of different styles of music. for example a lot of people will say reverb is pretty useless on bass but a lot of solo bassist use them, and I think they are great for creating pad type sounds with a looper. A lot of people love their fuzz pedals but I tried few and prefer overdrives over fuzz for my band. Fuzz is a cool effect though and I would use it if I played pop music or like muse type stuff. Same deal with pitch shifting pedals like octaves and whammys, some people really like them, but I prefer the more natural sound of playing octaves on a 5 over an octave down or an 8 string over an octave up on a pedal personally. I'm just don't feel like the synthy or organ like characters of most pitched based effects suit my band, reverbs with octave ups settings(hof and supernatural for example) for ambient looping is probably the only exception. Modulated reverbs sound sick to me when used in a subtle way because it's kind of like chorus but because it's a ducking reverb with modulation only on the reverb it doesn't change your attack like a chorus pedal does.

As far as phaser and tremolo. I can't see me using them much. But there are some classic songs with phaser on bass, and tremelo can be cool, I kind of want to suggest a vibrato to you. You get some movement similar to a tremelo but tremelo and vibrato are different in that one makes the pitch move and the other makes the volume come in and out. A vibrato set very subtle with a bit of EQ can get some almost Fretless type sounds, if you set a vibrato to be pretty extreme and just kick it in for a second here and there you'll have everying looking around like *** was that.

 

[smo]

Grab yourself an SA Orbital and in one box you'll have chorus, flanger, phaser, vibe, tremolo...all the modulations!

This is what I would do.
Univibe is my fave, but phase is a close second. I use a Mobius myself.
Thing is, it's pretty rare you'd want to use more than one modulation effect as a bass player, unless you're into lots of noise-making, so for me a multi is the best way to go.

 

[BassinCT]

If you are thinking about sweeping / modulating sounds, consider a flanger- The TC Vortex is my personal favorite. The vortex mini version does the basics very well and runs around $99, but the 4-knob version can do bat$#!t-crazy tones if you are into that.

 

[Mr. voodoobass]

Never used phasers but used a lot of different tremolos throughout the years. Always have a tremolo on my board. Reverb into tremolo also works as a sort of delay-effect, very usefull.