I mainly make a lot of noise rock and shoegazey kind of stuff with my friends and I'm not sure where to go next with my board. Right now I'm sitting with a Bass Clone, Bad Stone, some random auto wah off of amazon, Dunlop Bass Wah, and a Germanium 4 Muff with an Op Amp Muff on the way. I'm thinking about maybe upgrading the auto wah to a Bassballs, getting a compressor, and getting a Holy Grail but most of that will be in the future. Any recommendations on where to go from here?
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Any recommendations for where to go with my board?
- Thread starter Iroh8008
- Start date
Probably not what you're looking for but you don't have a tuner and that's a must for any bassist. It's useful even if you're only doing bedroom-recording or jamming with friends but an absolute necessity if you plan to do gigs in the future. I'd recommend a Strobostomp mini if you can buy new (these often can't be found for much cheaper if bought used) or if buying used then one of those Snark pedal tuners — plenty of people swear by them.
Not a sexy answer, but improve the quality of the individual components of your boards for a MUCH higher quality sound. Things like power supply, patch cables, matter.
My favorite kinds of noise rock have pretty crystal clear and prominent bass lines, to make up for the messy tsunami of overdriven guitar chords, so I think you're spot on with your Bass Clone, great pedal. I'd look at getting a high quality compressor for sure.
Bass Balls can be fun, but is a very limited filter. It is definitely not an upgrade from a bass wah. The gold standard for filter sounds imo is the MXR Bass Envelope Filter, and I think every bassist should try it if only to understand the wide variety of sounds you can get out of filters. Sounds especially awesome with distortion in front of it and chorus/phaser after it.
You might have fun running with an octave up pedal for your setup and for standing out in the mix - something like the newer Boss OC-5 (which also has some sick octave down tones) or the EXH Nano POG would be very useful.
Holy Grail is fun, but not great on bass in my opinion. I am actually a fan of reverb pedals on bass, but if you play in a noise rock band you will NOT hear it.
Hope this helps and post your board when you update it!
Josh wah is the best envelope out there, I always tune with a tuner (Boss) but it aint taking space on my board, a Wholly Mammoth clone is always good (the Fog is good) (including Zevex Vexter Mastrotron) but I always recommend the EH Superego (the 2 smaller versions are good) because with the auto setting you have infinite sustain which note you can change with the next note, so you have the equivalent of a bowed bass. It has an effects send loop for other effects on the sustained note...that's where I have various synth, drive, octave and modulation effects. You can be a whole Cello/orchestral bass section, great for intros and endings.
I don't know if I'm hitting close to the mark, but I am assuming that you're currently going on with more or less aimless experimentation.
That's why I'd suggest getting some sort of multi FX. Ideally something that can do multiple effects at once. The HX Stomp is very popular in that regard.
The Zoom B3 or B3n are solid choices for tight budgets.
A multi will allow yo to experiment with different effects types, and offer lots of choice - you can spend a ton of time trying out different combinations.
That's why I'd suggest getting some sort of multi FX. Ideally something that can do multiple effects at once. The HX Stomp is very popular in that regard.
The Zoom B3 or B3n are solid choices for tight budgets.
A multi will allow yo to experiment with different effects types, and offer lots of choice - you can spend a ton of time trying out different combinations.
I’m assuming this project is mainly for fun so you are brainstorming ideas on how to make new sounds?
A delay might be a good idea. You could try something analog like the MXR Carbon Copy or an EHX Memory Man. You could also try a tape emulation delay like the Boss RE-202.
If money’s burning a hole in your pocket, and you’ve found the sounds that work with your group, I’d suggest upgrading each and chasing down the best sounding unit for each effect. I don’t have to tell you, there are way better envelope filters than one found on Amazon. Or for the muffs - do a search for “best muff talkbass” and jump down the rabbit hole. Can get expensive, but if you take care of your gear and are willing to go to the effort of careful trading, you can do alright. As far as stuff you didn’t list that you may want to try, a delay can be fun and useful. Hope that helps.
I usually just keep my board at home unless I'm going to a rehearsal or gig, but maybe you could take yours to an amusement park for the afternoon?
Find some sounds you like on records and chase the gear that makes those. This is such a wide open question that really needs only your own tastes being involved, not a bunch of randos opinions in a bass forum. If you are just looking for stuff to experiment with I'd suggest like the others have a HX stomp, it's fantastic especially with a midi controller if you want to use in for jamming to find sounds and write tunes.
Check out the Chords of Orion Youtube channel. He does a lot of ambient shoegazy stuff and has tons of how-tos and pedal reviews for those types of effects.
Another - and IMO better - YT resource for this type of pedal is Mark Johnston and his “secret weapon” reviews. He’s done over 200 in depth reviews so far.
Another - and IMO better - YT resource for this type of pedal is Mark Johnston and his “secret weapon” reviews. He’s done over 200 in depth reviews so far.
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I don't know what the budget it here, but after spending years building boards and trying various components, I bought a Helix HX Stomp (XL). Everything else was kind of a waste of time and energy. The Stomp costs about $700 - I've spent another $100 or so on preset packages - and you're done... forever.
People get intimidated by these... you don't need to. Yes you can go deep into settings and build stuff - and you don't need to. I would bet 80% of users never create a custom preset.
Don't get me wrong, I loved my pedals - and have a a couple dozen to show for it. But the piecemeal of components can go on forever.
People get intimidated by these... you don't need to. Yes you can go deep into settings and build stuff - and you don't need to. I would bet 80% of users never create a custom preset.
Don't get me wrong, I loved my pedals - and have a a couple dozen to show for it. But the piecemeal of components can go on forever.
The real question is: do you have any sort of idea of what you actually need? Do you actually use your current pedals much, and if you do, do you feel something is lacking or your current pedals are not working?
@Killing Floor mentioned TAPE DELAY earlier.
I'm going to pull the trigger on a Boss RE-202 Space Echo in the very near future. I've been boning up on that thing... the preamp is amazing and flexible (DISTORTION!), I think it has a total of six reverbs available, a fourth "tape head" setting, four presets on its face and 128 accessible with midi, Boss Tone Studio capability, Stereo I/O, Expression/FS jack, Tap Tempo (midi clock!) ...it's digital, but for the money, I think it's better than the 201 or definitely the smaller RE-2 and in terms of feature set even the RE-20 (COSM).
It's a MONSTER...!
I'm going to pull the trigger on a Boss RE-202 Space Echo in the very near future. I've been boning up on that thing... the preamp is amazing and flexible (DISTORTION!), I think it has a total of six reverbs available, a fourth "tape head" setting, four presets on its face and 128 accessible with midi, Boss Tone Studio capability, Stereo I/O, Expression/FS jack, Tap Tempo (midi clock!) ...it's digital, but for the money, I think it's better than the 201 or definitely the smaller RE-2 and in terms of feature set even the RE-20 (COSM).
It's a MONSTER...!
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In addition to what you have I can say that personally I get a Sonic Boom in a box of use out of my Zoom MS70CDR and MS70CDR+ pedals -those would be perfect for a noise or ambient situation. If you are really adventurous you must consider a Source Audio Artifakt for all that is a one box noise and sculpting tool. .
FWIW BassBalls is my all time favorite pedal but it ain't for everyone.
FWIW BassBalls is my all time favorite pedal but it ain't for everyone.
