Bass FX Hot Takes

[IronLung1986]

HPF is a fad/cult.

 

[SunByrne]

1. Menu diving sucks and I hate it. Either it’s dumb or I am, and I can’t say I know which it is.

Menu diving is definitely dumb. I can't speak to the second one, though.

 

[Hasty]

Man, I just use masking tape over part or all of it.

Paint might work, also.

You can also buff the LED with some 220 grit sandpaper and apply some nail polish in a color of your choosing. However you better make sure you're happy with the color first.

 

[SunByrne]

You can also buff the LED with some 220 grit sandpaper and apply some nail polish in a color of your choosing. However you better make sure you're happy with the color first.

I just use these. Not actually on pedals, but all over the house with too-bright LEDs.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CLVEQCO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[WestyBassBob]

Stick a clean blend on that motha.

And I have about 40 fuzz pedals but I usually play clean. Is that so wrong?

No because you need just the right fuzz when you do need it.

 

[WestyBassBob]

I will never voluntarily purchase a pedal that I know has a blue LED on it. I understand wanting brightness for visibility on brightly lit stages, (although in ~15 years of gigging I can't think of a time I have had that issue) but blue lights are absolutely stupid. More energetic wavelengths like blue specifically mess up how well a person's eyes are adjusted to the dark, there should never be a blue light shining toward the face of anyone who has to see in the dark.

I have the same issue with cars that have blue dashboard lights.

Or cars that have blue headlights. Ugh

 

[Hasty]

I just use these. Not actually on pedals, but all over the house with too-bright LEDs.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CLVEQCO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Those are amazing! How have I not known these existed before now? I hate bright LEDs.

 

[esoxhntr]

This thread is full of truth and awesome. I am reading it to my dog, and he agrees.

 

[ardgedee]

All fuzz sounds the same. There's either more of it or less of it, otherwise they all sound the same.

The top vs. side jack argument is pointless. Either configuration is perfectly fine. It's having a mix of them that's the problem.

 

[Hasty]

All fuzz sounds the same. There's either more of it or less of it, otherwise they all sound the same.

The top vs. side jack argument is pointless. Either configuration is perfectly fine. It's having a mix of them that's the problem.

Actually I don't mind the mix of top/side jacks. That allows me to snug them up closely on the horizontal plane without worrying about the vertical offset where they interfere with the pedals on the row above or below... as long as the power jack doesn't screw it up.

 

[LostJohnny]

Battery doors: it is 20-goddamned-21. If your device takes batteries, put a freaking battery door on it. This is not expensive or complicated technology, and lots of pedal makers already do it correctly. Stop making me undo four screws in order to change a battery.

Indicator lights: Don't put the indicator light right next to the footswitch itself. If you need to get in and out of an effect quickly, sometimes you need to know the device's state even while your foot is on it, and having the indicator light be hidden by the user's foot does not help. (Some are even so close that if you step away a little bit, the footswitch hides the indicator!)

 

[jschulman]

Yes! The light on my Keeley Bassist drives me crazy. It entirely obscures all the knob settings. I keep meaning to put a piece of masking tape over it, but I guess it's not high priority for a set-and-forget pedal.

I sold my Keeley Bassist and replaced it with the Becos CompIQ Mini partly for this reason. The blue light was blinding on a dark stage, and the red/green metering LED was useless (I'm red/green colorblind).

 

[DennyOnBass]

Don't buy a compressor pedal unless you're willing to put in the time to figure out what it really does and how it works. It may still not be for you, but at least you'll know why instead of twiddling a few knobs and deciding that it sucks.

If you play in multiple bands and use multiple basses, having 2-3 separate smaller boards that you can integrate together might be smarter than one large one.

If you have a good night where you feel that your pedalboard game was tight, take a picture of it for next time.

 

[SunByrne]

Those are amazing! How have I not known these existed before now? I hate bright LEDs.

Yeah, they're a great little lifehack.

 

[MynameisMe]

I think Timmy is from South Park, right?

I don't watch animation. I have no idea.

 

[J-Mags]

I sold my Keeley Bassist and replaced it with the Becos CompIQ Mini partly for this reason. The blue light was blinding on a dark stage, and the red/green metering LED was useless (I'm red/green colorblind).

It's such an easy pedal to use, but the threshold is a bit finicky, and that's the part that's you can see the least with the light on.

I always wanted to make a digitally controlled analog delay. Let me dial an analog delay to exactly 210ms, using a knob or even midi presets.

I think digitally controlled non-digital effects are the next thing.

Any analog delay that has tap tempo or a lot of other peculiar features is digitally controlled (if not fully digital fake analog). The DOD Rubberneck and MXR Carbon Copy Deluxe, etc. are digitally controlled analog circuits, and I think that all Chase Bliss effects are analog signal paths that are digitally controlled.

I'm not aware of any true analog delays where you can set the delay to a certain numerical value, but I bet one exists, for a price.

 

[Standalone]

Octave pedal tracking gets wonkier in loud stage environments.

 

[c5hokie]

I mostly use the flat cables from Tour Gear Design, but their shortest cable is 3". On a lot of top jack pedals placed side to side, you need something like a 1-1.5" which doesn't exist. I can do the solderless cables, but they always seem to fail. Soldering my own is a pain because I can't find small jacks.

It is a little known fact that your pedals don't have to be in the same order as your signal chain.

So smart aleck remark aside, I just set my signal chain up so that I jump every other pedal and I buy appropriately sized patch cables to make it all work. So in picture below chain is A>C>B>D.

(and yes, I'm anal enough that I took the time to make that picture to better explain it).

This works for me. YMMV

 

[MultiScaleMale]

It is a little known fact that your pedals don't have to be in the same order as your signal chain.

So smart aleck remark aside, I just set my signal chain up so that I jump every other pedal and I buy appropriately sized patch cables to make it all work. So in picture below chain is A>C>B>D.

View attachment 4415324

(and yes, I'm anal enough that I took the time to make that picture to better explain it).

This works for me. YMMV

Thanks for the pic, easier to understand than the written word on this one. Not sure if I could do out of order pedals. Heh.

 

[40Hz]

It is a little known fact that your pedals don't have to be in the same order as your signal chain.

Agree. I prefer running my signal chain order from left to right. And I only got handed a citation once for doing that. (And I won in court too! So I didn’t have to pay the $50 fine!!!)