Bass Pedal

[Turbo Sparky]

"One pedal," or a single multi-effects?
Single pedal rec.: MXR Chorus Deluxe.
Multi-effects: Zoom B3 or equivalent.

 

[klokker]

As I said---there is already compression on the bass channel through our digital mixer.
So the bass sounds OK in the house, but the sound on and around the stage is on the thin side--his amp has only 1 single 12 in it.
So that is why we were thinking of some kind of pedal.

This isn't a problem that you'd solve with a pedal.

 

[REV]

I find that a VT bass can do a pretty good job of fattening up my sound.

 

[laklandplayer]

Sorry, that’s not really how that works: how you sound in the house is ALWAYS up to the FOH engineer, even if you’re sending them a highly colored signal.

A great engineer who knows the venue and the band well can make everyone shine, a novice who doesn’t can make everyone sound like mud.

I always have a compressor on my board, but the compressor plugins on the modern digital boards are excellent.

No, that’s how it works, if you deliver a good compressed signal to your amp and DI you set can set your own sound, feed the house with it and that will feed the monitor sends. You are already feeding your amp. I owned a pro audio company for 20 years and installed hundreds of church PA systems. I can tell you first hand that there are very few great engineers in churches. Most of them are unreliable volunteers and sadly most churches don’t have a paid audio staff.
I now record for a living and I’ve yet to be impressed by a plug in, they are okay if you can’t afford the real thing but there is no comparison to a real analog tube la2a.

 

[MDBass]

No, that’s how it works, if you deliver a good compressed signal to your amp and DI you set can set your own sound, feed the house with it and that will feed the monitor sends. You are already feeding your amp. I owned a pro audio company for 20 years and installed hundreds of church PA systems. I can tell you first hand that there are very few great engineers in churches. Most of them are unreliable volunteers and sadly most churches don’t have a paid audio staff.
I now record for a living and I’ve yet to be impressed by a plug in, they are okay if you can’t afford the real thing but there is no comparison to a real analog tube la2a.

Your appeal to authority is really unimpressive in an age when multi-platinum recording engineers like Andrew Scheps regularly mix 100% with plugins.

A bad engineer can still make you sound like trash in the house, even you send them a perfectly processed signal, and putting a compressor in your signal chain onstage still doesn’t mean you have anything close to complete control over what’s coming out of the house.

Have a nice night

 

[_One//Man//Mutiny_]

If stage volume is the concern I would suggest doubling his speaker to achieve double the surface area, it’s not double the sound but it will make a big difference. I’ve found using a single 1x12 to be pretty underwhelming when I used one in a band setting, especially up against a 2x12 fender guitar amp and a 4x12 at lower volumes with a rather small jazz type drum kit think snare, bass drum floor Tom and crash at a certain point 1x12 isn’t going to win out over the other amplifiers. I’ve had great success with matching two 1x15s in my current 3 piece band.
Also want to suggest if you’re just looking for a little something extra to heft the sound up when stage volume is adequate, using an overdrive pedal really thickens up the bass tone to fill the overall sound up, if I could only have one effect that probably would be it. There are endless pedals out there to give you that sound so I would take to YouTube and get some headphones and listen to some demos, TB does not disappoint with suggestions on pedals like the suggestions above. If you wanted to try out a inexpensive pedal that sounds good and has the tonal qualities of thickening the sound a bit, I’d suggest the digitech bad monkey, I’ve seen them for as cheap as $35, can’t get much cheaper than that!

 

[whero]

If there's a one-pedal limit, I was going to suggest a multi-effect pedal like the Zoom B1 or B3. But then I read more and realised that's not the problem. A preamp pedal that gives some additional tone shaping might be useful, but I think a better combo - maybe a 2x10 instead of a 1x12 - might pay more dividends.

My other thought was that if the sound is good at front of house, can you get a decent monitor run from the desk and bring that FOH to the stage?

 

[Unemploid]

Get the ampeg scr-di or something like it. Mxr has a bass distortion di. Darkglass has a lot of distortion with so and even amp sim

 

[Jantelagen]

I agree with the eq/tone shaping pedal suggestions, apart from the plugins. If the House is okay and its a stage issue then he can just make changes on the fly. The new Omnicabsim Mini or Tech 21 Q-Strip fits the bill imo

 

[ChrisQuinn91]

I'd definitely go for a pre-amp DI pedal.
Tech 21 Sansamp Bass Driver or something similar.

Go straight to the mixer and the amplifier at the same time.
Fatten up the sound and boost the signal level.

 

[mcnach]

I am writing this for our bass player at our church---
If you were playing a gig that had all types of music (nothing wild or screaming) and could use ONLY 1 pedal--
WHAT IS THE 1 PEDAL THAT YOU WOULD USE?

* (Music is wide variety--smooth jazz--swing--easy rock--latin--etc...)

The group is a trio (for now) keyboards--bass and drums.

a tuner/mute pedal

 

[MtManiac]

Hey guys, @Mike Fillion is a very old friend of mine from way back when I was a kid, and one of the best drummers you will ever hear. We've already discussed it, and my feeling is he'd be best served by trying a different amp EQ with more bass and maybe more mids dialed in. He says the bassist isn't currently using any pedals, either, so that might be a sticking point with him to use them. He's using a Yorkville 12" combo and small combos can often benefit from a bass/mid boost. Did not find out what kind of bass he's using, but my feeling is the same regardless. Whoever's running sound might want to try that in the PA as well. But I did suggest a tiny bit of mild overdrive as well, as I find it helps me for certain things, although I still feel the answer isn't in throwing money at the problem, but EQing.

That’s exactly what I would have said.

 

[Bassmike62]

I am writing this for our bass player at our church---
If you were playing a gig that had all types of music (nothing wild or screaming) and could use ONLY 1 pedal--
WHAT IS THE 1 PEDAL THAT YOU WOULD USE?

My heart jumped when I saw this post, I thought I'd be hacked or something and somebody posted a thread using my name... OP and I share the same name

OP, Sounds like you want a preamp for your bassist. There's a whole world of them. You can get a Sansamp BDDI V1 for a very good price. That was considered part of a "professional" bass sound back in the 2000s.

Folks around here like the Sansamp, Mesa Boogie Subway, DP-3x, Aguilar Tone Hammer, etc.

Surprised that no one mentioned the Tech 21 Bass Flyrig. IIRC, Tuner + Comp + Chorus + OD + Preamp all in one housing.

I'd go down the preamp part as well. I used SansAmp products for 10 years or so and they all worked well, but any mentionned above are quality units. Multi FX units are interesting as well, but I can't really comment, the only experience I have is with a Zoom MS60B, which I use sparingly.

 

[Berger912]

I am writing this for our bass player at our church---
If you were playing a gig that had all types of music (nothing wild or screaming) and could use ONLY 1 pedal--
WHAT IS THE 1 PEDAL THAT YOU WOULD USE?

* (Music is wide variety--smooth jazz--swing--easy rock--latin--etc...)

The group is a trio (for now) keyboards--bass and drums.

Two Notes Le Bass Pre-Amp Pedal might be the best pedal ever made for bass, IMHO

 

[TNCreature]

I want to go to the church where the bass player uses overdrive on the bass!
I think a different/better amp or amp eq is in order.
One pedal? I think a nice chorus would lend itself to the style of music you described.

Good luck, have fun.

From reading a few forums, it looks like most players would prefer a mild overdrive and a chorus.

 

[Havard Ramses]

If you need better sound on stage i'd probably look for another amp and cab. A pedal can't solve it if the sound is too thin og weak or not loud enough. A pedel is just to shape sound. What amp is he using today.

 

[tpaul]

sansamp bass driver, turn gain up for mild overdrive.

 

[el murdoque]

Indeed, a pedal that MIGHT help is one of the sansamps. They all have cabinet simulation baked in (or switchable) that will provide a HPF. It could be that the single 12" amplifier is breaking a sweat to have the lows keep up with the rest, so it sounds thin. When the HPF removes some of those frequencies that eat up most of the available power, there is more for the rest, which can result in a signal that sounds louder, fuller and tidied up. There is also the possibility to add some nice drive, that sounds like a cranked tube amp.

If I was to bring one pedal, it'd be the Sansamp Programmable BDDI. When I use it in single pedal mode, I set up one channel to be my default channel, one either with drive or a thumpy oldschool sound and the third with zero output to act as a mute. On my small board with the bare essentials, I have a Sansamp, a compressor, a reverb and of course a tuner.

 

[mobeme23]

i'm a big fan of the Mesa Boogie Subway DI/preamp. tone country!!

 

[4dog]

i use an mxr bass chorus...all ya really need..and dont over do the effect..just a little bit goes a long way