• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Best Effect Line for Bass?

L

Lamit590

Jul 20, 2008
1
0
#1
Hello,

I play a Epiphone Thunderbird and Fender Precision

I've been playing for 4 years, in bands mostly doing Pop/Rock songs.

I have never really looked into effects though and now that our band is getting more serious I figured I should ask. At the moment I just have a Boss Chromatic Tuner. I am also interested only in pedals and nothing rackmounted.

What would be the best pedal/effect lineup to enhance my bass sound?

I was thinking some kind of box like the MXR M-80 Bass Direct Box with Distortion. That has an EQ on it, but I was also thinking a good EQ and some kind of compressor.

Any suggestions for the best bass effect line up? Again, I am not looking for so many effects, just a REALLY good tone to feed into my amp.

Thanks,

Tim
 
#3
You are going to get a million different answers on this. However it is all going to boil down to what kind of music you play and what your "sound" is.

My opinion-

A Direct Box/Pre-Amp is pretty valuable. Something like the Sansamp offers a great deal to a gigging bassist. You can use it as a preamp in addition to going direct to your PA when live. Or you can go direct to the mixer when recording. I love my BDDI, but there are others just as good. If you have a limited budget spend your money here.

Many bassists will tell you that compression is a fundamental effect. I don't take issue with that, but I don't think you ALWAYS need it. I use the MXR Super Comp- it is poorly rated, cheap, and widely disliked on TB and other websites... however it works great for me.

One last thing to consider: You may want to try a "wonder box" like the Zoom B2. I have the Zoom B1x and I am very happy with it (although I don't use live anymore... but I use it home every day). The B1x has six or seven amp models, a shload of effects like chorus, autowah, flanger, phaser, delay, and so on. It also has noise reduction, compressors, limiters, an expression pedal, a tuner, and an EQ. It also has a silly drum machine on it... seems useless but it has a few metronome settings on it. It is great to have during a rehearsal when timing is an issue. The B1x is a great pedal to discover effects. You can find a B1x for about $75. Play with it for a while and decide what you like and then buy those effects. The B1x does everything well... but it does nothing excellent. I still use mine and I consider it a nifty gadget that I will use for quite some time. I use it for effects on guitar and vocals too.
 
#4
+1, everyone with an opinion will give it to you. Best bet, check out everything you can personally. Fact is, you'll end up buying a pedal, and within weeks, replacing it with another of the same type. It's how the game is played. My current board has gone through several transformations before finally settling down, a bit. Got a few more changes to make, I say to myself.
 
#9
+1 to what people have said.

It depends greatly on the style of music you play, what kind of tone you are looking for, and what sounds you like.

There is nothing wrong with getting something like a Zoom to try out a handful of stuff, but you might find the amount of settings, terms, and concepts you have to learn to make the best use out of something like that daunting. I definitely did. I owned a Boss ME-50B for a few years and never really understood what I was doing with it... I could probably make much better use out of it now then I could when I still owned it.

It will take a while to know what you are doing when it comes to effects.

I would say to try out the MXR unit you have picked out. Buy it. Take it home. play with it for a few days. See if you like it. Decide what you like about it and what you don't, and maybe return it after a week with it if you don't like it as much as you thought you would. Or, luckily you could like it and keep it forever.

I would say go buy the MXR unit. It sounds like you have already made up your mind, even though you don't know everything that is out there and what is available to you. But it doesn't matter. Go! Splurge!

The best way to learn is to emerge yourself in the culture of what you want to learn. So I would say stick around here, talk to people, buy things, try them. You will learn a lot in a few months.

Most importantly, enjoy yourself.
 
#10
My best suggestion would be 'if you're not missing effects or specifically 'needing' an effect for multiple songs' then you really don't 'need' effects.

Many times people over-estimate or over-value effects only to find out later that "live" they 'can' hurt your sound and ability to cut through a mix more then help it.

In the studio it's a whole different story. It just all depends how controlled of a live experience you have as far as I'm concerned.

Just my thoughts.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back