Let me tell you what happened on the receiving end of that email
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: chortles :
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Desperate attempt to bring back Bass Whammy!
- Thread starter InHarmsWay
- Start date
Or you could just get a Digitech XP-100 Whammy/Wah, which has ALL of the modes from ALL of the Whammy versions (yes, even the 5thup/octaveup harmony mode). And it has a volume pedal mode. Generally on ebay for between 1 and 2 hundred dollars. I have one, and it does the job.
The bypass on the XP series IMO.IME is skirting the lines of unacceptable.
On the other hand, if you really need that 5th/Oct^ setting, its far and away the best bang for your buck.
- Nov 15, 2006
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- El Presidente of Sanford and Sonny Audio Weapons (Bluebeard Fuzz)
I have a standing bet with my wife that will earn me a Pitchfactor for Xmas.
But last night as I considered do I sell the moogerfooger ring mod i looked up the EH Ring Thing and was surprised that it had so much pitch shifting in it. It's like $200 uses an expression pedal and I revisited the ps3 for the 5th/+1oct but the monophonic limitations were troubling. I know I used to find the Zoom's 505/506/605/606 polyphony quite extra ordinary for $35 used (605. Has a ring mod!!) but I can't remember if you can expression pedal but I think the one with the built in expression pedal (705/706?) would let you bend?
But last night as I considered do I sell the moogerfooger ring mod i looked up the EH Ring Thing and was surprised that it had so much pitch shifting in it. It's like $200 uses an expression pedal and I revisited the ps3 for the 5th/+1oct but the monophonic limitations were troubling. I know I used to find the Zoom's 505/506/605/606 polyphony quite extra ordinary for $35 used (605. Has a ring mod!!) but I can't remember if you can expression pedal but I think the one with the built in expression pedal (705/706?) would let you bend?
I'm looking at either an XP100, and now perhaps the pitchfactor. How does the tracking on these compare........down to a low B? Probably ambitious I know.
Saw a bass whammy go for over £250 here a month or so ago. Ridiculous, particulalry as the casing was apparently pretty dinged in.
Saw a bass whammy go for over £250 here a month or so ago. Ridiculous, particulalry as the casing was apparently pretty dinged in.
I tune to low A# and the Pitchfactor tracks it just fine, it tracks consistently well across the entire range of my Bongo 6.
The Pitchfactor is going to track considerably better than the XP-100. But its also 3-4 times the cost. And believe it or not, £250 is pretty damned cheap for a bass whammy, compared to what I have usually seen them going for.
There's something tactile about using the whammy bar that a pedal just doesn't provide. And honestly, how often is it applicable on the bass? And how often will the band want to hear it?
So you're suggesting people make a horrible mod to their bass, as opposed to getting a pedal to mock that sound, even though they'll hardly use it? Maybe I misunderstood...
They're not comparable, except in name. A whammy bar cannot be used in such a musical and precise way, not without an extreme amount of patience, beyond most mortals. And the whole modification issue needs to be addressed, it's a massive thing to do to a bass for something that isn't used a great deal, as you point out.
john turner
You don't want to do that. Trust me.
lol. i got mine as an afterthought from guitarcenter in the late 90s for 80 bucks. they had a few that folks had exchanged for other things, and they were practically giving them away.
it works fine for my purposes, so i'm not interested in getting rid of it, but it's amazing what kind of effect (heh) one visible player can have on the cachet of an otherwise mediocre product. don't get me wrong, it works well, but come on. if it never showed up in a couple of tool songs, nobody'd give a flip about it.
it works fine for my purposes, so i'm not interested in getting rid of it, but it's amazing what kind of effect (heh) one visible player can have on the cachet of an otherwise mediocre product. don't get me wrong, it works well, but come on. if it never showed up in a couple of tool songs, nobody'd give a flip about it.
No, I'm saying that using the bar allows the player to shape lines in a way that connects emotion with tactile feel. I like using the whammy on guitar, but even there, it's a coloring device that shouldn't be overused. (Not in a modern context at least).
Sure, you can decide where you want to have bends with a pedal, but with bass, pitch changes and vibrato have to be a bit more extreme, otherwise it just sounds out of tune. Tonal variances such as that can be done with your hands with a little practice.
I'm just not big on having effects dictate what I play. I think it's better for the player to play the instrument.
Just one man's perspective.
Always the way, someone uses a pedal in an obvious way, usually a bassist that isn't massively technical, and a bunch of people want to copy the sound. The manufacturer discontinues said pedal, and things go mental. You don't get many questions about Billy Sheehans sound and effects because, let's face it, most people couldn't play like him! But Tool and Muse are a different story...
Bryan R. Tyler
TalkBass: Usurping My Practice Time Since 2002
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- May 3, 2002
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If you're letting effects dictate what you play, then you're using them wrong. You can be just as emotive with effects, including the whammy, as you can using just an instrument. Reed Mathis does it with whammy and volume pedals all the time. Start thinking of the effect as an instrument in and of itself, and you get a lot more subtlety and musicality out of it.
Not to mention a whammy bar can't do a lot of the things modern whammy/harmonizers can.
john turner
You don't want to do that. Trust me.
ime, properly executed pedal work is just as tactile and emotive as any bar work can be, and there's more than enough examples of completely feel-free hand-wanking to preclude any kind of exclusivity between the two.
in other words, judging by his hand and footwork, i think jimi hendrix would have been just as expressive and emotively awesome if he had a whammy pedal and a "wahwah" bar as he was with a wah pedal and whammy bar. same with a lot of the better guitarists - steve vai comes to mind without even trying that hard, so does frank zappa.
as far as appropriateness on bass goes, that's up to the player in question, ultimately. if he places himself in a situation where he is beholden to other people, then he is probably going to get negative feedback from them on a lot of subjects and not just his choice of pedals. that's generally the problem with having a boss.
and as far as effects dictating what is played, well, here's where i would pull out the old cliche "the edge does" if i were that kind of guy. thankfully i'm not
so i'll just say that again, it's up to the individual player and what they are trying to artistically. nobody sells records because they are "good traditional instrumentalists". at least, nobody that i've ever heard of.
I love pitchbending effects, and there are so many ways a person can cheat or "paraphrase" those few whammy parts in a tool song that I dont feel the need for the original bass whammy at the cost it is going for now.
I would rather have digitech put out a whammy that had better build quality, better jacks and a powersource that would take a 1 spot.
I would rather have digitech put out a whammy that had better build quality, better jacks and a powersource that would take a 1 spot.
