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Do your pedals cost more than your basses?
- Thread starter Alfonso Alba
- Start date
Years ago, I added up the cost of my pedalboards... I'll never do that 
Do I own a bass that costs less than my pedalboard? Yes, I do.
Does the pedalboard I use most often cost more than the bass I use most often? No.
Did I spend more money on pedals than on bass guitars in the last 5 years? Oh yes.
The main reason for my buying so many pedals is that I also sold a lot of them.
For times, I had a long list of pedals that I wanted to try and I simply waited for the right time to acquire them from the used market. Ebay sales with bad photos, lowball offers at the dry time of the month, sheer luck, buying bundles of pedals and so forth. The important thing was to get those to a price I thought good enough that I'd be able to sell it on again. At times, I put enough time and energy in it that pedals became a hobby in it's own right.
And buying and selling as I was, I made a fair bit of profit, giving me access to more expensive options.
I eventually realized that there is a lot of magic bullet chasing going on in that market and that, as a bassist, I can't do all the shoegazing I'd like to. There's a low end to be held down. Also, I realized that a set of three boutique pedals plus two 'normal' ones for that one part of that one song is a bit on the excessive side and might be cool in a studio, but I quickly tired of carrying around a pedalboard that holds two always on pedals plus a dozen that get maybe 25 seconds on a gig night.
I started simple, went all the way to very excessive, came back to simple again and nowadays often even use a multi instead of a board.
Does the pedalboard I use most often cost more than the bass I use most often? No.
Did I spend more money on pedals than on bass guitars in the last 5 years? Oh yes.
The main reason for my buying so many pedals is that I also sold a lot of them.
For times, I had a long list of pedals that I wanted to try and I simply waited for the right time to acquire them from the used market. Ebay sales with bad photos, lowball offers at the dry time of the month, sheer luck, buying bundles of pedals and so forth. The important thing was to get those to a price I thought good enough that I'd be able to sell it on again. At times, I put enough time and energy in it that pedals became a hobby in it's own right.
And buying and selling as I was, I made a fair bit of profit, giving me access to more expensive options.
I eventually realized that there is a lot of magic bullet chasing going on in that market and that, as a bassist, I can't do all the shoegazing I'd like to. There's a low end to be held down. Also, I realized that a set of three boutique pedals plus two 'normal' ones for that one part of that one song is a bit on the excessive side and might be cool in a studio, but I quickly tired of carrying around a pedalboard that holds two always on pedals plus a dozen that get maybe 25 seconds on a gig night.
I started simple, went all the way to very excessive, came back to simple again and nowadays often even use a multi instead of a board.
devnulljp
Supporting Member
At one point, yes. I had a ton of vintage and boutique pedals some of which were worth thousands. But two things happened (1) I started playing out loads with loads of different bands mostly as a sideman and noticed nobody wanted or cared about phasers and flangers and delays and even fuzz on the bass, and (2) I bought a house, so everything that wasn't nailed down got sold for the downpayment.
Life's so much easier with a tiny board with a tuner, compressor and preamp/DI.
Life's so much easier with a tiny board with a tuner, compressor and preamp/DI.
I haven’t fully done the math, but at the moment with the basses I have at home? Most definitely
But if you include the bass I have coming in next month, nope
But if you include the bass I have coming in next month, nope
Most definitely not. Although, I only have 1 pedal... but even if I had 10... or 20... still no.
I play a $50 bass through a $50 pedal into a $40 power amp and it works great. It took me a long time to reach the sort of mentality where I would make those kind of used-market-driven choices though. In my younger guit*r years I bought all kinds of stuff.
Of all the pedals I own, only 5 of them are for bass and that certainly isn't more than the cost of the basses themselves. As far as the single priciest pedal I'm going to have, that will be the Broughton Resonant Filter Equalizer (when it's available) at $170. I don't have any other pedals that cost nearly that much.
so it depends. But TBH, I have more money in pedals and rack effects than I do basses.
My cheap pedals individually all cost less than my cheap basses, but collectively, my zillion pedals are worth quite a bit more than my two basses. Most of them are fuzzes and distortions that I use for guitar only.
Individually, my most expensive pedal, a DOD Rubberneck delay, cost me less than either my Squier Mustang or my Tagima JB, but not by much.
Individually, my most expensive pedal, a DOD Rubberneck delay, cost me less than either my Squier Mustang or my Tagima JB, but not by much.
My pedalboard is about the same monetary value as my main bass.('75 P) My rig is worth about a quarter of either.
LOL Usually pedal freaks spend more for their effects pedal than their basses. Used to be the guitar player had this outrageous pedal board. Now, we do too.
Quick estimation: 1/2 guitars, 1/4 amps, 1/4 effects, but that includes both guitar and bass rigs and I don’t use effects for bass.
My pedal "collection" costs about what I can sell my main bass (Carl Thompson) for used. That said, I don't browse classifieds for instruments, but I constantly am looking at pedals.
I have a 2nd Thompson and a third on order, so at the end of the day, my basses cost more than my pedals. Scary to think that the whole shabang could probably send one of my kids to college for one year.
I have a 2nd Thompson and a third on order, so at the end of the day, my basses cost more than my pedals. Scary to think that the whole shabang could probably send one of my kids to college for one year.
I don't like pedals, and truly dislike twiddling knobs, but I have three always on pedals that I use with a couple of presets. Way less than I have invested bass guitars and amplification.
Do I ned to buy another bass to even things up?
