fingerstyle players - what effects do you use?

[Unrepresented]

Fingerstyle has a lot of room for variation of tone. If you sound muddy playing with fingers you can always change the angle of attack, or for that matter the settings on your amp.

I'm strictly fingerstyle and use all the basic effects: octavers, filters, delays, distortions, fuzz, OD's, etc.

 

[Mudfuzz]

to MUDFUZZ: this topic would be silly but I think his problem is more EQ related. as far as wooden spoons are concered, I would read that thread. That thread could moderated by Peter Gabriel's bass play (his name is on the tip of my tongue) ((SORRY I GUESS I SHOULD AT LEAST KNOW HIS NAME)) any he plays with woooden finger adapter thingies.

His name is Tony Levin, he is one of my favorite bassists.

My point on it being silly is, it shouldn't matter what you strike the strings with, you build your setup around your sound. I have never run across a pedal that worked better for pick or finger or slap or tap or type style playing. If you have a very bright sound going into the rig and don't want it to get brighter there are ways around that and if your sound going into the rig is dark and don't want mud there are ways around that too, no more no less.

 

[kevteop]

Personally I don't use effects to "enhance" my sound, really. I think that often does lead to a muddy sound, as you said. I generally use effects to replace my sound, mostly using a variety of fuzzes, octaves, filters. The only modulation effects I currently use are LFO or sample-and-hold control over a filter's cut-off frequency, but I'm trying to find a suitable tremolo to add to my board.

But yeah I'm not a big fan of "subtle" effects like chorus, overdrive, phasers, etc. I've never managed to make them work very well.

 

[Mudfuzz]

Personally I don't use effects to "enhance" my sound, really. I think that often does lead to a muddy sound, as you said. I generally use effects to replace my sound, mostly using a variety of fuzzes, octaves, filters. The only modulation effects I currently use are LFO or sample-and-hold control over a filter's cut-off frequency, but I'm trying to find a suitable tremolo to add to my board.

But yeah I'm not a big fan of "subtle" effects like chorus, overdrive, phasers, etc. I've never managed to make them work very well.

If you run a fuzz or OD into a chorus or phase it is not a subtle sound at all

 

[project_c]

Personally I don't use effects to "enhance" my sound, really. I think that often does lead to a muddy sound, as you said. I generally use effects to replace my sound, mostly using a variety of fuzzes, octaves, filters. The only modulation effects I currently use are LFO or sample-and-hold control over a filter's cut-off frequency, but I'm trying to find a suitable tremolo to add to my board.

But yeah I'm not a big fan of "subtle" effects like chorus, overdrive, phasers, etc. I've never managed to make them work very well.

you've totally hit the nail on the head there i think. in my experience, distortion / fuzz / overdrive effects 'enhance' tones created with a pick, whereas - unless used in real moderation - they don't do much for fingerstyle. (and i'm not referring to metal players, who like a very distorted tone).
using effects to REPLACE the sound is a whole new area for me. i come from an electronic music background where everything was about creating sounds using effects, but i left that behind because i love the purity of playing bass. bringing that element back into playing bass requires a slightly different mentality to the one i'm used to i guess.

I find this topic silly.

Fingerstyle players....


Should I start a thread for people that hit the basses with wooden spoons?

if you find the topic silly, i'm not forcing you to post in it.

i felt my question was valid. a pick tone and a finger tone are vastly different, not just because of EQ but mainly because of the initial attack you get with a pick. i find that adjusting EQ to make light overdrive / distortion sound good with fingerstyle just doesn't sound so good. boosting highs and high mids also boosts a lot of the mud too, not to mention string clang. meanwhile cutting lows eats up a lot of the original tone too.
(i found this to be the case with all my basses - a 4 string warwick corvette $$, a warwick corvette 5 string passive, and a squier vintage vibe jazz bass, going into a GK 1001RB, and then to an Epifani UL212)
but perhaps i'm EQ-ing wrong.

 

[groooooove]

zvex machine, boss OC-2, digitech whammy, korg G5, visual sound jekyll and hyde, tech 21 sansamp BDDI, red witch moon phaser, analogman chorus, music electronix messdrive, boss rv-5, dod FX25, and for all things not covered by this list i have a korg AX3000b multi effects..

and i never use a pick.

 

[project_c]

sounds interesting groooooove, is there anywhere i can listen to your music?

 

[Mudfuzz]

Let me ask you this.

What overdrives have you tried?
One thing you might look into is FX with blends or a blender so you can use a more cutting OD and mix it into your sound, this way you can get more balance.

I play with my fingers more then with a pick actually but I switch back and forth a lot [even during a song. I do not re-EQ for FX ever, I have my clean sound and find FX that fit into my grand scheme of things, finding OD and fuzzes that work right for this can be a challenge, my main dirt sound is medium fuzz blended into my clean sound, so instead of the fuzz taking over my sound [this is what the second fuzz is for] the fuzz is mostly heard in my highs and mids adding more texture and fullness then anything else. My OD sound isn't heavy just enough to add grind and some extra highs, I go for a dark version of a Live at Leeds type of sound actually.

As for experimental/psychedelic/crazy sounds my main standbys are tremolo, phase, wah and fuzz, the trick is in how you mix it up. Delay is always nice too but it can make things muddy. You might want to look into vibe as well.

 

[sonic assassin]

overdrive and chorus.. talk box when i feel like it. pretty much anything id used picked.

the only thing i like about pick playing is the tone in the context of punk music. that aggressive attack and the sharp overdrive. otherwise.. its all the same to me.

 

[groooooove]

sounds interesting groooooove, is there anywhere i can listen to your music?

Link Removed

i also left out that i have a crybaby..haha

 

[rcarraher]

i play mainly fingerstyle, and most fingerstyle players i know use very few fx if anything at all, apart from maybe a touch of compression. it seems to me that because of the nature of playing with fingers, most fx just end up sounding like mud. the only thing i ever feel good about using is an ebx multi-comp, but everything else either distorts my tone beyond recognition, or just sounds undefined and muddy.

this question doesn't apply to metal players who love a massively over-driven grind tone so much as to people who play other genres, where retaining the original tone of the bass is still important. i am interested in whatever effects you think enhance your sound, AND also what effects you use for experimental/psychedelic/crazy sounds too.

thanks in advance.

I play about 99 44/100% fingers, and I have messed around with probably every effect under the sun, but since the early 90's I only use Reverb/Delay Overdrive and some times fuzz. Right now I am using a Boss OD3 and RV5 DD3 and on occasion an old FZ1 actually, I probably use the FZ1 more than the OD I can get all the distortion I want from my Ampeg CL when that is the tone called for. I've been seriously considering the GT10B but I've played around with multieffects and modeling before and was never more than mildly amused, never used them live.

 

[Unrepresented]

(i found this to be the case with all my basses - a 4 string warwick corvette $$, a warwick corvette 5 string passive, and a squier vintage vibe jazz bass, going into a GK 1001RB, and then to an Epifani UL212)
but perhaps i'm EQ-ing wrong.

I have a $$ and a jazz, both fingerstyle.

I would agree with you if your question was regarding flat strings, but your other statement really makes me think that perhaps you may want to play around with your fingerstyle technique before you write it off. An aggressive fingerstyle attack (digging in) can have a very similar tone to a pick attack -- I am regularly reminded when listening to old GNR tracks how much of an early influence Duff was on my tone even though I'm not a pick player.. I definitely have a lot of high end "bite" to my tone when I use more fingertip than pads. I can certainly make the touch sound more "muddy" with a softer touch, and apply various degrees between the two depending on my sonic objectives.

 

[capnsandwich]

For the most part I don't use anything but compression and a BBE Sonic Maximizer but here recently I've been dabbling in envelope filters, wahs, octaves, and some delay. Nothing major, just experimenting.

 

[M@ddest_H@tter!]

I play predominate finger style...very occassionaly with a pick. I have a wah, envelope, phaser, chorus, compressor, OD, and a fuzz, and the tuner/ eq. I like using pedals....it allows me to experiment...which I find enjoyable

 

[project_c]

Link Removed

i also left out that i have a crybaby..haha

cool! sounds great.

I have a $$ and a jazz, both fingerstyle.

I would agree with you if your question was regarding flat strings, but your other statement really makes me think that perhaps you may want to play around with your fingerstyle technique before you write it off. An aggressive fingerstyle attack (digging in) can have a very similar tone to a pick attack -- I am regularly reminded when listening to old GNR tracks how much of an early influence Duff was on my tone even though I'm not a pick player.. I definitely have a lot of high end "bite" to my tone when I use more fingertip than pads. I can certainly make the touch sound more "muddy" with a softer touch, and apply various degrees between the two depending on my sonic objectives.

this is definately a valid point, you may well be correct. i spent a lot of time working on relaxing whilst playing, which would influence the tone i'm feeding into effects. as an experiment i played around with the effects in the Ampeg SVX plug-in just now and digging in definately makes a difference. this could be the key thing here, thanks for pointing it out.

 

[kevteop]

you've totally hit the nail on the head there i think. in my experience, distortion / fuzz / overdrive effects 'enhance' tones created with a pick, whereas - unless used in real moderation - they don't do much for fingerstyle. (and i'm not referring to metal players, who like a very distorted tone).
using effects to REPLACE the sound is a whole new area for me. i come from an electronic music background where everything was about creating sounds using effects, but i left that behind because i love the purity of playing bass. bringing that element back into playing bass requires a slightly different mentality to the one i'm used to i guess.

Well I think if you've got a song built around a bass part you can get away with whatever effects are appropriate on the bass part, but otherwise "enhancing" effects are going to get stomped all over by the other instruments. There are records from the '70s and '80s where chorus and phasers and stuff are very prominent but the bass is massive in the mix.

I never really get that sort of opportunity, so I use effects to turn my bass sound into something else. Which often sounds very ace! I do have some nice bass guitar sounds at my disposal so I'm not totally disregarding the sound of the bass by any means, but effects can give you a lot more bass-heavy sonic choices.

Edit: Apologies if this response doesn't make any sense - I had to complete it in a rush in order to continue a steaming row with my bitch of a girlfriend.

 

[project_c]

Edit: Apologies if this response doesn't make any sense - I had to complete it in a rush in order to continue a steaming row with my bitch of a girlfriend.

mid-fight forum advice - that's dedication right there.

 

[Ric5]

I play half fingerstyle and half pick ... I use effects 100% of the time ... here's my pedal board ...

Pretty much any bass I plug into this pedal board sounds good ...

First I split the signal into 4 parallel signals with a rolls mixer.

1 - I run one into the Line6 bass pod where I model an acoustic 360 with a rat distortion pedal. I use this to get a retro growlly distorted sound. Or I also model an Ampeg fliptop with the Rat Distortion pedal.

2 - The second signal goes into a Mxr bass di+. I use this pedal to get a clean modern sound. It also has a distortion button that can give a moderate to extreme amount of modern distortion.

3 - The third signal goes into a Marshall Guv'nor. This gives me an old 60s marshall stack sound. This can go from a small amount of distortion to an over the top marshall sound. This effect can give you a Chris Squire Yes sound or a heavy metal sound, or just a subtle amount of distortion.

4 - The fourth signal goes into a Tech21 vt bass pedal. With this effect I get a slightly dirty Ampeg SVT bass amp sound with a tube like growl.

Then I remix the 4 signals back together and run it into a bass amp, or pa, or studio mixer. Because the signals are parallel I can mix clean and overdriven sounds together and still get effect and a sound that punches through the mix.

 

[1kinal]

I also play mostly fingerstyle and use:

-tech 21 VT almost always ON when playing passive basses. This is not totally an effect but makes my sound better. (you could also use this pedal as a distortion)

When I started with effects, the pedal I used the most was an enveloppe filter on pop/top-40 gigs.

Second was the octaver which can have many utilities, depending on the style of music you play.

So for anyone starting with effects, I'd recommend:

-overdrive
-enveloppe
-octaver

I think those three effects would give you a lot of fun to start with.

 

[tnscot60]

My signature lists my effects. The compressor, Chorus and EQ are on all the time. They are my tone shapers. I use the Bass Driver to fatten up during guitar solos, and the Distortion+ is for a heavilly distorted sound with great harmonics. It hasnt actually made its way into my sound yet, but I love and I'm waiting for it to make its appearance.