First effect?

[GreyBeard]

This pedal combines the most commonly used ones into one for the price of a single pedal.
Zoom MS-60B Multistomp Bass Effects Pedal

 

[Aidenn7]

let me saver you sometime.. if you want some of the best..

overdrive.. Damnation audio MBD-2..

distortion.. a Rat - fuzzrosious CAT KING pedal or Idiot box Bass Blower..

Muff- sanford and sonny bluebeard.. Wren & Crens Tall Font Fuzz..

Flange.. Boss BF2

Chorus. taurus Veechor or Providence Anadime ABC-1 Bass Chorus

Compression FEAlabs any of their comps.. or the Origin 76

 

[DrThumpenstein]

An HPF?

Definitely this if the WD didn’t have one, but he’s covered.

Here’s my answer, no matter what you are playing, and here’s why: if you’re digging the WD, I know you like some tube OD. You also have some level of appreciation for the design skills of @agedhorse.

You really need to check out the Genzler 4 On The Floor OD pedal. My more expansive thoughts are on this thread:
NPD -- Vroom Vroom -- Genzler 4 on the Floor

It’s a great compliment to the WD and has a really great range of usable, highly adjustable levels of drive. You can just add a little bit of a different flavor of warmth to light fuzz, depending on how hard you drive it. I was a little surprised at how much I had it cranked the first time I took it to band practice. It’s very musical and really fattened up my sound.

 

[cataract]

My pedals were an old ProCo Rat & vintage Tubescreamer.. followed by a Boss TU-2 (still have that one! Pure vintage!!)
But my first “bass” pedal was an EHX Bass Big Muff Pi.. you know, the one with the “tone wicker”— sold that and bought a SansAmp BDDI.
Ah, nostalgia! Welcome to the endless slippery slope of pedal goodness!

 

[Caley2000]

Bass compressor would seem like the obvious choice to me. I’m building my first bass pedalboard and everything sounds better behind the Boss BC-1X.

 

[cheapbasslovin]

View attachment 4437495

Sir, I can increase my level of suck with dynamics alone. No pedal needed.

OP, I say you get a multi like the zoom mentioned above or the B14. They're a great tutorial on the basics, very affordable, and new multis sound pretty good with all of your classic effect types. If the chorus (or delay, or reverb, or whatever) never feels right in a band with a multi, it's probably not gonna feel right with a stand-alone pedal, either.

All IMO.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

Get an analog delay. I recently replaced my big-box EHX Deluxe Memory Man with a Seymour Duncan Vapor Trail (the DMM is too big and too valuable).

 

[NoiseNinja]

This pedal combines the most commonly used ones into one for the price of a single pedal.
Zoom MS-60B Multistomp Bass Effects Pedal

If it's not for amp simulation or distortion, which in my opinion suck big time anyway on these Zoom units, while most of the equalizer, compression, modulation, delay and reverb models are actually pretty great, I would recommend the Zoom MS-70CDR instead.

The MS-70CDR got more modulation, reverb, delay, equalizer and compression models to chose from, and you can link up to 6 effects per patch, instead of the just maximum 4 of the MS-60B.

Finally if you do a bit of search there's a hack that allows you to use all of the effects from the same generation Zoom pedals on any of them, which would allow you to use amp and distortion simulation models on the MS-70CDR too, but still with the maximum of 6 effects per patch, rather than just 4.

I agree though that an affordable multi effect might be the right way to go in this case, since it'll allow you to try out different effects and see which you like, so you eventual can buy the real physical standalone versions of those you like later, once you know what you like and need, and, as said, most of the equlizer, compression, modulation, delay and reverb model in these Zoom units are actually pretty great.

I'd even dare say the equalizer models as well as some of the modulation and delay models are as good as just about any, but, as said, in my opinion the distortion, filter, picth and amp modeling models sucks (though they ought to still be decent enough for you to get an idea of what they do).

 

[Rolling Thunder]

I'm going to be different and say a Noise Suppressor. All those pedals that you are going to buy are going to be noisy. No one runs one and everyone should.

Is your set up bass > noise suppressor > amp?

 

[NoiseNinja]

I'm going to be different and say a Noise Suppressor. All those pedals that you are going to buy are going to be noisy. No one runs one and everyone should.

No.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

No.

Noise suppressors are temporary fixes to a larger issue. They are the "donut" spare tire of pedals.

 

[3bc]

OTHER THAN A COMPRESSOR ....

What should my first effect pedal be? I'm playing mostly a Fender P through a Mesa WD-800 ... I have a tuner pedal already. ... I'm pondering hard on a chorus or flanger ... if anyone can recommend a distortion pedal that plays nice with Mesa stuff I'd be interested in that as well. Cheers!

Definitely a klon centaur.

 

[etnoo]

Any of these...

But seriously, the first effect I had was Boss Chorus CEB3.
Today I would choose good compressor first, the rest depends on what music you play.
Good luck!

 

[GodPlayedBass]

A preamp/DI pedal to find your tone

 

[4dog]

 

[micguy]

25752909[/URL], member: 11401"]Octave!

Boss OC-2, OC-3 or the new OC-5. There are several good examples in the POG line from EHX. MXR has two excellent octave pedals. Maybe try the TC Sub n’ Up.

An octave pedal will put additional demands on your amp at very low frequencies - most folks starting out have amps that can’t really take advantage of an octave pedal.

I’d be thinking eq, an overdrive, or a chorus pedal as a first pedal.

 

[el murdoque]

Don't sink money on a pedal you think you might like.
Both Chorus and Flanger are dramatic effects in the bedroom but when you add drums and guitars,
they often disappear. They are super nice to give passages where the bass plays solo lines a bit of atmosphere,
but they are IMHO often overrated.

I'm +1 on the idea that you get a (2nd hand) cheap Zoom multi effect. That is good enough to give you an idea of lots of effects. This can be used (and re-used later) to compile your long term shopping list for your pedal board.
You use the Zoom to figure out that you want, let's say a chorus. Then you can go online and look at all the bass chorus pedals there are - and the guitar models that will work with bass, too.
When you got your chorus you might ask yourself if it might be fun to play the chorus into a fuzz. Or a flanger. Or whatever. That's where the Zoom comes in again. Set it to whatever you want to experiment with and go nuts. When you realize that you hate the sound of chorus into flanger but love chorus into delay, you might want to get a delay next. Be warned: This is a rabbit hole.

 

[MustangWally]

I use this one a lot:

 

[Dynomuttasaurus]

My first pedal was a chorus, because along with the wah that was one of the few bass pedals they made back in the day. Some 30+ years later and I've rarely used a chorus as my musical choice is generally hard rock/metal and there's just not enough space/atmosphere for chorus to make sense. The pedal is fun, but not practical for me.

My one pedal always packed and always used is a great preamp/overdrive/DI like the Tech 21 DP-3X or Darkglass B7K.

So, yes, what music do you play?

 

[skycruiser]

I don't have one yet but I have a Source Audio C4 or Spectrum on my "first" pedal list. I say "first" because I have had 4 or 5 pedals and now only have a compressor. Just didn't find enough use for them (chorus, octave, distortion and synth). But these digital processing pedals look extremely versatile and maybe can pull off that subtle aspect that can be hard with analog pedals.