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Going through a minimalist stage
- Thread starter caeman
- Start date
Times change man. The computer your are typing on for example. Phones that work outside of your house. Sure we all could be getting 8 miles to the gallon like in the 70's but... Don't be afraid to change with them.
That's it. No peanut butter for you tomorrow night.
that..... that is about the MEANEST thing anybody's said to me EVER. you MEANIE.
i miss my bigger board. i've been going B3k -> Particle -> Heavy Mecha -> BEF Pro -> TimeLine for the last month or so. it's mad fun, but i miss having a few more things and the better switching options. i'm just a lazy GIT and havna got around to the 10 or so cables i need to build.
Not to derail, but Mr Humphrey, you are my favorite TBer, by far. Your posts never fail to at least make me smile. I also believe we share a particular fetish for Taylor Livingston's devices.
On topic - I'm pretty minimalistic. I pretty much just run compressor > DI. That doesn't keep me from having a moderately big board with lots of effects for occasional use, the same way most of my band's songs only require two or three strings, yet I play a Dingwall sixer (yet another thing in common between us, Ben)
caeman, I respect you for being able to play without bringing a bunch of pedals. I like having options way too much to do that myself. Regarding the last point of the OP, you never need an excuse to have a flanger. Flanger is good. Delicious flanger.
On topic - I'm pretty minimalistic. I pretty much just run compressor > DI. That doesn't keep me from having a moderately big board with lots of effects for occasional use, the same way most of my band's songs only require two or three strings, yet I play a Dingwall sixer (yet another thing in common between us, Ben)
caeman, I respect you for being able to play without bringing a bunch of pedals. I like having options way too much to do that myself. Regarding the last point of the OP, you never need an excuse to have a flanger. Flanger is good. Delicious flanger.
I lollll'ed at that one.... one of those priceless gems ya get around here, and this thread has more than an few ! Bassists are just a special breed, my bad for discovering it on the late. Promise I'll start early in the next life
.I started with 1 pedal (SansAmp PBDDI) on the floor, then got a Boss BCB-60, filled it up, then got a PT Pro and filled that up, then sold the PRO and pretty much everything on it and built a home-made one to complement the BCB, finally thrashed the home-made board and got a PT-2 and filled that up. I didna need the 20 or so pedals on the PRO and certainly don't need all of the 8 I have right now. But I don't care. I just loves mah pedlz. Who knows, maybe I'll just go tuner one day, we all have our identity crisis once in a while ? That's why I sold my van and bought a moped.
I had to leave for work right after Freight Train's post (dang!), so I had to wait until now to read your response. As usual, you did not disappoint! You are in rare form, indeed. Ah luh U, man!!!
I'm lazy and not too bright, I use one effect a BDDI and a tuner. No amp just a monitor where I control the mix. How's that for minimalist?
Damn, imagine all the tone loss Chris Squire had, with his poor signal being split between two amps, and ruining that perfect clean bass tone he could have gotten by overloading that poor Marshall Superbass.
And then he used a Brassmaster.
Tone. Broken.
I just plug my bass straight into the internet, hardwired to my pickups with an ethernet cable. I don't want some old amp with poorly performing light bulbs(tubes) over-coloring and ruining my perfect tone.
weak sauce yo. your signal chain is EXTRAVAGANT.
see? that? that's the perfect way to say that. just "this is what i do" not "i can't believe you think you're playing bass if you....".
meh. whatever. i don't really care when people talk the silly ign'ant stuff. since, again, they're probably not doing anything i'd find interesting so who cares what they think?
MOOF. just figured out a STUPID fun song tonight with the BEF Pro/Hot Hand good time wobblin's. YAY.
alright, just have to search around.
caeman, do you regret this yet??
i'm thinking of tossing all my pedals, i play at my church and record random crap, but i have 12 pedals. my pedals are worth more than all of my basses, i feel like this isn't the way to go, or is this just a phase and i will regret selling all of my stuff one week later...
caeman, do you regret this yet??
i'm thinking of tossing all my pedals, i play at my church and record random crap, but i have 12 pedals. my pedals are worth more than all of my basses, i feel like this isn't the way to go, or is this just a phase and i will regret selling all of my stuff one week later...
Iam, I didn't forsake ALL effects. I still have quite a few in the music studio, but it was my active gigging board that are parred down to the minimum I needed. I basically reset my ideas of my effects use and what goals I wanted to achieve: I wanted a tight, clean tone.
In that vein, I learned that I didn't need an EQ pedal subjugated my bass to death, but I allowed both of my basses to breathe free. Then, learning what I liked and disliked, I progressed to the "tight" part of the tone goal. I put a high-pass filter at the head of the board. This remove the rumble. I don't rumble. Not for *my* particular use.
The Cave G4 gives me a modicum of tone control that is cleaner and easier to use now with the HPF in place.
And then I realized that there something else bothering me, some high-end harmonics. It bugged my ears. So, I put a low-pass filter at the end of the chain.
My minimalist gigging board is now giving both of my basses (fretless Gretsch G2202 and fretless Kala U-Bass) a tight, clean sound that I am enjoying very much.
Don't dump all of your effects. Rather, reset to zero and see what you actually need for the music you actually play at gigs. Have your fun board, your noise board, your expressing your soul board. But maybe your church board just has like 3 basic pedals.
I switched to a head stock tuner (Snark) to clean up the board size.
In that vein, I learned that I didn't need an EQ pedal subjugated my bass to death, but I allowed both of my basses to breathe free. Then, learning what I liked and disliked, I progressed to the "tight" part of the tone goal. I put a high-pass filter at the head of the board. This remove the rumble. I don't rumble. Not for *my* particular use.
The Cave G4 gives me a modicum of tone control that is cleaner and easier to use now with the HPF in place.
And then I realized that there something else bothering me, some high-end harmonics. It bugged my ears. So, I put a low-pass filter at the end of the chain.
My minimalist gigging board is now giving both of my basses (fretless Gretsch G2202 and fretless Kala U-Bass) a tight, clean sound that I am enjoying very much.
Don't dump all of your effects. Rather, reset to zero and see what you actually need for the music you actually play at gigs. Have your fun board, your noise board, your expressing your soul board. But maybe your church board just has like 3 basic pedals.
I switched to a head stock tuner (Snark) to clean up the board size.
I've just realize that I don't need many effects on my pedalboard.
I do have fun trying different pedals/effects out! Its a sell to replace type of thing with me though
They say the Devil's water, it ain't so sweet
You don't have to drink right now
But you can dip your feet
Every once in a little while....
I do have fun trying different pedals/effects out! Its a sell to replace type of thing with me though
They say the Devil's water, it ain't so sweet
You don't have to drink right now
But you can dip your feet
Every once in a little while....
Hey guys, just like to share. I'm in my minimalistic stage too. Started with a good bass and the effects started to fly in like mad. Now u own a 4 dirts, delay, chorus, octave, filter, M5 etc. And all I use now in my top 40s jam is a tuner -> compressor + VT Bass blended clean with my 84 pbass.
Effects are still there to stay. On another board though. Thinking of getting a 2nd LS-2 and blend a 3 effected loop. Just how John myung does it. Clean, preamped and effect tone blended. but for now, all I really need is clean.
Effects are still there to stay. On another board though. Thinking of getting a 2nd LS-2 and blend a 3 effected loop. Just how John myung does it. Clean, preamped and effect tone blended.
but for now, all I really need is clean.
Maybe I need to join a funk band to give me an excuse to start carrying a filter and flanger again?
Nah, just take em to your next country gig and enjoy the confused weird looks in your direction.
Roioot ...Foive ...Roioot ...Foive Soix Soieven Roioot ...Foive...
Eric!
Commercial User
My largest stage setup at this point is;
bass
mxr bass comp (smooth out sound for less than stellar pa support)
EHX bass synth (funky lines like chameleon and such)
DI
Markbass CMD112p(used as stage monitor).
I'd be willing to replace the pedals with a zoom B3 or something similar.
bass
mxr bass comp (smooth out sound for less than stellar pa support)
EHX bass synth (funky lines like chameleon and such)
DI
Markbass CMD112p(used as stage monitor).
I'd be willing to replace the pedals with a zoom B3 or something similar.
