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Guide to effects needed!!

N

nottswarwick

Jan 29, 2005
110
0
56
Nottingham, UK
#1
Hi people.

I am thinking about adding some effects/preamp/something to my rig.

I use Warwick Corvette Standard 4, Hartke 3500, Ashdown mini48 and mini15. Coming from the guitar, I am used to a pedal board with odrive, chorus, delay etc in it, but am not really sure what I should get for bass.

I have been doing a lot of listening to CDs recently, and have just had a play about through my PA mixer effects section. Chorus, flanger etc all sound nice.

I play in a pro covers band, doing anything from Motown to disco/pop/rock. Currently I just set everthing flat and play, which seems to work OK but I feel I could be missing something or sounding better/more varied.

Options seem to be a multi eff unit (eg Boss GT6 B), modelling stuff (eg Line6 Pod XTlive), or a customboard with stomp boxes and a sansamp pedal preamp, or indeed some rackmount stuff (the Harke and a korg tuner are in a rack already.)

BUT, I am confused as to what would be best. Can anyone steer me in the right direction, both in terms of what I need/should get, and which products could be good?

Cheers

C
 
#2
I had the same problem as you some months ago. I was looking into multieffects, because I thoought it would be easier and cheaper.

It probably is cheaper, but the sounds you get from the multieffects can't replace the original stomp boxes. I've tried both the DigiTech BP200 and Boss GT-6B, and they do produce some cool sounds, but not much useful.

I decided to do some serious ebay'ing, and I don't regret. Actually, it's much easier with several different stomp boxes, especially if you get a looper...

I'm not the most experienced guy around here, but I hope this helps!
 
#4
Actually, I'm still replacing pedals...

But right now I got
EBS Multidrive (nice distortion)
EHX Big Muff russian (nice fuzz)
Akai Deep Impact (really nice synth :) )
Boss OC-2 (octaver)
Boss BF-3 (flanger, not sure if I'll keep this)
MXR 90 (phaser, ok but not great)
Also I got a Boss TU-2 tuner, and it's quite handy.

I'm also still looking for a compressor, especially EBS Multicomp (or Aphex punch factory, but the EBS is probably a lot smaller) and I'd love to try the EBS Unichorus, which is both chorus, flanger and pitch modulation (have no idea how it sounds)

My kind of music is pretty much only rock. As you may see, I'd love to get the muse tone. I almost got it :)
 
#5
buy the old Guv Nor on e bay, a recent post on it is in this forum.
some EQ pedal for me is great to add some mids to cut through the mix sometimes an echo is fun to play with especially if you have a loop function on it

maybe some other TB'ers will have (better) ideas.
 
#6
nottswarwick-

i am in the process of deciding between a multi or single stomps -- i'm currently test driving a bass PODxt. so far the things i like about it are the ampeg svt and eden traveler amp models, just about all the choruses, flangers, phasers, verbs, and delays, as well a few of the OD/distortions. i'm not impressed at all with the autowah or synth stuff. it'll take quite a while to dial into everything this thing is capable of, but if i decide not to go with the multi, here is my list:

- programmable sansamp bddi
- q-tron
- small stone chorus or digitech multichorus or boss bass chorus
- aphex punch factory

i used to have a sansamp and love what it does with my jazz and fender amp. also had the digitech chorus and liked it too. for what i play -- blues/rock/funk -- the above pedals or similar are just what i need.
 
#7
Sako said:
nottswarwick-

i am in the process of deciding between a multi or single stomps -- i'm currently test driving a bass PODxt. so far the things i like about it are the ampeg svt and eden traveler amp models, just about all the choruses, flangers, phasers, verbs, and delays, as well a few of the OD/distortions. i'm not impressed at all with the autowah or synth stuff. it'll take quite a while to dial into everything this thing is capable of, but if i decide not to go with the multi, here is my list:

- programmable sansamp bddi
- q-tron
- small stone chorus or digitech multichorus or boss bass chorus
- aphex punch factory

i used to have a sansamp and love what it does with my jazz and fender amp. also had the digitech chorus and liked it too. for what i play -- blues/rock/funk -- the above pedals or similar are just what i need.
Click to expand...

Cool.

Our guitar player uses the Guitar PodXT Live - sounds very nice. Only thing is that it does not have XLR outs. I am kind of drawn towards separate pedals. Perhaps a Sansamp BDDI for pre-amp duties, and a nice chorus, flanger, and overdrive pedal. I could plug the bass into my TU2, and from there into thepedals and then the BDDI last, so that I can take the fully effected XLR signal to the desk, and the 1/4" jack to my head. Woudl it work best this way around?

OR, I could get a Sansamp RBI for my rack.
 
#8
nottswarwick said:
Cool.

Our guitar player uses the Guitar PodXT Live - sounds very nice. Only thing is that it does not have XLR outs. I am kind of drawn towards separate pedals. Perhaps a Sansamp BDDI for pre-amp duties, and a nice chorus, flanger, and overdrive pedal. I could plug the bass into my TU2, and from there into thepedals and then the BDDI last, so that I can take the fully effected XLR signal to the desk, and the 1/4" jack to my head. Woudl it work best this way around?

OR, I could get a Sansamp RBI for my rack.
Click to expand...

well, the gurus on this forum could give you better advice on pedal order than me. i think tech21 recommends it being at the end, but personally i would want the chorus to be after the sansamp.

the rbi is cool too -- not as much tweaking to alter the mids because it has a dedicated mid knob. i would look into the programmable sansamp stomp too -- 3 different settings. i'd set one for clean, one for a little gritty, and one for more overdrive. or, you can set one for a boost for soloing.
 
#9
OK, thanks for all that.

Following last nights gig, I am thinking pedals more and more. I reckon Chorus, o/drive, octaver, synth, compression, and a BDDI (or the programmable one) last in the chain.

My only concern is where to put all this in the chain. Is it best to pt the effects between bass and amp, or inthe amp effects loop? Reason I ask is that I do not want and of the Warwick tone and bite being sucked out by the effects?
 
#10
I'd try it a few different ways and see what you like. You could try having the chorus in the effects loop but I think I'd leave the BDDI and odrive up front.

Check out David Wilson's quote here that I robbed from another thread (David is the man) --
davidmwilson said:
yeah, there's many ways to do it.
Here's some things to consider for your pedal chain.
1) If you're going to use the DI, you'll need it last on your chain - so either the Sansamp or Aphex.
2) I tend to put compression AFTER distortion/od/fuzz/ev filters. Some pedals will induce wild volume peak changes, so you might want to limit them. Compression first is valid also, I'm just letting you know the options.

In your case, assuming you will be using the Sansamp as a DI I'd do:
Bass->EHXdoubleMuff->Qtron->Comp->Chorus->Sansamp
Click to expand...
FWIW - I've spent many hours using the Bass PODxt and I just don't think it's right for me. Looks like I'm going to be building my pedal board back up after all.
 
#11
nottswarwick said:
My only concern is where to put all this in the chain. Is it best to pt the effects between bass and amp, or inthe amp effects loop? Reason I ask is that I do not want and of the Warwick tone and bite being sucked out by the effects?
Click to expand...
I am no expert on this, but that has never stopped me before ;)

I find that most stompboxes (and I mainly use OD/distortion) do not like being in the effects loop. They seem to work much better in front of the amp.

A rule of thumb is that stomps go in front, rack effects go in the effects loop. There are many exceptions but this is a good starting point.

If you don't want to loose the tone and bite, use all true bypass or use a loooper on the non-true bypass effects. If your cable runs are longer, one transparent buffer or preamp (or quality effect) might be good at the end of the chain to keep the highs and reduce noise.
 
#12
Hi

Current thoughts are as follows:

EBS Octabass
Akai Unibass
Ibanez SB-7
Chorus - ideally EBS Unichorus, or the Boss one (CEB-3?)
Sansamp BDDI or the programmable one (or the RBI rackmount)
A compressor - which one????
Boss EQ - GEB-7 - or is there a better one?

OK, are the above the best of their breed (given a resonable used cost)??
Can they all be powered from the Boss-style 9v adaptor style thingies (I have a block from my guitar days)?
Are the Unibass and Octabass too similar?
Bypass - are the above "true bypass" - if so which ones, as I may get a looooper....????? would I need it???
I already have a TU-2

Any thoughts would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

Chris
 
#13
I would say that these are the best in class for stompboxes (yup..I use em too :bassist: ).

>Chrous - Small Stone (EH), or Boss CEB-3
> Fuzz - Any old Muff Fuzz (or double muff), or if can't find, Big Muff Pi
> Dist/Od. - I'd go for a nice amp sim such as a Tech 21 Programmable Bass Driver (floor) or the Tech 21 RBI (if you go rack).
> Amp modelling...see above
> Phase - you don't have much choice here...don't get a phase 90. They don't work well at all. I'd say go to the store and try out a couple and see which one you like. A good starting point is the Boss PH-3...I thought it sounded rather nice.
> Flanging - MXR 117R
> Wah - Budda Wah (if you have the $) or just a dunlop bass wah
>Filter - EH bassballs or Q-tron (or mini Q-tron is $ is a problem)

That's just my $0.02

Nish
 

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