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Help: Rock/Metal/Blues Bass effects

demonmalfas

demonmalfas

Guest
Aug 26, 2012
34
5
#1
Hello all.
I used to have a line 6 bass xt live but I decided to change to analog effects... so, I'm trying to figure it out wich ones to buy.

At the beginning, I only can buy aroun 500 u$ in pedals, so I've to choose ...
Any suggestion?

I've read I should have a compressor, overdrive/distortion, a phaser or flanger...

So thanks for any highlight
 
#4
Focusing on the metal and rock sections:

A compressor is very common, but not essential. It can be used to keep your low end constant and heavy compression is a big part in some metal musicians tones.

If you do use an overdrive then it would also be good to have a clean blend either on or along side it to help you stay cutting through. A popular one for this is the Tech 21 sansamp BDDI.

Phasers/flangers aren't really used that much on bass in metal. It would be good to have one anyway for the rock and blues sections.

I would suggest looking at an octave pedal to help beef up lines played higher up on the neck and it is pretty much essential for most genres, I would suggest a polyphonic one though as it would cope better on high speed riffs.
 
#7
I would get a nice tuner, an overdrive, and a fuzz (not the bass muff), if you are playing rock. I love delays too, but that isn't a must have.

I don't use a compressor, but I can see why they are useful. A reverb can sound cool in some settings but I don't always like them.

For most basic rock sounds, an od or fuzz is a good start.

Sorry, I am pretty unhelpful. I think it is easy to go overboard on what you *need* for any type of music. What is your favorite bass player? What did you use a lot of on your multi- pedal?
 
#9
First... thanx to all for your time for giving some feedback here.

As you can see, I'm a total ignorant about fx pedals... so I'm trying to get some basic advices.

My favorite bass player?
Rock talking, I like pretty much Cliff Burton (Metallica), Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers...

Metal talking, there's a lot... If you could check... I like these kind of tone... a lot of mids I think
Rapture -

So far, I've watched a lot of demo videos and seems pretty cool pedals:
mxr compressor
aguilar overdrive

What do you think about M-80 distortion?

Im open to every advice you can get me.

Thanks a lot.
 
#10
You don't "have to" own any specific effects. You could go clean from bass to amp and sound great. And that is the final answer on effects you "should" have.

Now you can move onto effects that might add to your sound and you may like having at your fingertips (or your toes is more accurate).

You said you used to own a multi-effects unit, well what were the effects that you liked using on it? Your own experience is a good place to start from/ because in the end no matter what any of us tell you, what your ears tell you is all that matters.

You may have $500 to spend on effects, but spending it all at once might not be the best start. You get 3 or 4 all at once it might color your impressions of the pedals. Take it from someone who has bought and sold WAY too many pedals, its a slippery slope.

Just a few suggestions... wait a month, get to know your own sound, without effects. If you are in a band, it can be helpful to hear what just your bass and amp sound like in a band mix. Also-what kind of effects does Flea use, or what did Cliff use? This is well documented and could help point you in the right direction.

Most important - have fun and be patient. It'll happen. Good luck!
 
#11
For most of my rocky gigs, i use two stages of drive- an always on light drive ( in my case the dod fx91) and a full on drive (b3k).
The rest is just to taste really. I currently run octave (mxr), fuzz (mxr), wah (weeping demon), chorus (also mxr!), and delay (guess who makes that ?!)
Btw ime the aguilar is a distortion, and got lost in the mix no matter how I used it.
 
#12
i think the aguilar is totally underrated, with low saturation and countour at the 9 oclock pos, you can get very nice sounding overdrive like Timmy C's, that just my opinion though, maybe i am biased because i love the tone of the pedal too much.
 
#19
demonmalfas said:
Thanks to all.
Im wathching lot of overdrive pedal demo videos... and the b3k darkglass is awesome... but too expesive... almost 300u$

Any opinnion about mxr M80?
Click to expand...

MXR M80 is decent - clean channel is very clean. Distortion channel automatically scoops the midrange when you engage it. It definitely loses body in the tone department and sounds terrible in my opinion. Not worth it, but give it whilr if you have a chance.

Take the advice as stated above - work without pedals until you understand the sounds you are going for. I started off with too many pedals right away and ended up selling a bunch and being overly frustrated for no reason.
 
#20
demonmalfas said:
Thanks to all.
Im wathching lot of overdrive pedal demo videos... and the b3k darkglass is awesome... but too expesive... almost 300u$

Any opinnion about mxr M80?
Click to expand...

I use m80 and i think it's great eq and a preamp, but i really don't dig/use the distortion. When i need some grit i use my way huge green rhino. I also had the pork loin which gets alot of love here. But imo the green rhino is more bass friendly. Great for rock music and could fit to your needs. And not that expensive either
 

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