I tried !

[Hurricane Jimmie]

So Anyway, I bought a Zoom 506 when it first came out. I still own it and sometimes use it as a tuner. I fooled around with it, but never used it on a gig. There were a lot of effects on it that I'd never be able to use with a band. It was good for a headphone amp when it was quiet time for our kids. That was a long time ago.
I also had a programable Boss ME 20B board. It had a lot of useful effects, but it never left my music room.

Almost every guitar player I've worked with uses a pedal board. Before every song (and sometimes during a song) they're bent over adjusting a knob or switching something on or off. I don't want the distraction and I doubt that I'd remember what effect I wanted to use until a song was over.

If someone in the band recommended a pedal and would give me the skinny on properly using it, I might reconsider.

 

[Polfuste]

Technically you are correct.

However, here's some food for thought:
1. If you can hear that last 10% you get by using a lot of top notch gear, those last 10% that are lost on the crowd as you say, does that influence your playing? I know that when I have a stellar sound - both through my choice of gear and because the monitoring / IEM situation is great - I can and often will play as if my life depended on the quality of the next note. That translates directly to the drummer who picks up on that and suddenly, the groove section is a fair bit tighter.
So in a way, the crowd gets an audible effect.

2. If you know that you can get away with less than your best because while it sounds a bit inferior to your A game, but that last few percent are lost on the crowd anyway ... and you join a band where every single member follows that line of thought, the drummer will bring the cymbals that sound less bright, keeps the old drum heads for a while longer ... the guitarist, the keys player, all of them bring a little less because that's lost on the crowd anyway.
Would you suppose that all these minute details that are insignificant by themselves stack up to a difference that IS audible to the non musician?

Fully agree.

 

[CascadeBass]

I am definitely a straight-in player. My only two pedals are a Sansamp Bass Driver DI (which is just in my bag if needed) and a Korg Pitchblack.

if I were to pick up an effect pedal, it would be a chorus.

 

[FirewalZ]

I tried the pedal board thing … Had a zoom B6 and later put together a pedal board with a compressor, effects & preamp pedal … after many months and different approaches end up just keeping the bass preamp as a back up DI Box / Preamp option
anyone outhere with the same experience … Basically a plug in your bass direct guy ? just curious

Ive been a plug in a go guy for years as well, other than a DI or compression, I had no effects. However, I got into a power trio type group and discovered that a few basic effects were useful. I compromise by restricting myself to only what can fit on a nano+

 

[Hurricane Jimmie]

Is this another 'I don't use effects" thread in the effects forum?

Or a veiled attempt to drive us to the TB Classified Effects And Pedals section?

 

[SLO Surfer]

I tried the pedal board thing … Had a zoom B6 and later put together a pedal board with a compressor, effects & preamp pedal … after many months and different approaches end up just keeping the bass preamp as a back up DI Box / Preamp option
anyone outhere with the same experience … Basically a plug in your bass direct guy ? just curious

TL/DR Did you try building a pedal board for the sake of having a pedal board? Or was there a specific sound(s) you were after that you weren’t able to achieve?

Depending on the band I may use a big pedal board with lots of effects, or just a tuner pedal.

 

[MrLenny1]

Depends on the gig. Straight into amp quite often.
Do like the floor pedal on my TC RH450. It has, mute, tuner, compression, 3 memory sets which is
handy as I usually vary my tone 3 different ways for tunes.
My only dedicated pedal is a Sans Amp Bass Fly Rig. Very portable,
sounds good &I have done gigs with only the Sans Amp.

 

[Mannyinnewyork]

Technically you are correct.

However, here's some food for thought:
1. If you can hear that last 10% you get by using a lot of top notch gear, those last 10% that are lost on the crowd as you say, does that influence your playing? I know that when I have a stellar sound - both through my choice of gear and because the monitoring / IEM situation is great - I can and often will play as if my life depended on the quality of the next note. That translates directly to the drummer who picks up on that and suddenly, the groove section is a fair bit tighter.
So in a way, the crowd gets an audible effect.

2. If you know that you can get away with less than your best because while it sounds a bit inferior to your A game, but that last few percent are lost on the crowd anyway ... and you join a band where every single member follows that line of thought, the drummer will bring the cymbals that sound less bright, keeps the old drum heads for a while longer ... the guitarist, the keys player, all of them bring a little less because that's lost on the crowd anyway.
Would you suppose that all these minute details that are insignificant by themselves stack up to a difference that IS audible to the non musician?

My A game is not so hot to begin with but I always brought it. I understand your point and for players that feel as you do, then tweak away and enjoy the options.

 

[PhatBottomBass1]

Something interesting to me about the Line 6 HX One is that I have never been a big fan of modeling for the electric Bass. I never thought that the tone was very good in the earlier products. In the product line a bit later I found like one effect on an M5 that I could use, but it is apparently a very popular item with many studio guitarists? (A guitarist I played with years ago is big in Kemper development and was an early Line 6 fan...).

It was just within the last three months that I tried the HX One that I happen to find for $130.00 OTD in a pawn shop. I was thinking what are the chances that there are a couple of good sounds going on in this lil darling? I'm glad I didn't just roll with my prior experience with L6 on Bass as my reference point.

I have no idea and really don't care why it sounds better now, but it does. I'm sure HX is not "caveman" modeling for Bass. I was surprised to see a Noble and a B7K represented as there is a market for effects beyond the guitar and more new players. I wouldn't consider Tim LeFebvre to be a new player. But he uses effects (dirt) for good results with some of the non-experimental gigs. But also does some stuff that I have no desire to replicate!

 

[ghiggin1079]

I think there was only maybe one Era of me playing bass without some form of pedalboard and it was the "1st bass, 1st amp" segment in the early / mid 90s then I heard RATM and got a zoom 506. I wonder if I can find one of those for $30 now..

 

[HolmeBass]

Technically you are correct.

However, here's some food for thought:
1. If you can hear that last 10% you get by using a lot of top notch gear, those last 10% that are lost on the crowd as you say, does that influence your playing? I know that when I have a stellar sound - both through my choice of gear and because the monitoring / IEM situation is great - I can and often will play as if my life depended on the quality of the next note. That translates directly to the drummer who picks up on that and suddenly, the groove section is a fair bit tighter.
So in a way, the crowd gets an audible effect.

2. If you know that you can get away with less than your best because while it sounds a bit inferior to your A game, but that last few percent are lost on the crowd anyway ... and you join a band where every single member follows that line of thought, the drummer will bring the cymbals that sound less bright, keeps the old drum heads for a while longer ... the guitarist, the keys player, all of them bring a little less because that's lost on the crowd anyway.
Would you suppose that all these minute details that are insignificant by themselves stack up to a difference that IS audible to the non musician?

Not that the non-musician would even be able to articulate the difference. It usually get summed up with “they suck” vs “they’re awesome!” Or the dreaded, “they’re ok.” Which is a polite “they suck.”

 

[HolmeBass]

I tried the pedal board thing … Had a zoom B6 and later put together a pedal board with a compressor, effects & preamp pedal … after many months and different approaches end up just keeping the bass preamp as a back up DI Box / Preamp option
anyone outhere with the same experience … Basically a plug in your bass direct guy ? just curious

Using effects to good effect on bass is not simple nor easy. All of the issues we face amplifying bass guitar are magnified by the use of effects, and we all know getting a good sound on stage and out front can be a daunting task even with straight clean bass. Adding effects into the mix further complicates this problem quite a bit.

I would say it took me years to find the pedals that work with my sound and dial them in effectively.

Also there are two entirely different ways to use effects: one is as a texture to modify and augment the traditional bass sound. I would say the vast majority of audience members do not liminally hear that, but I do think subliminally they do hear it in the overall mix, and it plays a factor as to whether they like the band or not. I use overdrive, clean boost, and chorus in this manner.

Then there is using an effect to completely change the tone of my bass, and to add gain to allow soloing and playing parts that poke out quite noticeably. This is how I use fuzz, analog octavers, envelope filters, and distortion. My phaser sits on the border, but probably is more subliminal than I actually want.

When I click on an envelope filter, it is pretty obvious. That’s what I want. It took a lot of tweaking and decision making about where and how to use effects like this.

 

[BOOG]

…my tone is better than your tone and I know more than you because I (do/do not) use pedals

 

[dkelley]

Something interesting to me about the Line 6 HX One is that I have never been a big fan of modeling for the electric Bass. I never thought that the tone was very good in the earlier products. In the product line a bit later I found like one effect on an M5 that I could use, but it is apparently a very popular item with many studio guitarists? (A guitarist I played with years ago is big in Kemper development and was an early Line 6 fan...).

It was just within the last three months that I tried the HX One that I happen to find for $130.00 OTD in a pawn shop. I was thinking what are the chances that there are a couple of good sounds going on in this lil darling? I'm glad I didn't just roll with my prior experience with L6 on Bass as my reference point.

I have no idea and really don't care why it sounds better now, but it does. I'm sure HX is not "caveman" modeling for Bass. I was surprised to see a Noble and a B7K represented as there is a market for effects beyond the guitar and more new players. I wouldn't consider Tim LeFebvre to be a new player. But he uses effects (dirt) for good results with some of the non-experimental gigs. But also does some stuff that I have no desire to replicate!

line6 modelling is, effectively, perfect. This doesn't mean they sound good as is though, for sure... but at least you can be certain the actual modelling is not the issue any more. This is true for all major modelling systems made in the past several years. The issue and complexity is in the setup, and presets often suck like crazy LoL. But yes their bass stuff is amazing and their amp and pedal models are a regular part of my tone. Love it! Those models are from the Helix system which is their flagship.

And yea, it's much better than a couple decades ago.

 

[groove pump]

I tried the pedal board thing … Had a zoom B6 and later put together a pedal board with a compressor, effects & preamp pedal … after many months and different approaches end up just keeping the bass preamp as a back up DI Box / Preamp option
anyone outhere with the same experience … Basically a plug in your bass direct guy ? just curious

You might be a parallel universe version of me... from the future... given that I have a B6 along with a compressor pedal and some other gizmos. I haven't regularly worked these into my gigs - I'll often simply run my bass through an HPF and into my head.

But I'll readily admit that I really love some effects (I did say "parallel universe version of me"). I might get laughing like an idiot when I'm practicing on my own and torquing my sound into a delightfully hot mess with a fuzz or maybe I'll get some perma-grin when I dive into some synthy sounds or try blarping away on my Q-Tron. That's just good clean fun!!

My understanding of applying these things has been evolving as I've had a go with this or that during a gig. I've tried heavier drive patches that sound like potential overkill on their own, but not when the band is playing loud. An envelope filter can bring a lot of gooey funk to a song, but not if the fundamental drops away too much - now I'm getting to know an EHX Parallel Mixer to hopefully strike a better balance.

Maybe I'll end up with an expensive array of stomp boxes, but I got the Zoom multi to avoid that at least for now. What I don't want to do is spend a wad of dough on an effect that I only use for one song... and do that for six of eight different songs. $$$!!

 

[bigjames]

Generally, I am a basics guy. I have a tuner and that is it. I do have a Zoom B3 that I will use for specific circumstances (like reverb for fretless or amp modelling in an ampless environment), but that is it. I have a Radial BassBone as well for ampless that I will use on occassion.

 

[funkb0y]

Just a compressor into a SansAmp Bass Driver DI for me.
(the MarkBass Compressore is a great little piece of kit; it's more like a real rack tube compressor with a footswitch than a pedal).

I have an Electrix Filter Queen that I like to screw around with at home as it's a fully controllable envelope filter ("auto-wah"), but I'd never gig with it unless I had a call from a funk band.

I'm used to running front-of-house live sound at gigs with stereo 31-band EQ, comp, delay/reverb, etc, so most pedals (& especially multi-effects) feel extremely restricted to me as they don't offer much control nor observability.

Besides the SansAmp, the EBS Billy Sheehan Drive pedal is a notable exception, you can really dial in your tone with that thing. I don't own one but I've heard it a couple times & it's pro-level kit.

 

[jdjk7]

I tried the pedal board thing … Had a zoom B6 and later put together a pedal board with a compressor, effects & preamp pedal … after many months and different approaches end up just keeping the bass preamp as a back up DI Box / Preamp option
anyone outhere with the same experience … Basically a plug in your bass direct guy ? just curious

I assess what I need, what I want, and what I'm willing to put up with. Sometimes all of that adds up to bass > amp, sometimes it doesn't.

 

[MegaSwing]

I just keep it simple, because it’s what I know, and it has worked. But I totally enjoy players who work effects musically. That’s part of the game too.

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

I've tried a lot of different pedals including a couple of multi-effect pedals. I haven't found any of them really add anything to the music; so, I've given that up and gone back to basics - Bass -> cable -> Amp. It is less hassle for set-up and it doesn't have component failures. I tried wireless for a while, but twice had that fail.
The only thing I plug my cable in to is an Ampeg SCR-DI I use for ampless stage gigs.