Lost without bass effects?

[WayneS]

Do my fingers count? The only effects I use are my fingers and fingernails.

I would surely be lost without them!

 

[Henry D]

i hope we all agree that bootsy fits into this category..

Someone hasn't heard much James Brown :scowl:

 

[McSpunckle]

I'm lost without fuzz. It's just the nature of my music. I'm more of a guitarist than a bassist most of the time.

But, when I play clean, I find I want delay, chorus, phasers etc...


So, yeah... lost.

 

[lunarpollen]

With my current main band, I'd be lost without them most of the time. But that's just because of the context of the music (melodic post-punk). In another style or genre (e.g., 1960's British R&B) I'd want to avoid using effects and would do just fine.

 

[wagstaff]

i definatly couldn't i use an effect station which i use mainly for tones. after like a month i tried through my bass amp and it osunded awfull with out the effect to create the tone.

 

[cheapbasslovin]

For me it depends on how much of the song I need to fill. If there is plenty of stuff going on around me, and I just need to kick it in the background and let the rest of the music take the stage, I don't really need or want them. If I need to fill a bunch of space and add to the flavor of the song, though, I desperately miss them if they're gone. I don't need them, but want them VERY, VERY BADLY.

 

[KarateKid25]

if you can't play without processing, you suck.

period.

Obviously the music you play never calls for any pitch shifting, ambience, multiple voices, funky wet sounds, synthy sounds, slap backs, loops etc etc and your not aware that a lot of music does.

You must have a really interesting and varied taste in music

Get back under your bridge, Troll!

 

[lbanks]

I can do without everything, but I gotta have a flange, even a slight one! (I gotta hear my 'whoosh'!)

 

[KromaatiKlauun]

Pretty lost, even in band settings when they're not that necesary I keep an OD and a Flanger around

 

[b to g is yummy]

quoteworthy, i think

I'm not lost without effects and have almost no use for them in the band i'm in.

But that doesn't stop me buying them.

Good to see some honesty in this thread. Kinda funny reading a lot of these posts describing your love for effects but quickly trying to make yourself sound really good by adding 'but I could play fine without them.' Don't apologize people!

Except for maybe the one dude on here who's been sufficiently bashed, most of the people who visit the effects forum have the virus and love it.

 

[olaff421]

From watching me play some of my bands songs you would think I could have a side gig as a tap dancer. That being said, I usually don't write a bass part with a particular effect in mind, I just keep turning things on and off if I think they would sound good there until something does. If nothing sounds good, then nothing it is. If every little light is on then so be it. I wouldn't be lost, but I might not know where I am without effects.

 

[Drifta]

I think everything being equal and music genre aside. if you are "lost" and can't hold the low end without your pedals, i think you need to keep practicing on being a "bassist"

 

[The Lurker]

I think a lot of it depends on the avenue you're on.... I mean, U2 or Larry Graham or Muse get a lot of their characteristic sounds from effects on the instruments. Can the Edge play guitar without his chorus and delay stuff? Can Larry Graham do without the jet phase or fuzz? Yeah.

Just because someone does write songs around an effect shouldn't imply they can't do without the effect.

I doubt Bootsy would have much trouble ditching the fancy gear and just going with a jazz bass....

edit-- oh yeah, and for the obligatory Jaco reference, consider the number of tunes he used fuzz, chorus, or delay loops on. No delay = no Slang.

 

[namraj]

if you can't play without processing, you suck.

period.

Apparently this is ignorant, yet everyone seems very eager to claim that they can play with and with out effects, i'd say deep down the i use effects to sound good insecurities are their.

I would use effects if i needed to, and i love them when im producing but on my bass I tend to use alittle EQ and thats it, i'm looking to build a high pass filter pedal tho for when im tapping. but yeah deff not lost with out them.

 

[TaySte_2000]

I'm going to throw Doug Wimbish in here I'm sure he can play but so much of what he does is reliant on effects

 

[Mudfuzz]

I don't need effects. I like them and spend a lot of time using them but I don't really need them. A lot of my gigs I don't bring any. And you can make plenty of noise/avant base stuff with out any, hell you don't even need a bassguitar or a amp, check out some of Stefano Scodanibbio's stuff.

That said I own about 45 pedals..................

 

[envika]

I could easily respond with:

"If you can't make a chorus, a delay, two reverbs, compression, an octave, an env. filter, a whammy pedal, and fuzz all going at once sound cool then you suck.

period. "

but that would be ignorant and wrong now wouldn't it?

Touché. I guess I always gotta consider the counter-argument.

 

[AEONmw]

..I can't even play unless I have my "sound"...

 

[bigchiefbc]

I can, and often do, play bass with no effects on.

However, and this was a tough thing to admit to myself, I find it .... well .... boring. I've gotten to the point now, where I can do the hold-down-the-fort, thump-thump-thump thing, without even thinking or trying. I got into effects about a year and half ago because, quite frankly, my gig at the time wasn't challenging me.

If I were to stop playing with effects altogether, I would be bored, and my bandmates would even admit that our sound would suffer

 

[The Lurker]

I can, and often do, play bass with no effects on.

However, and this was a tough thing to admit to myself, I find it .... well .... boring. I've gotten to the point now, where I can do the hold-down-the-fort, thump-thump-thump thing, without even thinking or trying. I got into effects about a year and half ago because, quite frankly, my gig at the time wasn't challenging me.

If I were to stop playing with effects altogether, I would be bored, and my bandmates would even admit that our sound would suffer

+1. I always considered the hold-down-the-fort thing the absolutely necessary minimum.... that's what bass needs to do.... but why shouldn't it also do more than that