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Making guitar pedal mod for bass? (don't hurt me.....)

N

nsmar4211

Nov 11, 2007
1,016
8
#1
*puts on hardhat*

I've been delving into the world of off the wall effects due to an originals project. In my quest for sounds (try finding a ray gun nowadays.....sheesh) I've become interested in the idea of building my own pedals. As you can imagine, my guitarist bf is very encouraging in this :D:D.

I've been messing around with playing my basses through guitar pedals. As I kinda expected, the low frequencies don't get the effects response like the high frequencies do, espically the cool effects like flangers. I've been reading but I just can't find the answer-which components determine which frequencies will be affected by the effect?

What I'd like to do is take a guitar pedal schematic, alter the resistors/capacitor/etc values and make it a bass pedal. I'm guessing it can't be that simple or there'd be more bass pedals out there. Any ideas? Or great explanatory websites on which components have which effect on which frequency in pedals? Or I'll even take links in the forum (tried searching got buried).
 
#2
Aside from overdrives, most other types of effects, (modulation/delay/filters, etc) will work equally well for bass or guitar. A blender pedal will mix in your uneffected clean bass signal with the effected signal, for ANY pedal. Look at the Boss LS-2, or Xotic X-Blender.
 
#3
It can be simply a case of replacing one cap and one resistor - have a look at my recent thread on tubescreamer for bass.The original classic tubescreamer used a 0.047uF capon the input as a filter to take out the low frequencies before going through the gain/overdrive stage. They did this as the distortion of the low frequencies made the guitar tone sound muddy and flabby, hence the tubescreamer has a characteristic mid boost overdrive wich sounds sweet on guitar but thin and nasal for bass. Replace the 0.047uf cap with a 0.47 one and you get bass frequencies foinf down to about 70 hz. Perfect for bass. I've also modded soe more classic fuzz pedals such as Red Llama, modded a woolly mammoth type, as well a some of the simpler classic fuzz circuits.
A goodplace to delve more is DIYStompoxes.com
 
#5
Another way to get a good idea is to go onto the buildyourownclone website and look at the .pdf instructions for some of their kits. Oftentimes they have an explanation of what needs to be done to make something work better for bass beyond just the input/output caps. The flanger instructions are pretty detailed and would be a good starting point.
 
#6
Ok-so the cap and resistor values are what's important. Got it :)

Any recommendations on an easy to mod-for-bass stompbox to build as a first build? Soldering I'm getting better at.....figuring out schematics is still making my brain hurt (I must have 40 pages printed out so far of hints)......so a schematic with a shopping list would be nice :) Even nicer if the parts are at radio shack :)

And yea, the DIY website is awesome....my browser hates me for the 20+ tabs I'm going through!
 
#7
I'd go to general guitar gadgets and check out some of their kits. If you've never sourced parts etc., it might be worth your while (and cheaper in the long run) to start off with one of their kits (or one of the byoc kits) to get your feet wet.

Big Muff clones are pretty standard. Don't start with a fuzz face-- seems easy, but it's a little bit complicated.
 
#9
I have built a few pedals from generalguitargadgets and have been very pleased. I originally built them for guitar but here's some thoughts on their performance w my j bass.

Simple Boost (SBB kit on their site):
Great pedal for bass as is. Really more useful when using a tube amp (or hybrid I suppose) than w a full solid state amp however. Can get some great ragged overdrive sounds that stay punchy as hell. It's one of the cheapest and easiest to build kits also.

Compressor (OSQ kit):
This pedal was also one of the less expensive and easier to build kits. Sounds great for guitar and decent w bass. This pedal is in no way transparent and is very noticeable when turned on (I think all the strange compressor noises/clicks are cool though) which I kinda like. There is a trim pot inside the pedal which you are supposed to set for the best sound w your instrument, then close everything up and simply use the external volume knob to balance levels or whatever you want to do. I set the trim pot using my guitar so I have feeling that w a little tweaking it could sound better w the bass. Some cap/resistor value changes may also go a long way.

Tubescreamer:
Built it in a night, w all of the boutique mods and TS808 specs and what not. With my guitar through my roomates Twin this pedal kills (instant Rolling Stones). With the bass however, not so much (as mentioned above). I would recommend spending your money elsewhere if you want a bass grit box.

I would also recommend looking into some auto filter stuff as there are tons of ways to set these up and they don't necessarily have to be any good to sound cool/unique.

Well best of luck with whatever you decide on, post build pictures.
 

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