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Must have bass pedals? Go!

#41
Since most of my playing is in cover bands, I only use an effect if it was a prominent feature on the original hit recording. A few examples:

"Fly Away" (Lenny Kravitz)--Bassballs
"Dancing In The Moonlight" (Thin Lizzy)--Phaser
Grand Funk Railroad--overdrive
funk/dance stuff--MarkBass SuperSynth

I usually start with the cheapest version I can find, and if it sucks I work my way up the ladder until it doesn't suck any more. Sometimes the most basic model is just fine (example: $10.00 Danelectro Tuna Melt tremolo for John Paul Jones stuff, works like a charm). I'm not a pedalhead, more a utilitarian user.

I sometimes keep a Sadowsky outboard pre-amp on my pedal board and leave it on. Man, I love that thing, it can be addictive.

If the song doesn't require processing, I'm perfectly content going bass-->amp.
 
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#42
JimmyM said:
Sure. Without a killer distortion box (I believe it to be a Rat or Rat derivative), you can't get this sound:

Click to expand...


Thanks for sharing this Jimmy. I had never heard of these guys until, well Paris happened. Even then though, I assumed they were in fact a Death Metal band, which I have zero interest in. I decided to listen to this and LOVED it!
 
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#43
JimmyM said:
Sure. Without a killer distortion box (I believe it to be a Rat or Rat derivative), you can't get this sound:

Click to expand...


ScarfFace said:
Thanks for sharing this Jimmy. I had never heard of these guys until, well Paris happened. Even then though, I assumed they were in fact a Death Metal band, which I have zero interest in. I decided to listen to this and LOVED it!
Click to expand...

Ditto, thanks Jimmy. I never would have expected such a slick pop sound from a band with that name. I'm a sucker for slick production and time-honored riffs. I've heard every riff in that song dozens of times, but they amalgamated it really well. Thank god someone's still making good old-fashioned organic pop rock, it never gets old.

That's what I love about TB, I jump on a thread to beat my chest about how I use effects pedals and end up finding a new band to follow. The humor section may have gone to hell in a handbasket but there's still a lot of good taste and experience to be found here.
 
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#45
Essential is pretty personal, but for me, with a clean, deep tone with some mids and slightly attenuated highs, I find the following useful:

Light OD to get a more vintage tone that is a bit reminiscent of a tube amp driven somewhat hard.

Envelope filter for the classic fingerstyle funk and some slapping. But a less dramatic filter with lots of motion, like the Aguilar Filtertwin, can fill in for modulation in a pinch. I find phasers and efs to me similar in overall tonality.

Actual modulation, flanger first, then chorus or phaser. This is a matter of taste. I usually set the chorus to just be doubled slightly detuned voices and dispense with the cycling modulation; I leave all swooshing to either the phaser or flanger.

A fuzz for dramatic effect. It can work in music where you might have thought that it couldn't, and is actually one of the oldest effects and its use on bass gave us some of the earliest effected bass recordings. I often think of some vintage early to mid 60's style applications of bass fuzz, as well as the more common "get heavy here" application, which I feel is a modern take on it.
 
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#47
I'm a pedal noob. I will not play any rig without my Sans amp BDDI. Since most of my music has been roots and Americana that's been it. When I was in a noise rock band a few years ago I got into pedals.

I am now a new member of a band influenced by Swans and Goodspeed! You black Emperor so pedals are a big thing again. I love pedals and they open up another world musically For me. On that was getting quite stale lately.
I run distortion ,fuzz ,reverb,trem and delay.
 
#48
I really don't think there are "must-have" pedals for electric bass. Maybe a tuner pedal with a mute function, but most modern bass heads have a DI out, and most sound companies you might hire have their own mics and DI boxes.
 
#49
sugarsand said:
Fingers or a pick that's it. imo not even 9 v batteries anywhere in the line, no horn, a good cable, a good passive bass an amp head- that you know how to use, whatever speaker size you like. When a guitar player shows up with a huge pedal board, it's time to think about how much you are getting paid, because it sounds always like Guitar Center- real kraft cheese. All those stupid cheap pedals, everyone sounds the same, only needing to be louder... the guitar or bass is just a controller, or trigger, really, isn't it? Or maybe use them for a movie sound track for a really scary movie if that is your thing. Why even play. Get a DJ, play your mac on the cloud. Bass is bass. What about drums with effects, a huge effects chain?
Maybe in post production, when your not even there, they might enhance to make the playing sit right in the mix.
Ween is a bit different altogether,if it's concept, well ok I 'm just a stupid bass player.
Pedals are bad news, they sound cheap.
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Drums have plenty of effects on them. Reverb and compression are common effects used constantly on drums. Now what you got to say, troll?
 
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#51
electracoyote said:
Ditto, thanks Jimmy. I never would have expected such a slick pop sound from a band with that name. I'm a sucker for slick production and time-honored riffs. I've heard every riff in that song dozens of times, but they amalgamated it really well. Thank god someone's still making good old-fashioned organic pop rock, it never gets old.

That's what I love about TB, I jump on a thread to beat my chest about how I use effects pedals and end up finding a new band to follow. The humor section may have gone to hell in a handbasket but there's still a lot of good taste and experience to be found here.
Click to expand...
Glad you and Scarface enjoyed Eagles Of Death Metal. They're one of my favorite pop rock bands ever. Their name is a goof on the Eagles and some band I never heard of called Vader. One of their friends said Vader was death metal and Josh Homme, the leader of Queens of the Stone Age and EODMs drummer, said they were the Eagles of death metal. Jesse Hughes, the singer, liked that and went with it.

Apologies for the derail.
 
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#52
Lately I've taken to using a Seymour Duncan Studio Bass compressor, and even though I have other pedals, I haven't incorporated them in gigs as of yet. I think it's laziness on my part to pack them around, set them up, fiddle with them, etc. since I haven't found the need to develop a range of effects given the basic old-school blues/rock I'm doing at this point, but I'd like to start incorporating them a bit more for a little variety.
 
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#53
Invalid Link Removed
Just put together this pedal board to use on an upcoming project i am starting with some friends. Think i have everything covered. 1. Wireless 2. Sansamp di 3. Ampeg scrambler...gotta get that svt sound from my 12"Traynor dont cha know. 3. Finally my Zoom B3 which gives me everything else under the sun.
 
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#55
I try to keep my board minimal - down to the must have pedals for me, if you will. Below is my current iteration (forgive the fuzziness...I'm a bassist, not a photographer):

IMG_1342 copy 2.jpg

Anywho, the main signal goes like this:

Bass Guitar > TC Electronic Polytune Mini Noir > Empress Compressor > Z.vex Loop Gate > Amplifier

The Loop Gate activates an additional chain that goes from the One Control Hooker's Green OD > EQD Afterneath and then back into the Loop Gate. This extra loop adds some dirt/grit and a bit of spacey reverb that suits me well when I need it.

The only auxiliary I ever add is a MoogerFooger MF 104M Delay, but I use it sparingly.

Best,
~Nick "Klaus" G.
 
#56
For me, the fun in effects is about sculpting sounds that "do not sound like a bass"
With that in mind, I have my chain set up as follows , which is also pretty much my order of "essence" 1) EHX pitchfork (pitch shifter) 2) Fairfield Randy's revenge (ring modulator) 3) Malekko B:assmaster (germanium fuzz) 4) EHX Superego (Freeze deluxe) 5) TC Electronics Delay 6) TC Electronics Reverb 7) TC Electronics Ditto looper.
 
#59
Love my Darkglass B3K and Vintage Microtubes. Right now the VMT is an always-on pedal at low gain in front of the B3K for occasional high gain stuff. The B3K also works well as an always-on pedal and adds a lot of clarity to the signal. The VMT adds a lot of warmth and I have found that it really smooths out an over-trebly G string. The VMT makes the already great sounding B3K sound even better IMO.

For something more over the top I highly recommend the Crowther Prunes and Custard. It was recommended to me by a Talkbass member and can do weirdness and controlled sounds equally well. It is a fuzz / modulation / semi-wah type of thing, is extremely touch sensitive and produces a wide range of sounds.
 
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