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Must have bass pedals? Go!

#61
Shayneros said:
I'm looking to expand my sound. What pedals do you absolutely love or think everyone should have?
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For me order of importance is...
  1. Compressor
  2. Tech21 VT Bass and/or Ampeg SCR DI
  3. EHX POG
  4. Tech21 Bass Boost Chorus
  5. Fancy EQ (like Empress ParaEQ and/or Whirlwind Graphic 10 band)
  6. Some kind of heavier overdrive/fuzz/distortion like a Big Muff or Darkglass
  7. Passive DI as alternative to amp output
 
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#63
I would say compressor if you slap (the only time I use one) and as JimmyM says - a good overdrive / distortion pedal (or several ;)). As far as tuners go, I have a TC Polytune2 that works great. However, when I set up my basses I use the Peterson iPhone app - it works way better than any of the pedal tuners for setting up intonation.
 
#66
For me, a chorus, wah pedal, bass whammy, distortion, envelope filter, looper, tuner, and a tremolo (for that Chris Squire thing ....). I have Source Audio stuff for the distortion, chorus and envelope filter (I also have the Hot Hands thingy which is neat to play around with, as well as an expression pedal for them), a Morley Dual Bass Wah (have had that for years), tuner/tremelo by Boss, Digitech for the Bass Whammy, and a TC Electronics Ditto 2 for the looper. It works for me. I also have a Boss GT-10B that I use occasionally when I don't want to take the pedalboard out (I have it on a Pedaltrain board inside the road case - that thing's big!).
 
#67
I went through a big pedal phase (the Aguilar Dual Filter is still for sale in classifieds). I've now narrowed it down quite a bit.

My pedal board includes:
Providence Dual Bass Station (I play both upright and electric at gigs and this allows me to even out the volume and eq between the two)
Sonic Research Tuner
Empress Compressor
3 Leaf Proton Filter (hardly use it, but to good to let go)
Analog Man Chorus (again hardly used anymore but so good I won't get rid of it)

I also have a Mic Mechanic on the board for vocals (great for having your own reverb control and a touch of pitch correction).

The best tone control outside of my bass is the Jule Amps Monique, which doubles as a DI if I need it.
 
#68
Growlmonkee said:
Must have? for me BDDI, tuner
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Add a compressor between the tuner and BDDI, and this will carry you a LONG way. It is all I used for three years gigging. Only recently did I swap BDDI for Ampeg SCR-DI (not because BDDI wasn't awesome - long story). I also added some overdrive, fuzz, and chorus to better cover some songs in my cover band. At Church where we play originals and contemporary worship stuff, I pretty much have one sound (and I love it). The Church also bought a BDDI to stay in the house for players without pedals.
 
#72
I like having a hard-clip distortion, a (real) tube overdrive, an analog delay, a physical (spring or plate) reverb unit, a tremolo pedal, and some kind of modulated filter pedal (wah/autowah). I figure it's nice to have a few options.

I think the most important thing is to make sure to get pedals that don't filter out (or muddy) the lower bass frequencies. I have a Boss DS-1 to do hard clipping, but I had to mod it heavily so that it wouldn't filter so much out (and so that the tone knob works right).
 
#75
Forty-Thirty said:
Sorry for the noob question, but is there a place y'all could point me to that explains what all these pedals do? I have a vague understanding of a couple of them, but I'm clueless about most of them and interested in learning. Thanks! :)
Click to expand...

This Invalid Link Removedis a really good explanation of what guitar pedals do and how they work.
 
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#78
R.I.P. said:
Come on man, you don't want to say they kinda stuff around here.

OP is looking for some advice, and your post is anything but

Its like saying "I want to play the bass" and someone saying " play the drums instead, the bass sucks"
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OK, he said expand his sound, my opinion was to do it with the bass, (not a plane ticket to Cabo) his playing, his raw ability, rather than taking a determined path, it's my opinion, not trolling. In logic, zero does exist. I defined it. I'm unpopular ok sorry. Also it's one person's "no" versus a sea of "yes more."
Also drummers don't set their reverb, compression EQ, echo, for every song live ... it's post production. Amps have EQ and many with compression on board, Ie. what I meant by knowing how to use it.
 
#79
Forty-Thirty said:
Sorry for the noob question, but is there a place y'all could point me to that explains what all these pedals do? I have a vague understanding of a couple of them, but I'm clueless about most of them and interested in learning. Thanks! :)
Click to expand...

keyofnight said:
This Invalid Link Removedis a really good explanation of what guitar pedals do and how they work.
Click to expand...

That Reddit post is good but pretty technical for me.

Overdrive, distortion and fuzz make the noise go grzzhhzh grrrzzhhh grrrzzhh. Overdrive does it a little, distortion does it more, fuzz does it all the time.

Envelope filters make the noise go squawk squawk squish.

Chorus pedals make the noise go "OMMMMMM" like it lives in a Buddhist monastery

Flangers and phasers turn your rig into a space ship.

Compressors and limiters make you not too loud. Unless you turned the amp too loud anyway.
 
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