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No pedals player

B

bassdog

May 23, 2005
839
558
Atlanta, Ga
#1
I've been playing a long time and have never used pedals of any kind. I like the pure tone of my Fender basses. For variation I just use the tone controls or pup selection. I'm thinking of getting a pedal and am wondering if there is one "must have" pedal that every bass player "should" have. I played with a flanger yesterday for a bit at the store and wasn't crazy about it. I don't really know what I'm looking for as far as effects goes, however. Thoughts?

Bob
 
#2
I come and go as far as effects go, years ago I would have said a chorus pedal is good to have, but its not a must have. These days, I would say a good light overdrive to add some grit to your tone, like a Pork Loin, is good to have. However, is there a reason you now want to add effects? You have gone a long time without them.
 
#5
No way to give you a good answer. What I find essential may mean nothing to you. For me, my Pork Loin is an absolute must to add the little bit of hair to my tone that I love. I also have a programmable pre-amp which allows me to switch between my passive four-string and my active five-string by stepping on pre-set EQ's I have for both. For me, thats essential....for you? Probably not.
 
#6
Angle.jpg



Short of that, I think you're trying to fill a need that doesn't exist. If you can't figure out what you need, you probably don't need it.

I have a Jamman that I use for samples, but that's it. Works for what I need it for.
 
#7
bassdog said:
I'm thinking of getting a pedal ...
Click to expand...

It would help to know why. Are there songs with effects that you want to duplicate? Are members of your band telling you that you need to mix things up? And what sort of music do you mostly play?

Don't get me wrong - I like pedals and effects, I think they're fun and useful, and I'm no snob. But if you don't need them for any reason, you might be spending your money for no reason, and I'd probably advise you to wait until you know what it is that you do need.

Now on the other hand, if you simply have money that's burning a hole in your pocket, and nothing better to spend it on, and you just want to try out things for fun, I'd advice a cheap multi-fx unit. Then you can try out a bunch of different effects, see what you like, and eventually replace them with higher quality individual pedals (or perhaps even a higher quality multi-fx pedal, if you find you like that).
 
#8
I really enjoy my Zoom B3, even using it with other single pedals. If you want just a single though, a Sansamp can be really cool as a dirt box. The BDDI in particular, since it can serve as a DI either passive without tone controls or active to color your sound on its way to the board. It can also run on Phantom power so when used as a DI, no need for batteries or wall wart.

p.s. Nothing wrong with not knowing what is you need. No one NEEDS their bass to sound like a synth, but it's nice to have in the event to song calls for it. That's why I really like the B3 as a multi. For those one off sounds you really don't use often enough to justify buying them. Plus, it also works as a DI, volume pedal, tuner, and recording interface for a computer. It's a cool pedal.
 
#9
I could throw a bunch of ideas at you. I currently own 45 pedals and have tested hundreds.

If you have been living in harmony without pedals and playing some nice music. Keep it that way! There is something to be said for purity of tone and simplicity. Cost is another concern, for the price of a few pedals you can buy another bass or upgrade a cab.

If you have to have pedals, start with the main line ones rather than going boutique right away. Boss, Electro Harmonix and MXR all make good products.
That statement will get me some incendiary responses but that's part of the democratic process and that's OK.
 
#10
I don't think there is a "must have" pedal, except a tuner as noted above.

I have a Sansamp VT delux that everyone raves about, but its never really worked for me......I take it to my gigs now for a kind of backup, so I can go through the PA if my amp craps out.
 
#11
In my opinion if you are after a certain thing, (like if you are in a cover band and are looking to cop the tone of a certain song) this would be a relatively simple question to answer. If you are just exploring for kicks, the best thing to do is to take a trip to the music store and try all the pedals you can. For real though if you are happy with your tone, why start on the never ending journey that is FX addiction?
 
#13
Laurent said:
If you have to have pedals, start with the main line ones rather than going boutique right away. Boss, Electro Harmonix and MXR all make good products.
That statement will get me some incendiary responses but that's part of the democratic process and that's OK.
Click to expand...

Not from me....I second that idea. I started with a Line 6 Bass PODxtLive multi effect unit to get a sense of a bunch of different effects. Then sold it and bought individual Boss stomps, then MXR and by then the addiction consumed me! :)
 
#14
I buy gear when there are sounds I want that I haven't already got. So I've got two bass guitars so I can have one strung with rounds and one with flats, I've got two double basses so I can have one strung with steels and one with gut-like synthetics, and I've got a bunch of pedals to get close to some of the synth sounds I like, and to provide some colour and variety to live stuff (a job best not left to a guitarist I find).

If you're happy with the sounds you're making then stick with what you've got.
 
#15
These are pedals that I find useful ...

A bass eq can make your passive bass have the flexibility of an active bass and also be a simple boost pedal
boss_bass_eq_pedal_80_nashville_nc_9275904.jpg



The bass VT gives you Ampeg tone in a small box rather than a big amp.
_c711357_image_0.jpg



The bass di+ gives you a nice DI box with a modern tone.
27776-mxr-bass-di--large.jpg



The bass pod gives you amp and effects modeling. A lot of tones in a small box.
BassPOD.jpg



The Marshall guvnor gives you the old 60s and early 70s tone of playing through a Marshall head and a 4x12 cabinet.
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#17
I was once in your shoes, Bob. Played for years and years without a single effect of any kind. In the last year I've owned several. If you want to start experimenting with them, I think there's some good places to start.

Dirt, fuzz, distortion. This was always a hard one for me. Back in the day I became quite enamored of the clean, full range bass sounds of the 80s. No more of those nondescript fuzzy *bump* sounds for me. It was hi-fi all the way. I was gonna play some slap on cabs with tweeters like Duran Duran. Or something. But what I've come to realize is that there's a big, gorgeous, delicious world of overdrive, fuzz and distortion that's really worth exploring. You can go classic retro like the Tech21 stuff, you can go chainsaw face-melting like Darkglass and you can go Flaming Lips synth sounds like Source Audio. There's a lot to discover in this area. Listen to some youtube clips with headphones on, make some decisions about the basic sounds you like. Do some talkbass research on particular models and then pull the trigger. I wouldn't be caught dead without some grit on my board these days.

You could just decide to drop a funk bomb on your sound and get an envelope filter. These are really fun to play with but I've found they take some courage to use live or in the studio. Your mileage may vary. There's tons of these out there, including a seemingly endless supply of out-of-production boutiques with loyal followers advising you to search for them used on ebay. I myself would just go with the MXR unit. It just nails those classic funk sounds right to the floor. I ended up selling mine to get a wackier, swiss army knife of an EF, the Source Audio BEF Pro--but that's a pedal you don't buy on a whim.

Synth! There's so much synth bass in popular music these days you really can't avoid the subject. To a certain extent I've found that synth pedals are either too flawed, too expensive or both. Your best bets on experimenting with this are probably going to be the BOSS, Behringer (yes!) and Digitech units that you can get from $50 to $150. They seem like good values and you're going to find a few usable sounds on them.

I'm not big on delays and reverbs. I just don't get it. I leave it to others to explain them.

Of course you can't forget more utilitarian pedals like tuners and compressors. Tuner? No brainer. There are a few popular ones. I think they're far more efficient than headstock tuners or even rack tuners. Compression... some people say they don't need it. Others say they won't play without it. I like a very transparent compression that just evens out my level as I change techniques. It's subtle, but once you get used to having it, it's hard to go back.
 
#18
Get a Zoom B2. New they are under 100 US dollars, very cheap if you go used. The newer B3 has even better sounding effects, so get that if you can afford it, but if you aren't sure that you even want effects, I'd just get the B2.

I am not a big effects guy personally, and I use my Zoom B2 at every gig. I often get compliments on my tone from other bass players. I use it for the following functions:

1) tuner...it's very useable. I add an external footswitch for ease of muting. But it's easy enough even without the extra footswitch.

2) EQ...you can choose 2 band parametric or a 6 band (3 high/3 low) graphic. And you can mix and match them.

3) Amp simulator...I send the B2 to a cheap DI box and send a direct signal to the board for consistency of my tone. I use several models, mainly the Sansamp, Tube pre, Ampeg, Hartke, or SWR.

Noise Gate... The B2's is very good; makes jazz single coils dead silent.

5) Compressor...not the best, but it is usable. I use this 50% of the time. The first 4 effects I use 99% of the time.

For less than 100 bucks, I get my money's worth. There's only one thing that I don't like about the B2--no auxiliary input to play along with mp3's. That would be a great addition. But you aren't talking about using it as a headphone amp. For your purpose, the B2 would be perfect.
 
#20
I'd say if it ain't broke, don't fix it. If you're playing without effects and getting all the tones you want that way, you are all set and shouldn't waste your money on pedals you don't need.

I'm not a huge effects guy, I have five on my board total and one of those is a tuner, and I only own one more that's not on it. If I was going to have just one it was be the MXR M-80 that Ric5 recommended, you get active EQ, a DI box, and distortion all in one. I have a chorus pedal that I kick in on about two songs and an octave pedal that features in one or two more, but I'm using the M-80 on almost everything.
 

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