Only two, you choose...

[King Weapon]

Aguilar Agro for dirt, Boss PS3 for the multi effect lunatic it is!

 

[40Hz]

Compressor and a warm overdrive for me.

The only two pedals I usually pack along are a Keeley Bassist and a Southampton Fifth Gear V2 as far as "effects" go. Although I'm not sure I'd consider a compressor as transparent as the Keeley as an effect per se. Even Keeley calls it a "limiting amplifier" (which is one function of a compressor) to distinguish it from its brethren that add a little color to your sound.

Preamps are a tough call because they're all over the place function-wise. My Broughton Alex-1 Bax is a straight up B-15N tonestack with some gain. So it's definitely not an effect to my way of thinking. But my Southampton Ictineo might qualify more as an effect since its flexibility and tone options make it a lot more than just your normal pre.

It's really hard to make an arbitrary decision as to whether something is an effect or not. Especially with things like the Keeley Compressor+ which is a compressor plus something else like its name implies. Or SA's Programmable EQ that can be set to autoscroll between four different EQ settings allowing it to behave like a multiband tremolo. Even a kill switch can be an effect in the right hands.

That's why this question is so hard to answer accurately.

 

[4dog]

Comp and chorus both mxr..make ya smile!

 

[lfmn16]

I wouldn't limit myself to two. If your goal is to produce a sound, why would you limit the tools available to make that sound? It's like an artist saying they will only use three colors, or a writer saying they'll only use 500 words. Except as an intellectual exercise, it doesn't make sense.

 

[vlsndgrdn]

Vox Duel Overdrive + Russian Big Muff or Boss EQ + Russian Big Muff or Vox Duel Overdrive + Boss EQ

 

[GrapeBass]

I wouldn't limit myself to two. If your goal is to produce a sound, why would you limit the tools available to make that sound? It's like an artist saying they will only use three colors, or a writer saying they'll only use 500 words. Except as an intellectual exercise, it doesn't make sense.

Then again, I gigged for over 30 years without any effects, there were no issues whatsoever and I never felt compromised or limited. Granted the music was mostly classic rock, jazz and blues.

 

[Alvaromtz]

Drive (darkglass vintage microtubes)
Modulation (tc electronic chorus flanger)
My amp have comp

 

[Jay2U]

Compressor and overdrive, period.

 

[xschatten]

i don't use effects 99% of the time so i guess something minimal like preamp and a fuzz

 

[mobdirt]

+

 

[Timmy-Watts]

Well, I have a synth that I use now to double. Soooo... don't need the octave pedal any more. Need the compressor, it's always on. BUT I'm hoping to negate that need with my next amp purchase. That leaves dirt and chorus. And I rarely use either.

 

[spark]

Comp and Fuzz

 

[Alien8]

Only 2 would take me down to the Moog MF-101 and the OmniCabSimDlx. Together there is some drive, filtering, both funky and static, as well as some flexible preamp sounds.

 

[Hover-Rich]

1) Compressor
2) Alembic SF-2 Superfilter. Has 2 filters in it, each with low pass / band pass / high pass. It is great with electric bass and gives good control shaping my upright's sound.

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

Just added a custom-built low-pass filter to my set up, which only ever uses chorus and compression. That's as complicated as it gets for me.

 

[TrevorR]

Bpersonally id plump for a tremelo and my Morley Dual Bass Wah... standard wah and envelope filter rolled into one. Love it!

 

[bassgtarman]

I rarely use effects in my current groups (and by "rarely", I guess I mean "never"), but I have about 4 different Envelope Filters that I love, so if I had to pick two effects, I'd choose one of those and then either a Chorus or an Octave pedal. Probably the Octave.

 

[Booty Shaman]

Compressor and octave pedal.

 

[taylor16]

Overdrive and Compressor.

 

[40Hz]

I wouldn't limit myself to two. If your goal is to produce a sound, why would you limit the tools available to make that sound? It's like an artist saying they will only use three colors, or a writer saying they'll only use 500 words. Except as an intellectual exercise, it doesn't make sense.

I could see where it might have an educational value. Because you’ll see a lot of people constantly adding to their rigs but never really learning how to use what they already have.

When my sister was getting her fine arts degree, her painting classes forced them to use a deliberately limited pallet of colors to teach them how to get everything possible out of what the my were allowed to use. Then, after they got a handle on a minimialist pallet, the instructors would gradually add a color at a time. But even so, many professional painters will still only use a relatively small number of colors in any given painting. Usually it’s between five and eight.

I’ve heard kids with a half dozen cheap effects produce cool sounds that some folks rocking a rack of Strymon and Eventide gear wouldn’t be ashamed to call their own.

Sometimes being forced to work with less gets you more. Not always. But anybody that knows how to push what they’ve got as far as it can go will have an advantage over someone who bought expensive gear but then uses it for nothing beyond the factory supplied presets.