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Pedal Crash course

#41
I think a cheap multi is a great bet, but would rather recommend something along the lines of the line6 M series, because it's quite usable for the long run, you can find a couple great sounds in that pedal, and I think its cool to have one pedal have 3-4 great sounds, even if it can make 100. It helps with pedalboard real estate.
What I would do if I was geting into pedals again would be to get some overdrive, a fuzz, an analog delay and then start getting crazy with modulation and synths.
What I would personally recomment (not because these are all the best, but you can get them in almost any music shop or used for bargain prices):
Sansamp BDDI
Way Huge Swollen Pickle
MXR Carbon Copy
Boss CEB-5
Bos SYB-5

something along those lines. Then you can start checking more envelopes, wahs, ...
 
#42
casio said:
I think a cheap multi is a great bet, but would rather recommend something along the lines of the line6 M series, because it's quite usable for the long run, you can find a couple great sounds in that pedal, and I think its cool to have one pedal have 3-4 great sounds, even if it can make 100. It helps with pedalboard real estate.
What I would do if I was geting into pedals again would be to get some overdrive, a fuzz, an analog delay and then start getting crazy with modulation and synths.
What I would personally recomment (not because these are all the best, but you can get them in almost any music shop or used for bargain prices):
Sansamp BDDI
Way Huge Swollen Pickle
MXR Carbon Copy
Boss CEB-5
Bos SYB-5

something along those lines. Then you can start checking more envelopes, wahs, ...
Click to expand...

I gotta stop you there. The Swollen Pickle is a little demon. It doesn't play nice with others and it likes to be in front. If you're learning how to play and you have little experience with pedals you something a little more straight forward. IME, I've found the Swollen Pickle to be amazing at times and insane at others. If your pups are active its not the ideal at the moment... I love my Swollen Pickle but IMHO, I suggest you invest in something thats more fuzz and less monster.
 
#43
Danni Moe said:
I gotta stop you there. The Swollen Pickle is a little demon. It doesn't play nice with others and it likes to be in front. If you're learning how to play and you have little experience with pedals you something a little more straight forward. IME, I've found the Swollen Pickle to be amazing at times and insane at others. If your pups are active its not the ideal at the moment... I love my Swollen Pickle but IMHO, I suggest you invest in something thats more fuzz and less monster.
Click to expand...

True, you got me on that one.
It was just a quick rundown of some basic pedals that could make a board do some simple toneshaping, yet could make it go quite crazy. The pedals listed here are just a reference to what more or less any one of us can try out when entering your generic music store!
 
#44
casio said:
True, you got me on that one.
It was just a quick rundown of some basic pedals that could make a board do some simple toneshaping, yet could make it go quite crazy. The pedals listed here are just a reference to what more or less any one of us can try out when entering your generic music store!
Click to expand...

IMO, Big Muff may be a better option. It really depends on the OP. Passive pups, do whatever you want. Active, stay away from the Swollen Pickle until you get another passive bass.
 
#45
I'm not familiar enough with Sonic Youth to really give you a specific instruction to that end, so take the rest of what I'm going to say with that in mind.

I really recommend a Line6 M9 (or M13 if you don't mind a HUGE board) for starting into the world of effects. Almost all of the effects are pretty representative of what single effects will do when paired with other effects (with the exception of some of the synth effects, those can be wacky :D). It is laid out like single effect pedals with pretty easy access to the controls. Combine using the Line6 with reading up on threads around here and it will help you figure out what is to your taste or not and if you need to upgrade from there.

The biggest difference between the M series and other multis that the M series lays out like a collection of singles, which I gathered was your beef with earlier multis. There are a couple of M9/ M13 threads with a ton of info if you do a search.

Good luck and kiss your money goodbye.
 
#47
Regarding the Swollen Pickle - FWIW, I have found my Swollen Pickle to play just fine with my other pedals. I do play a passive bass, but the first two pedals in my chain are an Overdrive (set more like a preamp) and a compressor (set mildly). At times I use an Octaver, and/or a distortion in front of the Pickle and they all work very well together (IMO). Tone is subjective, so I can't promise everyone would like the sounds I get, but I can say at least that the pedals aren't causing each other any obvious problems... That being said, it is a tricky pedal to dial in, and maybe not great as a fisrt fuzz...though it is versatile...

Regarding the idea of a Multi - It sounds like you are just against the idea of a multi based on past experience with multi's other than those recommended (that's fine, it's obviously up to you), but I think people keep coming back to that suggestion for good reason: your situation is really the ideal situation for a multi (you're kinda' new to effects, you're not really sure what you want, you want to experiment with all kinds of crazy sounds and see what happens, etc). I've never owned a multi, and I'm not trying to push them on you, but it really sounds like a perfect next step for you!

Regardless, good luck and have fun!!!

-JV
 
#48
You want crazy? You want fuzz? Well, let me present to you the smallsound/bigsound Year 4545:

Invalid Link Removed

There's also the Blargg-o-tron-o-tron:

YouTube - ‪blargg-o-tron-o-tron vs bass‬‏

The Blargg is discontinued, but Brian from ss/bs is a good guy, and might build you one all special-like if you asked nicely. I've also heard tell of people getting him to build them y4545s with clean blends if they want to have crazy & cleanish at the same time.
 
#49
blastjv said:
Regarding the Swollen Pickle - FWIW, I have found my Swollen Pickle to play just fine with my other pedals. I do play a passive bass, but the first two pedals in my chain are an Overdrive (set more like a preamp) and a compressor (set mildly). At times I use an Octaver, and/or a distortion in front of the Pickle and they all work very well together (IMO). Tone is subjective, so I can't promise everyone would like the sounds I get, but I can say at least that the pedals aren't causing each other any obvious problems... That being said, it is a tricky pedal to dial in, and maybe not great as a fisrt fuzz...though it is versatile...

Regarding the idea of a Multi - It sounds like you are just against the idea of a multi based on past experience with multi's other than those recommended (that's fine, it's obviously up to you), but I think people keep coming back to that suggestion for good reason: your situation is really the ideal situation for a multi (you're kinda' new to effects, you're not really sure what you want, you want to experiment with all kinds of crazy sounds and see what happens, etc). I've never owned a multi, and I'm not trying to push them on you, but it really sounds like a perfect next step for you!

Regardless, good luck and have fun!!!

-JV
Click to expand...

In a sense i know some about the pedals my guitarist friend uses and i know from the multis i've tried and the on i owned that id prefer just a simple pedal board. I dont have to cycle through to get to a certain sound on stage etc. A friend pointed out a few simple brands to go with (Artec, Behringer and Boss) That would be a bit cheaper for me to get my hands dirty in all this wonderful world of sounds. Since i'm going for Noise here i dont think having all the pedals be high class is a needed thing. I know Moog makes a nice cheap Expression pedal as well...If anybody sees me begging for change on the street....you know why.
 
#50
For me the fuzz pedal is the only essential pedal. But that's just my opinion. I actually struggle to justify buying any more. When I have, I rarely end up using them in actual songs.

I just got the new re-issue of the Big Muff bass pedal. It was meant to replace the no longer made Sovtek Big Muff. It carries the low frequencies nicely and also acts as a good volume boost if needed.

EHX.com | Bass Big Muff Pi - Distortion/Sustainer | Electro-Harmonix

And as someone else said don't buy guitar effects pedals. They filter out the low freq. They might sound great when you fly solo , but as soon as the drums start you will vanish into the ether.
 
#51
cracked_machine said:
And as someone else said don't buy guitar effects pedals. They filter out the low freq. They might sound great when you fly solo , but as soon as the drums start you will vanish into the ether.
Click to expand...

This is not always true at all. Some fuzz/distortion/od pedals(all of them to a certain extent) will suck some lows out of your sound. If you look at the PYPB threads you will see that most of the pedals on most of the boards owned by people here are guitar pedals. If bass players only used bass pedals we would all have the same 5 or 6 pedals. Saying a pedal is bass specific in most cases is marketing. I had a Tech 21 XXLB and it had about half of the bass response as my Copilot Orbit or my Gnome. Neither of which are bass specific pedals. Anywho just sayin'.
 
#52
cracked_machine said:
And as someone else said don't buy guitar effects pedals. They filter out the low freq. They might sound great when you fly solo , but as soon as the drums start you will vanish into the ether.
Click to expand...

+1/2

I want a guitar TS fir when I shred thru a solo... It would probably be used once every so often and I could lend it to the guitard that feels the need to replace pedals instead of rearranging his pedal board...

If you do buy a guitar effect, you're wasting money if its not some type of distortion/drive effect.

Guitar TS on a Squire J, HI-Fre and gain cranked= awesome:bassist:
 
#54
It is okay if you wish to go on a cheap pedal binge while exploring this new territory in your playing. Don't feel guilty about buying a Behringer, Joyo, Arion or Biyang cheapy pedal. The idea there should be trying the different types of effects to see if you like that sort of effect. You may not like that specific implementation of the effect, but keep your mind on the end goal...to find the types of effects create the sound you are hearing in your head.

+1 to the advice about the multi-FX units. They are cheap enough and give you such a plethora of options to explore, it could save you some money in the long run.

+1 to buying used.

In the end, if a certain pedal sounds good to you, it is good. Try to avoid name-shopping. Sometimes, there are gems in the off-brand rough.
 
#55
caeman said:
It is okay if you wish to go on a cheap pedal binge while exploring this new territory in your playing. Don't feel guilty about buying a Behringer, Joyo, Arion or Biyang cheapy pedal. The idea there should be trying the different types of effects to see if you like that sort of effect. You may not like that specific implementation of the effect, but keep your mind on the end goal...to find the types of effects create the sound you are hearing in your head.

+1 to the advice about the multi-FX units. They are cheap enough and give you such a plethora of options to explore, it could save you some money in the long run.

+1 to buying used.

In the end, if a certain pedal sounds good to you, it is good. Try to avoid name-shopping. Sometimes, there are gems in the off-brand rough.
Click to expand...

+1

The guys at my local music store recommended some Danelectro Cool Cats as well. I plan on trying some of them out this weekend along with some of the Fab line they have as well. My guitarist has some behringers too. Thanks everyone for your help and making this the longest thread I've posted! TBers ftw!
 
#56
chuck norriss said:
I'm not sure how many effects kim gordon uses, if any. I think most of the noise comes from the boys. but then im thinking of daydream nation & goo. myabe im not understanding correctly. or if you're saying you want to apply their guitar approach(es) to bass, the dissonance & machine-like hum they achieve can come from alternate tunings what/how they play. & lots of amp OD.
Click to expand...

Google; Sonic Youth - there is a site out there with all the info you need and more, plus tabs, photos of pedal boards and more.

Kim plays bass and guitar through her pedal board so you'll have to just figure out the ones she uses.

Also, Mark Ibold plays bass now and from what I saw on stage he uses a pruines and custard.
 
#59
okay just to report back on trying my bass through some of my guitarists pedals, i think the best sound i came across (as far as noiserock type sound goes) was through a boss chorus then the electro harmonix germanium big muff fuzz. the blackstar tube overdrive pedal was nice, but the electroharmonix one sounded more sonic youth-ey. and i would strongly recommend putting a chorus before your distortion, that makes for a nice tone.
 
#60
I use an EHX Big Muff on nearly every song. Mainly for the sustain feature but it fattens the sound overall. The audio guys and I did a lot of sound tests to put this together. I have a few songs that I play it dry but for the most part, it should be the first pedal you get and it will likely not be sold on Craigslist
 

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