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Pedals every bassist should own

#3
DI for FOH.
Tuner.
Compression.
Those are really the only ones I'd say are required if your not using rack mounts. Even those aren't required.

Dirt. Usually overdrive. But an OD than can do distortion is useful.
Wah/auto wah just because you can get a large amount of tone from it.
EQ is useful. One with more than the typical 3 or 4 bands.
Everything else is just flavor, including the wah/dirt.

At the moment I personally use..
Tuner
Comp
Wah
Distortion.
Delay
DI.
 
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#4
A good pedal tuner that doubles as a mute switch. Makes mixers work a lot easier as well on many occasions. :)

Then there is a ton of pedals that are cool, and can make your sounds more interesting and so on, but the one every bassist should own in my opinion is a tuner.

Cool pedals to look on the other hand would be an overdrive. Good overdrive can really help bring your bass up front in the mix.

Compressor, but only a good one. Most of those cheap boxes only craps things up. You are better of without a comp than with a cheap one.

If you have to use borrowed amps / amps that are in the venue and cant bring your own to gigs, a good preamp with a nice DI out is handy too. And if you dont prefer a mic in front of the cab a nice quality DI box is a good idea. Unfortunately some places have really cheap / bad DI boxes so bringing your own can save the day even if you do bring your own amp and cabs.
 
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#8
As people previously mentioned, it really depends on what you want to play. A lot of funk bassists would tell you that you cannot live without an envelope filter, but a heavy metal bassist would probably disagree and tell you can't live without a B7K.

Here are some ideas:

OD: OD is kind of like something I think you can use for any genre. Yes, your amp might be able to do it, but do you want to be able to turn it on and off using a footswitch and without having a volume change? Also, maybe your amp is not capable of the exact type of OD that you are looking for.

Fuzz: Fuzz is great on bass, and, let's be honest, outside of very few very specific amps, you can't get that out of an amp. LOTS of songs out there from genres ranging from country to pop to metal use fuzz on bass.

Distortion: Depending on what you play, you might need it, for the same reason as you'd need a fuzz.

Envelope filter: If you need THAT sound, you can't get it any other way. Magic fingers are not THAT magical.

Octaver/Pitch shifting: Again, depending on the type of music...

Modulation (Flanger, Chorus, Phaser, etc...): Something else that cannot be reproduced any other way...

Reverb/Delay: If you need it, again, no other way...

Preamp/DI/HPF/LPF/Compression: The utility pedals that can actually simplify your setup, let you go ampless, let you regain control over your sound, etc...

TUNER: Get one or be the guy who thinks he has perfect pitch but is known as the out-of-tune guy because everyone around him tunes to 0.1% accuracy using a 50$ pedal.
 
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#9
I don't think there's any pedal that every bassist should own. Maybe a tuner. But to be honest, if you have good pitch, you may not need one. You probably won't be "out of tune guy" if your ear is decent. People tuned instruments by ear for thousands of years before anybody came up with electronic tuners. The real reason to use a tuner, IMHO, is silent tuning on stage.

But as for effects, many bassists don't use them at all, are quite happy about it, and will probably be here shortly to let us all know all about it. :roflmao:

Personally, after a lot of experimenting, I've decided that I need compression, OD, fuzz, envelope filter, chorus, and phaser to be happy. YM will V. ;)
 
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#15
I'm gonna take a different track and assume the OP meant which brand/model of effect every bassist should own. To that end, my personal choices would be a B3K for overdrive and perhaps a Fifth Gear for low gain overdrive. Out of the many dozens of pedals that have come in and out of my stash, the B3K is the only one that has stayed on the board the whole time. The Fifth Gear, although a new acquisition, I think will stay on too. I agree that a tuner is necessary too, but don't have a model preference.
 
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#16
My "always with me" pedals are my tuner, preamp/DI, and compressor. I'd say they are the minimum of what a gigging bassist should have, but everyone's needs are different. I personally played for years without any pedals, but these days I feel like those are needed for me to sound like, well, me.

I also use an octave, envelope filter, overdrive, chorus, and boost/gain pedal. I have a delay, but it stays at home right now.
 
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#19
21 and 26 are my personal faves



1. MXR Bass Octave Deluxe (0:00) Octaver
2. Darkglass Duality (0:10) Fuzz
3. Musitronics Mu-Tron III (0:21) Envelope Filter
4. Boss SYB-3 Bass Synthesizer (0:32) Synth
5. MXR Bass Chorus Deluxe (0:43) Chorus
6. Dunlop Cry Baby 105Q Bass Wah (0:53) Wah
7. Strymon Timeline (1:04) Digital Delay
8. Boss OC-2 Octaver (1:15) Octaver
9. Okko Basstard (1:25) Overdrive
10. MXR Bass Envelope Filter (1:35) Envelope Filter
11. Maxon FL-301 Flanger (1:47) Flanger
12. TC Electronic ND-1 Nova Delay (1:57) Digital Delay
13. Darkglass Vintage Deluxe (2:08) Overdrive
14. Digitech Bass Synth Wah (2:18) Synth
15. Aguilar Octamizer (2:29) Octaver
16. MXR EVH Phase 90 (2:40) Phaser
17. Mad Professor Snow White Auto Wah (2:50) Envelope Filter
[+ Okko Coca Comp]
18. MXR Carbon Copy (3:01) Analog Delay
19. Xotic Bass BB Preamp (3:12) Distortion
20. Foxrox Octron (3:23) Octaver
21. Korg G5 Synth Bass Processor (3:33) Synth
22. DOD FX25B Envelope Filter (3:43) Envelope Filter
23. Roger Mayer Voodoo Bass 2 (3:54) Distortion
24. Providence Anadime Bass Chorus (4:05) Chorus
25. Hotone EKO (4:15) Analog Delay
26. DOD FX32 Meat Box (4:26) Sub-Harmonic Wrecking Ball
27. Lovetone Meatball (4:37) Envelope Filter
28. Tritonlab FET Overdrive (4:48) Overdrive
29. MXR Phase 99 (4:58) Phaser
30. Strymon Big Sky (5:08) Reverb
 
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#20
I don't think there's any one type that any bass player should own, just the same as there's no one bass that every bass player should own, depends on what your trying to do as others have said, for example the most used on my board are the Two Notes - Le Bass and MXR Bass Comp, I could replace them with a nice valve head and a rack mounted compressor and go back to using none other then a foot switch. But to answer the question the way you want here's what i'm working to on my board (by styles of music I mess around with at home).

Church stuff:
Boss Slow Gear, Mooer Slow Engine, Volume Pedal. + light drive (Because some days sounding like a cello is more useful then sounding like a bass)

Ambient:
Delay
Reverb
Vibe / chorus / tremolo

Synth / Dance / Dubstep:
Sub Octave,
Fuzz / Synth
Foot Controlled Low Pass Filter.


Scrap everything I just said every bass player should have a wah because there fun, however given you already have one thats not much help to you.
 

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