Pedals or No pedals!?

[Matty Koff]

Indeed. I think of effects the way I think of solos or slapping or drum fills. Just because you have them at your disposal, that doesn't mean they need to be used most of the time. With more "effecty" effects, I think sprinkling them in at just the right places is part of learning how to use them.

Agreed on the creativity/play aspect of them, as well. If I'm tinkering around at home, sometimes playing with a new pedal or just a new sound will get my musical brain thinking another way. It can be a nice spark.

Lastly, the SA stuff is pretty incredible. I only have the C4 at the moment, but I've owned 3-4 others. The idea of building a board around an SA/Hub setup is appealing due to how well everything can interact & sync up. They've definitely changed my views on analog vs digital as well...

Your c4 is imo hands down both the best synth pedal and the best envelope filter pedal on the market right now imo. My spectrum is kind of redundant, but at the same time, with the hub, allows me to layer effects within a scene rather than cycling presets.. so it works out. Still, the spectrum is a great pedal on it's own vs any other envelope filter pedal I've ever used.

I've been debating a Nemsis Delay or the Collider Delay+Reverb pedal to top off my collection.. with all the functionality between the 4 SA pedals.. I think my GAS for effects will have been completely quelled, although I totally want to try that hot hand device

I've slowly been learning how to make use of these pedals as their so packed full of things to enjoy.. the hardest part - having a bass in my hands. I end up noodling before I even make it to the desktop editor. But everything's turning out to be less intimidating than the initial glance at all those virtual knobs may have left the impression of.

 

[groovaholic]

Pedals.

At least half of them built by me.

I can (and have) played shows without them, but I look at them like spices in a recipe.

My “always on” is a compressor that gives satisfying weight and meat to the skinny strings.

The dirt boxes all give me different flavors of “tube amp running hot” that cover a lot of ground when our guitarist takes a solo.

The envelope filter, reverb, and delay are just there for space and spice - they are the first ones I’d be OK without.

 

[Scott Lynch]

How many fellow bass players don’t use pedals? And how any do use effects? I’m not against them. I just never wanted to rely on anything but my bass, amp, fingers, and occasional pick for tone. If you do used pedals, what pedals can you not gig without?

It sounds to me like you're asking these questions from a philosophical perspective. If your philosophy of bass playing is minimalistic enough that you don't ever want to use any effects that can be derived from pedals, that's totally fine. Just understand that you will be limiting the kinds of sounds you can produce, which is not an inherently good or bad thing unto itself.

My approach to effects is more pragmatic or situation-dependent. I don't feel the need to always play with them - when playing certain jazz or acoustic gigs, for example, it's usually my fretless bass straight into an amp, and I love the freedom of not having to think about getting my sound from anything but my hands. For my wedding/top 40 gigs, I often have specific, sometimes effects-driven tone goals for certain songs. For that I bring a small board with a comp, octave, drive, fuzz, filter and tuner. The comp is always on, I use octave and drive occasionally for certain songs and very sparingly use the fuzz and filter. It really depends on the song. Depending on the setlist for a given night, sometimes I bring my board and only end up using the comp and tuner.

Rather than thinking of it as an all-or-nothing type of deal, I'd urge you to ask yourself 1) What bass players do I admire? How do they get their sound? Do they need effects for this? 2) What type of sounds will best serve my upcoming gig or the music that my band is working on/learning/writing? Do I need effects for this? 3) What are my own personal tone goals? What do I want to able to sound like? Do I need effects for this?

I think if you check in on your tone goals frequently or at least periodically, the answers to these questions may change from time to time. Or, depending on your own personal musical trajectory, they may not.

 

[jerry]

Depends on the gig.

 

[pappabass]

No pedals for me. Bass is bass! Not some unnatural sound. OK, I am old school, stick to your sound, let keyboard have the weird sounds.

 

[Michedelic]

The idea that I am supposed to only play what "a bass is supposed to do" never made sense to me - there is what I want and need to do to make music with the tool at hand. So I like to think of my bass as a tool to make music with-any music. I use pedals to make tones and sounds to step outside the realm of what I can do with fingers, pick, or knives and forks on the bare strings.

Reactionaries gonna react, luddites gonna lud. Once again, why should guitarists have all the ear candy?

 

[Michedelic]

No pedals for me. Bass is bass! Not some unnatural sound. OK, I am old school, stick to your sound, let keyboard have the weird sounds.

You realize that once you’ve stuck pickups on an instrument, and employed amplification, it’s not ‘natural’, and you’ve already crossed the line. That’s why the Grand Ole Opry and big bands of the 30’s fought against electric guitars, to keep the music “pure”. That’s why they laughed/scoffed at this in 1951...

 

[Kipp Harrington]

How many fellow bass players don’t use pedals? And how any do use effects? I’m not against them. I just never wanted to rely on anything but my bass, amp, fingers, and occasional pick for tone. If you do used pedals, what pedals can you not gig without?

For me, my Broughton HPF and Tech 21 VT Character Series Bass Deluxe preamp/DI. Awesome pedals I simply will not do without

 

[Lagado]

Reactionaries gonna react, luddites gonna lud. Once again, why should guitarists have all the ear candy?

Not being funny but perhaps you should read what the luddites were all about.

 

[Claymore]

MUST have: Tuner, Compressor, 10 band EQ
Optional: HPF, Envelope Filter, Dirt

 

[Mastermold]

How many fellow bass players don’t use pedals? And how any do use effects? I’m not against them. I just never wanted to rely on anything but my bass, amp, fingers, and occasional pick for tone. If you do used pedals, what pedals can you not gig without?

I generally don't use pedals. I play with SVT-CLs so have enough harmonic overdrive when I want, but occasionally I'll use an overdrive pedal but I don't use effects so pedals are not needed.

 

[Kujo016]

I played with a multi-effects pedal board, the digitech BP355, which was a great pedal for beginning and learning about pedal effects by giving a wide range of effects to mix. I played with that for about 6 years, now 6 years later I am picking my bass back up and I am going with stomp pedals, nothing expensive as I just record and not gig. I have a 76' fender P and im going with the vintage pedals and staying on the cheaper side with Joyo, but Boss is also on my lists. I would say though I love the sound of my bass just directly into the amp... she purrs when I play some finger funk, or fusion!!

 

[Smooth_bass88]

How many fellow bass players don’t use pedals? And how any do use effects? I’m not against them. I just never wanted to rely on anything but my bass, amp, fingers, and occasional pick for tone. If you do used pedals, what pedals can you not gig without?

I only use effects when the gig calls for it although there have been times when I bring them along on a gig for "experimental" purposes.

 

[75Ric]

I use a compression pedal along with a tuner. I don't use special effects and get good overdrive off the amp, which also has plenty of EQ and voicing options, so really don't feel much need for them.

 

[Michedelic]

Not being funny but perhaps you should read what the luddites were all about.

I already knew, but that term, like many others, has drifted away from the original historical, classical meaning, and morphed into something different, in modern, colloquial usage. Much like “philistine”. A present day electric bassist with a classicist ‘Luddite’ mindset would rail against keyboardists using synths(or whatever<cough-Ray Manzarek-cough>)to invade or replace a bass player’s role; but when that started happening, some responded with these...

 

[JimmyM]

I love pedals, but the band I'm now in just put the kibosh on overdrive, so now I'm done to nothing. Fine by me, less to carry, but I'm still very much a pedal fan.

 

[Lagado]

I already knew, but that term, like many others, has drifted away from the original historical, classical meaning, and morphed into something different, in modern, colloquial usage. Much like “philistine”. A present day electric bassist with a classicist ‘Luddite’ mindset would rail against keyboardists using synths(or whatever<cough-Ray Manzarek-cough>)to invade or replace a bass player’s role; but when that started happening, some responded with these...
View attachment 3764821 View attachment 3764822 View attachment 3764823

I'm not against effects at all, as long as they are used for effect. Squarepusher uses all sorts of strange sounds. Compression is something I will question, if you want uniformity, practise it.

 

[Jeff Scott]

I've had a whole slew of pedals, going back to my first Heathkit fuzz pedal in the early '70s. These days, I use a Samsamp GT2, tc electronic MOJOMOJO, Strymon Flint, and a Cave Passive Pedals B-Drive Mk II.

 

[75Ric]

I already knew, but that term, like many others, has drifted away from the original historical, classical meaning, and morphed into something different, in modern, colloquial usage. Much like “philistine”. A present day electric bassist with a classicist ‘Luddite’ mindset would rail against keyboardists using synths(or whatever<cough-Ray Manzarek-cough>)to invade or replace a bass player’s role; but when that started happening, some responded with these...
View attachment 3764821 View attachment 3764822 View attachment 3764823

That is a cool bass. Who made that, please? The neck appears super thin - is it the photo angle or is it really thin?

 

[Michedelic]

That is possibly one of, if not THE, first 5-string basses, as developed by that player, Jimmy Johnson, in conjunction with Alembic:
Jimmy Johnson (bassist) - Wikipedia
I’m not that well versed in all the lore, but there seems to be a parallel timeline involving Anthony Jackson on the east coast working with luthiers there to create extended range basses in the mid-70’s as well...
Anthony Jackson (musician) - Wikipedia