Pedals or no pedals

[mambo4]

Getting an amp I really like cured my need for pedals.
Well that and my interests veering to older music, I suppose.
And a clip on tuner.

but mostly the amp.

 

[bassicmike]

In my current gig, pedals only get in the way.

So none for me.

 

[Kansas]

Recently I'm using a cord right into the amp, with BC1-X compressor in the FX loop, and a clip-on tuner.

 

[Wasnex]

For all practical purposes, I plug straight in. The only exception is I use a pedal tuner for some gigs. I prefer a clean and fairly HiFi tone. If I were in a band that needed a different sound, I would not hesitate to use pedals.

I have a Pedatrain Pro that I put together for guitar. Most of the pedals work reasonably well for bass, and I experiment from time to time. I have not bought any bass specific pedals, but there are some I am mildly interested in. Examples include envelope filters and octave pedals. While these are cool to screw around with, the reality is I won't use them; so hard to justify the purchase. I would be more likely to use utility pedals like an HPF, EQ, or compression. I prefer to choose a rig that gives me the sound that I like without having to resort to outboard gear. An exception where utility pedals would be useful to me is if I was running IEMs.

 

[micguy]

If pedals are a big part of your sound does that make the amp you use a little less significant?

Hmmm - how to say this. All my gigs are ampless, so pedals aren't a "big" part of my sound - they , along with the bass and my fingers, are my entire sound.

 

[cheddar]

One pedal/DI direct to PA.

 

[monsterthompson]

It’s curious that you posed this question in the Amps and Cabs forum as opposed to the dedicated Effects forum.

Actually, posting it the amps section probably yields more realistic poll results. Nearly all users have amps but a smaller number uses effects(*). Posting in the effects forum would bias results towards effects users already monitoring that forum. That assumes users aren’t simply monitoring the “hot/latest” thread summaries.

*Note - I’m aware there’s a shift towards IEM amp-less rigs and some users go direct to a mixer or interface. My impression is that the number of amp users still dwarfs the amp-less users.

 

[Citizen Nara]

It depends on what exactly you are trying to achieve.

This. The only reason why I *need* to have a fuzz, distortion and the other 6 pedals in my.pedalboard today is because the act I play with the most really needs those sounds to acheve the psychedelic/shoegaze/whatever flavors. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother carrying all that around. When I started, I didn't even have a floor tuner.
Hell, only one person in the band had a pocket tuner.

 

[ProbablyTooLoud]

Well you certainly have experience and knowledge far, far beyond me.

What I’m trying to understand is this.

I have a Mesa D800+ and run my bass through an Ampeg SGTDI. The settings on both the Preamp and SGT on the pedal are set relatively low. 9:00 on SGT and 11:00 on Preamp. Still the pedal significantly affects the tone.

Would switching from the D800+ to the new 800D or a Bergantino or an Aguilar really have that much of an affect on the tone? Is the SGTDI a bigger factor in overall tone than the amp head as I’m using it. I leave the pedal on at all times. No other effects.

I don’t believe I would use a pedal with an SVT head for my purposes but with a Class D head it seems necessary for me.

I just can’t be moving an SVT at this point of my life.

Whether switching would affect your sound would depend on how you use the various amp's controls after the preamp.

 

[Dynomuttasaurus]

I was an amp-only guy for years. The guitarist from the last band I was in made a simple and profound statement, "The whole point to playing an electric instrument is to be able to shape the sound with effects."

A few days ago I had drinks with a monster drummer. He said that he wants to work with me precisely because he was amazed at how much I shaped my tone to fit the song by not shying away from effects.

 

[coyote1]

I have one pedal for bass. But it’s the Boss GT1B multieffect, so it is many pedals.

I don’t rely on it for the fundamental amp sound. I use it almost exclusively for modulation effects: octave, touch wah, phase, flange, rotary sim, synth. It’s not the best of any of those, but it’s good enough at all of them that it’s all I need.

I do add a bit of the GT1B’s drives to a few of those occasionally. But the only way those drives work to my liking is if there’s zero hum coming from the bass itself. Doesn’t work very well with my active Tobias bass, nor with the Peavey Grind whose pickups are wired in phase with each other. Works great with the new (to me) Squier Jazz as long as both pups are full up.

 

[Wesley R]

In 1974 I used a volume control pedal for a while. It was left over from pedal steel venture.

 

[NitroBobby]

In my current situation, I typically do not use any effects pedals. Gretsch hollow body —> Mesa D800+ —> GK 210.

That being said, if it’s a small stage I use the Mesa Bass DI+ in lieu of the amp/cab which is a pedal. So, sometimes?

kgb

 

[mcrawfordmusic]

I always find that effects pedals are a distraction for me. The less gear I need to fiddle with, the better. Unless it's crucial to the song (think Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer), I generally just go straight into my amp.

That being said, I do have a small "utility" pedalboard. It's only a Tuner and a preamp/DI most of the time, which serves as a backup if my amp goes down.

 

[hieronymous]

Well you certainly have experience and knowledge far, far beyond me.

What I’m trying to understand is this.

I have a Mesa D800+ and run my bass through an Ampeg SGTDI. The settings on both the Preamp and SGT on the pedal are set relatively low. 9:00 on SGT and 11:00 on Preamp. Still the pedal significantly affects the tone.

Would switching from the D800+ to the new 800D or a Bergantino or an Aguilar really have that much of an affect on the tone? Is the SGTDI a bigger factor in overall tone than the amp head as I’m using it. I leave the pedal on at all times. No other effects.

I don’t believe I would use a pedal with an SVT head for my purposes but with a Class D head it seems necessary for me.

I just can’t be moving an SVT at this point of my life.

I guess I have a couple of questions:

1. are you playing out (rehearsal or gig) and schlepping gear?

2. what are you trying to achieve - a better, loud sound than what you are getting? or something lighter? apologies if you have already answered these questions (and for no caps, I don't usually do that)

I almost always use an always-on compressor (CAE/CAJ V-Comp) that helps me gauge my signal level. I also like to record, so I like to send a direct signal to the recording device, so I have two preamps that I like to use: Tech21 Geddy Lee MP40 SansAmp (basically a YYZ) and JHS Punchline. Both have "amp sims" that I like, so I'll use one or the other when I'm recording what we are playing. There are times when I'm not recording, but I like to be comfortable and familiar with my gear, so generally use one of those setups whatever I am doing. I finally have settled on a configuration of effects on a pedalboard, including the V-Comp, tuner, octaver, envelope filter, distortion, chorus/flanger, and the MP40 SansAmp. I have to bring a DI too if I want to record, but I've got one that is solid and just does what it's supposed to do (Radial ProD2). That's one of the advantages of the JHS Punchline - it has compressor, distortion, amp sim, and eq plus a direct out, so that's the simple, compact "board."

That assumes users aren’t simply monitoring the “hot/latest” thread summaries.

Umm, I think that might be me...

 

[pbass2]

Well, there's pedals and then there's pedals. I have a pre and a comp pedal that are always on, but that's it. One setting all night. The only pedal that gets toggled on and off is a tuner. It is genre-dependent though IK. Growing up on prog I used to have all kinds of effects but as the years go by I find I don't need them, especially in bigger ensembles of 6-7 pieces with horns, keys, etc. I just gotta provide a solid tone all the way through the whole show and not muck about. Besides, half the time I see these other cats up there dancing on pedals and it's like "where did the bass go?"

 

[TheArchitect]

I have pedals I use on my board for recording. Unless there is compelling reason, I see no need to use them in most live settings

 

[KenSmithFan]

TalkBass is not the real world. In the real world, I’ve seen far less than even 50% of bassists use pedals. I’ve primarily been playing guitar for the last ten years and of the couple dozen bass players I’ve played with, only one uses pedals, and even though he has four pedals on his board, I’ve only seen him use the Ampeg SCR-DI.

Nothing wrong with them, but most people just don’t use them.

 

[Wasnex]

"The whole point to playing an electric instrument is to be able to shape the sound with effects."

And here I thought the point of electric instruments was to make music. IMHO, effects can definitely be involved in making music, but they are not always essential.

 

[FretRiff]

TalkBass is not the real world. In the real world, I’ve seen far less than even 50% of bassists use pedals.

This pic is not atypical in small shows, but I can't remember the last rock show I've seen, small or large, where the bassist was completely pedal-free.

Someone on Reddit recently mused that they showed up for rehearsal with a pedalboard about as big as the lead guitarist's and they kept joking around at his expense, saying things like, "Aww he thinks he's people."