Pedals you wanted ...until you tried them.

[3rdworlder]

Dunlop 105q Cry Baby Bass Wah Wah and the Electro-Harmonix Bass Big Muff.

I am using now guitar pedals with the bass, and to my ears they sound alright (Electro Harmonix's NYC Big Muff & Cock-Fight).

 

[MynameisMe]

Eden WTDI.
Tried using it for about 4 years and finally gave up.
No usable tones on that one for me. Actually worked better as an acoustical Guitar preamp.
Traded it for something else.
Line 6 pod x live 3. Had some bass settings but not functional in a live environment for me. Traded it for a decent Hartke amp.

 

[Cowboy in Latvia]

None yet. I've found every pedal I've bought to have a few good sounds to be had. Of course I've mostly bought fuzz or distortion which I already know I like.

Soon I'll be getting into delay/echo which I love so hopefully my luck will continue. I've bought a couple like a Behringer chorus that I thought I would hate but turned into one of my pedalboard standards.

 

[JNobiling]

Catalinbread Bicycle Delay: I loved it for a few days but it spends too much time in crazy land and can't double as a normal delay. Very creative pedal but didn't suit me needs.

Source Audio C4: The best tracking and sounds I've ever experienced out of a synth pedal, but I don't think anything out there can de-thrown my Moogs and my OC-2.

Honorable mention of a pedal I did not purchase but had the opportunity to try at Chicago Music Exchange: Original Maestro Brassmaster. This was probably the thinnest sounding fuzz/distortion I've ever plugged a bass into.

I agree on the Maestro fuzz sound. I have an old Maestro Rhythm and sound box, picked up for a steal. That fuzz is sooo thin! I was shocked! But that box has other cool things going on so...

 

[JNobiling]

I had a pog 2 which I bought during my first trip to NYC, it was like a commemorative pedal purchase. I had fun with it and didn’t want to let it go, but it just seemed to have this latency issue going on that I couldn’t get over. Eventually sold it.

 

[BigBassBob]

Iron Ether Subterranea - tracking issues with certain basses
Dunlop 105Q Bass Wah - too over the top
Any orange-based compressor - too squishy
Almost all Ross-based compressors - see above
Akai Deep Impact - too cheesy
Boss CE2W - too loud
Boss BF3 - too plastic
MXR Bass Comp - too sensitive
Boss ODB3 - too noisy
Sansamp Bass Driver - too scooped
And many others.

 

[Deleted member 271037]

Darkglass B3K.

 

[Driven Crane]

Using the C4 and EXH monosynth now happily but the Matryoshka sits on a shelf (next to insane Miku stomp), too fuzzy or gimmicky with the arpeggiater...what setting do you like and how much of the low octave do you use?

I use mostly these modes. Vibrato is for some something similar to Molotov ''Yase'', LFO is for dub-steppish tone, Distortion is for something similar to Muse ''Hyper Music'', Filter S/H - is for self-oscilation in a EHX RTG style. I do not use much its bit crusher as i have a Malekko Scrutator and it is much more tweakable than Матрёшка's Bit Crusher. Aliaser is a kind of weird to me, arpeggiator is almost useless as it's not enough tweakable. Pitch? It is not my cup of tea, yet.
What can i say about its Octaver? Sometimes, it is cool when i play upper frets - but not often, anyway.

 

[Mediocrity Man]

Envelope filter...

Just could not get any of them to work.

 

[And I]

Bass Soul Food. Wayyyyyy too subtle for an overdrive.

Boss ME-B50. Hissy, configurable but only up to a point, just doesn't sound that good...

 

[Raoul_Duke]

Way Huge Swollen Pickle had too many knobs that I couldn’t get adjusted to my liking. Boss OC-3 was not an OC-2. IE Polytope was noisy with my main bass. MXR Bass Envelope didn't have enough usable range on the sensitivity control for my hands. SA programmable EQ didn’t hit on the right frequency points for my sound. EBS Bass IQ seemed like the filter only swept in one direction and never swept back, which made it a little less expressive than some filters. Rothwell love squeeze got to be too subtle for using varied technique.

 

[krfoss]

Empress multidrive.

I have several that fit this threads description, but the multidrive was the most disappointing white whale of them all. I was able to get something tolerable out of the overdrive and distortion channels combined, but it was so sensitive that if you moved it ever so slightly it was a different sound.

The fuzz channel was useless.

 

[HolmeBass]

Definitely had that experience with the Great Destroyer. It was too unpredictable and the music I play, by and large, is not anxty enough for it.

The Bad Monkey. Even wity the EQ I could never really get a good sound. Too compressed and dark even though it didn’t have great low end.

Original SA BEF. The newer “LoRetain” pedals, like the Manta I have, are superior. Hot hands never really worked for me.

Bumble Bass OD. An almost kind of pedal, but the OD and clean never really seemed to actually blend into one sound.

Compressor pedals:
TLC (Aggie), Wampler Ego, Smoothie v2.

Haz Labs MuTron III+ re-issue. Tried for years. It never ever really delivered for me. So glad to sell it for close to $200!

Near misses. The following are pedals that did on occasion deliver for me, but I could not trust them 100% of the time so I eventually moved them along.

MXR BOD. So close, but eventually the EBS replaces it, and then I traded the EBS for an OC-2. The EBS was as just a bit too smooth.

Fulltone Bassdrive. Just not quite enough low end nor sparkle.

Swollen Pickle Mk II. Can be massive. Or you can immediately vanish completely. Depends on key and band and venue. Always a crap shoot. It does however hold a trophy: one of a small handful of pedals that I’ve turned on, played a massive low E, and got immediate applause from the audience.

Proton v2 envelope filter. Rarely fantastic, sometimes completely inaudible: couldn’t even tell it was on.

Zoom MS-60B. The synth tones, tuner, and clean boost are the only things I use this for now. And simpler emulations, like chorus, flanger, phaser, or analog octave down are thin and one-dimensional at a show. Sounds great at home but disappointing live. The envelope filter sounds are little better, but still not that useful for me.

 

[SLO Surfer]

Might be blasphemy, but the Diamond BassComp.

 

[el murdoque]

Pigtronix Mothership.
I spent a small fortune on that pedal and realized how hart it is to get the sound I wanted.
Trying the whole thing in band context showed me how glitchy the tracking can be once the playing is less accurate.
The best thing about that pedal was that I sold it with a profit.

 

[libanass]

Anyone tried the EBS Dynaverb? I'm interested in that one

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

Zoom ms60b

 

[SickAura]

I've caught and released many, many OD's - memorable disappointments include:

- B3K. I've owned it 3x's thinking I must be doing something wrong
- Phat Phuk B. Clipped too easy
- Fairfield Barbershop. Robot farts too often

On the positive side - the Porkloin was a pleasant surprise I wasn't expecting to like. Once I dialed it in and ran it at 18V. It's not going anywhere

 

[avgonzalez]

Panda Audio Future Impact. I went through this phase of synth bass music and played it once and sold it on reverb.

sold all of my pedals to have this instead and immediately HATED it. I was able to attain better synth tones with:
3leaf octabvre
3leaf wonderlove
3leaf YOURE doom.

i felt cheated when i sat down and had to deal with horrible latency issues. Not worth the money at all.

 

[Pedullist]

TC Electronic Sub n Up (I really disliked the sound)
EHX Freeze (not as useful as I thought, although I loved slapping with it and freeze it right in the pops. Made a fun song and video of the effect I put on YouTube).