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Six string effects used on a bass???

R

rattman1

Oct 31, 2010
23
1
#1
Hi all,

I play a Stingray 4 string through a Hartke full stack with 350 watts and 2 4.5 cabs.

I have a line 6 live floor style stomp box with tons of effects.

Can I use this on my bass?
Will it hurt anything?

What is the difference between 6 string effects and bass effects?

Thanks in advance!

John
 
#8
It all depends on the specific effect you'll be using. Some people will tell you it's wrong to use pedals that aren't labelled for bass, others will tell you it's all about marketing. The fact is, it depends on the specific pedal and effect. Distortion and fuzz are most likely to eat out your lows when they aren't bass dedicated pedals because it's simply what distortion do, up to a certain point. Most bass distortion or fuzz pedal let you dial in a bit of clean signal to keep the bottom end. Otherwise, it depends. I'm a pretty experienced bass player, I've been playing for 20 years. I've owned bass dedicaded pedals I've replaced by guitar pedals without ever looking back. Right now, my pedal consist of 2 bass specific pedals, 2 marketed for both bass and guitar and 3 more aimed at guitar but that end up being great with bass (EHX Small Clone, Small Stone and Stereo Electric Mistress).

Conclusion: try your guitar effects.If they work for you then great! Otherwise, try both bass specific and guitar pedals and let your ear be the judge.
 
#9
shouldn't hurt anything. A lot of my FX are "guitar" pedals. A lot of the better pedals are. Bass tends to have a much stronger signal that does clip some guitar effects. Right now I love the digitech hardwire pedals and they were built to be able to handle high output active guitars and as a result they handle bass really well.

I even use the digitech whammy IV and there's a lot of guys that talk about the bass whammy but the reason they don't make the bass whammy anymore is the Whammy IV is bass compatible with the exception of some settings like two octaves down and dive bomb(3 octaves down) which act more like a mute because its going lower than my amp or my ears can hear.
 
#10
At least half the pedals people use on bass are "guitar" pedals. Doesn't make a bit of difference except for certain effects such as fuzz or comp, where you may lose some low end. For those effects, you want something built for bass, or at least something bass-friendly; pedal builders lately are getting better at making their pedals "dual use" for both guitar and bass.
 

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