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Thinking If I Even Need Another Pedal

HiEnd Basses

HiEnd Basses

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Mar 4, 2016
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#1
I was recently in a band that played dark metal. In fact, a lot of my early musical influences have been metal, all through the 80's. My pedal board is very simple. Boss TU 3, MXR Bass Distortion, and Ampeg SCR-DI; of course the DI is last in the chain. My preamp is always on, and I use it with the Scrambler for gritty, dirty Bass; I also use the Bass Distortion with the preamp on. I never see the need to combine Scrambler and Distortion; it's one or the other. No matter how many times, I look at other types of pedals, Envelope Filters, Chorus, Fuzz, Octave, etc. It doesn't seem to fit my style or desired sound. True, it would be fun to play with an Envelope Filter or a Flanger, but not sure I would ever use it on a stage. I've thought about a Compression pedal, but I utilize the compression on my amp at about 5:1; this sounds good to my ears, and it acts as a limiter, keeping me from clipping the amp. So my question is this: does anybody have suggestions for another must have pedal, that would enhance my playing? At this point, I'm willing to assess any make or model of any type of pedal. Any suggestions or ideas of something I'm missing? I'm willing to be sold on something.
 
#4
Generally speaking on-board amp compression is terrible, so a compressor pedal will do a better job for you, but if you like the results that you are getting, no need to make a change. :)

Never hurts to have a boost, clean and/or dirty. Lots of options to try in that arena.

I wouldn't be so aversive to stacking your dirt pedals, but to each their own, if it doesn't work for you, nothing wrong with that! :)

Finally, there are endless flavours of dirt pedals to try, you can never have enough of those. Again, if you like the ones you have, no need to change, but I feel pretty confident in saying you'd like others even more. ;)
 
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#6
blindrabbit said:
Generally speaking on-board amp compression is terrible, so a compressor pedal will do a better job for you, but if you like the results that you are getting, no need to make a change. :)

Never hurts to have a boost, clean and/or dirty. Lots of options to try in that arena.

I wouldn't be so aversive to stacking your dirt pedals, but to each their own, if it doesn't work for you, nothing wrong with that! :)

Finally, there are endless flavours of dirt pedals to try, you can never have enough of those. Again, if you like the ones you have, no need to change, but I feel pretty confident in saying you'd like others even more. ;)
Click to expand...
I appreciate the input. All well worth considering!
 
#8
If you have a casual interest in Effects you might consider a multi effects unit. I would suggest either the Zoom B3 or MS60b. The B3 has a broad selection of efx, a drum loop, looper and can drive headphones for quite practice and can serve as an interface to your computer. The MS60b packs a lot of efx in a small package but is not as feature packed.

Zoom MS-60B MultiStomp Bass Pedal
 
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#10
HiEnd Basses said:
Not sure I'd even know how to use one. Any suggestions on a delay pedal?
Click to expand...

a Delay doesn't always have to regenerate/feedback. it can also be set to make the notes swell/blossom. i love a bit of Cathedral on the bass and snare drum in certain songs. i very seldom use long feedback loops except for vocals & guitars. songs get boring without some Delay, but i can live (sadly) without it.
btw,.. i have to get another one. my old one finally died, lol.
 
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#11
Something really nice to toy around with is no effect at all: The Boss LS-2 or any other blender pedal.
This enables you to generate a sound with one or several pedals in a chain and put that into the loop of the blender and then mix it with the dry signal to retain lows and definition.
I did that with a Fuzz and a POG. I tried to get the sound of a fuzz + octaver combined. This had massive problems because the bass sounded great but dropped straight out of the mix.
With the blender that is not an issue any more, i can dial as much clean signal to the wet as needed to still be audible while making fantastic noises at the same time.
 
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#12
HiEnd Basses said:
...Scrambler for gritty, dirty Bass; I also use the Bass Distortion.... No matter how many times, I look at other types of pedals, Envelope Filters, Chorus, Fuzz, Octave, etc. It doesn't seem to fit my style or desired sound.
Click to expand...

It sounds to me like you're a "dirt guy". You might just want to try some different flavors of dirt. I see you don't have a fuzz, for example. And there are approximately 14,000 different flavors of fuzz alone.

For someone who wants to learn more about different types of dirt pedals, I recommend the Source Audio Bass OFD, which digitally models a whole ton of them.

 
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#13
Bassist4Eris said:
It sounds to me like you're a "dirt guy". You might just want to try some different flavors of dirt. I see you don't have a fuzz, for example. And there are approximately 14,000 different flavors of fuzz alone.

For someone who wants to learn more about different types of dirt pedals, I recommend the Source Audio Bass OFD, which digitally models a whole ton of them.

Click to expand...

I am considering a fuzz pedal.
 
#15
I will be the contrarian and say don't buy anything at all. If you don't feel the need now, what would a new pedal do other than lower your bank account? I say wait, find a musical situation that speaks to you in loud terms that "you now need X (chorus, delay, reverb, scrutator)" and then go try out "x".

Buying for buyings sake, or taking the advice of a bunch of people on the internet to buy "x" is only a way to go down a rabbit hole it might be hard to get out of. I wish someone had told me to do this. I ended up buying over 20 pedals, and struggle to find real-world uses for more than 3 at any one time.

A lot of people disagree with me here, and that's fine, that using lots of effects on bass takes away from our reason for being. I've never seen any bassist, save for Justin in Tool, that ever used multiple effects effectively. And even he probably never has on more than 3 or 4 at a time.
 
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#17
You don't need anything. That said, even when you think you know you want something, it doesn't always work the way you'd expect. I'm a big proponent of the multi as an inexpensive way to learn about effects. The newest Zoom releases are pretty solid. There may be newer and better available, but I'm really happy with my B3 so I haven't been on the market.

Good luck.
 

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