Thinking If I Even Need Another Pedal

[blindrabbit]

Can you recommend a particular Flanger for Bass?

Flanger would actually be great for metal tones.

Even the Mooer Eleclady is a nice, inexpensive flanger. Cheap enough too that you won't annoy some of the anti-effects haters creeping in here. I had one for a while and it sounded pretty decent to me.

 

[pacojas]

@MGR,.. i hear what you're trying to say, but seriously i once quit a band for their refusal to use pedals on their guitars, lol. just dry, boring poop, imo. :***:

 

[JonnyAngle]

Can you recommend a particular Flanger for Bass?

In no particular order:
Boss BF-2
Chase Bliss Spectre
Subdecay Starlight v2
Alexander f.13

Choose the price point/ features as you desire

 

[The_Janitor]

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.

Whenever I see people playing (usually alone in their bedroom on a youtube video) with 10-20 pedals on their board, to me it always makes me a little sad because I know that chances are these people are not playing with others. And to me, nothing is sadder than a so-called "one man band" writing ambient atmospheric ethereal "music" on bass.

Of course, now all the usual haters will come out and make nasty personal comments about me, but all I am giving is my opinion about the generic subject. I have not called out anyone personally, nor have I insulted anyone personally.

10 pedals on my board AND I (GASP!) play in a band with other people! Shocking I know. Keep on making your sweeping generalizations though, makes you seem very intelligent and well-informed.

 

[HiEnd Basses]

EHX neo mistress.
You could check out broughton's high pass/low pass pedal.

Thanks! I'll look at it.

 

[MGR]

@MGR,.. i hear what you're trying to say, but seriously i once quit a band for their refusal to use pedals on their guitars, lol. just dry, boring poop, imo. :***:

6 string is a whole different ballgame. What I was saying in my first post only applied to bass. As far as I'm concerned, it is almost impossible to have too many effects on a 6 string guitar.

 

[pacojas]

6 string is a whole different ballgame. What I was saying in my first post only applied to bass.

how much different is it really? dry bass is boring as well, imo. after almost EVERY gig one or more bassists will inquire about my reggae tone. it's often an A-lister from the headliners,... go figure.
btw, i usually get the standard replies, "i've always wanted to try one of those!"

 

[blastbass]

Any idea why my post was deleted?

 

[MGR]

how much different is it really? dry bass is boring as well, imo. after almost EVERY gig one or more bassists will inquire about my reggae tone. it's often an A-lister from the headliners,... go figure.
btw, i usually get the standard replies, "i've always wanted to try one of those!"

Again, you did not quite get the jist of my original post. Nowhere did I say effects are not useful on bass. I am an active poster here on the effects forum and own close to 40 pedals, so how could I say that? What I said, and I thought very clearly, was that I have a hard time figuring out how to get more than 3-4 at a time to sound musically useful on bass. To me, bass that is awash in delay, reverb, lo-fi bit crushing, ring modulation and the like sounds amateur hour in most cases. My idea of the basses role is as a supporting instrument, and that role is lost when the bassist loads up with too many effects. This is my personal belief that I have a right to express, and it confounds me why people take this so personally. This is why I told the OP that if he cannot find a use for one more pedal, to not buy it until the time comes that he does.

 

[blastbass]

Bootsy, juan, tim, flea, the guy from radiohead, lightning bolt, doug wimbish, victor wooten, stanley clarke, jaco, roger waters, to name a few.

 

[nshuman]

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.

Good suggestions so far.

My suggestion would be:

1- Good fuzz pedal. You already have distortion. However, a good Muff based fuzz on bass is very useful. Get a good one though (muff or otherwise).
2- Good compressor. As mentioned, onboard compressors are never as great standalone ones. And, really, this is the golden age of bass pedal compressors. Origin Cali, FEA, Empress, Diamond, all amazing compressors.
3- If you want to just dip your toes in modulation, consider the Source Audio Orbital

 

[smperry]

Any idea why my post was deleted?

I deleted it because it quoted a post I had to edit.

 

[blastbass]

I deleted it because it quoted a post I had to edit.

 

[pacojas]

Bootsy, juan, tim, flea, the guy from radiohead, lightning bolt, doug wimbish, victor wooten, stanley clarke, jaco, roger waters, to name a few.

dammit, Baba! ya beat me to it, lol. i was practically raised on the sound of Bootsy's pedal board.

 

[nshuman]

dammit, Baba! ya beat me to it, lol. i was practically raised on the sound of Bootsy's pedal board.

Bootsy never used pedals, he uses the Funk and magic hands....... and tons of pedals

 

[HiEnd Basses]

Good suggestions so far.

My suggestion would be:

1- Good fuzz pedal. You already have distortion. However, a good Muff based fuzz on bass is very useful. Get a good one though (muff or otherwise).
2- Good compressor. As mentioned, onboard compressors are never as great standalone ones. And, really, this is the golden age of bass pedal compressors. Origin Cali, FEA, Empress, Diamond, all amazing compressors.
3- If you want to just dip your toes in modulation, consider the Source Audio Orbital

I can see myself playing with Fuzz, and a Compression pedal might sound great.

 

[HiEnd Basses]

Bootsy never used pedals, he uses the Funk and magic hands....... and tons of pedals

That's not true at all. Bootsy used a Big Muff. Just check out YouTube.

 

[blastbass]

dammit, Baba! ya beat me to it, lol. i was practically raised on the sound of Bootsy's pedal board.

Yeah man, here's a story Paco baba. I was playing at this "escape festival" in Naukuchiatal, up in North India and Warren kept telling me that I had to meet this bass player from the 60's and 70's called Lew Hilt. Amazing Bass player and singer. So we chatted had our gig one after the other on the same stage and after the gig he came and asked me about the setup. I had some dirt pedals a phase 90 and the dan fab chorus and my old rat. Then I asked him what he used and he's like, nothing, just a tuner and I asked him why and he said that the guitarists and singers would really give him hell back in the day and that was the only reason, he really wanted to try stuff out but he'd get talks like effects are not for bassists etc. and so he never got into it. I immediately gave him a list of effects, most were "utility" pedals, a chorus here and there, hope he doesn't give a sh!t what others say and does his own thing, never too late.

 

[envy1400]

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.

I agree with your point that maybe OP should just hold off on buying a new pedal. I feel I was in a similar situation as OP in that I was looking around at a bunch of cool effects but didn't see any urgent need for them. I do own a Zoom B3 that I need to explore more because I'm sure there are very useful effects in there I could apply to the bands I play in. I think it's a good route to get a decent multifx pedal to figure what you do/don't like and then get dedicated pedals that are really good at what they do.

Fwiw I run a tuner->empress comp. -> sansamp

Small disclamer: No hate on people using big boards at all I'm actually quite jealous.

 

[blastbass]

Bootsy never used pedals, he uses the Funk and magic hands....... and tons of pedals