It is not. But I found it to be very sensible to the adapter you are plugging it. When I use it with a power plant it it perfect, but when I use it with an adapter it can be noisy. It is very sensible in that sense
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
What are your essential pedals?
- Thread starter Tottery
- Start date
It is not. But I found it to be very sensible to the adapter you are plugging it. When I use it with a power plant it it perfect, but when I use it with an adapter it can be noisy. It is very sensible in that sense
Something that can add just a little hair is probably first on the list if we’re going ‘essential’ effects.
Next up kind of depends on what you play- an octave pedal or perhaps an envelope filter (auto-wah).. to get that fat larger than life synth sound, or for that funky quacky retro goodness, respectively.
Compressors can be a real rabbit-hole to go down- it can be extremely fulfilling and useful, ranging from subtle tone magic all the way to chewy or face-crushing punch attack.. that’s a big fan of worms, but I personally love them.
I left out things like tuners and eq, because to me you’re asking about effects..
As a side note I thought it a little weird that so many people suggested HPF and HPF alone. I like a high pass filter, and I am very much not a bassist who wants to rattle the room with boom, but every time I’m using an HPF on board I struggle not to over-use it
Next up kind of depends on what you play- an octave pedal or perhaps an envelope filter (auto-wah).. to get that fat larger than life synth sound, or for that funky quacky retro goodness, respectively.
Compressors can be a real rabbit-hole to go down- it can be extremely fulfilling and useful, ranging from subtle tone magic all the way to chewy or face-crushing punch attack.. that’s a big fan of worms, but I personally love them.
I left out things like tuners and eq, because to me you’re asking about effects..
As a side note I thought it a little weird that so many people suggested HPF and HPF alone. I like a high pass filter, and I am very much not a bassist who wants to rattle the room with boom, but every time I’m using an HPF on board I struggle not to over-use it
Right now: smallsound/bigsound Mini (for boost/grit) and 3leafaudio octabvre mini
Now, I'm down to Tuner, Comp, and a Broughton always on hpf..
When I was playing on church all the time, I had tuner, comp, some dirt, chorus, and verb/delay... running into a Noble pre/DI
When I was playing on church all the time, I had tuner, comp, some dirt, chorus, and verb/delay... running into a Noble pre/DI
Tuner (Polytune 3), comp (Ampeg Opto-comp), drive/grit/fuzz/etc. (Ampeg SCR-DI). Might work some kind of verb/delay in there at some point.
MXR M81 + TC Spark(the 4 knob one) = FOH tone.
Moen bass Buffalo is my IEM tone.
Moen bass Buffalo is my IEM tone.
Hmm, you know what the board i have built i would not like to be without any of it. I am just about at perfection with it now only a couple of tiny little bits of the puzzle to go. I have been thinking once it is does that i will build a "flight" style rig that super light and compact. My first two in importance though would be my comp and dirt (hyperluminal and Alpha-Omega Ultra).
I won't pretend for a second that "essential" to me are essential to any/all bass players...in fact, if I were going to make a generalization I'd say that it's "essential" for all bass players to be able to get a good sound without any pedals. And I do spend a vast amount of my bass playing time without any pedals.
But when I do use pedals it's for a very personal (some might say idiosyncratic) sound. And so for me the absolutely essential pedals are:
- a looping delay
- a volume pedal
[edit: And it doesn't necessarily matter which looping delay or volume pedal.]
But when I do use pedals it's for a very personal (some might say idiosyncratic) sound. And so for me the absolutely essential pedals are:
- a looping delay
- a volume pedal
[edit: And it doesn't necessarily matter which looping delay or volume pedal.]
Tuner, compressor, dirt, and delay. Everything beyond that is just for fun. I love my hpf filter and that's close to, but don't think it's essential.
Broughton HPF/LPF > MXR Bass Octave Deluxe > Source Audio Manta envelope filter > Keeley Bassist compressor > TC Electronic tuner.
Board then goes into a SansAmp RPM rackmount.
The Broughton HPF/LPF is always on, usually filtering out below around 40Hz and rolling off above about 2.5KHz to 3KHz to tame clankiness (I like quite a dark thuddy tone, not too bright). Lot of love for Broughton HPFs here on TB. It is probably my favourite pedal of all of them. Really tightens the sound of the bass.
I use the MXR octaver quite a lot. The Manta envelope filter is huge fun (pretty insane sounds) but is more for playing around when practising at the moment - really overdominates in a band setting IME. I use the Keeley compressor mainly to keep the Manta under control (the Keeley Bassist is a good limiter, it tames the peaks from the Manta).
SansAmp is always on (it is effectively my amp now, I use it for headphone practice and with powered PA cab as a monitor when playing out).
Tuner goes at the end of the chain not the beginning because it means if one of the pedals freaks out (eg I moved the knobs by accident and can’t then work out what’s going on) I just engage the tuner to mute everything before I deafen myself and anyone else in the building. This has never happened to me BTW but I was given this tip by a guitarist friend years ago and have put the tuner at the end of the chain ever since.
I don’t really use dirt or OD but if I need it, I can use the Drive on the SansAmp.
I’m also experimenting with putting the HPF after the octave pedal not before which seems to work well so far.
Sold off most of my other pedals recently as part of a trade in. For me, if gear doesn’t get used, it goes.
Markbass Compressore is my only always-on pedal.
Also my A-B switch, as I often swap between 2 basses.
I suppose my TC Electsonic Sentry noise gate is always on as well, I just have it in place to keep any noisy pedals in check. It runs a loop so it knows what’s noise and what’s good signal so you can set the floor super low, below input actually. I loop everything but chorus, delay and reverb. Sometimes dirt tends to add a bit of noise, so that’s a perfect solution. Just keeps me super silent even if the power is a bit noisy.
3 pedals I use most besides that is Boss OC-3 octave, Earthquaker Plumes (trans OD), and Earthquaker Sea Machine (chorus).
I just added my Morley Little Alligator volume pedal and it’s super handy as well. My board is dual purpose for guitar/bass, so I’ve got a few things on there that don’t apply to bass. I just hate continuously swapping pedals to a separate board.
Apologies for the blue stage lights...
Also my A-B switch, as I often swap between 2 basses.
I suppose my TC Electsonic Sentry noise gate is always on as well, I just have it in place to keep any noisy pedals in check. It runs a loop so it knows what’s noise and what’s good signal so you can set the floor super low, below input actually. I loop everything but chorus, delay and reverb. Sometimes dirt tends to add a bit of noise, so that’s a perfect solution. Just keeps me super silent even if the power is a bit noisy.
3 pedals I use most besides that is Boss OC-3 octave, Earthquaker Plumes (trans OD), and Earthquaker Sea Machine (chorus).
I just added my Morley Little Alligator volume pedal and it’s super handy as well. My board is dual purpose for guitar/bass, so I’ve got a few things on there that don’t apply to bass. I just hate continuously swapping pedals to a separate board.
Apologies for the blue stage lights...
