Ok I am old school, been out of music for a long time, but I am jumping back in. I have noticed that many bass players use effects and I never have. What is it that I am missing? What do you use and why? 
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What effects and why?
- Thread starter coastie72
- Start date
Subscribed. I've been playing for decades and have never used effects. Nothing against them, just never felt the need.
My two 'always' effects are compression and delay. A good compressor keeps my attack and level fairly consistent, gives me wiggle room if my playing gets sloppy for one reason or another. I use delay because I like just a subtle touch of echo when I chop a note. 99.9% of the time, no one notices but me. I have a number of other effects that are used only for songs that require them. Chorus mostly, flanger on occasion, overdrive rarely.
I like some chorus when it's called for- 80s/classic rock cover or just fattening up a mix when there's minimal intrumentation; tremolo for noodling/song sketches on a looper(the looper's nice for composing & practicing, BTW), delay for the same reason & actually threw some EHX Wiggler vibrato on the bass last night for a acoustic guitar/bass/harmonica cover of 'Time after time'. It worked, amazingly. I'm jonesing for a light OD/distortion, which I would use live a bit, I think. I love my FX but rarely use anything more than compression live. At home wankshedding is another story...
I keep wanting to like using chorus/flange, etc, but I just keep finding over time that I'm more drawn to pure tonal options than I am effects based tones.
Link Removed - fuzz
Link Removed - delay, flanger, distortion
Link Removed - delay, ring mod
I recently landed a gig partially based on the fact that I'm a heavy effects user. Diff'rent Strokes and such.
EDIT: I forgot to answer the question of why: because I feel like it.
Link Removed - delay, flanger, distortion
Link Removed - delay, ring mod
I recently landed a gig partially based on the fact that I'm a heavy effects user. Diff'rent Strokes and such.
EDIT: I forgot to answer the question of why: because I feel like it.
Well, wherever...
I have two pedal set-ups. One is simply a Boss TU-2 tuner and a SansAmp BDDI. The tuner isn't an effect to me, and the BDDI serves two functions. It's a great sounding DI box. But I do use the by-pass on it to use the BDDI's EQ and gain controls for another voice. I set it to make the basic sound just a little bit more gritty. Those two go to any gig.
The big board inlcudes those two, and adds a Boss Bass Limiter/Enhancer, an EBS BassIQ (envelope filter), and an EBS OctaBass (octave pedal). Sometimes I yank the volume pedal off my annoying guitar rig for the bass rig too.
The Octave pedal is very handy for specific effects. It's great if you're in a 3-piece playing a riff-based song. When the guitarist starts his dweedly solo, I move the bass line up an octave and kick in the octave pedal. Worked great in my last band for Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" and a few other songs. Use it sparingly.
The Envelope filter is my favorite. Wha effects triggered by how hard I attack the string. PERFECT for Sly & The Family Stone's "Thank You (Falletine Me Be Mice Elf, Again)", and some odd bits in other songs I don't recall off the top of my head. Bootsy Collins anyone?
The Boss thing is there for two reasons. First, and the real reason is that it was in the local good pawnshop for about $20 right after I read a Gail Ann Doresy interveiw where she said she used one with her flatwound-strung P bass. For twenty bucks I figured I could experiment, and it had Dorsey's endorsement! Plus, it's a limiter so I can run it after the envelope filter and the octave pedal to tame the overall signal output level.
Why use effects? Because they enhance the music you make. For a lot of bassists, they don't need 'em. For a lot of bassists they're indispensible. But unfortunately, for some bassist, it's just because they think they need something. If you hear a specific sound in your head and just can't get it without an effect, then buy an efffect. I have little patience with those folks who think you gotta have an effect just to have it. I have less patience with those who think effects for OTHER bassists is heathen. If you don't like FX, don't use 'em. But don't tell people that bass players don't need 'em.
The misuse of something is not a reason to blame the effect- it's the players. And those "meat & potatoe" players- even George Porter has a stomp box... An EBS BassIQ that Scofield didn't like.
jte
I have two pedal set-ups. One is simply a Boss TU-2 tuner and a SansAmp BDDI. The tuner isn't an effect to me, and the BDDI serves two functions. It's a great sounding DI box. But I do use the by-pass on it to use the BDDI's EQ and gain controls for another voice. I set it to make the basic sound just a little bit more gritty. Those two go to any gig.
The big board inlcudes those two, and adds a Boss Bass Limiter/Enhancer, an EBS BassIQ (envelope filter), and an EBS OctaBass (octave pedal). Sometimes I yank the volume pedal off my annoying guitar rig for the bass rig too.
The Octave pedal is very handy for specific effects. It's great if you're in a 3-piece playing a riff-based song. When the guitarist starts his dweedly solo, I move the bass line up an octave and kick in the octave pedal. Worked great in my last band for Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" and a few other songs. Use it sparingly.
The Envelope filter is my favorite. Wha effects triggered by how hard I attack the string. PERFECT for Sly & The Family Stone's "Thank You (Falletine Me Be Mice Elf, Again)", and some odd bits in other songs I don't recall off the top of my head. Bootsy Collins anyone?
The Boss thing is there for two reasons. First, and the real reason is that it was in the local good pawnshop for about $20 right after I read a Gail Ann Doresy interveiw where she said she used one with her flatwound-strung P bass. For twenty bucks I figured I could experiment, and it had Dorsey's endorsement! Plus, it's a limiter so I can run it after the envelope filter and the octave pedal to tame the overall signal output level.
Why use effects? Because they enhance the music you make. For a lot of bassists, they don't need 'em. For a lot of bassists they're indispensible. But unfortunately, for some bassist, it's just because they think they need something. If you hear a specific sound in your head and just can't get it without an effect, then buy an efffect. I have little patience with those folks who think you gotta have an effect just to have it. I have less patience with those who think effects for OTHER bassists is heathen. If you don't like FX, don't use 'em. But don't tell people that bass players don't need 'em.
The misuse of something is not a reason to blame the effect- it's the players. And those "meat & potatoe" players- even George Porter has a stomp box... An EBS BassIQ that Scofield didn't like.
jte
the basPODxt live has lots of great efects that I use on a semi-regular basis. Sometimes a song needs a sort of pad sound and if the keyboard player isnt around, I'll turn some knobs and use thee volume pedal to swell some weird ethereal sounds in. Other times I may need a more distorted sound if we only have a lead guitarist. Most of the time I would just play without anything except maybe a compressor/limiter because I'm not as careful when running around if it's a live performance
The only effects I use for bass is a slight hint of grit (overdrive), just a small amount to get a tiny bit of drive, and also a noise suppressor to cut out my 60 cycle hum when my bridge pick up is soloed, which is 90% of the time, it's my style.
Infact, I only use the boss noise suppressor and electro harmonix bass blogger pedal, that's it.
Infact, I only use the boss noise suppressor and electro harmonix bass blogger pedal, that's it.
My pedal board has three pedals -
Boss TU2 Tuner - A tuner/muter I found is absolutely essential
CEB3 Bass Chorus - I use a little bit of chorus on some of our softer and slower songs where I don't want the bass to be so boomey, I mean I could adjust the amp to lower the bass a bit and boost the treble, but having it in a stompbox makes changing songs so much easier
ODB3 Bass Overdrive - I don't usually use the overdrive effect on this pedal (although I do on occasions) but I usually just use this pedal for a gain/volume boost. It makes a large booming bass a simple footswitch away. (side note - when soundchecking always leave this pedal "off" so when you press it on, it actually gives you a noticeable boost)
Pretty simple effects. But its all I want.
Boss TU2 Tuner - A tuner/muter I found is absolutely essential
CEB3 Bass Chorus - I use a little bit of chorus on some of our softer and slower songs where I don't want the bass to be so boomey, I mean I could adjust the amp to lower the bass a bit and boost the treble, but having it in a stompbox makes changing songs so much easier
ODB3 Bass Overdrive - I don't usually use the overdrive effect on this pedal (although I do on occasions) but I usually just use this pedal for a gain/volume boost. It makes a large booming bass a simple footswitch away. (side note - when soundchecking always leave this pedal "off" so when you press it on, it actually gives you a noticeable boost)
Pretty simple effects. But its all I want.
I only used Compressors for a while (Aphex PF first, now EBS Multicomp) to get an even signal when playing live.
After recording our band`s album I need to reproduce some of the effects the engineer added to the recording.
- Sansamp BDDI: to fatten up the sound a little bit and play some overdrive slap lines.
- EBS Dynaverb: a short solo where I needed more "room" in my sound.
I`m currently considering a good chorus to emulate another recorded track.
After recording our band`s album I need to reproduce some of the effects the engineer added to the recording.
- Sansamp BDDI: to fatten up the sound a little bit and play some overdrive slap lines.
- EBS Dynaverb: a short solo where I needed more "room" in my sound.
I`m currently considering a good chorus to emulate another recorded track.
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