What effects do you use?

[RattleSnack]

I often use octaver, and sometimes a little fuzz on top, for that synthy effect.
After playing long time exclusively 5 stringers, I am back on 4 string bass guitars and octaver (Boss OC-2 style) works great for when I need to go deeper, or have need for synthy sound.

 

[jdjk7]

Do you use any? If so, what of these fairly common ones do you use? Expand in the comments.

I have just about every option on my board right now. In my band's typical sets, I use each effect at least once. Compression and preamp are always on, besides those the most used effect is probably my distortion. The one I use the least is probably either my fuzz or delay/reverb.

 

[Lo-E]

I voted compression because I always use it in the studio.

Live, I seldom use any effects at all. A compressor every once in a while. A little bit of drive occasionally. An octaver very, very rarely. Usually just a cord and an amp.

I have an assortment of stomp boxes at home that are fun to play with but I don’t generally use them outside of the house.

I also have an assortment of EQ, preamp and filter pedals - and they do get used live sometimes - but I’m not really sure I consider those “effects.” EQ is sort of its own special category in my mind.

 

[Passinwind]

Do you use any? If so, what of these fairly common ones do you use? Expand in the comments.

...which sometimes leads to OD, chorus, verb, delay, pitch shifting, etc. But just the slide straight up does most of the heavy lifting. That one is silicon aluminum bronze (642 alloy) and is my overall favorite after many other iterations over the last fifty or so years.

 

[Fuzzbass]

I love distortion for rock and at least some gentle overdrive for everything else. I occasionally use subtle compression to improve how I sit in the mix.

That's all I ever used at the gig until two years ago, when I added a Cheap Trick tribute band as yet another side project. I wasn't about to buy a 12 string bass (logistical reasons, mainly), so I put together a pedalboard that includes octave up and chorus along with comp and dirt. It gets me reasonably close to 12 string territory.

 

[ra0ulduke]

Compression, Chorus and Overdrive.

 

[Yahboy]

Caline Wine Cellar as master clean SVT preamp , chain to both Joyo R28 for SVT-ist drive sound and Fender Bassman Driver for Bassman Scoop overdrive. Love this pedal combo with all my P and PJ bass.

 

[Ritter667]

Here's the signal chain for my basic "clean" tone (clean tone in quotation marks, cause it isn't really all that clean, and it's an "amp-less" setup):

Lusithand F1 Studio Preamp Filter (parallel Alembic/Wal style filter preamp, with "Alembic" HPF and "Wal" LPF dialed in) - EHX Black Finger (tube driven optical compressor, though primarily used as tube preamp, with minimal compression dialed in) -> Boss XS-1 Poly Shifter (set to a 1 octave up, to emulate an effect somewhat similar to that of an 8 string, octave course, bass) -> [modulation + high gain distortion] -> Boss LS-2 -> [Loop A : Tech 21 Oxford (analog emulation of an Orange type preamp, with build in cab sim filter disengaged) |+| Loop B : Dry blend (2:1 ratio)] -> [delay + reverb] -> Zoom Ms-70CDR (exclusively used to emulate an EQ based cab sim filter, utilizing multiple units of the dual parametric EQ model for bass, as well as some very subtle plate reverb) -> ART Tube MP Project Series (tube preamp and DI, with HPF engaged, fixed @ 40Hz)

My board (excuse me for my poor camera, and the mess, but trust me, it does look a lot dirtier than it really is, for some odd reason):

Other than this you see a Boss TR-2 Tremolo, a Boss LS-2, with respectively a Behringer VP1 Vintage Phaser and a Monarch SFL-22 Flanger in the 2 effects loops, an EHX Tri Parallel Mixer, with a Mosky Black Rat (in Turbo RAT mode) in one of the effects loops, a Boss MT-2 Metal Zone in the other, and the third loop I just added a Behringer FZ-300 Super Fuzz (not in the picture), all blended in about equal measures with dry signal, and then 2 NUX Tape Core Deluxe delay pedals, one used as regular delay, and the other dialed in for a reverb like effect.

 

[Fuzzbass]

View attachment 7536185

...which sometimes leads to OD, chorus, verb, delay, pitch shifting, etc. But just the slide straight up does most of the heavy lifting. That one is silicon aluminum bronze (642 alloy) and is my overall favorite after many other iterations over the last fifty or so years.

Slide?? If you didn't know, there's a thing called fretless bass...

Silliness aside, I have serious questions:

• Why slide and not fretless? Tone, feel, both?
• How much do you slide per gig?
• Do you also play fretless?

Cheers to you. Slide sounds great on bass, but I'm too lazy to learn non-quantized techniques of any kind.

 

[Ritter667]

Slide?? If you didn't know, there's a thing called fretless bass...

Silliness aside, I have serious questions:

• Why slide and not fretless? Tone, feel, both?
• How much do you slide per gig?
• Do you also play fretless?

Cheers to you. Slide sounds great on bass, but I'm too lazy to learn non-quantized techniques of any kind.

I converted one of my 28.6" scale Ibanez Mikro Bass'es to a slide tenor bass, tuned in an open B tuning, by raising the nut and the saddles.

It sounds glorious with some overdrive and reverb like delay.

It has a bridge EMG Geezer Butler J pickup wired directly to its output jack socket, with the P pickup removed entirely.

 

[Passinwind]

Slide?? If you didn't know, there's a thing called fretless bass...

Silliness aside, I have serious questions:

• Why slide and not fretless? Tone, feel, both?
• How much do you slide per gig?
• Do you also play fretless?

Cheers to you. Slide sounds great on bass, but I'm too lazy to learn non-quantized techniques of any kind.

I've been primarily a fretless BG player since 1972 and currently don't even own a fretted one. Sometime in the early 70s I heard a reel to reel bootleg of Phil Lesh using a wine bottle as a slide and bought into the idea immediately. IME frets just get in the way, although I do use the slide in my right hand like a bow fairly often too.

I retired from rock and jazz gigging over a decade ago, but I never used the slide for old school jazz, only for the weirdo Zappa/Primus/Beefheart sort of originals I used to do as my main thing. In that context, maybe 20% of the time or so. When I play open mics doing country/country rock, or typical rock covers I'll use the slide for solos about 1/4-1/3 of the time when someone flips me one, depending.

Fretless fingerboards only go so high and whale noises and the like don't really live there without a lot more effort. Also, heavy distortion and many other effects have a much different texture and play feel with the slide, and no one ever calls me a Jaco clone when I go there...

This isn't necessarily all that representative of my typical slide abuse, but it was still a fun diversion:

 

[dave64o]

I mostly use a couple of flavors of OD, but also have a chorus and octave pedal that get used once in a while.

I also have a compressor and a clean boost on my board, but I don't really use them as "effects". I use the clean boost only to boost the level out of my wireless receiver for basses that are relatively low output, just to get them to a level that's close to the level of my more commonly used basses. I then put the compressor last in my chain, before my DI, and use it as a leveler to try keeping my final output level somewhat consistent as I turn other pedals on and off.

That being said, I mostly use my pedal board for my own enjoyment. My bandmates like my tone overall but I don't think they notice any change from using turning any pedal on or off. At some gigs, I use only the wireless and the DI and never touch any of the other pedals. And, if we're in a really cramped space, I might not waste the floor space for my pedalboard and will instead use a dongle-style wireless to go straight into the amp.

 

[noyou]

rn just 2 effects--rusty box is the aggressive post punk sound ive been wanting for a long, long time. markbass super booster is the VLE/VPF functions of their amps i like it a lot for old school sound and it has a boost, with built in d.i.

all i need now is boss ce2w maybe a fuzz but prob not tbh

 

[dave64o]

rn just 2 effects--rusty box is the aggressive post punk sound ive been wanting for a long, long time. markbass super booster is the VLE/VPF functions of their amps i like it a lot for old school sound and it has a boost, with built in d.i.

all i need now is boss ce2w maybe a fuzz but prob not tbh

Our LS/BL has a Markbass combo in her basement practice area, which saves me from having to carry an amp back and forth. I don't have a use for the VPF filter (I very rarely use that kind of smiley face EQ), but I really like the VFE filter. That kind of old school, less top end sound works really well on our classic rock and blues play list. I kind of like that combo.

 

[noyou]

i have vle set at 66% and vpf at 100%

 

[Miles_ONeal]

(I no longer use a cable into the board.)
Always on: Sonic Stomp & Super 800+ pre, rock and roll duck
Mostly on: compressor
As needed: EQ, OD/distortion, flanger

The volume pedal isn’t an effect. The pedal between it and the tuner is a custom A/B in switch with effects loops, including in this case one EQ per channel and the compressor in the common loop.

EDIT: I went through several phasers chasing the Stranglehold live sound before I gave up and just got a flanger because I’ve always loved them. I also tried three or four octaves but none of them really did it for me. If I really need lower notes I’ll string up a BEAD (OK, ADGC because all my basses are strung DGCF) bass.

 

[Michedelic]

Do you use any? If so, what of these fairly common ones do you use? Expand in the comments.

Anything that sounds interesting, except the one that I don’t use, at least in a band situation, is reverb. Perhaps, if I got into a solo-ish ambient/soundscape thing, but otherwise it gets too muddy.
As I always point out, to me, effects for bass (and guitar)are like using spices in cooking. The right one(s)for the right dish(in this case, songs, or at least passages)at the right time, in the right amount. Or at least as condiments.
This is what I consider a basic, utilitarian board…I don’t consider the preamp, tuner, or compressor to be “effects”, they’re tools, a means to an end…

Tuner to comp, which is really only there to smooth out the dynamics so that the Pitchfork can process the signal evenly(it’s used primarily as an octave up, handy for trio situations). Then to the fuzz, then wah, to the little Hotone overdrive. I prefer to use the wah in real time, rather than an auto-filter. It hits the Radial, which is set up for two different EQ modes, then in the effects loop is the chorus, and tremolo. Not your usual choice, but with it I can fake a sequencer sound, plus I was inspired by the use by Chris Squire(“The Fish”), Roger Waters(intro on “One Of These Days”), and the Twin Peaks theme(Vinnie Bell on baritone).
I have other boards that are a little more elaborate, adding flanger, phaser, delay, and a separate send(with different effects)for the octave up, going to a separate amp. On the bigger boards I include send/receive jloop pedals, placed at strategic points, to patch in synth boxes or other more experimental stomps like EHX’s Super Ego, Ring Thing, and Ravish Sitar. Also on the other boards, I change up the brands/models of most of the specific effects.

 

[Michedelic]

Slide?? If you didn't know, there's a thing called fretless bass...

Silliness aside, I have serious questions:

• Why slide and not fretless? Tone, feel, both?
• How much do you slide per gig?
• Do you also play fretless?

Cheers to you. Slide sounds great on bass, but I'm too lazy to learn non-quantized techniques of any kind.

Have you never heard Mark Sandman, of the band Morphine? And JPJ has fashioned something of a bass range lap(well, on a stand)steel.

 

[noyou]

Anything that sounds interesting, except the one that I don’t use, at least in a band situation, is reverb. Perhaps, if I got into a solo-ish ambient/soundscape thing, but otherwise it gets too muddy.
As I always point out, to me, effects for bass (and guitar)are like using spices in cooking. The right one(s)for the right dish(in this case, songs, or at least passages)at the right time, in the right amount. Or at least as condiments.
This is what I consider a basic, utilitarian board…I don’t consider the preamp, tuner, or compressor to be “effects”, they’re tools, a means to an end…
View attachment 7542706
Tuner to comp, which is really only there to smooth out the dynamics so that the Pitchfork can process the signal evenly(it’s used primarily as an octave up, handy for trio situations). Then to the fuzz, then wah, to the little Hotone overdrive. I prefer to use the wah in real time, rather than an auto-filter. It hits the Radial, which is set up for two different EQ modes, then in the effects loop is the chorus, and tremolo. Not your usual choice, but with it I can fake a sequencer sound, plus I was inspired by the use by Chris Squire(“The Fish”), Roger Waters(intro on “One Of These Days”), and the Twin Peaks theme(Vinnie Bell on baritone).
I have other boards that are a little more elaborate, adding flanger, phaser, delay, and a separate send(with different effects)for the octave up, going to a separate amp. On the bigger boards I include send/receive jloop pedals, placed at strategic points, to patch in synth boxes or other more experimental stomps like EHX’s Super Ego, Ring Thing, and Ravish Sitar. Also on the other boards, I change up the brands/models of most of the specific effects.

i have the mb tube comp
i love it it's my favorite but I took it off the board and been playing without it to lighten the load
do you use it heavily?
i try to get away with least possible gear im not a purist though hahaha

 

[T McClure]

With the band? Fuzz. Sometimes octave.

At home? All of them.

Same here.

My favorite at home noodling around sound is chorus with an envelope filter and some fuzz. I end up with a sound that's a lot of fun yet otherwise unusable.