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What pedals do I need?

#42
As others have said, bare necessity I'd say is a tuner and a DI. Other than that, I'd say it's up to whatever you want to get out of your bass. I play death metal and grindcore, for example, so I can't live without my distortion and overdrive pedals.
 
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#44
A tuner (I use a Sonic Research ST-300 but there are plenty of other good ones) is a good investment since it lets you tune quickly and accurately in a any environment without boring your listeners. I always thought tuning obviously and audibly on stage in this day and age looks and sounds unprofessional.
 
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#46
A lot of people seem to think compressors are essential. I guess it depends on your equipment and the room. I've done hundreds of club gigs with no compressor and I don't miss the compressor I once owned. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't enjoy having a compressor if I added one to my pedalboard but I'm generally very happy with my tone in club/bar contexts without one so a compressor certainly isn't a necessity for me. In bigger rooms/outdoor stages I leave it up to FOH to decide what to do on the compression front so, again, my having a compressor on my pedalboard is necessary.

What I have found useful (and they're all the rage right now) is a high pass filter (HPF). An HPF allows me to tidy up the low end if I need to and it's easy to use. Effects-wise I find a good octaver to be useful and I enjoy envelope filters. Once in a while I'll use some light chorus.
 
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#47
For the last decade or more, playing church gigs, country, funk, rock, metal, singer-songwriter gigs, R&B, folk, and whatever else, I've had some permutation of the following on my board:
Tuner - Compressor - Octave - Overdrive - Delay.
Sometimes a chorus.
Many gigs none get used but the tuner.
Other gigs, all get used.
None are necessary, all are fun and useful.
 
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#48
Man... I got sucked into the pedal thing and I just ended up spending a lot of money. I love love love my Sansamp and boss tuner but I own about 20 pedals that just look at me. If I try to add other pedals my bands just look at me like I’m crazy. I do use the compressor on my fender 300 pro’s that’s built in but my joemeek floorq does nothing for me. I play a lot of r and b, jazz, Motown, punk and metal. My honest opinion is a nice amp and a good bass is more important. No hate to dudes who love pedals because when I see a good bass player rip tastefully with a pedalboard it’s the bees knees.
 
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#49
a tuner!
be careful with a compressor, you can kill your tone pretty fast if you use it incorrectly.

beyond that, i would say every type of pedal!
A lot of times, a particular sound i get out of a pedal inspires an entire song.
It's how my last band created a whole album. I would come in with some different sound out of a pedal, and we'd use that as a muse and create a cool song.
 
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#50
You can get by with nothing. A lot of us who don't lean towards lots of pedal will use a compression pedal, maybe a tuner. I have a box full of pedals and that's where they are - in a box. They all sound fun and cool when you play by yourself, but mostly, the effects get lost in the mix with a band.

I use an EHX Battalion DI for my gigging. It has a nice built in compressor and EQ as well as a dirty channel, that is slated for use with one song. I find that this serves me well for our classic rock/80s rock/new country playlist.
 
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