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What would be your first pedal?

I play in a cover band and we only have 1 guitar bass drums and vocalist, so when the guitarist does a solo there s no rythme guitar or keyboard to back him up, so it all sort of falls flat, so i use a Boss GEB 7 equaliser during the solos, i only put the first 3 sliders up about 1mm ea and the level up about 1,5 mm s, so when i stomp on the pedal it boosts the bass and volume ever so slightly to fill the space.
 
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I've really started to like the sound of the Rat Tail, for sure. I haven't seen a review on it where they take it to really low gain settings. Can it kind of go more over drive, or does it basically always have to be all-out distortion and grind?

The rat tail can do subtle overdrive well, you might also wanna look at the OCD for a similar (IMO better) light/medium overdrive.....both get nice and grindy and cut through wonderfully
 
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I would get a RatTail with a second distortion mod before the Demon. I really think that the Demon is the weak pedal in their line, you would be much happier with the RT or Stache.

I have a 2 channel Rat tail/greystache all in one pedal, its really amazing, but I actually prefer the fulltone OCD for light gain, it has a nice midrange/treble thing to it, I don't know how else to describe it....

I also have the Joyo UD, i prefer the OCD despite it having less gain
 
My Mesa Bottle Rocket handles most of my mid to high drive duties. The Rat adds the grindy even higher gain flavor that I love so much. Then my many different fuzzes handle the full on onslaught. It's nice to have a wide range of gain available at your feet. Once I get the 250 it will handle low gain OD and high gain grind depending on how I have it set.

I wouldn't normally pick a fuzz to do mild drive but if I did it would probably be the Grey Stache.

The world of distortion is a black hole. So many amazing pedals out there it's hard to find ones to settle on but it's fun experimenting to find your sound.
 
IIf you're refusing a multi, then you should just try your guitar effects on your bass. The character is usually pretty much the same as any dedicated bass effect, but with less low end. Figure that out, then fine tune.

I hate these threads. Fuzz is usually the most common suggestion. I am no lover of fuzz. It has its place, but I don't just turn it on to make me happy (that's what an envelope filter is for). Fuzz is the safe thing to say because so many people like it, but it's not universal. If I were to just tell you my favorites, I'd say filter, phaser, synth and octave effects. You may not enjoy any of those, though.

This is why I always suggest a multi. It lets you figure out what you want, rather than me telling you what I want.
 
IIf you're refusing a multi, then you should just try your guitar effects on your bass. The character is usually pretty much the same as any dedicated bass effect, but with less low end. Figure that out, then fine tune.

I hate these threads. Fuzz is usually the most common suggestion. I am no lover of fuzz. It has its place, but I don't just turn it on to make me happy (that's what an envelope filter is for). Fuzz is the safe thing to say because so many people like it, but it's not universal. If I were to just tell you my favorites, I'd say filter, phaser, synth and octave effects. You may not enjoy any of those, though.

This is why I always suggest a multi. It lets you figure out what you want, rather than me telling you what I want.


Cool. Thanks for your honest opinion, man. I'd say although Fuzz has been a popular suggestion, and I appreciate everyone's suggestions so far, it's probably not the first one that I'll go with. I love the Fuzzrocious Grey Stache, but I can see how it would be more of a "if you have the extra money" thing for me.
 
They aren't exciting, but considering bass guitar gets compression added 99.99% of the time in the studio, I would get a compression pedal first. They really help keep the bass solid, no matter what style of music you play.
I don't think it's that much at all. I think there was a time it was, but a lot of folks over the past 20 years or so are skipping the compression, or at least greatly easing up on it. Besides, recording studio compressors are way better than any $150 pedal.
 
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maybe a pedal that can do a couple things .. !? I have a Rt66 V3 , has a Comp and Dist in 1 pedal ... with Blend and tone control on each side , also has in/outs for each side ... would also work for gtr ... just as the

Fairfield Barbershop ... I think it's a great basic always on warmer upper ...! helps give a nice slight breakup as you dig in ...

a Flanger pedal will also do the Chorus effect very well if set right ...

I use my TC Electronics Flashback delay as a Tri-Chorus effect frequently ... I do like the TC pedals with the TonePrint option , where you can load effects from other players/designers ... and the software is nice to use to work on your own patches ...

I had the Zoom B3 for a while ... I did like using it with it's software , it's cool to see what you're doing right in front of you on a larger screen ..!! you can learn some stuff while programming it ... I sold mine , and now have a Line 6 HD ProX .... plus a few external pedals ...

some different pickups in your Jazz might help change it's voice a bit more to your liking ..!
 
Cool. Thanks for your honest opinion, man. I'd say although Fuzz has been a popular suggestion, and I appreciate everyone's suggestions so far, it's probably not the first one that I'll go with. I love the Fuzzrocious Grey Stache, but I can see how it would be more of a "if you have the extra money" thing for me.

I wouldn't recommend fuzz or distortion as a 1st pedal, but rather a light/medium overdrive..... I'm not much of a fuzz guy, but the greystache made a believer out of me, it is truly awesome for a muff clone!!

For your budget with light overdrive, you could find a used Barbershop for about $150, a digitech/hardwire cm2 is amazing from $50-100(sounds like a boutique pedal), Joyo American is $30-40 new, you can find a bk butler blue tube around $150.... If you wanna be more adventurous I've seen rat tails and greystaches for around $150-160 new(I had a custom built 2 in one).... If your willing to save more, I love the Darkglass B7K as a DI/tone shaper, still wanna try the Vintage Micro-tubes Deluxe though...

I also now use a Swell Bpro for my light OD duties, its amazing and their selling for cheaper now then before:)
 
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Did anybody say a tuner yet?

EDIT: He's got a TU-3. Roger that. After experimenting and purchasing and thusly reselling about 20 pedals over the last two years, I'm down to a tuner > VT Bass DI into and EHX Bass Soul Food that I don't use.

While I'm not in the "plug straight in and go" camp, I really wanted to love pedals and I really don't.
 
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Did anybody say a tuner yet?

EDIT: He's got a TU-3. Roger that. After experimenting and purchasing and thusly reselling about 20 pedals over the last two years, I'm down to a tuner > VT Bass DI into and EHX Bass Soul Food that I don't use.

While I'm not in the "plug straight in and go" camp, I really wanted to love pedals and I really don't.

Maybe that's me, man. I haven't tested enough pedals to know for sure, but, I've been playing for probably 12 or 13 years now straight in to an amp and I've never "needed" a pedal. I'm more or less trying to venture out into "pedal-land" like I recently just did with my guitar rig.
 
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