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What would be your first pedal?

I see that now. although everyone input is giving me great ideas and all sorts of pedals to try. I guess part of what I was asking was "where do I start?"

You start where you need it. If you don't think you need anything don't bother. It will save you tons of money. If you are jamming and think to yourself, "man this would be cool with some *insert effect here*" then go fill that need.

Otherwise if you just want to mess with different pedals because let's face it, they are fun as hell, then you can find yourself buying and selling a lot without actually pin pointing the right effect for whatever fits your needs.
 
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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.

I find with my guitar rig, if I use them sparingly, pedals are an awesome asset. A little shimmer with a phaser, a little juice with an overdrive, that kind of thing. With bass, I wanted to recreate that, but then in practice, it was just better if I didn't.

One thing that helped was getting a Pedaltrain Nano (not an endorsement) as it kept me down to relatively small amounts of pedals, like maximum 4 at a time, while I was experimenting. Kept my tuner (Korg Pitchblack) stuck down on that one side and the rotating cast of characters appeared to the right of it.
 
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I don't have a Compressor. I have 19 pedals on my boards. It's a must have for some but I don't consider it to be. At least for me. There really isn't any "must have" effects. It's a matter of what you want or think you need. So hey, if it's a compressor than get a compressor. :)
 
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Yeah, there really isn't a "problem." Just a bass pedal noob trying to get started down the proverbial rabbit hole
:D, i was just kinda kidding.

Pedals have become about 40% of my life for the last ~12 years. though for me, the journey is still just beginning.
I agree that a light to medium overdrive is the right first stepping-stone into the the abyss. this may sound odd (to a noob), but look-up an overdrive that is, what is called, an 808, or TS9, and that has been specifically modded for bass (yes this is a real thing). buy or build one, and you can plan on using it professionally for the rest of your life. my highest recommendation is to build your own -- there are vast and abundant resources online. :woot::smug::cool:
 
Okay, so, I have about $150 to spend, and I'm starting from nothing except a TU-3 tuner and an EHX LPB-1. What pedal would you buy to get your pedal board started? Would it be an OD? Or a Sans-amp of some kind? Compressor?

Aside from a high quality strobe tuner (I use either my Turbo Tuner ST-200 or my Peterson Strobo PLUS HD) I never run my rig without my "TC Electronic Hall of Fame" Reverb Pedal in the loop! - You'd be surprised at what a little high quality ambience can do to expand and richen the sound of a quality bass guitar!

Sure, if you are gigging, you can inject some ambient effect at the mixing board, but if that house rig isn't yours, who knows what they will be using. Better to have them keep your feed dry on the mixer, and handle your own reverb level.

Not much is needed for LIVE. Just enough to open up your sound, but at home and especially when playing/practicing alone, I never run dry. All my basses just sound 10 times better with the Hall of Fame engaged. Especially any Jazz Bass or Rickenbacker with some top end bite on it!

I am talking specifically about the "Hall of Fame" pedal though. Its the best digital "pedal" reverb around. Most of the others sound like crap to me and muddy the waters when used with a bass.
 
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Aside from a high quality strobe tuner (I use either my Turbo Tuner ST-200 or my Peterson Strobo PLUS HD) I never run my rig without my "TC Electronic Hall of Fame" Reverb Pedal in the loop! - You'd be surprised at what a little ambience can do to the sound of a quality bass guitar!
shoot... i was just talking about this right HERE haha! :atoz:
 
:D, i was just kinda kidding.

Pedals have become about 40% of my life for the last ~12 years. though for me, the journey is still just beginning.
I agree that a light to medium overdrive is the right first stepping-stone into the the abyss. this may sound odd (to a noob), but look-up an overdrive that is, what is called, an 808, or TS9, and that has been specifically modded for bass (yes this is a real thing). buy or build one, and you can plan on using it professionally for the rest of your life. my highest recommendation is to build your own -- there are vast and abundant resources online. :woot::smug::cool:

Sweet! I said earlier that super familiar with effects for guitar, just not when it comes to bass. So I do know what a tube screamer is. You didn't know that I knew that though, so it's all good! Thanks for the tip! I might give that a try. I've seen a lot of folks suggest the full tone OCD, which is basically a tube screamer, so that makes sense.
 
just as you would imagine, circuits have an "in" and an "out". a lot of the difference in bass pedals vs. guitar pedals, has to do with the "size" of the capacitor, usually one at each the in and out of the circuit. you can think of it as; "a bigger cap allows a wider range (more lows) through than for guitar (where a narrow range is desired)". i'll leave it at that. go have fun. -Dash
 
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