What would make a good "Jazz" pedal board in your opinions?

This is a lot of what I play too, especially on the funk side of the street. To me, these are essential funk-jazz pedals:
Octave
Fuzz
Filter
Compressor
Chorus/Vibrato
Phaser
Delay
Preamp of choice depending on what your amp is doing for you.

I'm currently using:
MXR VBO
Zvex Mastotron
Broughton Joshwah
Cali76-CB
Mr Black Chorus Ensemble
Pigtronix BEP
Strymon Dig
Analog Alien Bass Station

I switch things up all the time, so this board might look different in a week or less.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Feral Feline
I’m a high school band director that takes kids to jazz festivals quite often. Most venues want you to use their equipment to save time in between sets. You never know what you will get in terms of bass amps. It could be a Fender Rumble that’s a few years old, or a Peavey from the mid 80’s with a ripped cone. I made a cheap little board with a TC compressor, a Behringer bass eq, and a Behringer BDI 21. The whole board cost $100. It’s been a life saver. We dial in the tone we want at school, then zero out the amp at the gig. If we have issues, the eq is an all star. If you know your eq well enough, you can solve almost any issue. We’ve gotten a lot of positive comments from judges, especially when the amps are trash.

Not quite what you asked for, but I thought it was relevant. Bass eq pedals are tremendous for jazz playing once you learn how to use them.
 
I play jazz on electric and have a small board that’s mostly there to add a bit of colour to the clean signal. A tuner, a preamp that depends on the situation (either Broughton SVPre / Fliptop / an old Xotic RC Booster depending on mood / choice of bass), a Broughton Low / High pass filter for boomy rooms, a Duncan Studio Bass compressor or Fairfield Accountant depending on whether I want clean or dirty compression, if I want any at all. I usually only have one or two pedals on, sometimes none.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jason Bonilla


i hope i'm not the only one who will suggest a wah pedal (left on/middle or so position) into a digitech whammy, followed by a volume pedal.

outside of this, for sure chorus, reverb, oc-2 are cool choices. I'm also a huge fan of the leslie sound, i use the neo instruments mini vent and love it.

I use a wah, but is Thundercat really the jazz he's talking about? 'Cause that's when my wah gets moving.
 
Have you tried synth pedals from Electro Harmonix
The line is expanding. Earlier versions replicate B3 Organ and Classic Moogs Juno and Prophet.
Filter or rotary effects come into mind
Not sure if your familiar with artist Square Pusher, ranges from Advent Garde Jazz to all out Electronic.
His answer for 6 string bass effect would be = Everything.
If not familiar ,would start with following Square Pusher albums for possible effects for 6 string
among live footage to even get a close idea.
Ultravisitor
Numbers Lucent
Just a Souvenir
Go Plastic
Hello Everything
Budakhan Mindphone
He’s a very talented composer/arranger/producer, and a beast of a bassist!
 
  • Like
Reactions: EliasA
I’m a high school band director that takes kids to jazz festivals quite often. Most venues want you to use their equipment to save time in between sets. You never know what you will get in terms of bass amps. It could be a Fender Rumble that’s a few years old, or a Peavey from the mid 80’s with a ripped cone. I made a cheap little board with a TC compressor, a Behringer bass eq, and a Behringer BDI 21. The whole board cost $100. It’s been a life saver. We dial in the tone we want at school, then zero out the amp at the gig. If we have issues, the eq is an all star. If you know your eq well enough, you can solve almost any issue. We’ve gotten a lot of positive comments from judges, especially when the amps are trash.

Not quite what you asked for, but I thought it was relevant. Bass eq pedals are tremendous for jazz playing once you learn how to use them.
and great lessons for the students about the non-playing aspect of live music, playing on someone else's gear, gigging in unknown environments, figuring out how to get the sound you want when things are not perfect. That is a great idea.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jholling
@trevorpell0

Yes, on Upright "straight-ahead".

Lars Danielson's board

@J.Wolf — Danielson uses a Felix... and some other things, with upright. Very tasteful subtle use of his OC-2... well, all of his effects-use was/is tasteful:

img_5357-jpg.3570529


Miles Mosley's board


Charnett Moffett was another upright-player who used effects, probably while Mosley was still in diapers.




To OP Bonilla...
My broad suggestions:

HPF is #1, regardless of type of bass-instrument
DI
EQ — as per jholling's post, crucial!
PRE-AMP
COMP
BOOST ultra clean at end of chain for solos
FUTURE IMPACT

Definitely put the Future Impact on your Jazz Board (in such a way you can transfer it easily/quickly to your other board, unless you can afford two of them...)

Future Impact covers so much ground:
  • TUNER
  • Envelope Filter
  • Chorus
  • Delay
  • Filter/Pedal Was
  • Flanger
  • Harmoniser
  • Octaver
  • Phaser
  • Reverb
  • Tremolo
  • Vibrato
  • ... MORE ...


Shake it up, make the Jazz Board the same as your heavy board, ie use the same board for both — stick some effects in the so-called purists' faces and tell them to fuzz off — real jazzers use whatever means necessary to convey their intent/emotions/thoughts/etc.


Yeah, use whatever YOU need/want... Bust out a ring-modulator if you have to, even if it costs you the gig. 😹
 
  • Like
Reactions: J.Wolf
Depends on the style of jazz. My first thought was, a tuner. I’m thing jazz like just this side of traditional that electric bass is allowed. But if you’re talking more like fusion, anything goes.
 
Entirely depends on what kind of jazz.

Jazz is an extremely broad genre, even broader than rock, and you will find bass players who uses just about every type of effect in existence somewhere within the genre.

But I would say with electric bass in jazz use of octavers, envelope filters and chorus effects is pretty common, and I could easily find you examples of use of fuzz as well, even if not exactly common in this genre.
 
Last edited: