What's the Deal with Pedals?

[pabs]

Hello everyone! I started learning bass last week so I'm pretty new to the whole thing, would anyone mind giving me a decently comprehensive rundown on pedals? I know that using a lot of pedals with bass has the potential to muddy the sound, which can be good or bad depending on what you're going for. My 2 guitarist buddies always go nuts for pedals (they're shoegazers) and throw around a bunch of terminology when talking to each other that I never understand.

any info is apperciated, thxxxxx

 

[Killing Floor]

You can improve or affect your tone for better or worse with any type of gear.

 

[gln1955]

Nothing wrong with using pedals and even getting deeply involved with them. But, I suggest you learn to play your bass and become completely familiar with what your bass and amp can do tone-wise before you go down that road.

 

[jbybj]

Pedals are like food. If you’ve never had Thai food, nobody’s description will satisfy. You have to eat it, sometimes more than once, to know how you feel about it. Some food will disgust you, some will leave you wondering, why bother? Some food will make your mouth water, your brain explode, and your butt burn. You’ll spend the rest of your life trying to find or make the best version of your favorite food. No matter how good it gets, you are always looking for that next restaurant or recipe that gets even better.
Sounds like your guitar buddies are a good resource. Ask them to lend you a pedal, any pedal, and see what happens.

 

[pabs]

Nothing wrong with using pedals and even getting deeply involved with them. But, I suggest you learn to play your bass and become completely familiar with what your bass and amp can do tone-wise before you go down that road.

Oh no worries, I plan on making sure I have a good understanding of the instrument before I mess around with any pedals, I'm just asking right now out of curiosity.

 

[pabs]

Sounds like your guitar buddies are a good resource. Ask them to lend you a pedal, any pedal, and see what happens.

I plan on asking eventually, the only reason I have a bass to play is because of one of them gave it to me for free, lol

 

[G On Bass]

Pedals are essential for keeping the stream of our outgoing money flowing, once a bass and amp have been acquired. They also go 'grrr', 'scchzzzz', 'Wada...wada..wada' and 'boink'.

 

[vvvmmm]

When I have turned folks on to their first pedal, they always get off on dirt, either drive or distortion or fuzz.

 

[Artman]

 

[JCW308]

Go to music store and take a look and try a few. You'll love it!

 

[Deleted member 365158]

I would suggest that if you have a bass and an amp and are just starting out to not worry about pedals just yet and just learn to play.
Pedals can come into play much later.

 

[GlennRH]

I have been a bassist since the summer of 1984. I use no pedals at all.

I had an Ibanez Tube Screamer pedal for a while (years before I learned that that particular pedal in that particular era would be almost as sought-after among guitarists as an original-spec Crybaby wah pedal) and never found that it really provided any magic, so I sold it to an acquaintance for about $35.

Ever since then, I've focused so much on making magic happen with the right strings on the right bass, the right playing technique and the right EQ - and often-enough finding the magic among these - that I have never considered using any other pedal.

So, for me, the bottom line: Don't get distracted by trying to make something special happen with any number of pedals. Play a good bass well with good strings and good amplification. Natural, clean tone with the right EQ can take listeners to heaven.

 

[HelpImaRock]

Pedals are a cool way to add tone/functionality. It's easy to go down the rabbit hole, so keep focused on how you want to sound and learn what it takes to achieve that sound.

 

[Fynn]

You can throw out the idea that too many pedals can make your tone muddy. Don't know where you got that from, but that's such a weirdly specific thing that's just not true in general. Especially with buffered pedals, that will boost the signal. But even without, you'd need so many pedals / cabling for it to affect the tone noticably, that it's just not worth to even think about 99.9% of the time.

Pedals are everything from nuances to creating a completely different sound. They can also just be generally helpful or fullfil some sort of very specific purpose. You could use a Boss EQ just as a little gain boost, or you could remove all frequencies except one.
And I can't even tell you if pedals are for you or not. There's so many bass players that use pedals, but there's also an uncountable amount that never have used any.
I personally couldn't live without pedals, but I use them for drastic effects mostly. I want them to be heard if I'm using them.
You can also have pedals that are always on, like a compressor pedal to make your signal tighter, or a preamp pedal that gives you a specific tone you like.

Maybe you could ask your guitar buddies if they could lend you some pedals. Because guess what, guitar pedals also work on bass! And not just that, sometimes crazy folks will use them with synths or even other instruments entirely. I've seen a sax player with loads of pedals before and even a cello player with an entire pedalboard.

THERE ARE NO BOUNDARIES!!!

 

[cataract]

I’ve never used one, myself. But curious to hear others’ opinions on this as well
/subscribed

 

[JimmyM]

I have been a bassist since the summer of 1984. I use no pedals at all.

I had an Ibanez Tube Screamer pedal for a while (years before I learned that that particular pedal in that particular era would be almost as sought-after among guitarists as an original-spec Crybaby wah pedal) and never found that it really provided any magic, so I sold it to an acquaintance for about $35.

Ever since then, I've focused so much on making magic happen with the right strings on the right bass, the right playing technique and the right EQ - and often-enough finding the magic among these - that I have never considered using any other pedal.

So, for me, the bottom line: Don't get distracted by trying to make something special happen with any number of pedals. Play a good bass well with good strings and good amplification. Natural, clean tone with the right EQ can take listeners to heaven.

Hi Glenn, effects forum here.

 

[pabs]

Thanks! That was very informative

 

[bassGtar]

I use a tuning pedal. When engaged it's is a great tool for cutting the amplifier out of the signal chain.

 

[pabs]

You can throw out the idea that too many pedals can make your tone muddy. Don't know where you got that from, but that's such a weirdly specific thing that's just not true in general.

I saw a thread on this website with a bunch of people discussing it, some saying that distorting notes that are already so low can interfere with your ability to hear it, others saying the effects can help cut through the mix. I'm assuming both can be true depending on how you use the pedals.

And I can't even tell you if pedals are for you or not. There's so many bass players that use pedals, but there's also an uncountable amount that never have used any.

I'm sure I'll probably get into using at least a small few eventually, I failed to mention earlier that I also love shoegaze lol

 

[monsterthompson]

Tools for the job. Always depends on the objective.

Some big categories
Filter/EQ - These boxes help you shape your tone. Maybe your amp’s EQ doesn’t have the frequency you want. Maybe you want to filter low frequency noise out. Maybe you want to simulate a cabinet by rolling off highs.

Dynamics - Compress the signal to keep the end result in a specific output range. Bass is a very dynamic output instrument and some find pedal compression useful.

Gain - Clean boost. Dirty boost. Soft clipping. Hard clipping. Overdrive. Distortion. Fuzz. Many of these pedals have EQ built in. Compression is a natural byproduct of clipping. These boxes are very popular with bassists.

Modulation - Make the sound move. Chorus and Flanger are fairly popular options. Vibrato and tremolo also exist. Phasers sorta fit here too.

Time - Delays & Reverb (though chorus and flange are built by delays with very short time settings). Not a popular tool for bassists but useable in certain settings. There are clean digital delays, wobbly tape delays, dark BBD delays, and more. Loopers sorta fit here too.

Pitch - Octave shifts are common and popular. Whammy effects. Harmonizers. These often get used for bass synth sounds.

Utility - Things like line splitters, blenders/mixers, crossovers, mutes, noise gates. Not really effects, but helpful for using and creating effects.