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when to use which pedals

sambass0124

sambass0124

Mar 2, 2013
247
116
Hong Kong
#1
Hi TB-ers,

I know there are many kinds of pedals, and from Youtube I can hear the output sounds when these are on switched on. My question is: when to use these pedals? E.g., when to use Octave? Slow songs, or for fast rock songs? When to use bass syth? Does it mean we can replace a synthesiser with this pedal? And for reverb and chorus, are they only for bass solo?

I own a BDDI, an eq and a compressor - the usage of these are quite straight forward. The pedals that I mentioned above has a greater change on color of the bass sound ... so I'm confused when to use, and how can I apply these sound to different kind of music.

(Hope my questions won't be too silly)
 
#3
You can only use an Octaver during the second and third choruses in 70's era funk tunes.

Just kidding. There's no real answer for this question, other than "whatever sounds good to you." Experiment as much as you can, and try to pick up ideas from other musicians you enjoy.

For reference, even a simple effect such as reverb has many potential uses, including: adding presence to upper-register and chord parts, giving extra thickness to dub-type lines, making fretless bass sound awesome(r), pairing with other effects for spacey instrumental interludes, etc.
 
#4
They're right, there's no wrong or right answer to this. When I'm jamming in my original band I just keep stepping on different pedals in different songs at different times that I'd think a certain effect may sound good at the time and where it may compliment what is happening around me well. It's all about listening to what's going on. I have a couple pedals that are on all the time like my B7K as a preamp. I notice I'll use effects such as distortion/OD more often in the beginning and or end of songs. But sometimes it'll sound good in the chorus too. Or some chorus or flanger during verse parts. There's one song we do where I use delay in the intro and verses. It's all about complimenting the song IMO. Then there's times when I'm stomping too much and I just let my preamp stay on without anything else and ride with it. It all depends on whats happening at the time of conception.
 
#9
honestly i think at this point we should give some examples of when/how we use our pedals. i know it helps me out alot to here what other people are doing.

personally i use octavers in a situation when things just need to sound abit more full. i also use it to just sub out my tone. make my bass sound bigger which basically mean for me when the guitarist is doing a very light thin sounding riff usually during the verse of a song. i personally use it mainly for slower songs but most my songs are slow anyways. also they are good to add to your signal say in a chorus when the whole band comes together or something.
 
#10
Free for all. I have times when I'll usually use an effect though. If my guitar player is soloing and I want to fill more space, I'll punch a distortion and sometime a low octave. If I'm soloing, I nearly always have the wah engaged mid sweep, just to add volume. Sometimes I'll mix the effects in with a solo. And sometimes I'll just kick on the distortion or wah or octave to give a different flavour to the song, even when there isn't a solo. Experiment. If it doesn't work for you, you can always just leave it till the next time that it will. :)
 
#12
necropain said:
honestly i think at this point we should give some examples of when/how we use our pedals. i know it helps me out alot to here what other people are doing.

personally i use octavers in a situation when things just need to sound abit more full. i also use it to just sub out my tone. make my bass sound bigger which basically mean for me when the guitarist is doing a very light thin sounding riff usually during the verse of a song. i personally use it mainly for slower songs but most my songs are slow anyways. also they are good to add to your signal say in a chorus when the whole band comes together or something.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot! Very helpful !!
 
#14
ManuelJG said:
And sometimes you can use effects to make sounds that make a bass sound a little different than a bass.
A crappy iPhone video of me trying to create ambience & atmospheres sounds using a bass:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXRsu5W_82c
Click to expand...

this is how i play most of the time its very useful when trying to fill spaces in the music and alot of times people tend to be impressed that you made that sound not using a guitar
 

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