Who only uses 1 or 2 effects with a band?

[jdh3000]

I'm not talking about a preamp or an eq, which are effects of sorts I suppose... but mainly something like phaser, envelope, flanger, chorus, etc.

I've read some saying they have all kinds of effects at home but don't take anything but maybe a preamp on a gig.

Note this is nothing against anyone using 20 effects, whatever you feel works is great.

I'm just curious to see if anyone else feels like one or two effects seem to do the trick for whatever on a live gig with the band. Sort of a minimalist without being too minimal.

I was going to ask about one but some effects may go together like an octave and envelope.

 

[Deleted member 365158]

I use a flanger, wah and a fuzz regularly in 2 different bands. Both bands are original music.
Not every song has all or even one of them being used.
Some songs have a touch of flange here and there, some have fuzz all the way through and some flange thrown in when it feels right.
And there are times crazy fuzzy wah is the way to go.
Its all good fun when you have the chance to mess around with different ideas.

 

[cheapbasslovin]

Every set I use an octave up/down pedal, a fuzz and a comp. I have more on my board, a preamp and for songs we that rarely make it to the set, but every set I use those 3 for specific songs only.

 

[shastaband]

I am truly Old School (played my first paid gig in 1965). I just plug my bass into my amp. No effects at all on the gig. I leave all that stuff to my guitar player. I do have a few pedals in my studio, but they never go out on a gig.

 

[theduke1]

Here is my pedalboard. I use the Digitech Drop the most as we tune down the others, sans is on as well as comp. The delay as needed.
Duke

 

[HelpImaRock]

The Super Fuzz is only being used as a clean boost to normalize volumes between basses.
The Bass Comp is always on. I like what it does to the sound.

The Multiwave gets used in a few songs. It's set up for an octave fuzz. I use the DD6 in one part of one song.

I play in an original rock trio and we're certainly not ones to shy away from effects. But this is what works in our band.

 

[ArtechnikA]

I have a pile of effects, most of which get used for one or at most two songs. So it really depends on the setlist.
A Darkglass Vintage Ultra V2 Drive/DI is always on, as is a Becos Pro Stella compressor -- both more for harmonic content and EQ than anything...

E.g.
Bridge of Sighs gets some fairly heavy delay.
She Works Hard for the Money gets a Mono Synth.
Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) and Ain't No Sunshine gets a wah.
Man in the Box gets some heavy distortion.

But those are rarities. Most days it's just Darkglass Vintage and compressor. Some days not even that.

 

[Marley's Ghost]

I only use my SABDDI. Not sure if this counts.

 

[Bob_Ross]

I've mentioned this in numerous other threads on TB, but I tend to be an All Or Nothing effects user: For the gigs I do that require effects, they tend to require so many that I just bring the entire pedalboard...and, depending on the material, might just wind up using all of them over the course of the performance.
But for the gigs I do that do not require effects, I am really happy to leave all of them at home. There's something wonderfully gratifying/reassuring about showing up with a bass, an amp, and one cable to connect them. Boom, done.
The important thing is to set your ego aside and let the music determine whether it's going to be an All Or Nothing gig.

However (apologies for the long-winded roundabout way of arriving at the part that's germane to this thread title) I spent decades gigging with just two effects: a fuzz/wah which only got used super-infrequently, and a chorus, which probably got used too much. That turned into three effects when I added an envelope-controlled filter -- this still woulda been back in the 1980s -- but whenever it was that 3 became 4, that's when my All Or Nothing philosophy started. There were just too many situations when I'd bring 4 pedals and not use any of them, and/or where one of those 4 pedals became a liability because it wasn't secured to a robust and road-worthy pedalboard.

 

[ctmullins]

Me. One modulation unit and one dirt unit. Covers everything I need.

 

[JRT64]

I am truly Old School (played my first paid gig in 1965). I just plug my bass into my amp. No effects at all on the gig. I leave all that stuff to my guitar player. I do have a few pedals in my studio, but they never go out on a gig.

Same here. I just plug directly to the amp and use it's controls. I've toyed with the idea of getting an envelope filter, but since we do only one tune I would use it on, I've never done it. I do have an old Ibanez parametric eq pedal and a SansAmp Bass Driver DI that I used to use a lot on the road. But these days, the less extra stuff I have to hook up on stage, the better.

 

[Isaac_James]

I was an old school player for a long time. Bass, cable, amplifier, nothing in between. I did this for about 20 years, but over the past year and a half or so I've added a few tricks. My setup at home and with the band is pretty simple - I use a bass fly rig and a HPF/LPF. The fly rig has a few features that I don't typically use as they just don't mesh with the band's sound. What I'll normally do is switch between my "clean" channel, which is actually still sightly overdriven, and my dirty channel which is really dirty. I use the clean and dirt channels each on about half our songs. We've got one song that I use a chorus effect on. The preamp, compressor and HPF/LPF are my always on effects and they're subtle enough that most people won't even be aware that I'm using them.

 

[johnk_10]

beside a peterson strobe tuner (strobo stomp) i usually only use one or two (OD & compressor) but sometimes i bring a 3rd for fuzz.

 

[Danny O Danny]

I always have a tiny bit of reverb (I mostly play fretless) and a tiny bit of drive dialed in on my SansAmp. I also have an octave pedal but almost never use it. That's it for me.

 

[tbz]

I’ve traditionally used 0.

I now own a Dg VMT 500 with two built in distortion channels and a compressor. Will probably always run a hpf/lpf in the loop going forward as I like how that tightens up the sound.

In the past I never used distortion consciously. But I also played a tube head at the top end of its volume range for a long time. Which I realize now added a lot of break up, that I’ve missed since going Solid State/Class D.

Will also probably keep a chorus pedal in my loop as well. It’s weird how useful that is in getting bass to cut through a mix. First amp I ever owned was a peavy combo with built in Chorus and I swear that chorus effect was the only reason that amp could keep up with a drummer.

Honestly. Anything past that feels more like a toy. Phasers, octave pedals, delay, loopers, they’re great if you’re writing parts with them. But if you’re playing someone else’s songs, and aren’t playing techno influenced music, they’re less useful.

 

[lermgalieu]

Most I can manage these days is fuzz, distortion and chorus. Would be fine without the chorus if it wasn't for the one Smiths song in our set.

 

[Jeff Hughes]

Auto swell and octave. I sometimes never use the octave at all, but the swell gets used three our four times a set.

 

[ColdEye]

Besides the tuner and pre amp (TC Spark), I use an old Boss bass Flanger.

 

[RichardW]

I have enough of a challenge with my fingers. Don't need to add my feet into the mix.

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

Chorus, almost always [ON].