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Worship Bass Pedalboards

#2,122
dmc79 said:
So the EBS cables & an ODB-3 arrived and without thinking, I plugged in all my pedals then packed them away in the Nano bag. Then a week later I finally get to play around at home with my first ever board only to find all the 9V batts dead apart from the tuner one. I had no idea whatsoever that you do NOT leave patch cables plugged into inputs AND batteries in pedals until I googled it. Lesson learned anyway and it has made me finally order a One Spot. I'll now have fun with cable ties & taping over spare barrels. I wonder if you can get those dust cap thingies in the UK. . .

I found the ODB-3 made a horrific scratching noise with the slightest touch of the gain knob. Is that normal? Also it sounds garbage. Haven't had chance to try it in church yet due to discovering those dead batts right before practice night. I don't expect pedals to sound amazing through an 8" Ampeg practice amp but it really just sounded plain bad. I suppose I probably want a mild OD to add some grit to drive along certain songs rather than a fizzy distortion anyway. Playing Hillsong / Elevation / Bethel etc. Ones I keep looking at for this are VMT, BB-1X, WHPL, Xotic BB Pre & RC Booster, TC Spark & Mojo Mojo, VT Bass & EBS Multidrive. Any thoughts on these for worship? Or should I try & find usable settings for the ODB-3?

We moved church recently and one of the blessings of the new place is having a good PA system and good soundguys who know their way around the board. One of the downsides to it (or so I thought before the first practice) is that the bassist don't play through an amp, instead getting their sound through a JBL powered speaker / monitor behind the drummer next to where we stand. I wasn't expecting much and haven't played ampless before but the bass coming through it sounded loud, clear and full. I've come from a smaller church with very basic PA where we had to watch the volume levels all the time, to a congregation of around 250 where if the practice is anything to go by, we can let rip, something I've not been able to do for a few years! It really helps you to play confidently when you can hear yourself clearly. I feel I'll finally get the full benefits of my MXR M81 Preamp pedal now I'm going straight into the PA. For those of you who play ampless into powered speakers, what do your boards look like?
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Hate fizzy OD or fuzz on my bass. So I bonded pretty well with the EHX Bass Soul Food. The gain structure seems deliberately set to feature crunch OD rather than fuzz. That and the blend control means it worked perfectly for me in church - adding a smidge of crunch to rockier numbers or working with the Wah for a synthy effect... They seem to get a lot of hate or derision on web forums but it works great for me... and didn't cost £200+!

Here's my board. The Tech 21 Sansamp VTDI sends an amp/speaker modelled signal to the desk (low gain/drive Ampeg B-15 style tone), which is great if I'm using in-ears. Livens up the bass sound beautifully. Not currently using the in-ears, after an ear infection last spring. Must get back into using them...

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#2,123
kevk said:
With regard to your above list of OD's, I've only had experience with the Darkglass VMT and TC Mojo Mojo...

If you're using the VMT by itself (and not stacking it with another OD pedal)...you might(?) find too much loss of low end when engaged.
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IME using the blend knob fixes this. Mine is always on (light overdrive).
 
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#2,124
tedsalt said:
IME using the blend knob fixes this. Mine is always on (light overdrive).
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Good point...I did say might(?) ;)...but, I should have clarified further. In my case, I could never get the VMT "noise-free" in our FOH, using it as an always on light OD (set the way I wanted to hear it...)

The rest of the band always complained about a "noisy" bass channel in their IEM's. I'm sure it was no fault of the VMT (rather our FOH)...but my MBD-1 definitely operates quiet in our FOH, given the same isolated wiring on my board...go figure.:)
 
#2,126
kevk said:
Good point...I did say might(?) ;)...but, I should have clarified further. In my case, I could never get the VMT "noise-free" in our FOH, using it as an always on light OD (set the way I wanted to hear it...)

The rest of the band always complained about a "noisy" bass channel in their IEM's. I'm sure it was no fault of the VMT (rather our FOH)...but my MBD-1 definitely operates quiet in our FOH, given the same isolated wiring on my board...go figure.:)
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That's strange. I haven't had any issues with mine that I've noticed. I'm playing a RW Jazz or a VMP5 (mostly), and haven't noticed any noise, and the sound guys are always complaining about noise with me. It's usually the instrument cable I bring though. I just use theirs. Maybe you got a faulty pedal?
 

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