Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Worship Bass Pedalboards
- Thread starter Cshanks5
- Start date
awesome! do you have a picture of your board. just got the BBJ and i'm trying to get it set as my stage 2 gain too
Today's assemblage. I played at a smaller church plant again, but decided to move up to the Big Board since I'm serving at the mothership the next three Sunday's. Wanted to get some field testing done:
- Undecided if I really need a volume pedal and it clutters things up and creates density while I like more space between devices. Does anyone just throw a volume pedal on the floor in front of the whole board?
- I'm back into a Blue Colander Tremond for a Polish RAT device, traded for it last week here on TB. I tried the tremond when I was auditioning various rat pedals back in early 2024, then switched to fuzz devices like the Calamity and the Kilt, now circling back to Rat. The Tremond dials in easily and I like it for nice grind on heavier section as opposed to full-on distortion.
- The Greer Lightspeed can do a great job of replacing the Tone Hammer AGS first level saturation.
- The Bass Microsynth was used on final refrain on Firm Foundation and darn it still sounds good. I pulled one in ear out when using it and it sounded great in the house mix. Full, harmonics, but not screechy. Orchestral in an unexpected way.
- I had an amazing conversation with Gemini yesterday about my signal chain, got great staging and setting suggestions, and most of it was right on, especially related to dialing in the Rat and its switchable clipping circuits. Gemini understands I'm playing CCM worship music, silent stage, with IEMs and tailors suggestions accordingly. It's a little mind blowing.
- Third service with the Mantle. Still solid as a rock.
- I'm still pondering somehow getting the Tone Hammer DI on this board just before the Mantle. I really like the AGS/CCM vibe and want the built in pedal board backup concept. It anything on the board fails, power gets interrupted, bad cable, emergent noise -- I like the idea of being able to quickly move the XLR from the Mantle to the THDI, plug the bass directly into the THDI (phantom powered) and be back. Have you ever waited around during a rehearsal while the guitar player spent 15 minutes tracking down a pedal board issue? I have. I don't want to be that guy.
- Undecided if I really need a volume pedal and it clutters things up and creates density while I like more space between devices. Does anyone just throw a volume pedal on the floor in front of the whole board?
- I'm back into a Blue Colander Tremond for a Polish RAT device, traded for it last week here on TB. I tried the tremond when I was auditioning various rat pedals back in early 2024, then switched to fuzz devices like the Calamity and the Kilt, now circling back to Rat. The Tremond dials in easily and I like it for nice grind on heavier section as opposed to full-on distortion.
- The Greer Lightspeed can do a great job of replacing the Tone Hammer AGS first level saturation.
- The Bass Microsynth was used on final refrain on Firm Foundation and darn it still sounds good. I pulled one in ear out when using it and it sounded great in the house mix. Full, harmonics, but not screechy. Orchestral in an unexpected way.
- I had an amazing conversation with Gemini yesterday about my signal chain, got great staging and setting suggestions, and most of it was right on, especially related to dialing in the Rat and its switchable clipping circuits. Gemini understands I'm playing CCM worship music, silent stage, with IEMs and tailors suggestions accordingly. It's a little mind blowing.
- Third service with the Mantle. Still solid as a rock.
- I'm still pondering somehow getting the Tone Hammer DI on this board just before the Mantle. I really like the AGS/CCM vibe and want the built in pedal board backup concept. It anything on the board fails, power gets interrupted, bad cable, emergent noise -- I like the idea of being able to quickly move the XLR from the Mantle to the THDI, plug the bass directly into the THDI (phantom powered) and be back. Have you ever waited around during a rehearsal while the guitar player spent 15 minutes tracking down a pedal board issue? I have. I don't want to be that guy.
Attachments
Last edited:
Thank you so much for the incredible feedback. You're helping many of us make good gear decisions. I enjoy your curiosity, experimentation, and commentary.
I moved up from a Dunlop DP4 X to an Ernie Ball Jr. volume pedal. It is large, has great range, and sits to the right of my pedalboard. Perfect fit for my size 11.5.
First Sunday with the QC mini on bass (replacing the Anagram). Really enjoying it. Someone's DCX capture I downloaded sounds better than the actual DCX. Like if DCX and tone hammer had a baby. I've also started adding a little extra compression to the low end on a crossover split to beef up higher notes on the fretboard in a way that's good for worship.
Sometimes I just want to plug my bass into a decent DI and call it good. That eq, IR's, crossover with stuff on some and not the other, etc. At what point are we degrading our signal or making it worse?
Sorry. I know this stuff all has its place, but I spent some darn good money on a few pretty nice basses and I go DI into a couple really good FOH systems. Seems like that should be enough?
Sorry. I know this stuff all has its place, but I spent some darn good money on a few pretty nice basses and I go DI into a couple really good FOH systems. Seems like that should be enough?
This is what I do. Use the patch bay on my Rockboard for in and out to the volume pedal. When it isn't in use i run a patch cable to complete the signal chain.
I feel like I could go directly into a Noble to FOH and be happy.
On the one hand, I hear you. Let the instrument do the talking through a good DI box.
On the other hand, I can hear subtle differences on a silent stage via IEM's (along with subs) between a DI box and a DI box with a few bells and whistles (pedals). In any case, many fellow musicians and FOH technicians expect us bass players to plug into a quality DI box, let FOH dial it in, and call it a day. Anything beyond that is overkill.
I spent part of yesterday putting together a "simplified" board starting with the Khan DI. It sounded good going through the effects return of my WD800.
And then I added another tube pedal, and some dirt, etc. And that sounded really good!
Oh, the best made plans!
I gotta score points for trying, right?!
Of course, what sounds good at home may not necessarily translate well into a live situation!
I feel this way all the time and sometimes I do it just to remind myself that all the extra stuff is mostly just for my own inspiration/creativity and not needed to pull off a great service.
After building multiple pedalboards and spending a small fortune, I've had the same thought.
But…I keep buying and experimenting. I am probably the only one who notices (except for my wife unit…
). 
I remember the days of a tuner pedal into a DI and out to the mixer/FOH. I was okay with that until the bassists on Bethel, Elevation Worship... etc... ruined everything. Then I found this thread...
... I was content and done with with my pedalboard. So I felt safe to stop by this thread again to see what everyone was up to, and then I see posts on bass synths... and price drops.
I'm still content with my pedalboard... I like the tone and my gain stages... I like what I got out of the Moog messenger today, so I feel safe to stop by the thread again. Hope everyone had a great Sunday today.
... I was content and done with with my pedalboard. So I felt safe to stop by this thread again to see what everyone was up to, and then I see posts on bass synths... and price drops.I'm still content with my pedalboard... I like the tone and my gain stages... I like what I got out of the Moog messenger today, so I feel safe to stop by the thread again. Hope everyone had a great Sunday today.
This happens to me quite frequently. What I hear I my headphones is not the same as the IEM's. Interestingly, we have two nice worship centers: the big one for full services and the IEM system in this expensive set-up sounds different than at home. Then the high school center has a smaller system, but their IEM system is just outstanding for some reason. My pedals sound like my pedals in that system. Everything sounds better. Crazy.
Well, this is the Worship Bass Pedalboard thread.
This happened to me as well in early 2024. It's been fun exploring those pro CCM tones and approaches. I seem to be wanting to have the gorgeous clean tone available to me for a lot of the service, but also have some of those key tools and tones available for those few song sections that call for more layers or that wall of sound. I enjoy being able to cover that whole spectrum. Today, I played a small church and used a short scale with flats going into the Mantle DI 90% of the service. It sounded smooth and full and natural which was what they needed today.
I know. And I know much of what we do at church or other places is often mostly for us - especially IEM users - and that is just fine as well. I just needed to "vent" a little.
My Stomp works and is paid for, and sounds fine. Not as fine as my Empress/REDDI did.
So cool. What short-scale did you play? What flats?
