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Worship Bass Pedalboards

#15,741
rcmbass said:
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. 🤣
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Is that the green, glow in the dark, optical pedal? I love mine.
 
#15,742
SteveC said:
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?
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Dude! If it's enough fo you, it's enough. Everyone has different needs, desires, and situations, so everyone's solution is custom.
 
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#15,747
SteveC said:
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?
Click to expand...
With a great bass, great DI, great FOH (run by someone with good ears), and responsive playing, you don't NEED anything else.

At the church where I MD, the signal chain is: vintage p-bass > boss tuner > JHS mod EHX Soul Food > Jule Monique Birdcage > FOH.

For the past nine months that I've been there, my pedalboards and preamps have all stayed home and the band and congregation are satisfied. Where I used to kick on AGS / EHX BMS / Kilt or other various gain stages, I either dig in harder to drive the Jule, or kick on the soul food and it does what I need.

If I was bouncing around each week like I used to, I'd want my bigger board with all the options. I totally get that. There isn't a right or wrong here and I see both sides. That said, it's nice to ride my motorcycle in on Sunday and know my bass is there, my signal will be fine and I won't even have to adjust my in ear mix. There's an odd freedom in the limitation.
 
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#15,748
erayser said:
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.
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Yes, this.
I was fine playing a 4 string. Then I joined a cover band and all these songs came out where a 5 was pretty much a necessity. Add in vocalists needing to transpose and I just couldn't go without a B string.
Then I started playing in church with no amp and I needed at least a nice preamp. Then I realized that there were some DIRTY tones on some of these recordings. So, pedals became another necessity.
Then these fat Moog tones kept popping up and I could a.) expand the pedal board to get into synth territory or b.) get a keyboard synth or c.) track them in live. So, I went with option B.
My gear changes come about on a needs basis primarily...but, I'm also into trying new gear, so I can't 'blame' it all on the genre. :) I wouldn't be playing a Moog and a full pedal board if it didn't give me the sound that the songs need.
BUT, I do love it. I'm happy with the tones that I'm getting. I really like some of these dirty tones that I've never explored. I don't "force" them on the songs. I just let the song 'tell' me what to use. But, it all comes down to the set list.
 
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#15,749
NickyBass said:
I wouldn't be playing a Moog and a full pedal board if it didn't give me the sound that the songs need.
BUT, I do love it. I'm happy with the tones that I'm getting. I really like some of these dirty tones that I've never explored. I don't "force" them on the songs. I just let the song 'tell' me what to use. But, it all comes down to the set list.
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This resonates.
 
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#15,750
SteveC said:
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?
Click to expand...
I think it depends on the sound/arrangement that the WL/MD is going for. We play the praise songs from the Bethel, Evelation, etc catalog.

Our previous MD/WL led from an acoustic guitar so everything was more acoustically driven, no tracks, maybe a synth pad, and we all worked within that framework. He even bought a DarkGlass distortion pedal for us bass players to use as an option but none of the bass players on rotation liked to use it because it didn't fit the sound he would end up with.. So all I ever did was run my bass through a Noble and DI.

Our current MD leads from a keyboard. Everything is like the original recording or alternative recorded arrangement, tracks are used, so it makes sense to try and emulate the bass from the record. So these days I use an HX Stomp with presets to give me something similar to those bass tones we hear on the original recordings. Could I do without it? Yes, but it it definitely enhances the music by setting the foundational mood, the energy of the song, and adding dynamics.
 
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#15,751
kazuhank said:
With a great bass, great DI, great FOH (run by someone with good ears), and responsive playing, you don't NEED anything else.

At the church where I MD, the signal chain is: vintage p-bass > boss tuner > JHS mod EHX Soul Food > Jule Monique Birdcage > FOH.

For the past nine months that I've been there, my pedalboards and preamps have all stayed home and the band and congregation are satisfied. Where I used to kick on AGS / EHX BMS / Kilt or other various gain stages, I either dig in harder to drive the Jule, or kick on the soul food and it does what I need.

If I was bouncing around each week like I used to, I'd want my bigger board with all the options. I totally get that. There isn't a right or wrong here and I see both sides. That said, it's nice to ride my motorcycle in on Sunday and know my bass is there, my signal will be fine and I won't even have to adjust my in ear mix. There's an odd freedom in the limitation.
Click to expand...
Now tell me about this motorcycle....
 
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#15,752
rcmbass said:
So cool. What short-scale did you play? What flats?
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Mustang w/Labella Mustang Flats. Very smooth.

We head to northern Michigan for the summer and attend a seasonal church with guest speakers every week in a nice auditorium for about 300. The worship team is the same every week, acoustic guitar led, and the bass player plays a Mustang very tastefully with no effects. Every note is clear and audible. That was my inspiration for when the band is a little more chill. I put in a volunteer card to help out on the worship team but have not heard anything and I think its a small fixed team, no rotation.
 

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#15,754
AKBraves said:
Apologies if I missed it but has anyone tried using the MXR Bass Synth to get that deep moog sub bass we all love?
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I don't find it to be as great for just sub bass specifically as it is for fuzz synth. For sub bass I'd rather have an OC2 variant + Chorus if I'm doing it in pedals. For the about the price of two pedals you can get a used bass station or mini brute synth and be set for all the types of bass synth.
 
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#15,755
projectapollo said:
Well..... as we discuss effects or nice clean DI, my mothership has posted songs for Sunday. We open with Elevation's Washed. This is new to me. I watch some videos and it's crazy high energy and fun and Nick Edwards blazes the way. I go to MultiTracks to listen to his parts. Right off the bat, it's using an octaver and RAT type distortion. Later some big hits may be using the Bass Microsynth. Doing some run throughs this morning, I find that the new JHS Double Dragon will cover his core sound extremely well. Our first call drummer is scheduled so our rhythm section should be a joyous thing. I am so blessed to be able to take part in helping lead this.

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When does he use octave on this one? We've been playing it a bunch and haven't noticed that.

Me using DCX on flats for it:

 
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#15,758
projectapollo said:
Well..... as we discuss effects or nice clean DI, my mothership has posted songs for Sunday. We open with Elevation's Washed. This is new to me. I watch some videos and it's crazy high energy and fun and Nick Edwards blazes the way. I go to MultiTracks to listen to his parts. Right off the bat, it's using an octaver and RAT type distortion. Later some big hits may be using the Bass Microsynth. Doing some run throughs this morning, I find that the new JHS Double Dragon will cover his core sound extremely well. Our first call drummer is scheduled so our rhythm section should be a joyous thing. I am so blessed to be able to take part in helping lead this.

Click to expand...

Is anyone of the opinion that this would sound just fine without the effects and just use the bass plugged right into a DI?
 
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