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Your first pedal

Danilixo

Danilixo

Guest
Nov 26, 2016
42
31
27
South Africa (US Citizen)
#1
So the first ever fx pedal I ever got for my bass was an electro-harmonix big muff pi. I love the pedal though I rarely ever use it in my gigs. What do you guys think the best first pedal to get that everyone uses, or would it be a better idea to get an amp with many built in fx?
 
#3
My first pedal was one of the early Boss GE-7 graphic equalizers. I used it on both guitar and bass. A guitarist in my current band has it now and it still works!!

I never bought the bass version as I really liked the frequency points on the pedal especially in the 100, 200, 400 and 800 Hz range if I recall those points correctly. As I looked at the GE-7 and GEB-7 I was never tempted to change since my amp controls had the low frequency range (40-80Hz) covered and could tame the extreme upper end. I was looking for more control over that critical low-mid and mid-mid area.

Today, many of the newer amps and pedals are offering us a lot control in those frequency ranges that I liked the GE-7 for, so I feel a bit vindicated for being ahead of my time and for not feeling compelled to use a bass specific pedal! :)
 
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#7
OBTW, I'm not a fan of having lots of effects built into amps. Too much variation in tastes to keep it simple and I prefer the flexibility to pick and choose what I want relative to effects while selecting an amp totally on its merits/capabilities for its primary function.
 
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#9
Al Kraft said:
OBTW, I'm not a fan of having lots of effects built into amps. Too much variation in tastes to keep it simple and I prefer the flexibility to pick and choose what I want relative to effects while selecting an amp totally on its merits/capabilities for its primary function.
Click to expand...

Agreed. The amps with built in effects like overdrive and baked in tones such as "vintage" seem amateurish and cheesy to me. They never work well compared to normal pedals.
 
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#11
dinoadventures said:
The obvious answer is a tuner but nobody came to hear that so I'm going to say a parametric EQ that gives you control of your mids and low mids. A high pass filter is super useful as well. Utility pedals aren't sexy but they sure do fix problems.
Click to expand...
Actually, most of the "pedals/effects" I use today are more in the utility category (e.g. HPF, Compressor, various preamp and boost pedals that can give me some mild OD/grit+EQ) than anything else. If I played styles of music where there were signature sounds/voicing I would't hesitate to employ other devices - I just learned to play back when most everyone plugged directly into the amp.
 
#12
I had some less-than-wonderful pedals for guitar use prior to my bass pedal obsession, which I consider to have been part of a throwaway "I want to double on electric guitar" phase.

The first pedal I used for bass guitar exclusively was the EHX Holy Grail (with the infamous Flerb function). I still use it - I still love it.

~Nick "Klaus" G.
 
#13
A Tuner...

Obviously not what you are going for, so here's my shot. - Pedals are pretty personal, so am making an assuming the tone and other characteristics are to your liking -

Pigtronix bass station. You'll have to watch here, the bay, reverb, etc. as these are no longer made. - you get decent compression, clean boost, loop on-off and direct out. If your amp/the mixing desk can give you decent eq you really could get by with just one of these. Sweetwater at least used to have a description of this on their website. Not sure if it is still up.

Hope that helps!
 
#14
My first was a T-Rex Bass Juice. Before that I was a Rickenbacker 4001 into a couple of dimed Fender Bassman with no pedals for years.

Still using it every gig after 6 years. I've always liked it for a low gain OD tone but it does a lot more than just that. I've considered selling it many times but I'm glad I never did because it does a great job copping the recorded tone of my Acoustic 370 cranked into distortion. Now I'm using a SolidGold FX Beta for performing the songs I recorded direct or with a B-15 and the Bass Juice for the songs from the sessions with the Acoustic.
 
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#16
Danilixo said:
So the first ever fx pedal I ever got for my bass was an electro-harmonix big muff pi. I love the pedal though I rarely ever use it in my gigs. What do you guys think the best first pedal to get that everyone uses, or would it be a better idea to get an amp with many built in fx?
Click to expand...

The very first pedal I actually bought was probably the DOD FX25b. Still have it. The first pedal that was ever given to me and I played was most likely the DOD DFX9 digital delay. Still have that too surprisingly. I had a MF card when I first started playing and I think I bought like 4 or 5 pedals at once or around the same time. The BDDI, the DOD, and a black russian muff by EHX and I think a Digitech digital effects modeler that was absolute garbage. I had a wah at some point too and an EHX sovtek bass balls. That was how I started haha. I barely touched them or knew how to use them. Most got lost over the years.

FF>> like 12 years or so and I joined TB and I think in that time I have gone through at least over 100 pedals. Gotta love it!!

If I had to do it over again I wouldn't change a thing. The thing is, no matter what you get, if you are really a tone hound and are curious, you will most likely move on from your first pieces of gear. Especially the amps and cabs. IME anyway. I haven't gone through a ton of them, a few cabs and maybe 5 amps. But it really depends on your monetary circumstances too. If you have money, you can try all you want. If you dont, you get what you can afford until you can save something better. But I think as long as you're getting pieces of gear that keep it interesting and inspired for you, you're headed in the right direction.
 
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#18
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