Help!! My bass player needs a pedal

[Paul in Colorado]

I like a little chorus, but my bass rig is bass > cable > amp. The tuner is fed from the preamp of my bass rig. Once in a while, I'll stick a rack delay in the amp loop for chorusing or a little delay on one or two songs, but, overall, it's naked.

[geoff_in_nc]

Sorry this is long.... Net of it basically is you gotta try a few things to see what you like and don't like. I got a cheap multi-effects unit specifically to do so and am pleased with the education I'm getting.

I've historically been a bass-->cable-->amp kinda guy. Playing a J style bass I varied my tone mainly thru pickup selection/volume, and plucking position.

I got the wild hair to try out some effects and found a guy locally on craigslist selling a clean 10 year old DOD Bass30 multi-effects unit for $40, and said "what the heck... I'll learn what I like and don't like".

It has some decent amp models based off SVT & SWR [both usable] and a Trace Elliot [haven't found the sound I like yet], then has an overdrive (pretty bleah), fuzz (frickin' yuck), all with amp-control-like tonal variations, fretless emulator (interesting but....), and bass synth (double frickin' yuck). There's compression (nice), chorus/flange/phaser modulation effects (good possibilities), envelope, delay, reverb (bleah so far), etc. Many of which I'm finding I'd never use. It also has a tuner built in. And a noise gate.... more on that below. The nice thing about this unit too is that it has CD in, and headphones out so I can play late at night along with recorded music. It has stereo outputs, which can be converted to biamped outputs... (really!)... that's a cool feature that I'll probably never use.

Its actually a pretty well thought out unit, and has some good tonal variations, and might go into my signal chain once I try it with the band. The patch editing is not real difficult to learn, and I made some time to create a spreadsheet and mapped out all the parameters on all 30 stock patches to try to get a handle on what it could do. Very educational. To me that's key... learning what this thing can do. If I have a sound in my head, and can dial that in, I'll be happy. If I'm twiddling knobs looking for a sound, I think I'll end up frustrated. This is a tool to me to use to get the sound in my head, not a quest to find a sound I like.

Noise gate. OMG... this thing is noisy. Playing solo at home, at low conversation volumes, the hiss/noise is insane if the noise gate hasn't kicked in. That may keep this out of the band situation but I'm still going to try it out just to see.

But again the net of this is I spent $40 to figure out what I like and don't like, and this will help me learn, and that's really what I wanted. Plus it will be good to practice quietly with at home, so I still feel like my money was pretty well spent (if I can get past the noise). If it was less noisy, I'd say this was an excellent $40 spent.

[Rybass]

I love a good effected bass but to keep the low end he will want to bi-amp if he really wants to use effects.

My board has changed weekly over the past 7 years but I normally try to keep:
tuner, drive/ fuzz, Sonic Stomp and chorus.

I switch out:
octave, delay, attack enhancer/ de-enhancer, distortion and wah.

My current gigging board is a Boss TU-2, Boss Mega Distortion (best lows of any boss pedal including the bass overdrive), Big Muff, BBE Sonic Stomp, EHX Octave Multiplexer and Arion stereo chorus. The tuner was the most expensive out of these at $90.

Bi-amping is something to really consider if using effects on bass. It keeps the rest of the band happy.

[Gaolee]

My amp has a fuzz circuit and a little bit of tone shaping they called Variamp. That's all the pedals I have. I would just trip over 'em and get confused anyway.

[Jonny_Quest]

Zoom B2

http://www.amazon.com/Zoom-B2-Multi-.../dp/B000HGJF8K

[dsutton24]

Tell him to get a Snark clip-on, about $20.00, and show him where the volume knob is.

[g'ter guy]

Originally Posted by rglenna

My bass player doesnt use any pedals. I would like to know what effects are commonly used on bass and what you would recommend he buy. We are a variety band playing country, rock and blues. He plays a Gedde Lee signature bass thru a single 15 ampeg amp, if that helps. It must have an onboard tuner in it and be in-expensive cuz he is tighter than a gnat's a$$ strecthed over a rain barrel. Any help is appreciated.

If hes just looking to marginally expand his tone and not spend an a$$ load, then he should look into the behringer bass pedals. They run about 25 bucks each and can be found on Zzounds. I have a couple on my board, they are really good for the price. I would suggest a bass limiter/compressor, a chorus, and an eq. Maybe an overdrive and synth for if he's feeling froggy. Also GFS makes an awesome little tuner pedal for $40.00.
for a mutli effect, you could look at digitech. they all have onboard tuners and are good for the price.

[g'ter guy]

some suggestions oriented towards the tight a$$ comment

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/bass/...65660000000000
http://www.zzounds.com/item--BEHBEQ700
http://www.zzounds.com/item--BEHBLE400
http://www.zzounds.com/item--BEHBUC400
http://www.zzounds.com/item--BEHBOD400
http://www.guitarfetish.com/GFS-Elec...HT_p_1084.html

[71jbasslover]

Best thing to buy is a good amp and speaker combo. I have tried everything under the sun as far as pedals go. The best money you can spend is on a good combo of amp and speakers.

[tagruvto]

A tuner (and maybe a volume pedal). While a professional bass player should be able to readily tune by ear, this isn't always practical. When a string slips out (for whatever reason) it's nice to be able to silently tune up during a piano intro, etc without disrupting the flow of the set.

Also the ambient noise in a loud bar can make it tough, particularly with a low B on a 5 string.

[Suho]

My amp (Peavey B.A.M.) has a number of different amp/cab simulations and you can combine them any way you like, and it has about 8 built in effects to play with if you want to. It also has compression, separately, which I really don't consider an effect anyway. Aside from maybe a little compression, I don't use any of the options. I generally pick an amp/cab combo (generally the SVT/8x10 setting) and never touch it during the gig. If the venue required it I might add a touch of bass but otherwise nothing. I like the funk-wah setting, but the band I was with didn't play any songs needing it and so it was simply a cool feature to goof around with.

When I was first starting out more than 20 years ago, my teacher (who was and is a great player) basically told me the only pedal I needed was maybe an EQ pedal, which I had for years. However, given that the state of basses has changed such that the majority of basses are active or have active EQ onboard, the pedal was not really needed. It could, however, change the sound very much by playing with the sliders to cut/boost different frequencies.

So in summary ... Get a tuning pedal. and maybe an EQ.

[paratus]

If you rock out much a comp is really handy, Dyna-Comp on the low end up to a dbx 160 on the higher end, but if he is cheap I doubt he will spend that much. If you go the Dyna-Comp route he will need to fatten up the tone a bit.

For the tuner just get a Snark and be done with it. It is not as accurate as a Peterson but unless you are laying down tracks they work ok and are CHEAP!

[Jimmy Dean]

I like effects with my bass. I have a couple of interesting boxes, Boss Bass Limiter Enhancer & an Aphex Bass Exciter. Lots of tone options with these. I also use an Alesis Nanoverb in my effects loop. I picked up all 3 for about $150 used.

Gretsch Jr Jet> Korg Pitchblack> Boss LMB-3> Aphex Exciter> Fender Rumble 150 Head> Nanoverb

[chippertheripper]

http://www.ehx.com/products/bass-blogger

[garyd5158]

P-Bass + cable + Peavey Century Amp x 2/15 cab. When I needed to tune up, I unplugged the cable, plugged into the tuner, unplugged the tuner and plugged back into the amp. I tried EQ pedals, Compression pedals, Chorus pedals but nothing sounded as good as undoctored tone.

Have fun trying things.

[Northerntele]

I'm a bass>tuner>compressor>amp guy normally but I've been known to pull out my modded TS clone for Lemmy inspired moments. I only use the compressor with my P-bass to keep the preamp from distorting when I'm rocking out a little too hard.

[mike257]

If all he needs is to be able to tune up silently, just get shopping for a used pedal tuner. Boss TU-2/TU-3, Korg Pitchblack or DT-10, even the Joyo pedal tuner. Won't cost much at all and dead simple to use.

Some cheap multi effects make it fiddly to get in/out of the tuner, and the displays on them aren't always great, so may not be ideal.

[JackStraw]

Originally Posted by rglenna

Sounds like the popular opinion is to play clean thru the amp. If I can get the cheap sob to use a tuner I can probably keep performing with him. Thanks for your input.

If he's YOUR bass player YOU should buy him the tuner.

[jefrs]

He will already have a tuner, and his compressor and graphic eq will be built into his amp.

But he probably needs a DFA pedal. This is a box with a push switch connected to a battery and a blue LED (don't forget the ballast resistor), then it has two jack sockets with a straight-through connection. That's it, dead simple.

[4mal]

I use the Korg or PitchBlack+ tuners and either 1 or 2 SansAmp ParaDriver's depending on the number of basses I'm cabling. The PD's I use primarily as DI's with bass friendly EQ support for the FOH. I take a dry line back to my amp. For the most part, my rig on stage is a monitor and I let the PA do the heavey lifting. That does vary from gig to gig but it is my preference most nights.