What Kind of Bass effect pedals are most widely used?

[spjoker]

Question for discussion: What kind (not brand) of Bass pedals are most widely used and seen in Bass rigs of giging musicians? Is there an order of importance?

[cmatthes]

Good compressor.

[pedalhead]

drive, envelope filter, chorus, pre amp (like the mxr m80, sansamp bddi, hartke vxl), wah, fuzz, distortion, octave, synth, ring mod.
basically if it can be used with a guitar, you'll find someone using it with a bass!
in terms of order of imporotance, there is none, as long as it serves the song, it works.

[halorealm7]

Just sold a mint (80's) Ibanez PUE5B for $70 to a kid down the street. Had good tones. Compressor, EQ, Delay, Chorus and flanger, loop, threshold.

[jokerjkny]

octave (EBS Octabass), flange (Fulltone Choralflange), chorus (Analogman Clone Chorus w/ bass mod), overdrive (Sansamp Para Driver DI), fuzz (MI Neofuzz), envelope filter (EBS Bass IQ), phaser (Subdecay Quasar)...

[MichaelThomas]

Big Muffs, I see them a lot in bass set ups. But the best I think is the Sanford and Sonny Blue Balls distortion/fuzz pedal. Nice handmade units for a good price. A good compressor is a must have, and I always thought delays were really cool with bass also

[RockStarNick]

Yeah, a good compressor is almost more of a necessity, rather than an "effect".

anyone looking for a great bass compressor? BBE Opto Stomp rules.

[jokerjkny]

Yeah, a good compressor is almost more of a necessity, rather than an "effect".

anyone looking for a great bass compressor? BBE Opto Stomp rules.

i dunno if i'd say "necessity", cause most players will tell you, good technique trumps a compressor any day.

but admittedly, it is nice to have if i'm going from slap to fingerstyle in the course of a song.

[GDking]

most players will tell you, good technique trumps a compressor any day.

but admittedly, i'll use one if i'm going from slap to fingerstyle in the course of a song.

Most players must be pissed that good technique can be replaced by hitting on a compressor :)

Compressor is the best effect for bass IMO and when playing loud and live in a band situation, its awful silly to be worrying about trying to string volume technique rather than just going with it.... IMO :)

[jokerjkny]

Most players must be pissed that good technique can be replaced by hitting on a compressor :)

Compressor is the best effect for bass IMO and when playing loud and live in a band situation, its awful silly to be worrying about trying to string volume technique rather than just going with it.... IMO :)

yea, lord knows its annoying to be bothered by actually learning to play your instrument.

[GDking]

yea, lord knows its annoying to be bothered by actually learning to play your instrument.

Hey you use one start brushing up! :)

If you want to go down that road I know plenty of upright players that think the whole guitar thing is a copout, let alone the wussies that use FRETS on one! :)

[testing1two]

I wish the purists would get off their high horse about compressors being used to compensate for bad technique. It's like saying a metronome is a crutch for people with no rhythm. And yet click tracks and compressors are integral parts of the recording process and sound reinforcement.

The primary purpose of a compressor is to artificially reduce the dynamic range of an instrument and subsequently change its timbre so it sits in a mix better. A poor player is going to be recognized as such when compressed because you're going to hear the flaws in his technique far more plainly.

Yes, there is no substitute for good technique. No, it's not the compressor's fault that people don't learn their instruments. We now return you to the original intent of this thread.

[Wolv54]

Compressor is a good thing to have and I added a sonic maximizer in my rack last year and haven't taken it out since. A lot of guys give me grief for it being in there put I like it and that's the only person I'm trying to please. I play in a bar cover band and we all play bass on different songs and I like to set the bass up to be kinda nuetral for the guys in the band that want to play "lead bass" on every song.

[cram]

Most players must be pissed that good technique can be replaced by hitting on a compressor :)


i dunno if i'd say "necessity", cause most players will tell you, good technique trumps a compressor any day.

but admittedly, it is nice to have if i'm going from slap to fingerstyle in the course of a song.

yea, lord knows its annoying to be bothered by actually learning to play your instrument.

The first thing I am going to do at rehearsal this evening is take a sledge hammer to my brother's compressor and I'm going to yell real loud while I challenge his playing and manhood.

(totally joking. there's so much love in the air...)

[jokerjkny]

The first thing I am going to do at rehearsal this evening is take a sledge hammer to my brother's compressor and I'm going to yell real loud while I challenge his playing and manhood.

(totally joking. there's so much love in the air...)

hahah,

you'd be doing his future in his bass playing career a large favor. :D

but yea, i'll concede that effects are as personal as your underwear, so if comp works for a dood's rig, it works.

[cram]

The first thing I am going to do at rehearsal this evening is take a sledge hammer to my brother's compressor and I'm going to yell real loud while I challenge his playing and manhood.

(totally joking. there's so much love in the air...)

I was THWARTED in my attempt...

"You'd do well to install a compressor for your head... That way you'd have a more consistent response to situations like this instead of acting like an idiot..."

DRATS!

[DSmith]

Other than the EBS compressor, I can't name a single other stomp-box product aimed at bass players that bass tone-connoisseurs would buy. And it lacks features of a good rack-mount compressor.

Can't you expect that every soundguy with a decent PA is going to compress the bass too?, with a compressor that's going to have a ton more options than any stomp-box (attack, release, knee...). Can you expect soundguy's to not use their rack compressors just because you have a stompbox? I think the possibility of double compressing is worse for bass than not compressing at all, and would maybe carry a stomp-box compressor around for situations where the PA doesn't provide that on the bass channel...

[Bassomatic]

I haven't run a compressor since the 80's - too much vibe/dynamic deadening, changes the response too much.

That said, I always run some nice bass compression at mixdown.

[Bassomatic]

My faves are overdrive, octave, and chorus (in that order). Usually just the first 1 or 2, actually.

[Jerryr]

That business about learning your instrument instead of using a compressor is pretty funny. Anybody that tells you they like that sound/response of a tube amp is voting for compression. If you're using a solidstate amp then you have to add the compression externally to avoid the possibility of ugly solidstate clipping. Among other things, it'll allow you to operate at a high average power level like tube amps do.

[jokerjkny]

(...)If you're using a solidstate amp then you have to add the compression externally to avoid the possibility of ugly solidstate clipping. (...)

if a player is clipping their SS power section, its obvious he/she didnt buy enough power or speakers to reach the volume they're playing in.

IME, i personally dont like tube amps pushed hit their natural compression, cause it sounds more and more midrangey. frankly, that's not very bass like to me. for rock, its great, but for everything else i do, its not quite what i'm looking for.

again, i didnt intend for this to be a "technique" issue. rather a "preference" issue. its the same w/ guitar players. most guitarists/bassists love how compression "sweetens" their sound. others like myself would rather let the amp and guitar/bass be the sweetening themselves, and tend to not like how compressors tend to kill dynamics.

granted, when i'm recording, i do use a demeter compulator to keep the notes below the Low E from making my octave pedal go all wacky, but other than that, compression isnt a necessity for me.

[jokerjkny]

Other than the EBS compressor, I can't name a single other stomp-box product aimed at bass players that bass tone-connoisseurs would buy. And it lacks features of a good rack-mount compressor.

Can't you expect that every soundguy with a decent PA is going to compress the bass too?, with a compressor that's going to have a ton more options than any stomp-box (attack, release, knee...). Can you expect soundguy's to not use their rack compressors just because you have a stompbox? I think the possibility of double compressing is worse for bass than not compressing at all, and would maybe carry a stomp-box compressor around for situations where the PA doesn't provide that on the bass channel...

brings up a terrific point...

most compression is done at the desk for everything from drums, to vocals, to yes, bass. and frankly, that's where i'd rather let it be.

[Jerryr]

Good point about dynamics jockerjkny. My playing was pretty much straight ahead classic rock finger picking without much dynamics. Nothing fancy or percussive. Pretty heavy on the midrange (E.B. Stingray) to keep up with a guitar player that occasionally got very loud. The band is gone after 10 years and so is the Stingray. I kept my U.S. Jazz bass which I actually prefer without compression. I think compression tended to kill the bit of growl that I managed to coax out of the Jazz bass occasionally.

[grygrx]

umm fuzz?