Pedalboards for BASS?

[d7music]

Due to current company, I've been experimenting with effect pedals for guitar... and BASS!

On my bass pedalboard, I use a Line 6 DL4 for Chorus, a Red Witch Deluxe Moon Phaser, RAF Mirage Compressor, EH Nano BassBalls and a EH Nano Muff that I purchased after listening to Muse's new album!

Any one else from here have a BASS pedalboard?
Or am I just a "frustrated guitarist"?!?

[staplek]

never used a board per say, but used a maxon overdrive and sans amp bass driver with a rickenbacker 4001. the bass driver can make a rick sound HUGE

[Glowing Tubes]

Originally Posted by d7music

Due to current company, I've been experimenting with effect pedals for guitar... and BASS!


Or am I just a "frustrated guitarist"?!?

BINGO!

LOL

Although your bass board does sound good...

[jyee]

i just recently comined my guitar and bass boards. this let me cut down the number of pedals, since they can share the same tuner, delay, eq (though different settings of course), tremolo, looper, etc.

the only bass specific pedals i've got now are the boss ceb-3 bass chorus and the x-driver bass overdrive/distortion. essentially i've got a homemade AB looper pedal so that i can keep the same chain, but swap my (barber DD -> boss ce-5) in and out for my (x-drive -> ceb-3) section.

[dillonfiore]

I don't have a board yet, but this is the gear I'm using. Digitech Bass Synth Wah, EH Bass Balls, Moog Bass Murf, and Fulltone Bass Driver. I use them with a American Made Fender P-bass 62 Re-issue with a Mesa head Mesa 2x10 and Ashdown 15. It sounds pretty huge

[John Phillips]

I don't have a board yet, because so far I only have one pedal - a ProCo Juggernaut - for this band. I expect that will change though .

The bass player in my main band (where I play guitar) has a pedalboard I built for her, with: Boss TU-2, Frantone The Sweet, Boss Bass Overdrive, Boss BF-2 Flanger, Boss Bass Chorus, and Dunlop Bass CryBaby (white one).

I really don't know why more bass players don't use effects, especially distortion...

[dillonfiore]

Originally Posted by John Phillips

I
I really don't know why more bass players don't use effects, especially distortion...

Let me answer this. Most overdrives/distortions don't sound good with bass. Its very hard for a bass player to find the one they like. Plus there isn't a lot out there.

[d7music]

Originally Posted by dillonfiore

Let me answer this. Most overdrives/distortions don't sound good with bass. Its very hard for a bass player to find the one they like. Plus there isn't a lot out there.

I became interested in the search for a bass distortion when I heard the opening of Alanis' cover of "Crazy". I tried quite a few and I think the ZVex Wooly Mammoth was the closest to that sound, but I thought it was a bit over distorting even at it's low settings... I finally bought a EH Nano Muff and I'm digging it! :RoCkIn

[king-albert]

My bass board is:
Arion tuner
Crowther Prunes & Custard (love this sound!)
Big Cheese Clone (good OD for bass)
Ibanez DE-7 (for making noise)

[John Phillips]

Originally Posted by dillonfiore

Let me answer this. Most overdrives/distortions don't sound good with bass. Its very hard for a bass player to find the one they like. Plus there isn't a lot out there.

Not that many guitar distortions sound very good for bass, it's true - although there are some. But there are quite a few dedicated bass overdrive/distortions now.

I've had good results with the EH Little Big Muff, Frantone The Sweet, and Boss Hyper Fuzz (all guitar pedals), and the Boss Bass Overdrive and ProCo Juggernaut (bass pedals). There are several other bass distortions I know of that I haven't tried yet but want to (Frantone Lo-Tone Classic Fuzz and Bassweet, and ZVex Woolly Mammoth especially), and there must be plenty more...

Some of the dedicated bass ones differ from guitar distortions in that they allow you to blend clean signal back with the distortion, so I wonder if the Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive might sound good for bass, if you want more of an 'overdrive' than a distortion or fuzz... (although FWIW I thought it was awful for guitar!)

I honestly think it's because most bass players aren't used to the sound of distortion and it's too much of a culture shock after years of using only clean sounds... but once you realize that it's meant to sound like that, you start to hear the musical possibilities. Guitarists may have felt the same in the 1960s .

Bass players often chide guitarists for being too stuck in the past and seeming to be unwilling to play anything that was designed after about 1970, but I think it's maybe the other way round when it comes to sounds.

No offense intended! And yes, I've only just taken up playing bass again after a gap of about ten years, in which I became a much more tonally diverse guitarist... but that's the whole point, once I had a bass in my hands again the first thing I thought of was what cool non-standard sounds I could make with it .

[jyee]

Originally Posted by dillonfiore

Let me answer this. Most overdrives/distortions don't sound good with bass. Its very hard for a bass player to find the one they like. Plus there isn't a lot out there.

actually there are quite a few out there. Bass Player magazine had a pedals issue last year that had a fairly substantial list... although not all were specifically bass overdrive/distortions, but most were.

as to sounding good or not, i guess that's subjective, but i'd have to agree that they generally don't sound very good. generally most effects don't sound all that great on bass, and using more than a couple (even if they're good) makes it all sound worse.

[Mikebass]

I'm not a fan of overdrive or distortion for bass really at all, but here's a pic of my pedal board:
The Digitech Bass Synth Wah has since been replaced with a MXR M188 Bass Auto-Q Wah.



The Fat Boost (which came from our very own Scott Peterson) is used to just "level" out my basses. (some are hotter than others)
But lately I've been using it for a boost for some slap/solo stuff.
The upper left pedal is actually a prototype of the now production model Demeter Outboard EQ.

[dillonfiore]

I've managed to find more bass fx, but I had to search for them. Yes they are out there, but not as much as guitar fx. I think that was what I was really trying to say.

How is that MXR compared to the Digitech Mike? I really like my digitech, but I'm not married to it or anything. hahaha

[mainsale]

I usually don't use effects but have been know to add in a volume pedal on occasion. Maybe even a chorus to add some "air" to the tone and I've been thinking about an octive pedal for fun. But as I said, about 98% of the time it's just my bass, my tube amp and me.

[analogambience]

For my bass tone, I use a volume pedal and DD-20. I love bass slapback delay as well as the full synth-like volume swells that i can use via the different memory storages on the DD20. Whenever I think about getting more effects I can not think of any different effects to my sound.

Amps on the other hand are a different question...