Bass fx in general

Joshua_Zahn · Post by **Joshua_Zahn** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 2:55 pm

I use a fender pedal tuner, which isn't really an effect but hey. And a boss bass overdrive, I love the overdrive. We had a gig in whangarei and my overdrive temporarily broke and I had to play without it... I really missed it... sniff

I'm considering getting a bass chorus pedal (kinda hard to justify though cause I'd only use it very rarely) and maybe a rat, that way the rat can do the distortion and I can turn the gain on the overdrive down to make a nice only slightly overdriven warm tone.

Joshua_Zahn · Post by **Joshua_Zahn** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 3:05 pm

Oh, and I might get an EQ pedal too, just because only about 1/3 of the time do I actually play through my amp at a gig, most of the time I DI into the PA leaving my amp to act as a monitor for me and the rest of the band.

jimi · Post by **jimi** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:25 pm

I have a Boss BF-1 bass flanger which gets a nice spacey sound going - think Smashing Pumpkins - Love. I picked up a Crowther Prunes and Custard last year when I wanted a bit of bass fuzz, but can't say Im overly impressed with it, might get some use if I get asked to record some parts for the sound track on the next starwars installment, but I don't see that happening. Instead I fell back on the trusty old hotcake using very little drive, this gives a nice little crunch without killing the lows too much.

I find pedals are good fun when playing round recording or writing songs, but when I show up at a practice and am too lazy to plug them in I don't miss them.

Post by Bg » Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:27 pm

If you can stretch to it get yourself a sansamp and use that for the eq and warm overdrive - you can also DI with it. They are excellent. I only punted mine on because I tried my Guitar POD XT with my bass and found I could get the tone I wanted with plenty of FX as well

Joshua_Zahn · Post by **Joshua_Zahn** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:39 pm

bluesgeek wrote:If you can stretch to it get yourself a sansamp and use that for the eq and warm overdrive - you can also DI with it. They are excellent. I only punted mine on because I tried my Guitar POD XT with my bass and found I could get the tone I wanted with plenty of FX as well

How much do one of those sansamps cost?

Rog · Post by **Rog** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 7:44 pm

It seems to me that bass amp manufacturers know a thing or two about this. The two most common fx I've seen on bass amps are:

chorus
compression

I guess that's what they think we need...??

artyone · Post by **artyone** » Thu May 19, 2005 6:10 pm

I've got four fx for bass either finished or shelved because I was going to do something to swap for a friends old rickenbacker pickups.First I made a valve preamp and though it didn't add much volume,and certainly no overdrive,it warmed up the sound immensely and made it more articulate.He thought it was cool but said some overdrive would be great so I looked into building something with high,mid and low filters,similar to an active stereo line level crossover,to put lows through clean with a boost and mids slightly overdriven and then some sizzling highs but didn't get past the schematic stage before I found out about something called the brass master which sounds good with bass and also has a mix control so I put a TS-9 type thingy in there,which the tone centres loweredbypassable with all sorts of possible distortion options going on in the feedback of the opamp.Thats a soldered up board but I haven't sorted a box yet.Then he mentioned envelope followers so I built a mutron something or other clone but used the wrong LED/LDR combo and its shelved till I have some more time.Recently another option came up with someone suggesting running two Dr Quack envelope filters in parallel with different caps on each filter and two envelope rectifiers with pots to adjust range and attack.That ones got a box,all the hardware and an unetched PCB.

All in all I think all guitar effects can be applied to bass but the tonal range needs to be changed and its kinda tricky as the ear has a hard time working things out so low so isn't so inclined to notice whats going on even though the signal could be doing all sorts of tricky things.But if we consider how much low analog synth tone is a part of modern music theres absolutely no reason why bass players shouldn't get in on the act.

DBM Music · Post by **DBM Music** » Thu May 19, 2005 6:29 pm

I am using a bass wah rocker from guyatone at a gig on friday nite. I will tell you how it goes ay!

Kev77 · Post by **Kev77** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 7:26 am

I too have gone through my bass effects stage, The best 'effects' in my book are flatwound strings and an ampeg amp, and a stupid hat if you feeling a bit 'whacky', otherwise if the bass dont sound nice before the effects .,.,.,

Rog · Post by **Rog** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 7:33 am

Kev!! Another flatty user. OK, you've gone to the top of the class in my book - LOL. Which fdlats do you prefer?

I've just bought a BP50 bass effects pedal for $80 - almost new - still had the plastic film over the display etc. At first I thought it was rubbish, but I've found that for my tastes, most factory presets are unsuitable. A few hours pissing round with the effects and I have a decent little box which allows me to grab a decent tonal change on the fly (for different song passages etc), as well as some subtle chorus and delay etc and a stomp chromatic bass tuner. All in all, a decent buy.

I don't bother with rest of the effects, 'cos they just don't suit the music I prefer to play.

Kev77 · Post by **Kev77** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 9:00 am

whats a PB50? , erm I have used rotosounds, but the string tension is a killer in a long gig - I tried some d'dario's and the E string snapped, so i put an old rotosound on the E, so a bastardised combo really - have you had any experince with other brands?

Rog · Post by **Rog** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 10:14 am

I use Thomastik-Infield jazz flats on my two main basses and Rotos on my practice bass. All flats.

The TIs are very low tension - great for old hands and long gigs (I've done a couple of 8 hour gigs and a 12 hour one in the last year). Its also good for the neck on my '72P as its getting tired and the low tension helps.

The TIs are a tad middy and it took me some time to get to grips with that. The rotos are the classic '60s sound.

I buy them all from Steve 'Dude' Barr in USA and they're here within the week at a price of about 40% RS price. TIJF344 $US40 Rotos SM77 $US28.

Before that I used to use Ernie Ball flats Group II or Group III (readily available in RS). They were really nice, but didn't last particularly well. By comparison, the TIs are supposed to last 10years+ (in my case I'll never need to buy another set of strings, 'cos I'll likely be dead by then).

As for the BP50:
http://www.digitech.com/products/bp50.htm

Steve Barr:
http://stores.ebay.com/Vintage-Bass-Tra ... idZ2QQtZkm

fooey · Post by **fooey** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 5:18 pm

heard octave pedal on bass lately. Thought it sounded real nice. Didnt work on the low notes hehe but the high notes were sexy

Mike_Hosking · Post by **Mike_Hosking** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 1:27 am

back at skool, wen it was only me on the guitar, my mate had one of those ibanez bass distortion pedels, was handy, could get the bass a lil louder with some fuzz while i was playing lead bits and it didnt sound so empty, it was a very cool pedel to play a guitar thru it too.