Bass effects

[spbear5]

I'm looking to get a comprehensive effects set-up for stage and recording use. Individual pedals are a bit limited for bass I've found. The Roland V-Bass is just too expensive at the moment (one day though), and the next best thing I've found so far is the Boss GTB-6 board. Does anyone have/used one and comments either way on it's features and live use?

[Guest lime ruined my life]

i think most pedals translate to bass fine without needing a seperate "bass" unit, tremolos for example,delays and compressors should all work fine.

the big muff is ok for an extreme fuzzy effect on bass, zvex does bass fuzz called the wooly mamoth which i think sounds really good, and theres a common diy pedal called the "bazz fuss" which you might be able to find on ebay.

Some distortion units might not translate to bass so well, octave pedals probably won't sound very nice with a bass.

[RossP]

I am yet to see someone use a variety of Bass affects within a set well. They always seem to get lost within the rest of the music, or all sound the same. A good example was when we played with a band in Leeds last week called Get Amped; their bassist used about 12 effects, and despite me trying my best to pick out the differences in sound, they all sounded the same. Note: He had a couple of £'000s worth of Bass Amp as well, so it wasn't going through a crap amp or anything.

I find that Bass effects are only useful when they have a leading role to play in a song, or add particularly to the depth of a chorus, or something like that.

I use a Hughes and Kettner Warp pedal; meant for guitar distortion, but is amazing for bass. And every gig we play at least one bassist comes up and asks what pedal i use cause it sounded brilliant. It really gives a big chunky jump in distortion, which can help generate a big impression on the audience. I also use it to create a slighty fuzzy, high gain distortion sound which is the same level as my normal bass sound, which adds to quiter parts of songs, or parts where bass needs to cut through a bit, without dominating.

You can see this distortion pedal in use by a bassist at any of the Small Enclosed Area shows, and i'm pretty sure Shaun from Eric Euan still uses his, as well as the bassist from Sucioperro.

Note: I borrowed a big muff pedal last night, since the ac adaptor cable snapped on mine; and i found it a bit muddy for my tastes. Didn't cut through as much as the Warp does, however it did do the job, and was worth using instead of going bare without distortion. Try before you buy!!

[Alkaline]

I've always found the Big Muff to be considerably better than the equivalent Electroharmonix dedicated bass pedal, the Bass Balls. I like the Hughs And Kettner though. Maxi used one in Genevieve while he was in the band and its sounded very beefy. I used a Big Muff when i played bass in Undertow/Cedar Rose and also when i played bass for a one off show with Lucas.

I tend to agree with the point that a lot of effects get lost when used with bass guitars as they don't cut through very well in a live environment.

It depends what you get. Multi-effects are shite live due to delays in switching between effects rendering it fairly useless in a live set up if you require more than one ddifferent effect during a song.

[spbear5]

Thanks all for comments like, It's a case of "try before you buy" I guess. For the main electric stuff I'm doing I'm only looking for a good overdrive, and maybe a delay,so separate pedals for that seems to be the way to go.I agree that too many bass effects just get lost in the overall sound, moderation is best. l'll have a look at those recommended, it'll be a fun afternoon in the shops.

I mentioned the Boss board because I'd like to find a fretless effect, and bowed, for some acoustic projects we've got ongoing. There seems to be no specific pedals to get these effects, and a good fretless bass is a financial fantasy at the mo'. Anybody got any pointers?

[Guest lime ruined my life]

Thanks all for comments like' date=' It's a case of "try before you buy" I guess.

[/quote']

definetly.

I might add that you can decrease muddiness of the big muff with a few simple mods, regardless, if you can pick one up cheap i think they work well with bass.

[Monk Rocker]

I've got a Boss ME50B, which is a step down from the GT6B. As I understand it the GT6B has the proper circuitry from the individual stomp boxes, but the ME50B has a close approximation.

I've found the fretless effect on the ME50B pretty rubbish to be honest. There seems to be a bit of lag in the effect, and on of the noisiest effects on the unit. Other than that, it's pretty decent piece of kit and I'm quite happy with it, so I'd imagine the GT6B would be even better!!

[Scott!]

I mentioned the Boss board because I'd like to find a fretless effect' date=' and bowed, for some acoustic projects we've got ongoing. There seems to be no specific pedals to get these effects, and a good fretless bass is a financial fantasy at the mo'. Anybody got any pointers?[/quote']

There aren't really any specific pedals for those in particular, especially fretless- I don't think there's an effect that can duplicate that sound especially, as fret sounds aren't something that can be discretely controlled like volume level &c. For "bowed" sounds, though, an attack delay sort of thing like a Boss Slow Gear could probably get you close to that sound- it "fades in" volume level as you play. They're out of production now, though, so eBay'd probably be the only way to go there.

Cheers,

Scott

[Monk Rocker]

The ME50B has both a fretless effect and a Slow Gear effect.....

[Guest five years]

does all i need: bit of overdrive

http://www.tech21nyc.com/bassdriver.html

as a couple of people have said, in my opinion bass effects are pretty much pointless and simply get lost in the other onstage sound

[57vintage]

Good lord, we older lower octavers worked for years with flatulent-sounding speakers and tinny amps, always questing to get the CLEAN sound we wanted.

Now you guys want to muddy it up?

WTF????(

[Spoonie]

I've always found the Big Muff to be considerably better than the equivalent Electroharmonix dedicated bass pedal' date=' the Bass Balls. [/quote']

just to clarify, the bass balls and the big muff do different things. BM is a straight fuzz box and BB is a twin envelope filter which does have an optional distortion on it that's not too dissimilar to the BM, but you can't have the distortion without the envelope filter.

my pedal board has the following:

jim dunlop 105Q crybaby

EH bass balls

EH big muff

boss ODB3 bass overdrive

boss CEB3 bass chorus

i bought the 2 boss pedals when i was young on a bit of a whim and to be perfectly honest, they're pretty shite sounding. i put them on my pedal board and i'm getting some ok sounds out of them now by using them with the others, but i'd probably not replace them if they broke or got nicked. the OD is dry and harsh but i have found a setting i like which is a bonus! the chorus works quite nicely with the bass balls when the distortion is turned off but on its own with the effect level up it sounds really cheap and nasty!

was playing with a boy who played through a boss SYB3 bass synth the other day and i quite liked his work with that so it might well become a replcement for the OBD3 one day when i see a good deal.

/x

/x

[spbear5]

Good lord' date=' we older lower octavers worked for years with flatulent-sounding speakers and tinny amps, always questing to get the CLEAN sound we wanted.

Now you guys want to muddy it up?

WTF????([/quote']

Nae so young meeself but always looking to try something new. It's more a case of other options to the clean sound than replacing it, I like the clean tones too!

[spbear5]

I have to say thanks again for the responses here, wasn't expecting so much info/help! Looks like I'll have to take a day off and bumble about the various emporiums of musical delights, no cause for complaint there!

This might be more appropriate for another thread, but the issue of bass effects being lost in the overall sound intrigues me, and brings up a wider point. Would it be valid to say there is a general perception that the bass is merely an accompaniment instrument? ie "Why bother with effects? It's only the bass" Rather than a melodic instrument which can contribute as much as guitars do to a song/tune when the opportunity arises? I might be standing on a soapbox here, but it'd be interesting to hear other folks' thoughts on this.

[Guest lime ruined my life]

I have to say thanks again for the responses here' date=' wasn't expecting so much info/help! Looks like I'll have to take a day off and bumble about the various emporiums of musical delights, no cause for complaint there!

This might be more appropriate for another thread, but the issue of bass effects being lost in the overall sound intrigues me, and brings up a wider point. Would it be valid to say there is a general perception that the bass is merely an accompaniment instrument? ie "Why bother with effects? It's only the bass" Rather than a melodic instrument which can contribute as much as guitars do to a song/tune when the opportunity arises? I might be standing on a soapbox here, but it'd be interesting to hear other folks' thoughts on this.[/quote']

For a classical band set up with bass drums and guitar. I think the point being made is that the bass is so esential in keeping rythm and song integrity (along with the drums) that you shouldnt risk losing it in experimentation.

While i agree with that somewhat, i think the best moments of inspiration come after periods of experimentation.

[spbear5]

While i agree with that somewhat' date=' i think the best moments of inspiration come after periods of experimentation.[/quote']

That was the sound of a nail being hit squarely on the head, well said!!

[Guest lime ruined my life]

That was the sound of a nail being hit squarely on the head' date=' well said!! [/quote']

ahhh, that being said, this might be a good link for you : http://users.adelphia.net/~cwbarth/paraloop/paraloop.htm

[Guest texjamm]

I use an Alesis Quadraverb II for chorus, flange, phaser and octaver (NOT all at the same time!!!). Most of the time the change in sound is'nt obvious to people until you play the same piece without it. Also depends on how many guitarists you have to battle against!!! :laughing:

I used to use a Yamaha FX500B half rack unit with a midi pedal board. It has compression, overdive, flange, chorus, reverb, delay etc. In fact its probably going onto E-bay soon unless someone is interested in it here........PM me if you are.

[57vintage]

Would it be valid to say there is a general perception that the bass is merely an accompaniment instrument? ie "Why bother with effects? It's only the bass" Rather than a melodic instrument which can contribute as much as guitars do to a song/tune when the opportunity arises? I might be standing on a soapbox here, but it'd be interesting to hear other folks' thoughts on this.

I agree, apart from the "merely" bit.

As our old drummer used to say, "When you lose the bass, the arse falls out of the song".

I like the description of the rhythm section as "the engine room". It makes me feel like I'm playing the Neil Simpson midfield role.

[WoodyRATM]

hey, anyone know which stomp box would give an awesome overdrive sound? like Tim C style (and yeah i know his is custom) i just want something simerlar to his. well ish

also one that doesnt go nuts when used with a low b would be pretty immese. cheers

[WoodyRATM]

i was thinking of goin for the boss bass overdrive, would that give an ok effect to what im wanting?

[Guest five years]

i was thinking of goin for the boss bass overdrive' date=' would that give an ok effect to what im wanting?[/quote']

spoonie's got one of them, he's not a fan of it though and nor was i when i used it..

[WoodyRATM]

damn, so anyone got any idea of what would work well overdrive wise

[Guest lime ruined my life]

maybe try a rat?

[Jeid]

Or a Muff?