Bass players with massive pedal boards.

Rowby1

So, twice in the last couple of months I've turned up to rehearse or jam with a couple of different bands whose bass players have bigger a pedal boards than me. 

Now, don't get me wrong, my pedal board isn't big by any means so it's not that difficult for them to have more boxes on the floor. I'm not jealous, it's not board envy in any way.

Is this new trend amongst bass players? I can't quite see the point to be honest, they sounded much better when they switched the pedals off and just played the song.

JezWynd

There are certainly lots more pedals targeted at bass players than there used to be but I agree that in a band context less is definitely more when it comes to bass.

Unless a piece calls for a particular texture that only the bass can add, via POG or Synth, then comp and maybe envelope filter and a touch of phase or chorus is all you need. Then again, lots of players like aggressive distortion, there are lots of pedals targeting that sound.

Bridgehouse

To be fair most of the good preamp boxes are quite big - as are some of the synths. 

I reckon the useful bass pedals are just bigger.

ICBM

I used to have a fairly big board - from memory I had a tuner, fuzz, overdrive, booster, synth wah, chorus and a wah pedal - but I've cut down to just fuzz (admittedly with two modes plus clean boost so that's cheating a bit), tuner and chorus. All Boss so they don't take up much room and fit in one of those plastic boxes.

fretmeister

Doug Wimbish's board

Actually his small board. And you can't see the twin Mac Book Pros...

UnclePsychosis

I'm more a bassist than guitarist, and for me I like effects a lot on guitar but hardly at all on bass. 

Some genres need them (some need a lot of them) but for most "rock" music I think drive is the only bass effect needed. 

I did laugh when I was a gigging a few years back and the bassist of another band turned up with a massive and unwieldy board with millions of pedals on it and then proceeded to use one tuner and one drive for the whole set (I watched carefully because I was intrigued as to what he would do with them all :-D) 

Kebabkid

Bridgehouse said:

To be fair most of the good preamp boxes are quite big - as are some of the synths. 

I reckon the useful bass pedals are just bigger.

A bassist I sometimes play with or who deps for my bass gigs has a sizeable board but it just happens to be that the pedals are large. There's nothing more than a compressor, Preamp pedal, Drive, Octaver, Chorus, Bass Synth, DI box, Wireless Transmitter and he plays in several bands, uses the effects wisely, doesn't solo etc and is a semi-pro.

For smaller gigs, he'll use a Zoom B3 but doesn't like the Octaver in it and I concur - it's a weak effect in an otherwise great multi-fx pedal.

Luckily for me, the FX I need for my bass gigs  are a compressor, octaver and occasionally, a delay, and they're all built into the Roland Bass Cube. I do have a Zoom B1Xon but I'm on the look out for a Zoom B3.

Tools of the trade. If required, why not?

fretmeister

I was in a covers band where I had to deal with all the keyboard parts too - on bass.

I had a choice of drives, envelope filter, synth pedal, octave, wah, and a compressor. Still pretty big, but all designed to get close enough to famous song tones.

Can't do "Money" with a GK slap sound, Can't do "Dock of the Bay" with a Sheehan sound, Can't do "Deeper Underground" without a shitload of synth or at least mixing filters and fuzz, Can't do "Hysteria" without... errr, turning everything on and going nuts.

Musicman20

I'm far better on bass simply due to experience but I still think tube amps and effects are far more noticable and obvious with guitar. 

There are some great bass pedals, but it's much more suited to guitar. 

viz

Bass players tend to have big feet, so the boards will be quite large. 

ICBM

viz said:

Bass players tend to have big feet, so the boards will tend to be quite large. 

lol

I'm only a size 7 .

Although I admit that one of the reasons I love Boss pedals and hate metal click switches is because foot accuracy is much less important with the Boss ones...

Lebarque

All this time we've been grateful for great advice from @ICBM and now we find out he's a bass player? I feel dirty...

JezWynd

fretmeister said:

Doug Wimbish's board

Actually his small board. And you can't see the twin Mac Book Pros...

It looks like he's got a whole orchestra at his feet.

Bridgehouse

Lebarque said:

All this time we've been grateful for great advice from @ICBM and now we find out he's a bass player? I feel dirty...

Us bass players are everywhere, just like the illuminati

slacker

Most bassists I know dont use effects. I dont when I play. I dont even like having frets, they get in the way.

rico

The bassist from my old band had a fuzz pedal and it sounded so shit. It was like a really aggressive square wave 8-bit synth. God it was bad. 

octatonic

fretmeister said:

I was in a covers band where I had to deal with all the keyboard parts too - on bass.

I had a choice of drives, envelope filter, synth pedal, octave, wah, and a compressor. Still pretty big, but all designed to get close enough to famous song tones.

Can't do "Money" with a GK slap sound, Can't do "Dock of the Bay" with a Sheehan sound, Can't do "Deeper Underground" without a shitload of synth or at least mixing filters and fuzz, Can't do "Hysteria" without... errr, turning everything on and going nuts.

Get a Fractal FX8 or a Helix.

sgosden

My bass patch on helix for band is comp, drive, octave, chorus.
bass patch for playing at home has fuck tonnes of synth,delays and verbs and all sorts. 

Bassist in my main band has tuner, drive, fuzz, gate.  The fuzz is yucky.

ive seen boards the size of doors at some gigs, seems massively over kill. 

Drew_TNBD

Jon stockman.

/Endthread

Bridgehouse

Anyone want to see how big mine is?

fretmeister

octatonic said:

fretmeister said:

I was in a covers band where I had to deal with all the keyboard parts too - on bass.

I had a choice of drives, envelope filter, synth pedal, octave, wah, and a compressor. Still pretty big, but all designed to get close enough to famous song tones.

Can't do "Money" with a GK slap sound, Can't do "Dock of the Bay" with a Sheehan sound, Can't do "Deeper Underground" without a shitload of synth or at least mixing filters and fuzz, Can't do "Hysteria" without... errr, turning everything on and going nuts.

Get a Fractal FX8 or a Helix.

Another one?