Bassists using pedals

meltedbuzzbox

How is less more? More is f@#king more!

Y Malmsteen

LastMantra

I love effects...on everything!

But I do like bass with a bit of wallop, and you can lose that if you're not careful. 

LastMantra

I do like a raw guit-amp sound too when I'm in the mood. 

Eggman

LastMantra said:

I love effects...on everything!

But I do like bass with a bit of wallop, and you can lose that if you're not careful. 

You've summed up the dilemna in 2 sentences 

slacker

I think you need to talk to him and get across the fact that he sounds shiite. Be all the things I am not, like tactful, sensitive, subtle. 

fretmeister

Make him listen to Jack Bruce more often. 

fretmeister

Eggman said:

LastMantra said:

I love effects...on everything!

But I do like bass with a bit of wallop, and you can lose that if you're not careful. 

You've summed up the dilemna in 2 sentences 

Split the signal into parallel paths then. Clean and dirty at the same time. Keep all the wallop with the fx. 

fretmeister

Make him listen to this too.

Proper bass drive in the proper way.

https://youtu.be/59m6BoEVkng

MatthewShreddery

Hate it. Nothing better than a good pure bass tone imo

viz

Buy another set of all his pedals and send them to ICBM for true-bypass modding, whether the pedal is on or off, then subtly switch them when he’s out of the room. 

Bridgehouse

There’s so many replies I could make to this that I don’t know which one to choose

p90fool

fretmeister said:

Make him listen to Jack Bruce more often. 

Bad idea. If you think he's straying too far from holding the bottom end down already wait til he starts thinking he's at the Albert Hall in 1968. 

pintspiller

As a bassist I always have my compressor on. I kick in distortion for the hook in these boots are made for walking and some of all about the bass. For don't stop believing by journey, it's chorus for the complete song with occasional distortion.

dazzajl

Kids go through phases (that is what we all are right?)

He probably hasn’t got to be such a great player and part of the band without knowing what works for the song. A little time, with a little support to work through and experience the extremes and it’ll probably settle into a much more subtle trend. Hopefully? 

fretmeister

MatthewShreddery said:

Hate it. Nothing better than a good pure bass tone imo

Define it.

P or J or buckers?

Flats or rounds or tapes?

Tone up or tone down?

modern clean amp or old valve warm?

Front pickup or back or both?

Fingers, slap, plectrum?


No such thing as a pure bass tone. Even on a DB the tone from finger tips or using the whole side of the finger gives a very different tone.

MatthewShreddery

Bass guitarfretmeister said:

MatthewShreddery said:

Hate it. Nothing better than a good pure bass tone imo

Define it.

P or J or buckers?

Flats or rounds or tapes?

Tone up or tone down?

modern clean amp or old valve warm?

Front pickup or back or both?

Fingers, slap, plectrum?


No such thing as a pure bass tone. Even on a DB the tone from finger tips or using the whole side of the finger gives a very different tone.

Bass guitar straight into an amp

fretmeister

MatthewShreddery said:

Bass guitarfretmeister said:

MatthewShreddery said:

Hate it. Nothing better than a good pure bass tone imo

Define it.

P or J or buckers?

Flats or rounds or tapes?

Tone up or tone down?

modern clean amp or old valve warm?

Front pickup or back or both?

Fingers, slap, plectrum?


No such thing as a pure bass tone. Even on a DB the tone from finger tips or using the whole side of the finger gives a very different tone.

Bass guitar straight into an amp

Saying Bass straight into an amp is as wide ranging as saying guitar straight into an amp.

Strat into Fender Princeton or Jackson Soloist into a Dual Rec?

digitalscream

The trick, I think, is to have a parallel path on the pedalboard which is just straight bass -> amp. That preserves the...bass, so you get all the desired low-end thump. Then mix in all the effects at no more than 50% overall, and you still get the effect without it feeling like all the balls have dropped out of the bottom.

Bridgehouse

digitalscream said:

The trick, I think, is to have a parallel path on the pedalboard which is just straight bass -> amp. That preserves the...bass, so you get all the desired low-end thump. Then mix in all the effects at no more than 50% overall, and you still get the effect without it feeling like all the balls have dropped out of the bottom.

Yep. Absolutely. Which is why so many decent bass drives and preamps have a blend control to ensure a good chunk of the original signal. I personally wouldn’t buy or use a bass effect without blend. 

ICBM

Bridgehouse said:

Which is why so many decent bass drives and preamps have a blend control to ensure a good chunk of the original signal. I personally wouldn’t buy or use a bass effect without blend. 

I prefer to use a dirt pedal with bass boost. I'm not really a fan of the parallel-clean-blend thing even with bass, and I hate it with guitar. Bass chorus and flanger are about the only ones that I like with a blend.

Which is odd, since I like the Rickenbacker stereo system, so you can put one pickup through effects and the other not, if you want. That seems to work well for me, whereas splitting one signal and remixing it doesn't. I don't know why!