Pedal GAS- are these decent or am I just wasting my money?

ICBM

chrispy108 said:

Just cos the multi has knobs, you can still set and forget them... With the B3 you could just set it up as three pedals, each with its own footswitch, screen showing settings and control knobs, and never touch the patch stuff. It's like having three pedals in a row, except each can be one of a 100.

That's exactly how I use it. For band stuff it's set to Squeak (Rat), Bass Muff, and Bassman (only used if I'm not using an amp with a valve overdrive section), and I never use the patch mode at all.

The only real annoyance is that to get to the tuner you need to hold down the middle button (Bass Muff) which means that you have a second or so of loud hiss as the effect comes on before the circuit senses that you're holding it down and switches to mute.

Dave_Mc

ThePrettyDamned said:

I doubt it, but making your bass sound like it's backing a porno is the best thing you can do with one, so... Yeah, do it

LOL

chrispy108 said:

The digitech does octave down too, so two birds in one pedal for you?  

Don't let the price put you off, it's well built and sounds good. There was one in the Muse guys rig for ages. It's an inexpensive pedal, not a cheap one. 

Just cos the multi has knobs, you can still set and forget them... With the B3 you could just set it up as three pedals, each with its own footswitch, screen showing settings and control knobs, and never touch the patch stuff. It's like having three pedals in a row, except each can be one of a 100.

Excellent, thanks. Yeah I know they're well-built, it's more the (possibly slightly digital) sound I'm more concerned about. But yeah killing two birds with one stone would be nice (the octave and synth thing). And for £32 it's not like I'm going to go too far wrong.

And yeah that's a good point about the multi-fx. I'll definitely keep it in mind, I'll head over to the zoom site to get the manual when i get round to it, and before i order anything.

IanSavage said:

I've only ever really used dirt and chorus on bass - for the former, I swear by the Boss ODB3 (has the clean blend function like the Muff and will do frankly outrageous levels of gain). You'd get one for thirty or forty quid secondhand easily. 

Thanks. Yeah I noticed thomann had the price on the ODB3 down to £55 or something yesterday- everywhere else seemed to be selling it for £80+. However, if the beta aivin/harley benton is a clone (or at least, close enough), it's still half that price- and I'm not 100% on the clips I've heard. I like them enough to pay £20 for one, but not sure about £55 (or worse, £80!).

ICBM said:

chrispy108 said:

Just cos the multi has knobs, you can still set and forget them... With the B3 you could just set it up as three pedals, each with its own footswitch, screen showing settings and control knobs, and never touch the patch stuff. It's like having three pedals in a row, except each can be one of a 100.

That's exactly how I use it. For band stuff it's set to Squeak (Rat), Bass Muff, and Bassman (only used if I'm not using an amp with a valve overdrive section), and I never use the patch mode at all.

The only real annoyance is that to get to the tuner you need to hold down the middle button (Bass Muff) which means that you have a second or so of loud hiss as the effect comes on before the circuit senses that you're holding it down and switches to mute.

Thanks. Yeah I already have that mooer clone of the rat- tried it with bass and it sounded pretty good. I'd probably use it with guitar, though since it sounds even better on guitar.

That's kind of one of the reasons I'm slightly iffy on the multifx thing, I may well already have half (maybe a slight exaggeration) the pedals it models!

UnclePsychosis

If you've already got lots of guitar ODs then buy a Boss LS2---or some other splitter pedal---and then use that to blend in some clean bass sound. That way you're not limiting yourself to bass specific pedals. 

I hated MultiFX before I bought my B3, by the way. Its genuinely only very slightly more complex than having single pedals if you ask me

Dave_Mc

^ Not sure how I missed your post earlier today, sorry!

That's a very interesting point regarding the LS2- I genuinely hadn't thought of that, and that sounds like a good idea which is definitely worth considering. I was looking at bass pedals with the clean blend, as you said, getting a pedal which'll let me blend any pedal I have may well be more useful. Assuming the guitar pedals I have would sound as good as the bass-orientated pedals when run like that (which is a big assumption). But certainly a couple of my guitar OD/dist/fuzz pedals actually sounded pretty good through bass even without the clean blend thing. I'll have a think about that, thanks for the idea

I had a look at the Zoom B3 manual yesterday. It does look pretty good. My only concern is, I had a look at the pedals which it models, and by my reckoning I have about a third of them- either the thing that's being modelled, a clone/glorified clone, or something else which'll do the same job (for example, they count the different delays as different effects when my digidelay can do 4 or 5 of them). That doesn't sound like that much, but for most of the others it's either variations on the same thing where I'd only need one, or things which I more or less know I'd never use.

So that being the case, I dunno about the multi-fx thing- all I really "need" are the bass big muff and an envelope/synth filter. I'd really just be getting those other couple of cheaper pedals for a bit of lulz as they're so cheap.

Granted I don't have any bass amp modelling currently. How does it sound through "proper" amps?

UnclePsychosis

Haven't tried mine through a proper amp, sorry! 

If literally all you want is distortion and envelope filter then I'd buy an LS2 and a filter (although personally I'd skip the filter because I have never found a use for one ). 

For what its worth I've found that my Fuzz Factory clone, my RAT, and my NYC Muff all sound good with the bass / LS2 combo. 

Dave_Mc

No worries And thanks for the info about your guitar pedals which sound good with the LS2.

Found one snag with the LS2 idea- it's ~£75. Which is almost exactly the same amount of money as the bass big muff and the harley benton cheapo odb3 clone combined (actually a little more). ) I already have that biyang big muff clone, so maybe with the LS2 it may sound as good as the bass big muff- but based on my other biyang clones it's liable to break if I look at it funny (no joke... I had like 3 of them and a failure rate approaching 100%... including the replacements. The muff clone I currently have is the replacement for the first one which died ) Don't want to buy the LS2 and then have the Biyang fuzz die the next day due to murphy's law...). Plus if it doesn't sound as good as the bass-orientated pedals... plus it's the more sensible (or at least less fun) idea. )

Also no-one seems to make a cheapo clone of the LS2, either- even Behringer (not that I trust Behringer stuff to be built well, but for a fraction of the price just to see if it did what I wanted, it would be worth it).

Those filters sound nuts. Pretty sure I want one of those. That of course doesn't mean I'd ever find a use for one, either. )

Also the darn Harley Benton LMB-3 clone is out of stock until June. )

ICBM

The B3 has clean blend on most of the dirt effects too (I think - at least on the ones I use most) so that gives it a bit of an advantage too - it's not that much more expensive than an LS-2!

UnclePsychosis

Second hand Ls2? I paid £40 for mine.

Dave_Mc

That's true )

Well, at least I'm in no rush since that other pedal is now out of stock. I'll try to find some clips of the B3 tomorrow to see how it sounds.

chrispy108

Dave_Mc said:

I had a look at the Zoom B3 manual yesterday. It does look pretty good. My only concern is, I had a look at the pedals which it models, and by my reckoning I have about a third of them- either the thing that's being modelled, a clone/glorified clone, or something else which'll do the same job (for example, they count the different delays as different effects when my digidelay can do 4 or 5 of them). That doesn't sound like that much, but for most of the others it's either variations on the same thing where I'd only need one, or things which I more or less know I'd never use.

So that being the case, I dunno about the multi-fx thing- all I really "need" are the bass big muff and an envelope/synth filter. I'd really just be getting those other couple of cheaper pedals for a bit of lulz as they're so cheap.

Granted I don't have any bass amp modelling currently. How does it sound through "proper" amps?

If you want funny noises, I guarantee you'll like the synth options on the B3, in which case it'd cost you way more than £120 to assemble. The filters/synths on there can do way more than a cheap envelope filter can.

If you've got any chance of gigging later on, then you'll appreciate the noise gate/compressors and having the amp modelling as a backup/for shit soundmen.

Dave_Mc

Thanks

I heard some clips of the B3 on Youtube and wasn't too fussed... though I suspect they were just crappy videos.

The Digitech does sound pretty good (though maybe a little digital) and hilarious.

Gah I dunno. I hate being indecisive. At least, I think I do.

chrispy108

You should know better to judge guitar equipment than on youtube videos...

I'm not sure you can mark down a synth pedal for being a little digital... it's hardly going to be an 'organic' 'natural' sound?

Would it help if I record my bass making funny noises through my G3?

Dave_Mc

chrispy108 said:

(a) You should know better to judge guitar equipment than on youtube videos...

(b) I'm not sure you can mark down a synth pedal for being a little digital... it's hardly going to be an 'organic' 'natural' sound?

(c) Would it help if I record my bass making funny noises through my G3?

(a) Yeah, I know... )

(b) Yeah that's true. You know what I mean, though, the (good) analogue stuff tends to sound/feel a little more natural than the (bad) digital stuff. But obviously it's not like I don't want it to change the natural tone of the instrument, as you said, that's kind of the point. )

(c) No need, there were a bunch of vids on youtube, and I didn't watch them all yet. I'm sure if I look hard enough I can find one which does close enough to what I want. Thanks for the offer, though.

ThePrettyDamned

Dave_Mc;240840" said:

chrispy108 said:

(a) You should know better to judge guitar equipment than on youtube videos...

(b) I'm not sure you can mark down a synth pedal for being a little digital... it's hardly going to be an 'organic' 'natural' sound?

(c) Would it help if I record my bass making funny noises through my G3?





(a) Yeah, I know... )



(b) Yeah that's true. You know what I mean, though, the (good) analogue stuff tends to sound/feel a little more natural than the (bad) digital stuff. But obviously it's not like I don't want it to change the natural tone of the instrument, as you said, that's kind of the point. )



(c) No need, there were a bunch of vids on youtube, and I didn't watch them all yet. I'm sure if I look hard enough I can find one which does close enough to what I want. Thanks for the offer, though.

The guitar version of the Digitech synth wah sounds pretty amazing on bass. Ignore it at your peril

It's great fun, and oddly usable - we used to use it with a fuzz to play Hysteria, and on its own it was quite neat for Sir psycho sexy. Not the same, but it got the vibes going

ICBM

ThePrettyDamned said:

The guitar version of the Digitech synth wah sounds pretty amazing on bass.

It's much better on bass than guitar, in fact. I don't know what the dedicated bass one is like - or if it's actually any different at all .

Dave_Mc

)

If they aren't any different the bass one is cheaper...

Any ideas on how to phrase the question if i were to email digitech? Sometimes it's hard getting a straight answer. ) I suppose something along the lines of, "I play both guitar and bass and can only justify the one pedal, if I want to use the pedal with both guitar and bass, which would be better?"

Kebabkid

Another +1 for the Zoom B3 - it's all in there and good sounding too!

ThePrettyDamned

Dave_Mc said:

)

If they aren't any different the bass one is cheaper...

Any ideas on how to phrase the question if i were to email digitech? Sometimes it's hard getting a straight answer. ) I suppose something along the lines of, "I play both guitar and bass and can only justify the one pedal, if I want to use the pedal with both guitar and bass, which would be better?"

Ask them outright - it might just have a different input to let more bass through on hte bass one.  Just say, I'm after a synth sound for bass and saw your synth wah, I tried the guitar one and loved it, and was wondering what the differences were in circuitry?

Okay, mini fib in there, too

Dave_Mc

Kebabkid said:

Another +1 for the Zoom B3 - it's all in there and good sounding too!

Thanks

ThePrettyDamned said:

Dave_Mc said:

)

If they aren't any different the bass one is cheaper...

Any ideas on how to phrase the question if i were to email digitech? Sometimes it's hard getting a straight answer. ) I suppose something along the lines of, "I play both guitar and bass and can only justify the one pedal, if I want to use the pedal with both guitar and bass, which would be better?"

Ask them outright - it might just have a different input to let more bass through on hte bass one.  Just say, I'm after a synth sound for bass and saw your synth wah, I tried the guitar one and loved it, and was wondering what the differences were in circuitry?

Okay, mini fib in there, too

LOL. Or I could just say (which is sort of true) I play both guitar and bass, and can only afford the one, and which would work better for both (but with more emphasis on bass)? That actually might be more useful too, not just from the point of it being vaguely true- it'd be handy to have one which I could use for both.

Yeah I'll email them once the weekend's over. In my experience emails sent at the weekend can get lost at the bottom of the pile. )

UnclePsychosis

@Dave_MC

At the risk of being cheeky, I'm selling a GLX LMB-3 clone if you still want one.