Bassists using pedals

fretmeister · January 2019

Blend is most useful.

It was Chris Squire and The Ox that did it first, then JPJ and Billy Sheehan. All with dual amp rigs.

Only took the pedal makers another 30 years to start adding it as normal!

Bridgehouse · January 2019

ICBM said:

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!

You’ve not tried some of the really good pedals with blend then. If you do a parallel patch on a helix, mixing amp and cab models, and adding some subtle delay between amp and cab (on one track) and messing with balance and global eq etc you can create some truly impressive and quite epic sounding bass patches.

ICBM · January 2019

Bridgehouse said:

You’ve not tried some of the really good pedals with blend then. If you do a parallel patch on a helix, mixing amp and cab models, and adding some subtle delay between amp and cab (on one track) and messing with balance and global eq etc you can create some truly impressive and quite epic sounding bass patches.

No, but it's hearing the clean sound that I don't like, so I can't see why it would make any difference.

It's the same problem as I have with solid-state overdrive for guitar - there's usually a distortion which sits on top of and separately from an underlying clean sound, and just sounds like something broken. Maybe I'm overly sensitive to this because I'm a repairer

.

I *think* the reason I like the Rick stereo sound is that it doesn't sound like that, it sounds like two different instruments playing perfectly in unison, because the pickup signals are different.

Bridgehouse · January 2019

ICBM said:

Bridgehouse said:

You’ve not tried some of the really good pedals with blend then. If you do a parallel patch on a helix, mixing amp and cab models, and adding some subtle delay between amp and cab (on one track) and messing with balance and global eq etc you can create some truly impressive and quite epic sounding bass patches.

No, but it's hearing the clean sound that I don't like, so I can't see why it would make any difference.

It's the same problem as I have with solid-state overdrive for guitar - there's usually a distortion which sits on top of and separately from an underlying clean sound, and just sounds like something broken. Maybe I'm overly sensitive to this because I'm a repairer .

I *think* the reason I like the Rick stereo sound is that it doesn't sound like that, it sounds like two different instruments playing perfectly in unison, because the pickup signals are different.

On a Helix, I’ve had a lot of fun with parallel paths - and eq’ing the clean signal to preserve the low-mid thump and not have it wreck the distortion/fuzz/chorus or whatever effect.

Spend time with it and it doesn’t sound like a clean and dirty signal combined but just re-emphasises the punch and cut that the OP was saying was lacking. You can keep the great effects tone without losing any of the thump that cuts through.

digitalscream · January 2019

ICBM said:

Bridgehouse said:

You’ve not tried some of the really good pedals with blend then. If you do a parallel patch on a helix, mixing amp and cab models, and adding some subtle delay between amp and cab (on one track) and messing with balance and global eq etc you can create some truly impressive and quite epic sounding bass patches.

No, but it's hearing the clean sound that I don't like, so I can't see why it would make any difference.

It's the same problem as I have with solid-state overdrive for guitar - there's usually a distortion which sits on top of and separately from an underlying clean sound, and just sounds like something broken. Maybe I'm overly sensitive to this because I'm a repairer .

I *think* the reason I like the Rick stereo sound is that it doesn't sound like that, it sounds like two different instruments playing perfectly in unison, because the pickup signals are different.

See...that's the thing - in my opinion, with the blend set right you shouldn't be able to hear the dry bass sound as a distinct entity...the only reason you want it is to give more oomph to the distorted/effected sound, so if you can hear its attack then it's set too high or you need EQ on there to bring out the bits you want.

Then again, I'm a guitarist so I don't actually want to hear the bass at all

Bridgehouse · January 2019

digitalscream said:

ICBM said:

Bridgehouse said:

You’ve not tried some of the really good pedals with blend then. If you do a parallel patch on a helix, mixing amp and cab models, and adding some subtle delay between amp and cab (on one track) and messing with balance and global eq etc you can create some truly impressive and quite epic sounding bass patches.

No, but it's hearing the clean sound that I don't like, so I can't see why it would make any difference.

It's the same problem as I have with solid-state overdrive for guitar - there's usually a distortion which sits on top of and separately from an underlying clean sound, and just sounds like something broken. Maybe I'm overly sensitive to this because I'm a repairer .

I *think* the reason I like the Rick stereo sound is that it doesn't sound like that, it sounds like two different instruments playing perfectly in unison, because the pickup signals are different.

See...that's the thing - in my opinion, with the blend set right you shouldn't be able to hear the dry bass sound as a distinct entity...the only reason you want it is to give more oomph to the distorted/effected sound, so if you can hear its attack then it's set too high or you need EQ on there to bring out the bits you want.

Then again, I'm a guitarist so I don't actually want to hear the bass at all

If you’re anything like the majority of guitarists you won’t be able to hear the bass anyway

martin8708 · January 2019

The main function of the bass player is to serve the song , ie , make the band sound as good as he can . If he is just producing an inaudible / messy sound maybe he's not that good a bass player.

It's a touchy subject , telling another musician to change his sound or tone , Basschat is full of threads complaining about guitarists tone/ volume.

ICBM · January 2019

digitalscream said:

See...that's the thing - in my opinion, with the blend set right you shouldn't be able to hear the dry bass sound as a distinct entity...the only reason you want it is to give more oomph to the distorted/effected sound, so if you can hear its attack then it's set too high or you need EQ on there to bring out the bits you want.

I always feel that you can hear the clean separately, and it annoys me. Which is why a dirt pedal with EQ works well - with separate bass and treble controls you can boost the bottom-end and add a little attack without losing the pure dirty sound.

Using two completely separate amps for the clean and dirty also sounds good - it's the forcing the two sounds back through the same amp that I can't quite get to work for me.

fretmeister · January 2019

martin8708 said:

The main function of ALL THE PLAYERS is to serve the song , ie , make the band sound as good as he can . If he is just producing an inaudible / messy sound maybe he's not that good a bass player.

It's a touchy subject , telling another musician to change his sound or tone , Basschat is full of threads complaining about guitarists tone/ volume.

Fixed that for you

Bridgehouse · January 2019

ICBM said:

digitalscream said:

See...that's the thing - in my opinion, with the blend set right you shouldn't be able to hear the dry bass sound as a distinct entity...the only reason you want it is to give more oomph to the distorted/effected sound, so if you can hear its attack then it's set too high or you need EQ on there to bring out the bits you want.

I always feel that you can hear the clean separately, and it annoys me. Which is why a dirt pedal with EQ works well - with separate bass and treble controls you can boost the bottom-end and add a little attack without losing the pure dirty sound.

Using two completely separate amps for the clean and dirty also sounds good - it's the forcing the two sounds back through the same amp that I can't quite get to work for me.

It sounds quite a lot different if you are using an frfr setup. Nearly all my gigging is preamp/DI onto FOH or frfr then FOH.

Although theres always exceptions, a decent sound man will eq the bass at least reasonably well and I find a blended signal from a preamp will always cut through a lot better than a trad amp setup.

Foster · January 2019

I think the only pedals I have for bass are a compressor and an Octaver. I've only got the one bass (Fender Mexican Jazz) and one crap practice amp (Hartke something or other).

Whenever we recorded bass we sacked off amps and DI'd into the desk using an Art microphone amp

ICBM · January 2019

Bridgehouse said:

It sounds quite a lot different if you are using an frfr setup. Nearly all my gigging is preamp/DI onto FOH or frfr then FOH.

I can believe that - since using two separate amps, each mic'ed and fed through the same PA, seems to work fine.

barnstorm · January 2019

If he sounded like Wimbish with all his pedals, I'd happily become his backing guitarist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f35NVX_PU0

Bowks · January 2019

If your bass player is anything like the rest of us, he's in the honeymoon period with his pedals and it will pass.

I used to have substantial pedalboard when I played bass, but found I'd only use them either when the song dictated or every now and then to add to a part.

I did always have a dry, clean sound running at all times.

Jalapeno · January 2019

Also, occassionally it limits what myself and the others can do because we're trying to hold the song together.

If the bassist forgets that this in the role of the bass - time to find another bassist

joetele · January 2019

Grocer_Jack said:

Eggman said:

Grocer_Jack said:

Use sparingly. Our bass player uses fuzz very sparingly and he's aiming for that McCartney type Rubber Soul fuzz so it's pretty tasteful.

That's exactly the sort of thing I mean. Pedals are fine if some thought goes into it, rather than "I'm gonna turn on all twelve effects!!!"

Same for guitarists though. Keep it simple!

I utterly refuse to keep it simple.

MatthewShreddery · January 2019

fretmeister said:

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?

I
To my ears, and playing the kind of music I play, bass just sounds better without (or very limited use of) fx pedals.
However, there is of course a time and a place for tasteful use of effects. I do quite like a bit of drive or an octaver.

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