Whatcha like to use for bass effects? Me, it's a Fuzz Face, Vox Wah Wah, Vox Distortion Booster (the kind that plugs into the output jack on the bass), and an MXR Phase 90.
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Bass Effects
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 jbmojo |
Bass Effects |
Lead | |
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Posts: 469 (11/07/09 09:34) |
Ninty-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.
Last Edited By: jbmojo 11/07/09 09:37.
Edited 1 time.
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SG123 |
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Posts: 8467 (11/07/09 16:41) |
No bass effects for me, but I accept and respect your use of them.
So many
frequencies, so little time...
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StoSoStu |
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Posts: 682 (11/07/09 19:48) South of the Border..way South! |
Bass guitar > lead > amp, for me.
Bob
The road goes on forever and the party never ends |
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jbmojo |
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Posts: 470 (11/07/09 21:30) |
I really don't use them much anymore, myself, these days it's mainly just the Jazz Bass, cord, amp & speakers. I was just curious to see what
others think. Most of the guys here seem to be guitar pickers so I posted something that was all bass (and don't start that fish shit again).
Ninty-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.
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Andy ZZ |
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Posts: 2611 (11/08/09 00:49) |
I've heard some pretty nice sounding Chorus units for Bass.
They only apply the effect to the upper-mid and above frequencies, so the bottom end doesn't drop out. I also like a bit of compression, especially for Jazz and Funk. -andy=-
It aint the years, it's the mileage...
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Andy ZZ |
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Posts: 2612 (11/08/09 00:50) |
Fish shit?
I can tune a Bass, but I cant tuna fish... :ha
It aint the years, it's the mileage...
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StoSoStu |
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Posts: 684 (11/08/09 05:35) South of the Border..way South! |
As long as you don't start calling it a base, which is the thing at the bottom of a mic stand, or the cushion at the corners of a baseball diamond.
As far as bass playing goes, I'm very old school and getting older school the older I get. I started playing with a pick and did that for all of my rock and roll days and still use one if I feel the need, but my main tone now is fingers with lots of bottom end, I don't feel the need to take the lead I just like to lay a solid foundation along with the drummer.
Bob
The road goes on forever and the party never ends |
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SG123 |
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Posts: 8468 (11/08/09 07:04) |
If I ever were to use an effect on bass, it would be a compressor like Andy mentioned. Judiciously - for some sustain on slower songs. [ or I'd
just use my G&L L-1000 which seems to sustain forever
 ]
Use of a compressor is pretty much a given for studio recordings. I wasn't thinking of it as an effect for live work, but it really is. Bob, I was a guitarist ( and I use that term loosely ) first, then a bass plunker later. My use of a pick on the bass came from that - plus I was using borderline amplification and a pick was louder. There's also technique involved with using the fingers that develops over time. I'm also a "mostly fingers and sometimes pick" bass player now as well.
So many
frequencies, so little time...
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jbmojo |
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Posts: 473 (11/08/09 08:46) |
I never thought about using a compressor but as most of my playing is Jazz, Funk, R&B, & blues, I'm gonna try it and see.
Now for sustain, my FJB can sustain all day long with those undersea cables I have on it and I rarely, if ever, use a pick unless it's for something that has a lot of rolling on one note (which a guitar player I work with on occasion seems to be in love with to keep the bass from stealing his thunder). Sometimes for live work, doing copy stuff, a fuzz comes in handy during the lead guitar solos. 
Ninty-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.
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DB Electronics |
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Posts: 361 (11/08/09 11:03) |
My son has a Roland multi effects pedal for bass. I've played around with it enough to know that the chance of randomly finding a useable sound is almost zero. The chorus, as Andy said is the only one I would ever use. I don't want it bad enough to bother about hooking it up. A long time ago I experimented with a morley pedal. I burned up two JBL 15" speakers on different occasions and finally blamed it on the Morley. Haven't lost a speaker since dropping the effects. Now the only effect I use is Fingernails that I use or not by adjusting the angle of my fingers. That, combined with moving my right hand between the neck and bridge, and the controls on the bass gives me enough variation. After all. Im only the bass player |
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SG123 |
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Posts: 8470 (11/08/09 15:14) |
I get free copies of EQ magazine in the mail [ nothing like the original EQ from years back, which was a bit like Recording Engineer / Producer ] and there was
a sidebar about some vintage distortion effect that one of the groups were using to record that was a speaker killer.
So many
frequencies, so little time...
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StoSoStu |
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Posts: 686 (11/08/09 18:10) South of the Border..way South! |
The problem that usually causes speaker damage from effects is the increase in the average power through the speaker. A pure sine wage has an average power of
about 0.7, whereas as it approaches a square wave (overdrive and distortion) the average power can go up to 0.9 or 0.95. As guitar speakers are often use at or
slightly above their rated specs, so as to get some speaker growl, this increase can cause failures.
Bob
The road goes on forever and the party never ends |
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Andy ZZ |
Compressor | ||
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Posts: 2613 (11/08/09 20:06) |
If you bassists haven't tried a compressor for bass, you are in for a treat. But like SG mentioned, judiciously.
Here's what I like about live Bass compression: 1) Attack. You can make it punchier, and more even. Perfect for funk. 2) Amplitude averaging. Especially for Jazz, it makes your lines smoother and sound more connected. Slightly more legato. 3) Limiting. Every once in a while, I hit a bit too hard. This eliminates the ka-pow. Here's what I dont like: 1) Noise. Compressors will beef up any hum or buzz that your axe will pick up. Single-coils are particularly sensitive. 2) Too easy to use too much. You really have to stay subtle or you start sounding flat and lifeless. 3) The extra sustain can make you sound like a synth instead of a stringed instrument. As long as you are careful, compression is great on Bass! -az-
It aint the years, it's the mileage...
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jbmojo |
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Posts: 476 (11/09/09 08:57) |
A pair of Seymore-Duncan humbuckers got rid of the hum on my Jazz Bass and didn't seem to to change the sound too much.
The stock Jazz bass also has a flat spot on the G string at about the 4th or 5th fret. Leo Fender said it can be moved around to a spot that you don't visit often by adding weight to the head or body but that you can't move it all the way off the fretboard. I think he was with G&L (early 80's) when he told me about it. He also said that they resolved the problem by using a split pickup, ala Precision, and a change in placement on their G&L version. Fender (the company) made a P-J & a Special version of the Jazz using a Precision neck pickup which, from my understanding, took care of that problem also. Ninty-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.
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jbltwin1 |
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Posts: 265 (11/09/09 09:21) |
When I HAVE to play bass(not a bad thing, just don't get to do it very often anymore, other than recording) I use my Hartke head that has a compressor
built in. Like you said, just a touch seems to take a little bite off and rounds out the signal. Not a scientific description but one from a knot head that
know what he likes.
You want me to play WHERE?
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jbmojo |
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Posts: 479 (11/10/09 00:29) |
I wonder what Psycho Bass Guy's opinions are on this subject?
Ninty-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.
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Andy ZZ |
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Posts: 2619 (11/10/09 11:37) |
I'd like to hear his thoughts as well. He's always got the lowdown.
Hey, a pun! Sorta.... -andy-
It aint the years, it's the mileage...
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SG123 |
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Posts: 8477 (11/10/09 19:30) |
I'd place a small wager his most important effect is a big azz speaker cable.
So many
frequencies, so little time...
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StoSoStu |
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Posts: 690 (11/10/09 20:48) South of the Border..way South! |
Connecting a big azz amp to a big azz speaker or two, or three..................
Bob
The road goes on forever and the party never ends |
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jbmojo |
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Posts: 482 (11/11/09 07:47) |
It works for me.
Ninty-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.
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Psycho Bass Guy |
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Posts: 345 (11/12/09 12:31) |
jbmojo wrote: SG123 wrote: StoSoStu wrote: You guys are psychic! 
I only have two pedals, a Trace Elliot SMX compressor, a split band compressor/EQ combo, and a Russian EHX Bassballs, which is an envelope filter of sorts. Whenever I use the SMX, it's mainly for two things, as a preamp for its excellent "EQ balance" knob, which is an active slope EQ filter pre-compression, and some compression on the highs/mids to bring them out a bit, but keep them from taking over with it just barely on on the bass side, so that infrasonics don't eat my speakers. It works best, oddly enough, with my Trace Elliot tube power amps, which can be a bit sterile and weak sounding without a good preamp in front of them. My Aguilar DB728 doesn't need it. It also doesn't really work well in front of amps with already good sounding preamps. If they don't do what I like, messing around in the preamp circuit does better than adding the SMX. The Bassballs... is a toy. Even after I took the thing apart and cured its awful noise problems by actually grounding the damn thing, I found its filter sweep too limited and weirdly, tempo-based, which is probably due to some sort of oscillation, or more likely, part of the design that I don't care enough about to look for and fix (probably the period of the filter sweep, now that I think about it). If you have a funk song that meets that tempo, it's OK I guess, but unless you kick in the "distortion" circuit, which is really just a really dirty make-up gain boost, say good bye to all the low-end. I could make it work if I wanted to, but it's really just a one-trick pony, a trick I never need. If I ever had need of a GOOD bass wah. Charlie Stringer's Bawl Buster and Bootsy signature wah pedals are the best I've found by far. IIRC the Bootsy sig is basically just a re-badged Bawl Buster, which is discontinued. I actually made my wife physically ill from the sound of a fretless Fender Performer Bass through a Bawl Buster- it's THAT hardcore. I'm no fan of bass chrous because it's so easy to screw up. I have a friend who is a Stick and bass player with an insane rig with TWO TC Electronic rack processors and ton of other shit just to have a decent chorus. If I want jangle, I'll play my 12 string Waterstone and live with the carpal tunnel. If I'm carrying 100 lbs of shit for an amp, it's going to be 80lbs of transformer iron. As far a general compression for bass, consistent players with good tone and a good band don't need it as an effect to punch through, and I actually use much more for whole mixes( EAT IT drums!) than for bass alone from the PA/recording perspective. I don't use distortion because I get mine the old fashioned way: I work for it. ... but seriously, I DO like the distortion channels of both my Peavey Classic 400 and my Fender M80 preamp for different texture sometimes. I like my tone to be thick and punchy and bass-heavy with just enough mids and highs so that notes have mix definition, and I've found the best way to get that is to run a tube bass amp right on the edge and play to its dynamics. It's funny; I've got what seems like a bazillion tube bass amps of all ilks, and I do my damnedest to make them all sound alike! Oh, yeah and SG's right. ALL my bass speaker cables are homemade 10 awg solid core romex. I can tell instantly playing if they're not there; screws up the amp's feel.
"I'm the fly in the ointment, the monkey in the wrench, the pain in your ass."
Psycho >^}
Last Edited By: Psycho Bass Guy
11/12/09 13:27.
Edited 4 times.
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- The Break Room
- Fender Amps
- Tech Bench
- Tubes
- Speakers
- The Instrument Room
- Mesa Amps
- Marshall Amps
- Small Amps
- Boutique Amps
- For Sale
- Other Major Amp Brands
- Introduce Yourself
- Solid State Amps
- Effects
- Other British Amps
- Sound Reinforcement
- Recording
- Important Announcements
- Hammond Organs & Leslie Cabinets
- Shameless Promotion
- The Boiler Room
