Author Topic: Bass Effects pedals (Read 178 times)

jubeas3eyes · « **on:** February 19, 2007, 08:35:22 PM »

Ok gang. Once again (as many times before) I am turning to you to help me out. The guitarist in my band will be leaving (even though he doesn't know it yet....yikes) and I am going to have to take over the solos since the other guitarist has to sing and isn't a great soloist anyway. So basically what I'm asking is if anyone knows any pedals that can produce a distorted guitar sound, but for bass. I've been looking at the Electro Harmonix Bass Micro Synth pedal, but it's a little pricey. I havn't seen any pedals that raise the sound one octave or anything, but If anyone has any ideas to offer or things trade I would really appreciate it. I really don't want to wear a guitar and bass at the same time....that seems hard.
Sean

olieoliver · « **Reply #1 on:** February 20, 2007, 06:32:05 AM »

I just purchased a Line 6 PODXT, and so far I am impressed with it. Very easy to use and priced fair too.

lothartu · « **Reply #2 on:** February 20, 2007, 09:16:35 AM »

As a side note, be VERY careful about using distortion on bass. At low volumes it's not a problem but when you start to crank up your speaker cone begins to travel further and all those added harmonics (which is all distortion is) begin to be VERY taxing on a speaker. Guitar players aren't effected by this problem like we are because the travel distance of their speaker cones is not as far due to higher freq's.

In a nutshell, I blew the hell out of a 4x10 cabinet a long while ago because I decided to add a distortion pedal to my signal chain. The pedal wasn't set louder it's just that when I turned it on I was asking far too much of my poor speakers.

- Jim

bsee · « **Reply #3 on:** February 20, 2007, 10:00:11 AM »

If you really want to do this, you should consider working with a split signal. Send the bass frequencies (or full range signal) clean to your bass rig, but split off the highs and send them through whatever toys you want to play with to a guitar amp.

The advantages here are:

1. Since you're only applying the effects to guitar-range frequencies, regular guitar toys will work just fine.

2. It doesn't take much juice on the guitar side to make this work. Something like a Peavey Classic 30 can sit on top of a 4x10 bass cab and blend in pretty well.

3. The bass fundamentals will still come through clean and strong.

You might also consider a five string with the added string at the top end of the range.

I have the also expensive E-H POG which does a real good job of octave-up processing. It can also create an organ-like tone when that's appropriate.

hieronymous · « **Reply #4 on:** February 20, 2007, 02:18:32 PM »

Do you really need to imitate a guitar or can you be more interpretive? I can understand if you're playing covers that it would be important to sound like the originals. But personally I think it would be more fun to make cool interesting sounds instead of trying to copy sounds.

Octavia-style distortion effects can produce the octave above, but it's a subtle effect and tends to only work in the upper registers of the neck. Think Band of Gypsies-era Jimi Hendrix. I've got the Black Cat Octave Bass Distortion and it's quirky. I don't think I would recommend it for what you want to do.

I haven't used one, but the E-H POG might be the way to go.

(Message edited by hieronymous on February 20, 2007)

jubeas3eyes · « **Reply #5 on:** February 20, 2007, 04:40:19 PM »

Bsee- This sounds like a very interesting Idea. How would I go about doing this? I wish I could afford a POG right now, but it seems a bit out of my budget.

hieronymous- I originally was thinking that I just wanted it to be very guitar like, but basically all I want is for it to cut through and come out like a solo. The problem with being a bit crazy with the sound is that it's a pretty straightforward rock band so as much as I want to go completely crazy with my parts I have to hold backa little.

Thanks for the sugestions guys, keep em coming.

bsee · « **Reply #6 on:** February 20, 2007, 05:42:58 PM »

If money is an issue for you and you don't have the gear, then you're probably not going to go out and buy a guitar rig.

As far as how to do it, you would have to look at your rig to see if you already have any crossover or other output that would help you split the signal. If you don't then you would have to look into crossover or effects loop pedals to split the signal. Absent an actual crossover, an EQ pedal with all of the bottom cut could give you the right signal for the guitar side.

hieronymous · « **Reply #7 on:** February 24, 2007, 10:13:40 PM »

Did you come up with anything? Occasionally when I'm driving or something I think about it. A distortion pedal might do it - I like the Fulltone Bass Drive - it sounds great, and gives you two levels of distortion. They aren't cheap though!

But then I start to think, maybe a multi-effects unit would be better - doesn't have to be super-fancy, but you could have access to a lot more sounds for variety, like flanger, distortion, delay (ideally - for example, I don't think the Bass POD has any), etc. But I'm not a multi-effects kind of guy, so I can't really help much there...