Hey gang- anybody is free to comment here, as to what effects seem to be the best for bass, and specifically if you play bass, what do you use.
I have a Line6 Bass Pod, really love it, has lots of versatility, but I don't get much opportunity to use some of the effects. It has plenty, from the old Bootsy Mutron (up or down), a bass synth ( which is a little cheesy), a variety of "drivers" for an overdriven sound, pigfoot, (distortion) a fuzz of sorts, a "bassballs" type of booster/driver, an octaver, a flanger, and two different chorus patches. Also compression you can dial in. Lots of possibilities. Plus you can adjust all of the above for intensity but not always volume. And it has 10 or so "amp models" that emulate the sound of say a Fender Bassman with a 4x10 cabinet- those I use a lot, switching from a Gallien Kreuger to a Mesa Boogie etc.
What I find myself using most, is a light chorus, and a flanger occasionally. Once in a while, I'll use the octaver, but you have to be careful to stay up on the neck with that, or it's all mud.....although it can be adjusted for where the rolloff occurs.
I was playing today in our "Video Cafe" room, a smaller more youth oriented venue that has the sermon time live via cable (hence the name) but a live band for the music. Mostly "three chord rock" type stuff, nothing too fancy, but rocking.
Today it was drums, me on bass, a lead guitar, and a 12 string acoustic, and 4 singers. On this one tune that starts off acoustic then kabooms into the chorus, I tried to use one of the fuzz patches during warmups, but it was just way too loud- so I reset and used the dial-in overdrive...same effect I guess, but I was disappointed not being able to use the "fuzz" setting.
Wow, this got longer than I intended- Anyway, do you guys like effects, what do you use, what do you know of that works, doesn't, etc.....just trying to broaden the sonic range a bit here, but without going too "grunge" or "metal"..... but a taste of that may be good.
So how do you like your bass flavors?
Later
TY

I basically play it 'straight' but I do use a couple of effects occasionally. I have a Boss Bass Chorus pedal, a Boss Limiter/Enhancer (Compressor) pedal and a Boss Noise Gate pedal. I also have a Zoom 506II electronic pedal I sometimes use for chorus/flange effects and for that 'Bootsy Collins' funk/octave type sound. But I don't pull these out that often. Basically just for jams and the like and never for gigs. I would like to buy one of those Mutron envelope filter pedals like Victa Wooten uses sometimes.

I've fiddled around with them in the past, but I mainly play it straight.

Rob and Dave- thanks. I have noticed a lot of solo bassist (Adam Nitti, Manring, etc) are listed as having a Bass Pod, and other special effects, but I was wondering more about everyday bass players like us; it's not like we get to use that sort of thing much, but even a rhythm guitarist does, to add "atmosphere" and "color" to a song- maybe we should consider it occasionally, just for a sonic "change-up" or something. I like having a light chorus effect when we're doing more ballad-like tunes, and some overdrive on more gutsy stuff, with an occasional flanger. I guess it's more a matter of degrees of intensity when doing it. I used to have a Boss stompbox (need to get that back, I had "loaned" it to somebody, and never saw it again...) that basically was a good electronic tuner, but it had a fuzz setting that was really cool, not over the top, but enough to have fun with. Plus you could combine effects with it, something my Pod won't do, which is a bummer.....time to experiment some more with it I guess. I'm lucky to have a regular gig where I can try out these things once in a while, and enough honest people around me to say "that's cool" or "what the heck was that noise", helps a lot to have feedback.
And no, I'm not a Pod saleman, but next time you're in a music store, check one out. If for no other reason, it's worth the price to me to have so many different amp emulations to choose from- that colors the sound more than any effects boxes. In pursuit of tone........
www.line6.com

http://www.line6.com/BassPODxt/listen.asp

That should take you to a sound samples page.
Later
Tony

Anyway-

I've definitely been intrigued with the POD and would love to try it. I think my soundman - and bandmates for that matter - would make faces at me.

Heck, go for it Rob- I paid about 349 for mine a couple years ago, I think the newer one (the Bass PodXT) is 399 most places, and it appears to be much improved- I need to go have a look, but leave my cash at home
Here's a link Musicians friend pod page

If I were you, I'd find the biggest store nearby, like a Sam Ash, a Mars (if there's any of those left), a Guitar Center, whatever megastore is within driving distance, and go spend some time with it. The folks at Sam Ash are usually pretty nice, and encourage hands on play, which gets a bit noisy at times, but that's part of the fun, showing your chops......
Later- by the way, I still haven't found that slapper's cd- I think it's up in the attic in some boxes I packed up when we were settling in here and cleaning up. I'll take another look this weekend.
Let me know if you get a chance to go test drive a pod, I bet you buy it if you do. Oh, and you gotta get at least the foot switch with the four switches..(60 or less).the "floorboard" they sell is high 250 or so, but it has a wah pedal/volume pedal, and some other cool stuff too.
Later
Tony

Maybe I'll check it out. I have to say though that I bought a lot of equipment last year - pretty much turned over my entire setup - and I am so satisfied with everything that I don't even know how to react. For the first time since I started playing I'm not lusting after some piece of equipment I don't really need.

Right now I have my Stingray 5-string going through a Sansamp RBI pre-amp, a really powerful power amp I'm still embarassed to talk about, all feeding into an Aggie 2X12. Oh yeah, and then there's my Sennheiser digital wireless unit.

The band made enough last year to pay for all of that, but I'm also fortunate enough to have a career that makes all of my band income completely disposable.

Speaking of which, I gotta head to the gig. We had a couple of light months, but now the schedule is picking up.

Rob

I absolutely love bass effects though have had no chance to use them in my own electric playing> I play more string bass these days but I occasionally pick up my Fender Jazz Master electric. I think the best example of bass effects I have listened to woul be Ralphe Armstrong's rampaging solo on Engimatic Ocean on the last track. Also Ralphe sounds like he's on a light overdrive guitar sound with his effects on the album Cosmic Messenger on the track Egocentric Molecules. I think if Electric Violin and Electric Guitar use effects, there's no reason a bass player can't. Heck Stanley Clarke, though I haven't heard him use effects, even plays his customized piccolo basses which are more in the range of a guitar but thickness of bass strings. Kind of an interesting hybrid sound...

Hey BD- I agree.....we bassist should get our turn too, you know? But I don't think it would be during the bulk of the song, just a special shot of it here and there. Although, I did do one tune last week, using the chorus and just a bit of overdrive to dirty it up just a little, it sounded good, and got positive response from me band mateys....always a good thing. But as I said I don't think I'd use much- don't want to wear out a good thing.

Hey, My Brother...

This is my first posting on the forum, but as a "Drummer", you KNOW that we have a "Special Relationship and interest w/Bassist's!" Just wanted to say that I absolutely encourage you to continue to experiment with ALL of the "Toys"... find out what suits you for whatever situation you're in, 'ja-know?(smile)

I'm a Contemporary Gospel, Gospel/Jazz, R&B/Fusion based drummer... and most of the Bass Players that I perform with use very little if anything in the way of "Effects". But I'm personally not against trying to fuse-in new and interesting sounds that will define the music and give it character... know what I mean? For too often, a lot of Guy's will tend to "Stay in the Comfortable Box of the Status-Quo of the times" and not venture out, just to be safe. So GO FOR IT!

In Him...
Web Site -
http://mypeoplepc.com/members/lillianr/charlesmarvraycontemporarydrummer/index.html

[" charlesmarvray@yahoo.com Keep on checking out NEW THINGS! That's a part of GROWING INTO YOUR OWN!"QUOTE]Originally posted by bassix:
Hey gang- anybody is free to comment here, as to what effects seem to be the best for bass, and specifically if you play bass, what do you use.
I have a Line6 Bass Pod, really love it, has lots of versatility, but I don't get much opportunity to use some of the effects. It has plenty, from the old Bootsy Mutron (up or down), a bass synth ( which is a little cheesy), a variety of "drivers" for an overdriven sound, pigfoot, (distortion) a fuzz of sorts, a "bassballs" type of booster/driver, an octaver, a flanger, and two different chorus patches. Also compression you can dial in. Lots of possibilities. Plus you can adjust all of the above for intensity but not always volume. And it has 10 or so "amp models" that emulate the sound of say a Fender Bassman with a 4x10 cabinet- those I use a lot, switching from a Gallien Kreuger to a Mesa Boogie etc.
What I find myself using most, is a light chorus, and a flanger occasionally. Once in a while, I'll use the octaver, but you have to be careful to stay up on the neck with that, or it's all mud.....although it can be adjusted for where the rolloff occurs.
I was playing today in our "Video Cafe" room, a smaller more youth oriented venue that has the sermon time live via cable (hence the name) but a live band for the music. Mostly "three chord rock" type stuff, nothing too fancy, but rocking.
Today it was drums, me on bass, a lead guitar, and a 12 string acoustic, and 4 singers. On this one tune that starts off acoustic then kabooms into the chorus, I tried to use one of the fuzz patches during warmups, but it was just way too loud- so I reset and used the dial-in overdrive...same effect I guess, but I was disappointed not being able to use the "fuzz" setting.
Wow, this got longer than I intended- Anyway, do you guys like effects, what do you use, what do you know of that works, doesn't, etc.....just trying to broaden the sonic range a bit here, but without going too "grunge" or "metal"..... but a taste of that may be good.
So how do you like your bass flavors?
Later
TY[/QUOTE]

Exactly. That's one of the coolest things about Ponty's 70's fusion work. He gets great new sounds like unison electric violin and guitar (thanks to that low 5th string) that just gives me goose bumps. Anways....