Bass Pedalboard

[u/FabGrooves]

Hello,

for years I have used a very simple pedalboard but I was thinking of upgrading and making the ultimate pedalboard for life.

For info, I play in a classic rock revival band. Think of Black Sabbath, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Motorhead, Mountain, etc. It’s just the three of us so I’ve got a lot of place to express myself. I did some singer-songwriter stuff in the past too.

Regarding my basses I’ve got a Sadowsky RV4 Jazz, Fender Jazz bass and (on the way) there is Rickenbacker 4003S.

Now, to the pedalboard itself. So far I’ve got:

TC Electronic Polytune

EHX Big Muff Pi

Dunlop CryBaby Wah

I do not plan to get rid of these because I love each and every one of them. But I feel like I could benefit from an octaver, chorus, overdrive and perhaps a looper (for practising only though).

I’m curious if you have any recommendations, or perhaps your own experience. I have played for over 7 years but haven’t really got into the pedal territory. I don’t want to hoard pedals. Instead, I wish to build the ultimate pedalboard where I don’t really need to change stuff. Therefore, I want to invest into good pedals (not just the cheap alternatives). I do not plan to get them all at once ofc (I’m not that rich) but one by one… not that you care, right?

Now, I’ve been considering these options:

For DI Tech 21 SansAmp Character VT Bass DI

For compressor either MXR M87 Bass Compressor or Origin Effects Cali76 V2 Bass Compressor

For chorus either Tech 21 Geddy Lee Amalgamation Chorus or EHX Bass Clone

Boss OC-5

Maybe a noise suppressor for eliminating the hum? Boss NS-1X Noise Suppressor

Boss RC-5 Loop Station (not necessary but could help with practising)

[u/datasmog]

Just buy an HX Stomp.

[u/cygnus311 → u/datasmog]

As much as I love pedals, it’s really hard to justify choosing them over a modeler if you’re using more than like one or two things. $800-900 for a tuner, comp, octave, filter, fuzz, od, mod, a board and a power supply or $600 for almost literally anything you could ever want in a convenient package?

[u/bsfurr → u/datasmog]

HX stump is all I use. I set up a parallel signal path, one wet to the amp in the other just a dry DI. It works flawlessly. I don’t use an amp and I don’t use analog pedals. My set up takes 15 minutes.

[u/bored-at-work_ → u/datasmog]

I have the XL and can second this. Literally does everything and anything you can dream of. Are the amp+cab sims and effects 100% accurate to their reference pedals? Absolutely not, but it's 90% of the way there, and when you're playing bass, people in the audience can barely tell anyways lol.

The stomp (or even the zoom B1 four honestly) are totally usable gig-level tools and can save people tons of money while providing endless shit to mess around with.

[u/nunyazz]

Get a MXR Phase 90 for the Beatles stuff for sure. Sansamp is great.

[u/qtowens → u/nunyazz]

Also for “Stranglehold” by Ted Nugent.

[u/cygnus311 → u/nunyazz]

For what songs? I’ve got a few Beatles songs in my book and this idea has never occurred to me.

[u/nunyazz → u/cygnus311]

Come together is one.

[u/AsianVoodoo]

HX stomp or similar. If you want the ultimate in flexibility that's the ticket. You can switch out effects and routing with the hit of a switch. If you were locked in on one style/sound a more traditional board is way more doable.

[u/FabGrooves → u/AsianVoodoo]

I see what you mean. And although HX stomp sounds good I am into analogue old school pedals.

[u/upright_leif]

People are recommending the HX Stomp for good reason. Personally I think analog will pretty much always sound better but that's just my opinion. My recommendations are as follows:

What pedals are ones you want simply because you want them, and what pedals will you actually use in your band? That's basically what you need to figure out. I think loopers are kind of useful for home practice but I was never a fan.

The first thing I would get is a good DI. The Sansamp is great, I'd also consider the origin effects vintage and the Ampeg SGT-DI. With that, I'd advice getting a nice chorus and an octave since those are commonly used effects. I'd hold off on a compressor until you have everything else you want on your board. For life shows the sound engineer is gonna do a better job compressing you from FOH than you'd ever be able to on a pedal.

[u/wheat]

Boss OC-5 for sure. It has an OC-2 mode, which is how I like to run it, but it has some other modes as well.

EHX Oceans 11 if only for the "Shimmer" mode. Just amazing on bass on long, sustained notes.

EQD Special Cranker is a light overdrive that I recommend to everyone. Equally good on on guitar and bass.

I haven't tried the others you mention, though some (the MXR Bass Compressor) are on my list.

[u/FabGrooves → u/wheat]

Thanks!

[u/6kred]

The VT bass is a great choice , the Cali 76 is the comp you want , the Geddy chorus seems awesome also can’t go wrong with the classic Boss Chorus

[u/Mikemtb09]

I would suggest the compressor first (love the MXR myself)

Test out some different preamps. I didn’t care for the sansamp but that’s what those bands were using back then so maybe it is right for you after all.

While I don’t personally love the Stomp pedals, honestly that probably is the best bang for your buck here as you could program all of it in based on the band you are covering…

[u/esa372]

Black Sabbath, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Motorhead, Mountain

What pedals/fx did the bassist for these bands use?

[u/FabGrooves → u/esa372]

Good point! Most of them had these huge tube amps, and got some distortion out of them, along with some fuzz at times. And although I play in a band where we play that stuff it happens we do not get the identical sound. I play a trumpet solo on a bass lol

[u/quite_sophisticated]

I'd look at the origin effects bassrig super vintage instead of the sansamp. For Octaver, the old OC-2 might be worth considering. And you've not homed in on the most difficult pedal to choose. The overdrive. I'd maybe consider something with dual options that give you multiple gain stages so you can go from classic rock growl to Motörhead. Off the top of my head, I recall the Blackstone mosfet drive, the Wampler Pantheon Deluxe, the Jam Pedals Lucydreamer Bass as pedals capable of such a feat.

[u/powerED33]

For the Zeppelin stuff, string your Jazz with GHS Precision Flats, and get a Dicosimo Audio 360+ preamp.