Good pedals to start with?

[cool-beans]

I'm thinking of enhancing my tone currently and was wondering if having pedals would help with that.

My ideal tone is one that's smooth, warm, fat and vintagey. Something like what Pino Palladino or John Deacon have.

Do u guys have good recommendations? I currently play a fender Mia p standard btw

 

[lordie]

BDDI, VT Bass, Tonehammer, u can't go wrong with those.

 

[cool-beans]

Thanks, but aren't those all outboard preamps? I'm not sure if I need one of those as I already play through a genz benz shuttle 6.0 and it comes with quite a decent eq..

 

[b33r]

think of them more as amp modellers and tone shapers. something that the eq alone on an amp cannot do is completely change tone.

since you're looking for a Pino-ish tone, i see you're already using a P-bass, have you tried using flatwounds?

as for smooth, warm, fat and vintagey, i'd say the Cbread SFT or the VT Bass if you want more versatility.

 

[Morlock]

you can also get EBS Microbass 2 and an EBS Multicomp and MXR Bass Octave Deluxe. Ive been dying to get my hands on them they are quite pricey though

 

[Z3r0_G]

correct me if i'm wrong but i believe the GB shuttle gives a really great crisp modern tone right? that amp may not work for your style. give it to me! =p

but yea. the vt bass is a great piece of gear. sounds like what you need to get a nice warm svt-ish tone.

 

[cool-beans]

Haha! With some tinkering I can get a warm vintage tone.. It has a tube pre-amp afterall!

I'll check out all these tone shapers you guys mentioned, thanks. How about stuff like chorus, compressors and octavers?

 

[shinobi]

'tone shaper' sounds gay. i will refer to them as preamp (pedals)

you got to understand how preamps evolved to what they are today. preamps were created out of necessity of the bassists who DI. when you DI the preamp pedal puts some tonal control back into your hands.

so i dont think preamp or eq are the best effects to start off with. mainly because they are not EFFECTS per se. they are just parts of your rig condensed into a pedal. youre not really gonna switch them on and off during a song. and when you're starting i dont think you can really appreciate the difference in tone between a markbass and an ampeg so forget it.

no point creating the perfect tone on your 10" practice amp at home anyway. when you bring that tone out to a big gig everything will sound like mud. like someone touched on, if u are gonna experiment with preamps u might as well experiment with rigs.

i dont think OD or distortion are good starting points either. they can compress the crap out of your tone if you dont know exactly what youre doing. and i mentioned the word 'compress' but lets not even go there for now.

now the golden question; what's good to START with... and you got to ask yourself, start WHAT. the answer to which is...

EXPERIMENTATION \m/

so on that note i would say FUZZ, CHORUS or ENVELOPE FILTER. depending on the kind of music you play - they can have very different applications.

 

[shinobi]

I'll check out all these tone shapers you guys mentioned, thanks. How about stuff like chorus, compressors and octavers?

octaver also can... also possible... but im biased because i have never really gotten an analogue octave sound to really work for me, but it is an interesting effect nonetheless

 

[cool-beans]

Hm, I think I do have a decent rig. Currently using a Genz Benz Shuttle 6.0+12T combo. It's an overkill for practice, but offers me enough headroom for gigs.

I checked out some clips on Youtube, and it seems like Catalinbread's SFT can really nail the warm, fat and smooth tone that I'm looking for. At the same time, it offers the versatility to switch to a more growly Jack Bruce kind of tone.

 

[lordie]

your rig is too small. send the shuttle to me ;p or grab a 4x10 cab ;p.

why not a grab a Line6 M9 to start off and than add analog fuzz, od, etc. of yer preferences. the modulation on the M9 and others are really good.

 

[drumandbass]

I started off like you. Wanting to try and own different effect pedals. But after much experimentation and money spent on pedals, i realised i only needed one or two to back what i play.

And those are the VT bass preamp and the Markbass Compressore. Although i really need a reverb badly.

It's really about experimenting and seeing how your effects suit the songs you play. Unless of cause you do a lot of experimental stuff than the host of effects would really help.