Bass Pedals

[jdogric12]

I'll bet it will take Dave Pascoe about three seconds to discover this thread.

So my co-writer in the band and I are starting to rehearse our second album...

...(backstory) We wrote and recorded two albums, got a band together, are almost done teaching them the first album...

...(back to our story) and we realized we need a ton of gear and maybe even a sixth person to pull it off. This would discourage many musicians, but not It Rhymes With Orange. Welcoming the challenge, we gathered the minimum amount of gear needed for the two of us to play our parts. They are as follows:

Me:
RIC 380L PZ
RIC 360/12v64
Ric-O-Sound box
Line 6 DM4 Delay unit
Boss Distortion pedal (the cheap orange one - of course)
Jangle Box
Morley A/B switch
Roland JC 120 amp
Fender Princeton Chorus (will switch for the Cyber Twin outside the house)
Crumar CPB-1 bass pedals
Hartke bass practice amp (for home practice only)
Stompbox switches for both guitar amps
Capo

Matt:
Schecter electric guitar (a nice one)
Chandler elec lap steel
Vox Pathfinder amp
A big damn sampler machine
A big Fender tube amp... a Deville maybe?
Capo
Several stompboxes

Shared gear:
Roland synth with lots of funky knobs
Alesis synth with slightly less funky buttons

In addition to this, we have a set drummer, a latin percussion dude, and a bass playing friend in the band. We may need a 'utility' man to play guitar and keyboard. Hopefully not though. It's hard enough to get 5 people together with day jobs and all.

So we played the first four songs (it's a prog concept album) and I am having a hard time (as I always have) balancing my body while maneuvering the bass pedals and singing.

Would it help if I had shoes on? Being that it's Florida and all I just feel wrong wearing shoes in the house, but I might give them a try if it will help.

Everyone is hereby encouraged to share any and all bass pedals-related advice and/or stories. Cheers, JD

[sloop_john_b]

Have you tried sitting down for those particular songs? I would think that would make it much easier.

[leftybass]

I've used bass pedals for 20 years, JDog.

I've always been in a band that does stuff like Rush/Genesis/Police et.al., and I can say I've never had a problem with balance, save for the rare occassion that you just find yourself in the wrong position.

Most of the time there has been only 3 people in the band too, and I can say that the ends do justify the means; we always had people say that the band always sounded like way more than 3 people.

Currently I have a Roland PK-5 controller that I use with a Korg MS 2000 and a Roland JV-1010, gobs of sound choices for all the classic stuff.

[jdogric12]

Sitting down just doesn't look impressive enough to me. I know a church organist who wears special sock-shoes made for the pedals on a big church organ, but I don't think that will help me.

JS - I didn't know that. Thought you were more of a folk-rock kind of guy for some reason. What kind of bass pedal sounds are you getting with those modules? and how old are they? still available new?

Thanks guys! This is neat!

[leftybass]

Sitting down just doesn't look impressive enough to me. I know a church organist who wears special sock-shoes made for the pedals on a big church organ, but I don't think that will help me.

JS - I didn't know that. Thought you were more of a folk-rock kind of guy for some reason. What kind of bass pedal sounds are you getting with those modules? and how old are they? still available new?

Thanks guys! This is neat!

Ha, no folkie here. I guess that record I did with Bob Amos stereotyped me, LOL... ROCKER through and through, although I like to consider myself 'well-rounded'.....

The stuff I have now can be had off of ebay if not new, just check around.

The PK-5 Roland pedals are merely a transmitter for getting sounds out of either the Roland JV-1010 module or the MS-2000, which is basically Korg's digital version of a Mini-Moog.....so I can get all the Rush-y string sounds and the classic Moog stuff, more or less anything I want as long as I have the gear to hook up to it. MIDI is good. I have had lots of practice at this..

[dswp]

For the record it took 4 seconds.

[rickenbrother]

For the record it took 4 seconds.

Slow poke!

[ajish4]

As Rocky once said....

"I never use 'em"....

But, here is a little set up that belongs to a very good friend of mine in NY...

I'd love to start to mess around with pedals, but the play space I have at church, I'm lucky enough to have room for my feet!

[jdogric12]

Cool!!!!!

[jdogric12]

Tony, what kind of bass pedal set is that?

[ajish4]

He's told me once or twice, but as usual, I forgot. I'll send him an email and find out for you.

[jdogric12]

Word! Thanks tone man.

[ajish4]

Word! Thanks tone man.

Better Late than never Jdog!

HERE YOU GO!

"I use a BOSS ME50B which is loaded with effects.
I also use a rack mount Alesis Midiverb (or something like that) which is controlled by a Ground Controller midi switching unit.
And then there is the Roland bass pedals that control an A STATION rack mount synthesizer."

[jdogric12]

Wow! Thanks Tony!