Any "no effects"/"effects challenged" types lurking here?

[ajish4]

I'm in the "challenged" group for SURE....I'm not only a MEMBER, I'm the...........well, you youngins will not remember that commercial!

My bass, an amp, a cord and SOMETIMES, a Sansamp DI box.

I don't have the patience to mess around with knobs and dials.

[longhouse]

More and more I use less and less.

I think back to gigs when I had as many as 9 pedals lined up on the floor. Seems anathema to me now. For electric gigs I like to have a compressor, my Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive (the most amazing Ric-friendly OD ever?), and a BBE Boosta Grande.

Acoustic gigs I like to use my Aphex acoustic exciter and the BBE Boosta Grande.

Most of us are playing Rickenbacker guitars and basses through very nice amplifiers. That's a combination which doesn't need much dressing up!

So I avoid the potential volume disparities, cable failures, and unneeded set-up/tear-down time and keep it simple.

Bass = Aphex Punch Factory only! I've even begun leaving the digital tuner out of the set-up lately too (I just turn down and use a peghead clip-on).

[thedanielwilliams]

That said, I do like to play around with effects at home every once in awhile, but only in a novelty sort of way. Gigs are strictly no-pedal affairs.... pedals = problems and more setup, from my experience.

That's been my rationale for years. I hate introducing additional variables--as soon as I rely on some pedal or another, it breaks. I also hate bringing around a bunch of extra cables (all of which can break) and batteries.

Moreover, I've never liked the idea of using some particularly cool, distinct effect on a song, like step mode on a newer Boss phaser, because the pedal's timbre often seems to usurp the notes I'm playing as the source of the song's identity... It becomes, like, "the phaser song", and then using the effect in another song makes it seem like that particular sound is a gimmick. And why bring and maintain a pedal that will only see use in one song?

With that said, I love building effects pedals, and have amassed a pretty decent collection for someone who doesn't use them live.

[jps]

For guitar I use the reverb and tremolo on my Princeton Reverb amp and occasionally, a Digitech Hardwire SC-2 Valve Distortion pedal. For bass I have used many different pedals from fuzz to wah to compressors to tremolo and various distortion pedals. I recently added a Universal Audio LA-610 Mk II which has supplanted a VT Bass and Aphex Punch Factory; it was a tough call though as that combination of pedals sound extremely close to the UA preamp, I just had GAS for the UA. So now I use the LA-61 as a front end into my Markbass F1.

[cassius987]

Some good comments in this thread. If I've come to any conclusion it's that I really benefit from the tiniest dab of compression... and I have been gigging "effects-less" for several years. So it's taken a lot for me to finally warm up to, well, anything.

[FretlessOnly]

The way I see it, compression and EQ are not really "effects." Compression is used on bass to smooth hot spots and to bring a bit of balance to your playing, be it from the bass or the way you attack the strings. EQ is generally more to suit the dynamics of a particular room. So both compression and EQ are used more to modestly shape your sound rather than to outright funk, space or thrash it up. I've only ever used rack-mounted units for these two processes - I've had an Alesis 3630 since about 1990 and I had a 16-band Alesis EQ that lasted about 10 years until some jerk apparently stripped a bunch of the sliders while I wasn't watching at a gig. SInce then, I've done away with EQ units and just use my GK active EQ. The 3630 is still going strong after 20 years at about 4:1 compression, quick attack and moderate release, although the master side is dead and I'm now using the other side (it's a stereo or dual mono unit).

Chorus; sure that's an effect, and to me, the most fundamental one for playing fretless - I don't use it on my fretted 4003. I've had a Boss Bass chorus since about 1991 (I used it with guitar before I switched to fretless electric in the late 90s) and that one is still going strong also. I use that in conjunction with a Boss Digital Delay/Pitch shifter (the pitch shifter is junk, but the delay is good albeit a bit noisy), an eRockson phaser (which I only use if I turn the chorus off) and a Sansamp VT Bass which serves many purposes (thanks, Joshua).

I also have a fOXX fuzz/wah/volume which is a modern reissue of the pedal John Wetton used in '72-'74 King Crimson, but the switch wah/volume toggle broke and the only replacement available is a cheap piece of junk that renders the wah subject to on/off far too easily. But the fuzz/wah on that thing will dissolve your teeth.

[Jimmy-Jim-Jim]

I had a practice session in late 80s with someone at college. I was 17, he was a couple of years older, he liked things like Killing Joke and Echo and the Bunnymen, and he wore a black jacket over black jeans. Anyway, on an old Yamaha SG with and an older Marshall valve 50 (very prone to cutting out), I smashed out Live Wire to my complete satisfaction. This guy had an entire bank of shining metallic finish pedals - delay, chorus, reverb, distortion, and many others, and he played a couple of notes (it might have been on a Rickenbacker) and it sounded like a ****** symphony. The worst thing is that this guy had no idea that all those pedals were a compensation for a complete lack of musical talent. Things have only got worse with people in their bedrooms with their modelling things: guitar, lead, amp, that’s it (and no overdubs either). I could be described as 'effects challenged', but I prefer to call it normality.

[longhouse]

Ah, modeling...

I was once in a 10-piece band which did huge corporate gigs. After I left (not wanting to play cover after cover) they brought in a couple guys to replace me. The new guy lead player had a deluxe Les Paul and a top shelf Stratocaster; he played through a Peavey 5150 half stack and a Marshall combo.

And his tone SUCKED.

Why?

Cos he ran his guitars through a little digital Zoom 'does everything' box that sucked every bit of vibe and life out of his tone.

When asked to play one last show, I arrived up with an acoustic guitar, a few Rickenbackers, and a Roland JC120. He was dazzled at the clear, distinct sound. "How do you get that tone?"

Uh, Ric + compressor + occasional OD + amp = great, articulate, clear TONE.

[woodyng]

i was definitely challenged when i tried a digitech multi efx pedal,and found 2 many similar sounds in 100's of different settings-i mostly like the sound of my basses unaffected,but i am jonesing to try out a tube/od/fuzz type pedal,as i really like the creamy tone felix pappalardi used to get - and am really quite curious about the new markbass pedals,since i love their amps so much...i do have an art phat boy multi efx that is nice sounding,but i mostly just use it to run my mono basses into 2 amps. my favorite single effect pedal in the past was my mutron,but i rarely used it over the years so i sold it.

[cassius987]

I got the Aphex Punch Factory from Jeff... what a great compressor! Truly expletive worthy, but I'll abide by the rules and refrain. It's like Goldilocks said, "Just right." Thanks Jeff!

[jps]

I am glad you find it just the perfect unit as I and John Allgaier do.

[johnallg]

Glad you like it Josh. What I like is the price/performance. It is almost tonally neutral and the switch is true bypass. I have my amp input level set, put the box in with it out of circuit, hear the level, then put it on and set the volume to match. The Drive is the amount of compression you want. It affects the output volume some so once you dial the compression amount, set the volume as above. Enjoy.

Hmmm, I see its gone up, or I got it on sale. I paid $99 at MF, where it is now $149.

[jps]

I paid $ 139 IIRC, so $99 would have been great for a new one back then, as I got mine before you did, John.

[fireglo67]

I have a few different effect pedals on my board these days.
I would guess I could still get through a whole gig with just a Rickenbacker 6 string, a Vox AC30 and a Janglebox, but.....to try and keep things interesting I've introduced a few effect pedals.
Quite a few pedals have come and been sent on their way. Most sound interesting in their own right, but if they 'colour' my tone too much, they don't stick around.
At the end of the day I love the 'Rickenbacker sound' (whatever that is, but you know it when you hear it), and it always has to be there whenever, and whatever we play.

I recently purchased an Electro Harmonix Micro Pog pedal, which is basically a polyphonic octave generator.
It sounded fine when just used with a Ric and amp, but once on my pedal board it was awful. No matter where I placed the thing it just sucked my tone to death, so it was sent on it's merry way. In it's place I bought the Electro Harmonix Worm pedal, now this little thing is wonderful. You have analog Wah, Phase, Tremelo and Vibrato in one pedal, with true bypass, and it sounds brilliant, especially with my Janglebox.

There are some pedals, cheap and very expensive, that completely suck your tone, so you've really just got to try them and see, but I don't think you should be scared of trying something a little bit different, you might just like what you find.

[cassius987]

Hmmm, I see its gone up, or I got it on sale. I paid $99 at MF, where it is now $149.

The word on the street is that some components have been changed lately, but this is just some TalkBass chatter I overheard. Who knows.

I really do like it... I just need to find a good "Drive" setting, I think diming it is probably quite excessive but I haven't settled on whether to lead "conservative" or "liberal" with the final setting. Probably conservative--but gosh it sounds so nice sometimes when the compressor is really kicking in and attenuating my loud-as-heck E string so that the G can get a word in edgewise.