Pedals can transform the way you play bass guitar. From focusing your sound for country tunes to adding funky movement, they offer bassists an entire palette of color to work with.
For example, if you want to emulate Jack White’s octave drop on Seven Nation Army, then a pedal like the TC Electronic SpectraComp would be ideal.
1. Aguilar Octamizer V2
The Aguilar Octamizer V2 has been a bass pedal staple since it hit the market in 2009. It provides octave effects that are rich and organic while remaining intuitive to use. It’s also built to stand up to the rigours of the road. If you want a classic analogue octave effect that can do anything from funk to prog metal, this is the one for you.
The separate mix knobs allow you to adjust the level of the octave and clean signal, giving you control over how much of the effect is in play. This makes the Octamizer an ideal choice for bassists who find modern digital octave pedals a little too clean and proper for their liking.
Other features that set this pedal apart from the competition include a compressor and three-band EQ. The EQ lets you compensate for overdrive in the lows and scoop the mids to give your bass a sharper tone that can cut through a mix. The compressor is a nice touch as well, as it allows you to dial in just the right amount of compression for your sound without overdoing it.
Besides all that, the Aguilar Octamizer has an excellent build quality and a single foot switch that toggles the pedal on/off. It runs on a standard 9V battery and has a 2.1mm external power input socket.
A lot of bassists like to add a little distortion and overdrive to their sound. This gives their tone a gritty edge that helps it cut through a mix and makes for a more distinctive, heavy sound. The Downtown Express bass multi-effects pedal from Fender offers a few extra features to set it apart from other bass effects pedals. First, it comes with an overdrive section that can be placed before or after the three-band EQ, depending on your preference.
The pedal also includes a TonePrint feature, which allows you to download presets for different artists from TC Electronic’s high-end System 6000 compression pedals. There are hundreds of TonePrints available, so you’re sure to find a perfect match for your bass guitar and playing style.
2. Orange Bass Butler
Forget amp-in-a-box pedals – the Bass Butler is an entire vanload of gear in a small pedal. Splitting your signal at the input, it delivers two completely separate parallel analogue signal chains just like a proper bi-amp rig, only with no amp in sight.
The always-on clean channel offers premium Orange tonality with an expansive vintage-voice that enhances both single-coils and humbuckers, while the footswitch-activated overdrive channel gives you everything from a modest boost through to full-on Britpop roar. Combined with a master volume, 3-band EQ and four-stage gain, this provides everything you need to take your tone up to the next level.
Both channels have a dedicated balanced XLR DI output with guitar cabinet-simulated cab simulation for recording, along with a mix-in jack to feed your time-based effects into the distortion ratio. An expression pedal input jack lets you control the amount of input gain on the dirty channel for even more versatility.
Orange Amplification has crammed everything you need for a complete bass rig into one easy-to-use pedal, all with their usual high standards. Housed in a rock-solid, steel enclosure with 18V DC power for high headroom, the Bass Butler is ready for the road and built to last. Plus, it’s super-light for pedalboard use and forward angled for easier switching and knob/switch access during floor/pedalboard operation.
3. Neural DSP Quad Cortex
Neural DSP made a name for itself as an industry leader in amp modeling plugins, and now its first foray into floor-based hardware presses all that next-gen algorithmic sorcery into service for a versatile and effortless effect pedal. The Quad Cortex is the most powerful floor modeller on the market, with enough power to run four amplifier chains and a slew of effects at once—with no noticeable latency.
Its Quad-Core SHARC DSP chip packs dedicated 2GHz of processing power for high-precision studio tones and gigging flexibility. The Quad Cortex houses an extensive set of bass guitar effects, including a powerful parametric EQ on its 7″ multi-touch display, plus two expression pedal inputs that can be assigned to control wahs and volume pedals as well as the unit’s pitch shifting algorithms.
Whether it’s a rare gargantuan amp, a prized vintage pedal too valuable for the stage, or your own effects rack in your home studio, you can use the Quad Cortex’s advanced Neural Capture technology to digitise them down to their core components. Just plug the mic into the dedicated rig capture output, and the Quad Cortex will analyse and profile the entire signal chain for instant modelling.
You can also add third-party IRs to the mix and use the Quad Cortex’s built-in EQs to sculpt your sound. Over 1000 cab and pedal IRs come with the Quad Cortex, and more are constantly being added—with the ability to load up to eight of them at a time for immediate access to a huge range of tones.
The Quad Cortex has a slew of other features that make it easy to work with onstage or in the studio, such as MIDI In, Out, and Thru for automating switching and sending control messages—even to external devices like a synth or drum machine. It also has a USB port for firmware updates and recording via interface mode. And with its rugged tour-grade anodized aluminum chassis and laser-engraved graphics, the Quad Cortex looks as good as it sounds.
4. Aguilar SansAmp
If you’re looking for a bass preamp with a bit of a twist, this model is worth checking out. Designed to act as a pedal/direct box, this product takes the classic AG preamp and puts it in a compact form factor that’s easily portable and road-ready. It features a foot-switchable broadband “deep” and “bright” controls that add depth and clarity, a 3-band active EQ with a unique mid frequency sweep, a built-in headphone jack for silent practice, a balanced DI output with pre/post and ground lift control, and 18 volt operation to give you plenty of headroom for the dynamic playing styles that most bassists engage in.
This unit also boasts a blend control that allows you to add a certain amount of the preamp’s tone into your end signal, allowing you to vary the ratio between distorted and clean signal as needed. This is a feature that can make or break a preamp depending on your style and needs, so it’s worth keeping an eye out for.
You can use this preamp to directly connect your bass to a mixing console or recording equipment with a built-in balanced DI output, which is perfect for those who want to stay on the go without having to lug around an entire amp setup. It’s powered by either a single 9 volt battery or phantom power from the mixer, giving you a few options to keep this pedal running no matter where you are.
Choosing the right bass guitar effect pedals is all about finding the tone that best suits your musical genre and playing style. You’ll also want to consider your budget and the type of gigging that you do. A good preamp will have extensive EQ controls so that you can sculpt your sound to perfection and it will be made with sturdy materials to ensure that it stands up to the rigors of professional gigging. Take your time to find a preamp that offers the features you need and that’s also going to work well with the other equipment that you already own.