Doug Whimbish, Jaco Pastorius and Les Claypool all make use of effect pedals in their arsenals for good reason; adding effects opens up an entirely new palette of colors for their musical expression.
Multi-effects pedals make an excellent choice for bassists as they often combine preamp, DI and DI/preamp functionality, along with EQ and compression options to further customize your tone.
Overdrive/Distortion
Overdrive and distortion pedals can add plenty of character to your sound, either supplementing your amplifier’s current drive and giving your tone thicker or creating entirely unique textures. Overdrive produces smoother sustain than distortion and may make for an ideal option when playing rhythm guitar parts; or give solos that extra push they need!
Most overdrive pedals contain controls for gain, tone/EQ and output volume knobs as well as a clipping switch which allows users to alter saturation and distortion levels. They come in all kinds of flavors: subtle breakup to classic crunch to dense fuzz.
Overdrive is the most prevalent of these effects. It works by adding an increase to the peak peaks of a waveform which then causes sections from its tops and bottoms to be clipped away, producing an organic overdriven tone suitable for most genres.
Distortion is an even more intense version of overdrive that uses clipping of high amplitude signal sections to produce an aggressive yet distorted tone with lasting sustain. This type of pedal is most frequently found used for hard rock/metal music but may also appear in certain blues/soul genres.
Many overdrive and distortion pedals feature multiple gain stages; this enables more amplification, saturation and clipping to the input signal. Ibanez’s TS808 or Tube Screamer, for instance, features one such stage; others like Friedman’s BE-OD feature four gain stages.
Overdrive pedals should be placed before modulation (chorus, phaser or flanger) and time-based effects such as delay or reverb to ensure the original unprocessed signal is being used by these effects and to achieve more natural results. Experimentation is encouraged as various pedal placements can yield unexpected and surprising outcomes; placing one before reverb can add depth and space while adding overdrive after distortion could bring forth aggressive tones with thicker tones.
Delay/Reverb
Delay and reverb pedals offer bassists a whole new palette of tones. These time-based effects add depth and dimension to your sound, allowing your melodies and riffs to come to life more readily. But before turning up the volume on these effects pedals, it’s essential that you understand their operation first.
A delay pedal produces an echo effect by repeating the original signal, with various settings enabling you to customize its sound according to your taste. The mix control determines how much of the delayed signal you hear while time and feedback controls set its amount – short delays (20-30ms) work well for creating a slap-back echo or double effect while longer ones (up to 60ms) may create rhythmic effects or ambient ambient sounds.
If you want to take your delay pedal experience one step further, look for a multi-effect model with advanced tone-shaping features such as parametric EQ, compressor gain wah and amp emulations features. Multi-effect models also typically include an expression pedal input for controlling how much effect is being applied at any one time.
Pair your delay pedal with a distortion pedal for a unique sound! Delay and distortion work well together by giving sustain to lead notes while the delay fills gaps between riffs for a fuller sound – often heard in genres such as metal, rock and funk music.
Some delay pedals come equipped with a mode setting, enabling you to easily toggle between different kinds of delay. With one turn of the knob, you can switch from digital delay to analog or tape-style delay; even add reverse/looping functionality into the mix! Having this variety in one pedal is especially useful for bassists performing live who must quickly alter their tone between songs/sets.
Keep this in mind when using delay and reverb pedals: placing them after your other pedals to ensure their sound quality remains unaffected, but this choice ultimately comes down to you and how you want your guitar sounding.
EQ/Filter
Bassists looking to expand the scope of their sounds will find pedals invaluable in expanding the textures and tones available to them. Sweetwater offers an extensive range of effects pedals from top boutique bass pedal makers like Electro-Harmonix, Darkglass, etc. as well as multi-effect units which combine various tonal shaping features into one convenient unit; you can find everything from synth tones through delay effects to octaves here!
Pedals such as octave and pitch-shift can transform a bass guitar into a whole new instrument, offering up a broad spectrum of tones that can both inspire and attract. These pedals work best early in the signal chain so as not to overpower your original frequencies – some such as Darkglass’s Octave pedal may work specifically with bass while Jam Pedals Delay LLama works great on any bass guitar!
Filter pedals can help cut through a mix and add texture, which makes them great for use early in the chain as they often work best with unprocessed signals rather than heavily processed ones. There are various kinds of filters like low-pass, high-pass, etc. Available.
Overdrive and fuzz pedals add depth and grit to your bass guitar signal, offering anything from subtle overdrive to full-on fuzz tones. There are some fantastic choices in this category such as the Bass Big Muff Pi, Rattler by Jam Pedals and Darkglass Alpha Omega Ultra V2.
Effects such as volume and wah pedals are useful tools for producing many different sounds, but they often pair best with compressors for optimal results. Compressors can add punch to a track while keeping its volume from becoming overwhelming when playing live; additionally they should always come before time-based effects such as delay, reverb or modulation to ensure they do not alter its sound too significantly.
Compressor
If you need to blend in bass signal to other instruments in live settings or studio sessions, a compressor pedal may be exactly what’s needed. This effect works by compressing tone peaks until they reach an acceptable threshold level that you set, before releasing them again. Bass versions typically feature controls tailored specifically towards lower frequencies.
An Equalization pedal (EQ for short) is another helpful bassist pedal. By boosting or cutting specific frequencies from your signal, an EQ pedal allows you to accentuate specific notes in a mix or help blend smoothly with other instruments in band arrangements. Some bass EQ pedals even include preamp controls to give you even greater control of tone right at its source.
Time-based effects for bass guitar are another great choice, offering echos and spatial effects to add depth to your tone. Delay and reverb pedals can create ambience in songs or achieve that Jaco Pastorius chorus sound.
Octave and pitch-shift pedals work by changing the frequency of your signal by shifting it either up or down. While using one can be somewhat challenging, as its input must be relatively clear for optimal use; some octave pedals may specifically target bass frequencies while others work just as effectively for any bass frequency signal.
Tremolo pedals offer creative musicians more experimental effects. Similar to wah-wah pedals, tremolos bend your EQ curve in a similar manner while raising or lowering the pitch of your signal; making for some extremely interesting uses with distortion or overdrive effects.
However, multi FX pedals offer another solution that makes getting different effects easier without cluttering up your pedalboard and being more cost effective than purchasing individual pedals. They make bassists’ lives simpler by giving access to an extensive array of sounds without crowding their pedalboard or being overly costly than buying individual ones.