Soon to be! (with your help)

New Toys, that is.

I am currently looking at purchasing two effects pedals, and I would like to enlist your guys' help to select them. Right now I have one pedal (XBS Digitech Bass Chorus), and I was looking to add some others to the collection.

This is what I have come up with for choices for the three categories so far. (feel free to suggest others, and not just in the three categories, I'm very open...)

First: Distortion/Fuzz
Electro-Harmonix XO Bass Big Muff Pi Distortion Effects Pedal
Boss ODB-3 Bass OverDrive Pedal
MXR M182 El Grande Bass Fuzz Pedal
DigiTech XBD Bass Driver Overdrive Pedal
MXR M-181 Bass Blowtorch Overdrive Distortion Pedal

Second: Auto-Wah
Electro-Harmonix Enigma Qballs Envelop Filter Bass Effects Pedal
EBS BassIQ Triple Envelope Filter Pedal
Electro-Harmonix Nano Bassballs Envelope Filter Bass Effects Pedal
MXR M-188 Bass Auto Q Auto Wah Pedal

Third: Compressor (? I heard they were good )
EBS MultiComp True Dual Band Compressor Pedal
Electro-Harmonix Bass Metaphors Compressor Effects Pedal
Markbass Compressore Bass Pedal
Boss LMB-3 Bass Limiter Enhancer
DigiTech XBS Bass Squeeze Compressor Pedal

I don't expect you guys to actually research all this, but if you have any insight I'll gladly take whatever information you have to offer

My advice would be to get a distortion box and an envelope filter, but pass on a compressor for now. I feel that using a compressor makes my sound less natural and that makes me shy away from using one, but they're great at bringing out some of the more elusive harmonics. My favorite example of that is Billy Sheehan...I mean, wow. Talk about a squeeeezed sound.

Those are some very diverse lists of pedals! I know the MXR fuzzes are pretty extreme. The Big Muff is a classic and it can also get very violin-like sustain. The OD pedals will give you more crunch than singing sustain. I really like the sound of the ODB-3. Lots of crunch and interesting sustain. You could probably get a lot of diverse overdrive sounds with it.

I haven't had any experience with any of those envelope filters, but I have had my eye on the EBS line of pedals for a while and I like what I've seen of heard from them.

if its a dream list for a goal to achieve and your willing to spend the money ... as far as sound goes?..............

go with electro harmonix pedals with everything. i've always love just about everything they put out. not that the other products suck ... just given the choice, i'de go with elctro harmonix.

compressor ... i agree, it can wait.

but i disagree with a lot of people about wether to use one or not. personally, i dont use it for a squeezed sound. shure ... it squeezes when i hit pops, slaps and chords, but i'm more going for the harmonix boost and overall tone. it doesnt work well in all circumstances, but my compressor is in my processor ... its boss and i got 6 different compressor simulators to pick from that can be chained in a preset bank.

the compressor on my amp head is always turned down to 1.5 ... no sound change ... just speaker protection.

The Blowtorch is my fave from tha list, but very synthy sounding, the Bass Big Muff is far more popular in general.

I'd go with the Big Muff, and one of the filters, the QBalls most likely.

Mhmm Electro Harmonix pedals are great. I've heard rave reviews of their tubes as well.

That's quite a list of choices! But I think I'd also lean towards the Electro-Harmonix gear, although the other choices aren't bad.

Don't know much about auto wahs, but I can tell you a lot about dirt.

First off, http://bassfuzz.com/ and the TB effects board are great places to start.

2nd, whats your budget? With the pedals you chose it sounds like it's pretty tight. I know of a few boutique companies that make great pedals for cheap. Most Devi ever pedals cost $95. Catalinbread make cheapish boutique pedals. I have an SFT, and it actually exceeds all the hype its getting, especially in a band setting. FANTASTIC low gain OD.

BTW, the Devi Ever Soda Meiser is supposed to be fantastic. Premier Guitar gave the Effector 13 (Devi's other company) version a 5.0/5. The Devi Ever version seems to just be a smaller, cheaper version of the E13 without the boost:



As for the pedals you listed, I don't particularly love any of them, but if I had to choose, I'd say the El Grande or the Muff.

Muffs are great for soloing, but they cut almost all of your mids and bass, making them almost unusable in a band setting. If you REALLY need a muff, the Earthbound Supercollider would be great. Originally designed for doom metal guitarists, it has a "depth" knob that can boost lows. The newest version has a mids knob too, so you can cut through better. However, its $200 IIRC.

I'm not very fond of the Boss or Digitech. I'm just not

The El Grande is OK, but there are much better fuzzes that fill a similar role (a versatile, jack of all trades type thing) in the same price range, such as the Devi Ever Cherry Pop and the Electronix Messdrive Hybrid+.

The Blowtorch is nice, but REALLY synthy. Supposed to be similar to Chris Wolstenholm's tone on Hysteria (somehow...)

You seem to have your head about you a lot better than I do when it comes to the latest and greatest in dirt pedals. I find them all so cool, but when I look for OD, I can't seem to find a substitute for cranked pre and power amp tubes. I love it when people get those dirt boxes to sound great, but I can't afford to try every fuzz box on the planet and I know what makes me happy...

Chowderboots wrote:

I can't afford to try every fuzz box on the planet and I know what makes me happy...

Neither can I. I mostly use Youtube and bassfuzz.com to hear what pedals sound like. Its really handy when dealing with smaller companies who don't sell through many physical stores

Thanks for all the replies guys! Guess I got some decidin' to do...

And thanks for the vid link and other sites to look at Kugel, my eyes are opened to the world of dirt!

Kugelspot wrote:

Chowderboots wrote:

I can't afford to try every fuzz box on the planet and I know what makes me happy...

Neither can I. I mostly use Youtube and bassfuzz.com to hear what pedals sound like. Its really handy when dealing with smaller companies who don't sell through many physical stores

Yeah same here. I'm definitely interested in all of them, but realistically, I can see myself getting a couple of fuzzes and just getting a rad guitar amp, so that I can have any level of grit I want right at my fingertips and feet.

Something I'm really GASing for is a Silicon fuzz face. I've heard a bunch of recordings and it sounds really choked up and downright filthy. I might wind up getting one of those or a Brassmaster clone.

Kugelspot wrote:

The Blowtorch is nice, but REALLY synthy. Supposed to be similar to Chris Wolstenholm's tone on Hysteria (somehow...)

That synthiness comes with a fairly sweet bonus, no matter how much gain and fizz you add, the pedal stays sevely musical, no matter the noise you still hear notes. And yeah, it makes that Hysteria tone a cinch.

/subscribed


I have no idea what any of those do or would sound like for me to play them thru my stuff, so I will just sit back and enjoy the thread, since I'm a horrible example of "what pedals"

my signal is probably as compressed as BillySheenan's as Eric and others have commented on the easily recognizable "no headroom" on me slamming the strings when appropriate. Just so you know, if I turn it off, I actually get annoyed at the volume differences=vs-finger pressure when the band is playing.

Like MadMike, I could never run straight just for his reasons "speaker protection from volume spikes" ( saved my stuff many times !!!! )


and Hysteria by MUSE? I rebelled and played it last year in a youtube video without the distortion to harass everyone on purpose

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3ajNPUBEo4

The soda one seems too hard, a little bit past the lowest it just started going into a giant wall of noise IMO, I like beefier more clear (excuse me if you don't understand) fuzz if that sounds right. like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBlILzKoSnM IMO

hahaha that Ric sounds horrible on the first setting he hits, it takes the bass out of it instantly, the 2nd one is not "TOO" bad...

my Ganiac on the distorted channel sounds like setting #2, but it has a bunch of parametric EQ controls that actually WILL make a good "fuzz" tone and not remove the lower freqs. I just never use it, especially for what I have to play in the band. I was gonna sell it last year, but decided to keep it as it has a seperate clean channel that you all hear in each and every one of my youtube videos, as well as the audience in front of my cabs at gigs.

Eric said it is my signature sound, but even that Ric in your vid TG before he hits the pedal sounds very similar...



here's about all the "FUZZ" I need to be happy and my Fender sound not from a Fender
and TG, you can use the embed function here !!!!

NOTE THE TITLE ON THE VID GUYS

Kugelspot wrote:

T. Gunn wrote:

The soda one seems too hard, a little bit past the lowest it just started going into a giant wall of noise IMO, I like beefier more clear (excuse me if you don't understand) fuzz if that sounds right. like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBlILzKoSnM IMO

I totally understand what you mean by "clear." In the the video, the guy is bi amping (in other words, splitting his signal and sending it into two different amps). In this case, he's distorting one and leaving the other clean, much like Eric does. So it sounds like you want something with a blend knob:





This one doesn't have a blend function per se, but a lot of the clean signal comes through anyway so I'll include it:

I just meant you could understand the distortion without it turning into a wall of noise. I tried to find a better vid of this guy playin a EB-2 with slight fuzz and it sounded great, I can't find the vid again.