What can be improved about it? What do you like? Was it helpful? Email me at mike smartbassguitar. Love the new re-design? Hate the new re-design? Got some general questions about bass guitar? Shoot me a line at mike smartbassguitar. Sure playing clean — or without any effects at all — is one way to go about playing bass, but effects can help you to: Cut through the mix on stage by adding an extra bit of bit or cut to your bass Express musical ideas with greater depth and variety try to imagine Anesthesia without any effects Make your playing come alive in a different way again — see Anesthesia.
Specifically: What each pedal does and how it works The difference between an overdrive and a distortion pedal How envelope filters work How phase shifting pedals like octave and chorus pedals work How compressors work and how they make your bass lines sound louder How delay effects work. Volume Pedals: Volume pedals allow players to adjust the volume of their rig from their pedalboard, rather than manually turning down the amp or the bass.
Octave Pedals Octave pedals are a kind of pitch shifting pedal. Overdrive Pedals and Distortion Pedals Ever notice how when you turn your music up really, really loud, it starts to get fuzzy and distorted?
Most overdrive pedals tend to have these controls associated with them: Gain often labelled as Drive controls the amount of overdrive — or how fuzzy the signal comes out of the amp. Tone to compensate for additional highs caused by the actual clipping process Volume or Level to balance the effect volume with the bypassed level. Other writers and musicians have broken up pedal classification in different ways including the people at Humbucker Music who break down pedals into the 6 groups: Signal Conditioners preamp, overdrive, boost, distortion, fuzz and compressor pedals Filter Effects wah, envelope filter, and EQ pedals Volume and Level Effects volume, tremolo, and noise gate pedal Modulation Effects Includes chorus, flanger, phase shifting, and rotary simulating pedals like a vibrato pedal Pitch Effects octave and pitch shifting pedals such as a whammy Echo and Time Effects delay, reverb, and echo pedals How to Set Up a Pedal Board: The Ideal First thing first: make sure your clean tone is where you want it to be.
When tuning, it helps to have a clean, unprocessed signal to work with in your pedal set up. These are the effects that rely on the dynamics of the signal in order to have an effect. Placing a compression pedal here will even out the dynamics, and provide a smoother, consistent tone for the rest of the effects in the chain to work with.
Compressors help to even out the peaks and valleys of your signal and improve the sustain of notes. Having an EQ early in the chain will affect all sounds and effects after the pedal. Having it towards the end of the chain will affect the final output of the signal.
Having an EQ right after the distortion helps to reign in some of the wiley signal play that comes with using a fuzz pedal and prime the rest of your signal for the pedals to come. Pitch-shifting pedals work best with compressed signals, so it should certainly appear after your compressors and distortion pedals. Therefore, it should be placed at the end of your chain so it can capture all the different effects that are going on. Beware of Tone and Volume Suckers Now, all pedals are created with equal outstanding quality, right?
Tone Sucking: some pedals, usually low quality or suspiciously low priced pedals, can be tone suckers. Any filter should modulate a clean signal. Placing them after other effects pedals limits their ability to function properly. This also may be a good position for phaser pedals, depending on the type of tone you want to achieve. Plug in your compressor pedal after the filter pedals. Compressor pedals "level out" your guitar's volume, boosting the volume of quieter tones.
You'll get lots of noisy, unwanted sound if you put the compressor pedal later on in the chain when the guitar's tone has already been heavily modified. For example, if you're playing country music, a compressor pedal at the end of the chain squashes everything, regardless of the effects you're using. With rock music, on the other hand, it typically works better right after the filter pedals.
Add overdrive and distortion pedals. Overdrive and distortion pedals are some of the most popular types of effects pedals, particularly in rock music.
Placing these pedals before filter and compressor pedals can produce an unpleasant tone. Overdrive and distortion pedals generate and amplify the overtones of each note you play.
For this reason, you don't want amplified overtones fed into filter or compressor pedals. Decide where to place any pitch-shifting pedals. In most cases, a pitch-shifting pedal functions best when it's being fed a compressed signal. You generally want to place it after compression or equalizer pedals, unless you've positioned your compressor pedal at the end of your chain.
Connect modulation pedals towards the end of your signal chain. If you're using any modulation pedals such as chorus, flanger, tremolo, or phaser pedals, you generally want to place them later in your signal chain so they have a richer sound. Place volume pedals at the beginning or end of your signal chain. Whether you put the volume pedal earlier or later in the signal chain affects what part of your guitar's sound the pedal adjusts, and gives this pedal a different functionality.
It can be helpful to clean up your sound if you use overdrive a lot. Placing your volume pedal towards the end of your signal chain adjusts the volume of the finished signal. Position any time-based pedals last. When ordering time-based pedals such as delay pedals, think of how the sound you're creating actually occurs in physical space.
Since delay or echo is the last thing heard, it makes sense to place these types of pedals at the end of the signal chain. Method 2. Examine your amp. Not all amps have an effects loop, but if yours does, you can experiment with placing some of your effects inside your amp's effects loop to give your guitar a richer, more nuanced tone. You'll see "Effects Send" and "Effects Return" jacks. Place your delay and reverb effects in the amp's effects loop.
Most guitarists who use the effects loop to set up their guitar pedals put the time-based effects in the loop to avoid the washed out sound that can be produced if these effects are fed into the overdrive and distortion of the amp. The sound from your amplifier's preamp section feeds into these effects. Move volume and modulation into the effects loop. Placing modulation pedals in the effects loop will give you a different sound than if you run them through your signal chain directly from your guitar.
Experiment with these and see if it suits your style. Method 3. Choose the right size. Pedal boards can be bought off the shelf or customized to your particular set-up.
Whether you choose a small, medium, or large pedal board generally depends on the number of pedals you're using on a regular basis and the size of those pedals. Generally, if you're using five or fewer pedals, you want a small pedal board. These relatively new amplifier systems give guitarists a plethora of choices in sound and effects. As a result, this can severely decrease the need for guitar pedals.
In some cases, it may even eliminate it. About 18 pedals are included in his pedalboard setups. Many of them are used only for one song. Therefore, there are many pedals.
Valentine likes to experiment and switch pedals from his setup often. For the chorus, he uses a Dunlop Rotovibe, and for wah, he uses a Zakk Wylde wah. In conclusion, guitarists are notorious for having gear acquisition syndrome GAS. This is especially true if they have the means to have endless gear. And this is why famous pedalboard setups typically go beyond the essential pedals for guitarists. Moreover, it is still fun to know what the pros use on stage and in the studio.
Most importantly, it is a great way to learn and find out about new products and ways to use it. Feel free to leave a comment with your must-have pedal for your setup.
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