When looking for bass guitar effects pedals and setting-up a bass pedal rig, it is somewhat similar when you play your bass guitar. You will still need to use your imagination, think melodically and conceptualizing what you’re going to do then followed by application.
Unlike its comrade the guitar, the use of effects pedals on a bass works differently. Electric guitar needs effects to further their reach and more likely to play with effects pedals. While the bass guitar is a more stand alone instrument that can be played with or without effects, because it relies heavily on creativity of the player to make a great bassline and the use of effects is only to enhance the already great sounding bass lick.
So why use an effects on a bass? If you want better volume and tone control, clarity and definition on your bass sound. As well add some diversity to explore many ways to play the bass. Using effects pedals can do that for you. Another reason on why to use bass effects pedals is to fix some issues and relieve the stresses on the way a bass player plays. Like when hitting the string harder and plucking it forcefully to magnify the notes to make it sound louder especially for advance techniques like slap n’ pop, tapping and double thump.
There are plenty of effects pedal out there that you can use and not only be confined in this list. This is just a start and I strongly suggest to study more about the pedals. You can do that by reading other reviews for their suggestions, comments and watch youtube videos to see demos on different pedals to pick what is best to use.
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Zoom B1X Four Bass Multi-Effects Pedal
- Over 70 built-in effects
- 9 amp models for simulating classic rigs
- Up to 5 effects can be used simultaneously, chained together in any order
- Built-in expression pedal for control over any parameter
- Looper for recording up to 30 seconds / 64 beats of CD-quality audio
- 68 built-in rhythm patterns which can be used in conjunction with the Looper
- 50 memory locations for storing user-created patches
- and more
For a complete beginner bass player who has just started learning to play the bass and already wants an effects pedal. An affordable and conservative way to get familiar with the effects that you can use on the bass is with a multi-effects bass pedal like the Zoom B1X FOUR.
The number presets of effects that includes compression, overdrive and modulations on the multi-effects processor, together with other features that comes with it like a drum machine to groove, looper to record and built-in chromatic tuner to keep your bass in perfect pitch can help beginners learn well and enjoy every practice.
BOSS TU-3S Tuner Pedal
- Tuner pedal for bass and electric guitar
- Tuning pedal in a more compact size
- 21-segment LED meter with brightness control
- Accu-Pitch Sign function provides visual verification when tuning is complete
- Chromatic and Guitar/Bass modes, with support for 7-string guitars and 6-string basses
The tuner probably is the most essential pedal of all the pedals included in the list, and the only pedal likely not going to be replaced on any pedalboard. It may not be the most exciting pedal to buy compared to an effects pedals, but it is an important pedal to have to quickly tune the bass especially when in the middle of the stage performing. Another use for a tuner pedal is it can work as a mute for the bass.
The compact Boss TU-3S chromatic tuner pedal has a 21 segment LED meter with brightness control and accurate to +/- one cent on tuning the instrument. Chromatic bass mode supports 7-string guitars and 6-string basses. As well drop tuning up to six semitones below standard pitch. Tuner automatically mutes when the tuner is on.
MXR M108S Ten Band Graphic EQ
- Lightweight aluminum housing
- Brighter LED dial light
- 12dB of serious cut or boost is added using the ten carefully chosen frequencies
- Noise-reduction circuitry
- True bypass switching
EQ pedal is a great pedal to have for tone shaping and to compliment every effects pedals on the rig by giving the effects pedals better presence and a wider sound output range. Without using any effects pedals. EQ pedal is great to shape clean tones and to double as a booster by cranking up the volume or in any other brand of EQ the level dial.
In a nut shell, the MXR M108S Ten Band EQ will make a regular bass tone technical sound better because it enable players total control over the overall tone and volume. 12dB of serious cut or boost is added using the ten carefully chosen frequencies along with input and output level controls.
Ampeg SCR-DI Bass DI with Scrambler
- Ultra-Hi and Ultra-Lo circuits for additional tonal flexibility
- Dial in tube-like grind with the all-new Bass Scrambler overdrive
- A complete EQ pedal with massive tone choices
- Control on balancing the volume, mid and treble ratio
- Drive and blend controls
A DI preamp pedal provides your bass sound with a higher volume output and tone shaping ability for a cleaner and brighter sound depending on taste. This pedal gives players another control on balancing the volume, mid and treble ratio. Either to boost or cut in ultra-low or ultra-hi, which works well when combined with the other effects pedals.
The Ampeg SCR-DI Bass DI with Scrambler is also a DI to connect to a front house support and a Scrambler with a drive and blend controls for subtle SVT overdrives on the bass.
Aguilar TLC Bass Compressor
- Add more snap, clarity and definition to your slap n’ pop, double thump, and tapping techniques
- Features a four knob layout that contains the level control, threshold control, attack control and slope control
- Level control: -infinity to -3dBu
- Threshold control: variable from -30 to -10 dBu
- Slope control: variable from 2:1 to infinity
- Attack control: variable from 10ms to 100ms
For the different techniques on playing the bass. This pedal is a workhorse for all bass players and a essential pedal to have on any bass pedalboard. Using this Aguilar TLC Compressor pedal, you can add more snap, clarity and definition to your slap n’ pop, double thump, and tapping techniques. It becomes a lot easier to do this things with this pedal because often times just to hear the notes we tend to raise the volume to make it louder and fuller. Turning out the end product sounding muddy.
The compressor pedals does this by leveling up the ringing and properly boosting the volume each notes. That makes the sound even, brighter and livelier while keeping the volume at the right level.
MXR M288 Bass Octave Deluxe
- Popular synth sound that all bass player loves to produce
- Three knob layout that contains the dry, growl and girth controls to mix different tones
- Dry control: To mix in your direct signal and hit the Mid+ switch to add up to +14dB of internally adjustable mid frequencies
- Growl: Throaty octave voices
- Girth: For deep tone octave voices
Using this pedals can give you the popular synth sound that all bass player loves to produce. An octave pedal works by adding the tone on the bass. Filling it up rather than changing the original bass tone itself. An effective way to play with an octave pedal is by playing in the middle or higher on the fingertboard. so you can hear the original tone filled up with a deep synthesize sound.
Another thing you can do with this bass effects pedal is turning off the growl and girth knob switch and just playing with the dry signal in 12 o’clock position. The MXR M288 octave bass pedal will give you the classic tone that is oftenly used by bass players for slap n’ pop.
Dunlop 105Q Cry Baby And MXR M82 Envelope Filter Pedal
- For the desired funky tones
- Produce the classic wah effect
- Separate Q and Volume controls
- Auto switch off
- Powered by 9v battery or power supply
For the desired funky tones, these two pedals can get the job done. The wah pedal is oftenly used on a guitar but it can also be used on a bass and there’s really not much of a difference on the wah voice it produce on a guitar and bass. The more common way for a bass to achieve a wah voice is by using envelope filter or touch auto-wah pedal.
The difference between the two is how to generate the wah voice. On a wah pedal it is controlled by an expression pedal to produce the wah voice while the envelop filter is by plucking the bass string lightly or harder to achieve the desired wah voice. Any of the two can work well on a bass guitar and a nice effects to play with.
Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Bass Big Muff Pi
- Distortion and sustainer
- Works as a boost using the tone knob and best dirt box for bass
- Pad on 0dB and -10dB
- Blend allows a player to mix distorted signals
- Built-in noise gate eliminates unwanted noise
This pedals works as a boost using the tone knob and with just a slight tweak at the blend knob it can already add a mild growl on the tone without totally distorting the original base sound. For a much distorted tone shaping when needed and desired. It is achievable by turning the blend and sustain together clockwise while the tone knob is turned counter clockwise to boost. This give a full boost from a subtle growl to a full distorted signal.
Also exclusive in the Deluxe Bass Big Muff is the adjustable noise gate to take care of the unwanted noise when the blend, sustain and tone knob are all crank up. An input pad for passive or active pickups, a foot switchable filter crossover section, a dedicated DI output and a direct output for parallel processing.
TC Electronic Ditto Looper
- Looper pedal for practice or jam
- 5 minute of looping time with unlimited overdubs
- Analog dry signal path even when looper is engaged
- True bypass allows for optimum clarity and zero high-end loss when pedal is off
- 24-bit uncompressed audio for ultimate sound quality
- Internal memory retains loops even after power down
Maximize creativity and enhance bass playing skills by using a looper pedal. This particular model called the Ditto Looper by TC Electronic has 5 minute of looping time with unlimited overdubs and is very simple to use. It is small to fit any pedal rig and be chained together with the other effect on the board anywhere you like.
The single knob on the pedal dictates the playback volume of the loop. To undo and redo the last overdub just hold the foot switch. Pressing twice will stop the whole loop while pressing down and holding down clears the whole loop.
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