Bass Player: Pedals?

[greeny23]

Looking to start making bass pedals, curious to hear from bassists about what you would want in a fuzz pedal?

Features, sounds etc.

[Schlatte]

I'd bet 5 bucks someone will say clean blend.

[Bassboar]

Clean blends are nice, but they aren't a necessity. Lows and mids are good for sitting in a mix. Not being super high gain all the time either, smooth fuzzes are always nice.

[Boxbie]

I was surprised how much bang for buck the bass big muff is. With the clean blend on (not the bass boost) its quite a rad bass fuzz.

[greeny23]

cheers guys, keep it coming.

i threw this together to see what it sounded like and its perfect for what i wanted, a non-high gain fuzz.

i can tell already that building bass pedals will be fun





its for sale in my shark tank for cheap if anyone wants it btw.

[Deltaphoenix]

naked chicks

[Deltaphoenix]

^ That's what it should sound like, and of course a clean blend.


Like someone already said lows and mids mean alot to me.
What type of fuzz pedals are you thinking about building?

[Officer Bukowski]

I like a little gatedness and upper octave-y-ness in my bass fuss.

[kevinhifi]

My Choad Blaster pedal (also called Chord Blaster) is being used a bit for bass, including one pro. What they like about it is the fact that the attack is unaffected at moderate gain settings. I designed it that way because I like to have a guitar distortion pedal that can be used for rhythm playing without squashing the pick attack. Turns out many bass players want the same thing. This can be accomplished with a clean blend like was mentioned earlier, but the underlying theme is to let some of the natural sound of the bass, and all of its frequencies, through.

Good luck and have fun!

[coldbrightsunlight]

This can be accomplished with a clean blend like was mentioned earlier, but the underlying theme is to let some of the natural sound of the bass, and all of its frequencies, through.

Agreeeeed. That's just what I want in a bass fuzz, to keep the attack and general sound of the bass. I like growly and not too high gain where the high end gets silly.

[bigchiefbc]

I may be in the minority of bass players, but personally if you need a clean blend for it to retain low end (or mids/attack for that matter), I'm not interested. I hate the sound of clean blended fuzz, and any time a pedal offers it, I turn it all the way off. As I've said before, it's like playing a game of "just the tip", or trying to be half-pregnant, if you prefer that analogy. If I click on a fuzz, I want fuzz, not fuzz+clank.

[wdinc01]

I'm a fan of clean blend. I'd also something that has more than one germanium transistor in it.

[Officer Bukowski]

Have you tried a TAFM? The clean blending on that kinda made me reconsider..

It's pretty interesting. You get the effect of having the clean signal blended in without really hearing a distinct clean signal (at least that's how it seems to my ears).. I dunno how to explain it. It's pretty sweet sounding.

[Grrface]

I think the TAFM description is a perfect example. Gotta keep my low balls. Smooth or gated is what I'm finding I like in a bass fuzz. A gate sounds super neat on a bass, but smooth fuzz is usually what I'm using in a band situation.

[coldbrightsunlight]

I may be in the minority of bass players, but personally if you need a clean blend for it to retain low end (or mids/attack for that matter), I'm not interested. I hate the sound of clean blended fuzz, and any time a pedal offers it, I turn it all the way off. As I've said before, it's like playing a game of "just the tip", or trying to be half-pregnant, if you prefer that analogy. If I click on a fuzz, I want fuzz, not fuzz+clank.

I kinda half agree with you, if I turn up the clean too high on the TAFM it's just..weird. But how Officer Bukowski described it is sort of true, low levels just add attack to the fuzz (and the fuzz has plenty of low end without the blend, which is important I think).