Effects advise

[SillyPuddyonIce]

So I habe a bass, I have a decent rig now, and I have three piece original band. I am effects retarded. I never used them really when I started on guitar before I switched to bass even. Distortion on the amp.

I've been looking at some bass processors. I'm not really into the whole amp modeling thing, but I do like effects. Any advice on these? My one friend has the guitar version of the Boss GT-6B and its really nice with customizable effects to the max.

I also thinking maybe going with single effects since that seems like it would be higher quality really. I need some interesting things to fill in my guitarists solos with since the sound is a wee bit empty sometimes and we're not getting a rhythm guitar. I was thinking about getting a chorus, a wah, and some distortion pedals to mess with.

And my Crate head is a piece of crap (I have it on an ampeg too :rolleyes: ) and is really noisy. Do compression pedals help this? And do noise reduction pedals actually work?

What do you guys think? Anyone else in a three piece with solos like mine that has advice on what they do?

[the101er]

Overdrive or Distortion would really thicken the sound of your band, especially as it's a trio

[Omega Red]

i personaly hate distortion. reverb, chorus, delay, evnelope filters, wah, pitch shifters, or any combonatio of them will really help you out

ampeg is owned by crate, take it home chew it, its delicious.

there is a pedal that lower hum or you amp, it could be anything from ****ty cables, to a nasty jack, or even that you just have a bad connection in your bass or head.

if it sounds empty, play more notes, but dont step on your guitarist. learn some chords, and play those, that should help

[SillyPuddyonIce]

i personaly hate distortion. reverb, chorus, delay, evnelope filters, wah, pitch shifters, or any combonatio of them will really help you out

ampeg is owned by crate, take it home chew it, its delicious.

there is a pedal that lower hum or you amp, it could be anything from ****ty cables, to a nasty jack, or even that you just have a bad connection in your bass or head.

if it sounds empty, play more notes, but dont step on your guitarist. learn some chords, and play those, that should help

Crate owns ampeg huh? Interesting.

I kinda agree with you. I've never been a fan of bass distortion at all, but I figure it might as well experiment.

[Mitchell Royce]

Unless you know what you're doing and find that you need patches of entire effects I doubt something like a GT-6B would be a wise decision, especially at that price. Single units are a cheaper(at least if you only need one or two) and better sounding alternative IME.

Octaver with Overdrive/Distortion and some Chorus will fill up lots of space in the mix. Reverb is also really good. For noise reduction a Noise Gate(such as the Boss NS-2) is good, but if the noise is coming from your amp it won't help. Wah is a tricky thing on bass, an envelope filter might be a better idea at first.
OTOH, like quatre said, what and how you play will have a major impact on how full your band sounds. Effects can spice up your sound and take a bassline in a new direction but your bassline needs to be interesting first.

[SillyPuddyonIce]

Whats an envelope filter do?

Thanks guys I'm getting some good replies. Usually a bunch of idiots come in and act all big and bad haha and talk down to me.

[Mitchell Royce]

Envelope filter basically sounds like a wah but the sweep is controlled by one's attack. Sounds quite funky and combined with distotion in front of it can sounds quite synthy. Also, instead of having a sweeping frequency peak, like a wah has, it only lets certain frequencies through, which creates less nasty spikes and sounds more even on bass. I have both and I only keep the wah because it has a ring modulator in it that I love.

[SLKBassist]

I like wah, phaser, fuzz distortion, reverb, and chorus. Not a fan of envelope filter wah though.

[SillyPuddyonIce]

I think I'd rather have wah. Its fun to control it I think. I have played my bass through a guitar one before.

[Hardinge]

chorus rules