i guess i just feel like buying a few pedals to play around with but they need to be considered choices. the boss TU-3 seems to be well regarded as a tuner (yes i have a tuner but.... you know
), and the bass clone chorus pedal will hopefully get me sounding a bit more realistic when playing joy division. (ive just bought this one, my first purchase).
That’s as good a reason as any and I do love a bit of chorus. MXR bass chorus was my first pedal. I wasn’t saying go one way or another, just think about what you’re trying to achieve. Drive pedals are like chillies. Which type you go for has a huge influence on your overall flavour. Personally, I don’t like an aggressive drive and I don’t currently have a dedicated drive pedal. My preamp has built in drive and I currently have it always on but set low. Playing normally you hardly notice it, but dig in and play hard and it gives a nice bit of sizzle.
Took me a while to understand preamps. I think of it as a signature style. It’s the last stage of your chain that gives a subtle colour to your sound. In the old days, tube amps had their own unique character. Modern solid state amps are a bit blander and a good preamp can add back a bit of character. If you are gigging, they also mean you can take your sound with you, to whatever amp you plug into. There are lots of preamps designed to sound like classic amps as well. It all depends what you are after.
No recommendation on power supplies. That one you linked to looks pretty good though. I think it has all the options you’ll ever need.
I reckon a chorus is a sound choice. You might also look at some kind of fuzz. That’s a different flavor of drive that your rumble can’t do.
As you have probably realized, pedals are fun. Like I said above, my perception as a guitarist with a bass is that less is more for bass and that too many effects can mess with the clarity and drive you want bass to bring to the low end of a song. Happy to be corrected in that.
what I’ve found interesting is the difference in how a bass tone sits in a mix compared to being heard on its own. With guitar, what you hear with the guitar on its own is pretty similar to how that tone sounds in a full band context. With bass theres a bigger difference I feel.
i maybe wrong but I think the obsession with the sans amp is to do with people trying to get the ampeg svt tone used on lots of (90’s) records. Also lots of gigging bass players seem to have a bass amp on stage but also send a DI signal to the PA and the sans amp is a well regarded way of doing that too.
Personally, I don’t like an aggressive drive and I don’t currently have a dedicated drive pedal. My preamp has built in drive and I currently have it always on but set low. Playing normally you hardly notice it, but dig in and play hard and it gives a nice bit of sizzle.
so like the bass soul food then?
You might also look at some kind of fuzz.
so not like the bass soul food then? 🙂
No recommendation on power supplies. That one you linked to looks pretty good though. I think it has all the options you’ll ever need.
it has all the options but there seems to be a wide price range between power supplies like that at £25, and recommended isolating supplies suggested by chatgpt such as the truetone CS6 at £120! im happy(ish) to spend whats needed once, rather than buy cheap buy twice, but dont want to drink the kool aid and spend unnecessarily.
Also lots of gigging bass players seem to have a bass amp on stage but also send a DI signal to the PA and the sans amp is a well regarded way of doing that too.
i thought a pre-amp was a way of bypassing the amp altogether, sort of 'taking your own amp in a small box' to a gig and plugging into their system. why would you have your own bass amp on stage yet still plug into a PA?
thanks. always learning 🙂
i thought a pre-amp was a way of bypassing the amp altogether, sort of 'taking your own amp in a small box' to a gig and plugging into their system. why would you have your own bass amp on stage yet still plug into a PA?
Unless you are in a very small space, your onstage amp won’t be big enough to fill the room, so you need to use the venue pa. Plugging in a preamp means you take your own tone with you. The amp on stage is just so you can hear what you are playing. The other option is to use in ear monitors ( also known as silent stage).
No idea about the Bass Soul Food, never heard of it. The more important question is do you like it? That’s all that matters.
You need to get your head round the idea that you’ll need to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince. Get ready to buy and sell a lot. EBay and Reverb are good for this.
ok ta. just acquired a boss TU-3tuner and a donner ISO 8 power supply for £65 which im happy with. the bass clone pedal was £45 and i got the original 20 x 11" vevor pedalboard with carrybag and a few leads and velcro for £20.
good fun this isnt it, waaaaay better than spunking a few hundred quid in a oner 😀
sods law isnt it, just checked vinted and theres a boss TU-3 tuner on there for £40, plugged in and used once, sat in a cupboard since apparently.
im sorted now but it seems a bargain for any of you out there maybe wanting one?
https://www.vinted.co.uk/items/9027961052-boss-chromatic-tuner-tu-3?referrer=catalog
Personally I'd spend a bit more and get
https://www.thomann.co.uk/harley_benton_powerplant_iso_10ac_pro.htm
Because the wall wart powered ones aren't as gig robust and this gives you all the future proofing. Cheap ones aren't properly isolated and are no better than a daisy chain in a box
Start with a good tuner and then see if you can borrow a drive pedal, you can use a guitar pedal if you like because not all of them filter the low end (avoid a tube screamer) I use an ODR1 mini, an octave pedal is a good one to try. Chorus gets you into 80s mode
Project finished…… The Fiender J Hoppus Bass……..
( J cos the color is based on the J mascis fender Jazzmaster sig model from years ago)
thats a lovely colour. ive also got a white pearloid pickguard being made for my pink ashdown.
ive now got a few pedals sorted, the boss TU-3 tuner, the bass clone and the soul food. oh and a donner iso 8 power supply as it came with the tuner for not much money, so its its a cheap gamble.
couple of questions if you dont mind……
they dont make as much difference to the sound as i thought they would, maybe i need to play around with them a bit more. the soul food actually seems to give me more of a joy division sound than the bass clone which surprised me, but like i say… i probably need to experiment.
the soul food. all the dials seem to work ok but when the blend is turned up full i get background ‘white noise’ from the amp. white noise is probably too exaggerated actually, its just that background ‘noise/not noise’ that you hear if you turn your speakers up full with nothing playing if you see what i mean. is that normal?
and sadly, the power pack doesnt seem to fit under the board, so its having to go up top for now which i dont like. not a deal breaker but ill probably look for something more suitable, a bit slimmer. do most of you have your power packs under the board or on top?
this is mine at the moment, i havent velcroed it all yet until i work out where i want everything. a minor grumble is something that must be the same for everyone, the inputs all seem to plug into the right hand side, outputs left, itd be nice to have a nice neat left to right layout instead but thats minor 
thanks
Chorus can be quite a subtle effect. From your photo, you have the depth set quite low. Try bumping that up to emphasise the effect. Rate will affect the speed of the shimmer. Try to only adjust one at a time until you know how they work.
Background noise from a drive pedal is to be expected, that's just what they do. It should go away as you turn down the drive/gain control. I'm not a big fan of drive, but I mainly use it in a couple of different ways. Either lots of drive/gain but lots of clean tone blended in or low drive with not much clean blended in. The second way give a slightly gritty tone when playing normally but if you start playing harder the driven tone comes out more. I'd never heard of the soul food pedal until you started talking about it, but I had a wee listen on youtube today and it does seem quite a subtle drive. I actually quite liked it, but maybe it's just not aggressive enough for you. Maybe you'd be better looking at distortion or fuzz instead.
When you are just figuring it out, I'd only plug one pedal in at a time. That way you know exactly what adjustments you are hearing. I'd also probably run tuner, drive then chorus. That way the drive is getting the cleanest signal and the chorus is modulating the driven signal. Big rabbit hole of videos on signal chain order on YT, but at the end of the day, it's all about experimenting and finding out what you prefer.
Maybe wrong but I think the soul food is a “Klon” style circuit which is a famous guitar pedal that is known for boosting signal but not coloring it that much and generally is used in conjunction with a valve amp it can “push”
tl:dr as clubby says, it’s got quite a subtle effect and probably won’t give you a really gritty tone. It might be interesting to set the gain on your rumble near max ( on the clean side not the overdrive side) and try it then. If you are after a “club foot by kasabian” tone, A cheap fuzz is probably better. Or as posted above the mooer black secret on the turbo side with the gain around 9 o’clock gives a nice grit without losing too much definition and it’s £30 or so if you look hard enough.
Background noise from a drive pedal is to be expected, that's just what they do.
understood, thanks
From your photo, you have the depth set quite low. Try bumping that up to emphasise the effect. Rate will affect the speed of the shimmer.
will do.
Either lots of drive/gain but lots of clean tone blended in or low drive with not much clean blended in.
im not sure what you mean by 'clean tone'. how do you blend in more 'clean'?
I actually quite liked it, but maybe it's just not aggressive enough for you. Maybe you'd be better looking at distortion or fuzz instead.
100% of recommendations ive read so far all say that the bass should be subtle, leave the big distortion/fuzz to the guitarists, so i guess i just need to listen to them and accept that a bassist isnt the star of the show, but just the unassuming lower end of the sound 🙂
I'd also probably run tuner, drive then chorus. That way the drive is getting the cleanest signal and the chorus is modulating the driven signal.
done. thank you.
It might be interesting to set the gain on your rumble near max ( on the clean side not the overdrive side) and try it then.
again, this 'clean' thing..... i have a 'gain' dial on the rumble and then a separate overdrive button which brings 'drive' and 'level' dials into play. level i think is obvious, it just balances the overdrive and non-overdrive out so that when the button is pressed it doesnt jump in volume, that right?
and do you mean play around with gain on full, but overdrive NOT engaged? is that what you mean by clean side? and if the gain was on full AND the overdrive button pressed in then that would be gain on the overdrive side?
thanks guys, always learning 🙂
again, this 'clean' thing..... i have a 'gain' dial on the rumble and then a separate overdrive button which brings 'drive' and 'level' dials into play. level i think is obvious, it just balances the overdrive and non-overdrive out so that when the button is pressed it doesnt jump in volume, that right?
and do you mean play around with gain on full, but overdrive NOT engaged? is that what you mean by clean side? and if the gain was on full AND the overdrive button pressed in then that would be gain on the overdrive side?
thanks guys, always learning 🙂
Yes basically.
the easiest way to picture it is this in simple ideas (hopefully)
The amplifier takes the signal from your bass and amplifies it. If you have a "clean" sound , the amp is taking the sound wave from your bass and just making it louder but the same shape. It does this in two stages, a "pre amp" stage and a "power amp" stage. Each amp will be able to do this a certain amount based on its power. - It does this within certain parameters based on the circuit. If the signal from your bass is too powerful for the circuit, it starts to "clip" the shape of the sound wave and change its shape, exactly how depends on the circuit. This produces the distorted or dirty sound and is mostly happening in the pre amp stage. The power of your bass signal is being regulated by the volume on the instrument, the power of the pickups, any pedals you are using and the pre amp stage in the amplifier.
Your rumble in effect has two seperate paralell pre amp stages, a clean side with the gain knob and an overdrive side with the level / overdrive knob. You switch between the two using the push switch. Both sides then go into the power amp stage which the master volume controls.
On the clean side, the gain knob controls how much you are pushing the signal and how much of the clipping you get as described above. The over drive does knob the same thing but with a set amount of gain automatically added by pushing the switch so there is lots of clipping even at the lowest end of the knob. the level knob lets you equalise the the volume of the two sides as you say so you can switch between them at the same volume. Master volume then controls the overall output volume.
Does that make sense?
Blend knobs - Because bass effects can make the tone muddy, it allows you to mix in an unprocessed signal with the one affected by the pedal meaning you can still hear the effect but retain some clarity by hearing an un-effected signal too.
Edit, typed too slowly and ceepers wrote a far better explanation then me, but here's mine anyway.
"Clean" simply refers to the signal coming straight out of the bass. You blend it in to the effect using the blend knob, if your pedal has one. (Yours does, it's the one labelled blend 😀 ) Gives you a range of tones from full clean to full effect. Very useful if you want to retain bottom end, as lots of drive pedals lose low frequencies.
Gain is more complex. It's like a signal boost, but separate from overall master volume. Gain controls the amount of signal going into an amp stage, where master controls the volume coming out. Both work in conjunction to give the overall volume but the way they interact affect tone, not just volume. You just need to experiment. I've said it before, none of this stuff is plug and play.
Oh, ignore what anyone tells you a bassist should be. You can make your sound anything you want. Royal Blood has no guitarist and look how they sound. Ned's Atomic Dustbin, no guitar players just two bassists. Camp Cope had a lead bassist not guitarist. Don't let the establishment hold you down!!!!!
haha, thank you very much guys. excellent explanations and much appreciated.
and too right clubby! 😀
Also see here……
( Robert smith is playing a 6 string bass on this clip but there is a video where he plays it on a 4 string precision. Can’t find it right now!)
"the inputs all seem to plug into the right hand side, outputs left"
Almost all pedals are like this because most players' leads come out of the right hand side of their bass/guitar. I still find it quite confusing because like most people in the western world, I read left to right but the signal flow on my pedals is right to left. Some amps are like this too - and that makes NO sense at all!
This is my current jam night board. It's running on three Paleblue 9V batteries (which look like a normal 9V but are LiOn that charge off a USB), plus a backup one with spare lead in case something goes flat (they have green and red indicator LEDs showing the state of charge).
The EQ is for chordal parts, when I'm playing bass more like a guitar or keyboard. Octron does sub-octave and fuzzy octave up, so there's a lot of different flavours from just three knobs and two switches. Envelope squelches or quacks or swells or subs or wahs etc. Both at once makes for some cool synthy sounds. You can hear it (and me) in action here on Friday (recording from last Thursday's jam): https://www.twfps.com/
