Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

I have a EH small clone that I built from byoc... it's analog. very dark. it is the exact sound at the beginning of smells like teen spirit - for reference.

I have a boss ce-5... very versitile... not analog, hence the really nice highs... ppul oft use them for keyboards on account of the range. this might work nice on a six string bass.

I'm going to build a boss ce-2 soon... it's analog... many consider it the best chorus ever made. I've played an original ($300!!!) and I'm sold.

boss is fet buffered, EH is true bypass. both have advantages.

for versatility sake... I'd lean towards the boss... but the eh will be a much more noticeable effect.

I say buy them both then buy a digitech too then buy an eventide 3000 just for the chorus... but don't stop there...

Yo, mike, I always find your posts to be very informative.

I haven't had very much luck using guitar effects with a bass. Why is that? Perhaps this should be in its own thread, but I'm curious about the reasons why...

It SEEMS like, if you're sending a signal through a certain set of signal warpers, as it were, that it shouldn't matter what kind of signal you're sending. But the reality is, that the effects don't work the same across the board for guitar, bass, keys & voice...thus you get the separate guitar & bass effects pedals...

I would guess that this is because of the different frequencies that bass and guitar have. Bass effects would need to compliment the lower frequencies and harmonics while guitar works better with more of the mids and highs. It's like taking an eq that has the mids and highs pulled out. Run a bass through it and it will still sound ok, but a guitar would sound terrible. I'm sure they take frequency response into account when developing a pedal for a certain instrument.

Yo, mike, I always find your posts to be very informative.

I haven't had very much luck using guitar effects with a bass. Why is that? Perhaps this should be in its own thread, but I'm curious about the reasons why...

It SEEMS like, if you're sending a signal through a certain set of signal warpers, as it were, that it shouldn't matter what kind of signal you're sending. But the reality is, that the effects don't work the same across the board for guitar, bass, keys & voice...thus you get the separate guitar & bass effects pedals...

I have had issuses before with some of the higher frequency pedals not coming through on my bass (thats why i limited it down to HMX and Boss, becuase for the most part I havent had an issue with them)

I use the HMX Little Big Muff Pi and Metal Muff (for tour) becuase they respond quite well to bass. Most bass pedals I have used just seem like they dont perform as well as guitar pedals do, or dont offer enough features

One of the best pedals I've ever heard for Bass is the Aphex Exciter Big Bottom pedals. Freaking phenomenal. Really brings a Bass rig to life.

Yo, mike, I always find your posts to be very informative.

I haven't had very much luck using guitar effects with a bass. Why is that?

thanks philby, I'm flattered.

afa why do I think you can't hear bass fx as much... a number of things come to mind...

when u r talking about dist for instance... there is almost always a mechanism for cutting off the freq at which dist will be added... and this means that you almost always really do need a specific model that is customized to place that shelf at a lower freq for bass... otherwise only the top end will distort...
always look for a 'fat' switch... this is often a 'bypass' of the cap that sets the freq at which you effect the signal and means the effect will likely work the sm on bass as on gtr.

in answer to the idea that given a proper 'bass model' effect, why can't we hear the effect as apparently...

flangers, for instance, are typically designed to oscillate 'around' a certain freq... we've all heard the up and down noise assoc w flangers... I think a possible explanation for why you can't hear this as well on a bass is that a bass gtr operates at a very low freq as it is... most have a harder time hearing things this low... it may be beyond our threshold to hear as it is... then add a flanger going even lower.

not sure I made any sense there but... it's my best stab at it.