Anyone ever run their Bass DI BEFORE their effects?

[Falloffthebonetone]

Like in the front of their chain?

The reasoning would be to have a consistent bass tone running to the board and PA while you run the effects into your onstage amp to layer the sound more: usually to prevent low end loss or extreme volume changes in overall sound that are too dramatic.

Everyone I know usually puts it at the end of it all so that all of the effects come through the PA as well and that makes perfect sense, but I'm thinking of changing it up.

Planning on getting another DI pedal for the front of my chain while I keep my MXR bass di at the end, so I can run out of the one in front for when I want a consistent underlying tone or through the MXR for when I want all the effects coming through.

Between this I'll have a wah and a bass whammy, and I also think it would be cool to have another overdrive/distortion di so that I could have the grit before the effects, after them, or even both for different textures. Maybe dial the first one up for a slight and relatively neutral overdrive and then the one at the end for more aggressive distortion for parts that need the extra cut.

I also suppose there would be occasions where I could go out from both of them instead of just choosing one?

So I'm wondering if this is a good or common enough idea. Would it be bass over kill or too subtle since the effects wouldn't be running through the PA?

[James Rock]

Re: Anyone ever run their Bass DI BEFORE their effects?

This would work if the bass cab had a line out or the engineer miced the cab, something that would be awesome for FOH. Definately bass players FX through the PA can be a pain, low end drops out sometimes, volume difference and a big one I find is that certain fuzz pedals sound awful through the PA without an amp and speakers. It depends how important FX are but if both is possible or if the PA only adds a little extra bass and most of the tone is from the amp it would work otherwise get the engineer to stick a left over mic (57, 58 or kick mic) on the bass cab and DI before FX that way you have clean bass signal that is compressed and EQ on the desk to sound good and then a less hifi fx signal that can be blended to increase the effect of a fuzz or chorus as long as the engineer checks phase and knows what he/she is doing. Also depends how much of the WAH effect and pitch shift you want probably putting them first before the DI if they are important for the played part they are on for (example funky wah riff).

[crguti]

Re: Anyone ever run their Bass DI BEFORE their effects?

In some places the amp is just for stage monitoring so it is not loud. Most of your sound will come from the PA and that is the sound the crowd will listen. So if you use effects, run your DI post effects.

[Falloffthebonetone]

Re: Anyone ever run their Bass DI BEFORE their effects?

Thanks for those responses guys. I'm new to the world of DI pedals. I usually just go through the one in my amp.

Well, my cab has 2 parallel inputs and a speakon, so no line out from there. My amp does though.

So maybe a Sansamp or MXR in front and then that goes to the board for a mostly clean sound with just a little bit of dirt and scoop, then have the rest of the effects into the amp that is dialed in for a dirtier and more mid focused signal with the effects, both coming through the house. Then I have my amp on stage basically as a monitor that moves more sound.

I typically use a rack tuner and my bass is not one to come out of tune often, but if I wanted to mute everything to tune properly, chances are I'm going to have to ditching the rack tuner for a pedal that'll mute everything to tune and run THAT before everything. Otherwise just muting my amp the way I have been won't stop the DI pedal from sending the sound through. Unless I'm missing something.