Re: Bass pedals
I use my guitar board for bass much like NoOnesFang13. From a Polytune 3, I go to an MXR M87 bass compressor (the Studio Comp is *exactly* the same, just black), then into a Nano Big Muff Pi feeding a Fulltone Clyde Deluxe. From there, signal hits a Hardwire Tube OD and Valve Distortion Jekyll-and-Hyde gain stack, then a Boss CEB-3 chorus, and finally a Neunaber Immerse MkII as one heckuva reverb pedal with a poor-man's delay.
Only thing that really changes in the whole rig are the settings. For bass, I back off the BMP's tone and gain, and boost bass in the OD/dist. Somewhere in this house full of boxes that were never fully unpacked, I have an ODB-3 and an LMB-3 from a much older pedal board, which would be a great start on a bass-only board along with the TU-2 and Hardwire reverb that I recently replaced with the PolyTune and Immerse.
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Update on this; between a work anniversary bonus and the government bribing the public with its own money, I've set up a bass-only board. I wasn't using half the stuff on the guitar board with a four- or five-string plugged in, so the smaller footprint of the dedicated board is easier to truck and more utilitarian for my bass needs, while the effects are bass-specific which reduces the need to crank low-end EQs to keep the bottom end in a TS-type OD or Plexi-ish distortion (and then have to set them back to more guitar-ish settings).
Current bass board:
1. Boss TU-2 Tuner
2. MXR M87 Bass Compressor
3. EHX Deluxe Bass Big Muff Pi Fuzz
4. Xotic EP Booster Clean Boost
5. EHX Bass Soul Food Light Overdrive
6. Wampler Low Blow Bass OD/Distortion
7. Digitech Hardwire RV-7 Reverb
Very gain-heavy; it's what I use most, I don't do a whole lot of modulation-type stuff on bass, though a chorus or phaser wouldn't go unused. The DBBMP is one heckuva pedal, incorporating a Sovtek-style "Green Russian" BMP with a continuously-variable dry blend, noise gate and HPF/LPF crossover to fine-tune your fuzz so it doesn't totally take over. Even when I'm not using the fuzz, I'll set it to 100% dry and keep it on to use the noise gate to lower the floor for other gain pedals.
The compressor and EP boost are always on as well, the comp for general dynamic reasons, while the EP boost warms up my active fivers and solid-state amp while allowing me to reduce the compressor's output gain to avoid noise there. The EP Boost also gives the Bass Soul Food a much-needed push; by itself, this vaguely Klon-ish circuit is basically a color boost up till at least noon on the dial, but the EP Boost juices the input enough that I get a fuller range of drive out of the knob.
I almost flipped the Soul Food back on to Reverb based on the disappointing amount of dirt available, but oh my gods, the
tone you get from this thing; edgy, raw, rough, "don't f*** with me" growl that drops in to any alt-rock hit of the last 30 years. Once I had that dialed in, I couldn't wipe the stink-face off my already-ugly mug until a half hour after I'd stopped playing.
The Low Blow is much more metal through most of its tone envelope; there's a pretty Burton-esque buzzsaw going in the high mids starting at about 10 o'clock on the gain dial that really doesn't filter or EQ back out without losing all the treble from your tone. It's perfect for pretty much anything thrash, but it takes a light touch on the controls to back it off for anything more subtle, which is another good reason to keep the Soul Food around.
The RV-7, I'm using more or less because I have it. It's not a bad reverb, but the Neunaber Immerse MkII is better for soaked-in-reverb ambient stuff that keeps me sane in these COVID-infested quarantine times. That kind of reverb doesn't work too well for most bass stuff anyway, so the RV-7 is set to a relatively subtle room tone, just backing my ears a bit from the amp in headphones and the odd recorded track.
There's one more pedal on the way, a cheap mini-size one-knob gate, which will go after either the DBBMP or the EP Booster (haven't decided yet, depends on where most of the remaining noise is) and do the gate-only job for clean or driven tones, so the DBBMP can be the fuzz it's supposed to be when I turn it on. I'm considering moving the CEB-3 Bass Chorus off the guitar board to the bass board, but I'm not sure what I'd replace it with on the guitar board. Maybe a Julia V2; she's looking as sexy as she sounds these days, but that's a lotta bux for a chorus (and the V1s aren't really any cheaper). Anyway, doesn't have to happen this month, or this year.
