Effects for "featuring" bass guitar?

[alex1fly]

If you're a guitarist that plays bass as well, or you play with a bassist that has some improvisation chops, you have probably wanted to highlight the bass playing at some point. Trade solos, put the bassist in the spotlight for a minute, things like that. What kinds of signal chain manipulation lends itself well to featuring the bassist? I'm thinking nothing too wild, but something that will get the bass a little more punch, brightness, and cut through a mix.

My go-to is to have the bass guitar volume and tone down at 8 or so as a default, and then punch both up to 10 (or 11) for the solo. This adds a bit of extra volume and high end which translates to a little more cut over the guitars, drums, etc.

Any other ideas or successful methods for doing this?

 

[Adieu]

Light distortion, like a bit of Boss DS-1

 

[jeremy]

the bass player in one of my bands has a decent sized pedal board, he steps on an eq pedal when he wants to stand out. he has a fancy programable one but any should do a similar trick

 

[Mincer]

A wah helps, too.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

If I want a lead tone on my Warwick, I solo the bridge pickup. Just like on a guitar, it cuts a lot of low end and is more mid focused.

I’m a really big fan of the EHX Bassballs, too. It’s like a fuzz and envelope filter in one, and it’s brain dead simple to use. Play pretty much anything and it sounds awesome.

 

[Chris Pile]

I never used anything but a phase shifter for funk and a flanger for rock.

 

[Erlend_G]

I never used anything but a phase shifter for funk and a flanger for rock.

Never even tried a reefer? lol XD

(just kidding)

 

[Chris Pile]

Nope. Dope is for dopes. I'm a razor's edge kinda guy.

 

[Erlend_G]

Nope. Dope is for dopes. I'm a razor's edge kinda guy.

allright. All respect to peoples own choices here in life...

But I dig that song by Muddy Waters- "Give me champagne when I'm thirsty; bring me a reefer when I want to get high".

Sorry for OT...

....

Back to topic:


Best effects I ever had for bass guitar, was the EHX Bass Big Muff. It had a blend control, a "dry trough" separate jack- and gave the fattest bass fuzz tones I've ever heard . Too bad I lost it- as I lost everything; :/

 

[jeremy]

not too many 15 bar blues out there

 

[alex1fly]

Great. Thanks for the tips!

 

[Demanic]

If the bass has active pickups and the transition isn't too fast, you can just set the amp up with the volume on the bass at half, then just roll it up to full for the part that you want to stand out.

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[GuitarStv]

Whenever I hear a good bass player kick on an envelope filter it makes me sit up and pay attention.

 

[alex1fly]

Whenever I hear a good bass player kick on an envelope filter it makes me sit up and pay attention.

What is it about the envelope filter that catches your attention? I too like the sound, just wondering what the je-ne-sais-quoi is for you (if you can describe it).

If the bass has active pickups and the transition isn't too fast, you can just set the amp up with the volume on the bass at half, then just roll it up to full for the part that you want to stand out.

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Does it have to be actives? Couldn't the level trick be done with passives too?

 

[jeremy]

yes, but passives usually have a tonal change as well where actives tend to be more consistent through the sweep

 

[GuitarStv]

What is it about the envelope filter that catches your attention? I too like the sound, just wondering what the je-ne-sais-quoi is for you (if you can describe it).

To me, the frequency sweep seems to really make the bass pop out from the background. That and I love me some funk!

 

[eclecticsynergy]

My go-to for years has been the Tech21 Programmable Bass Driver. Sounds good, and has been utterly reliable.
Has an XLR direct out (so backline amps don't affect my tone going out front).
The really handy thing is, you can program three completely different presets.

 

[Demanic]

What is it about the envelope filter that catches your attention? I too like the sound, just wondering what the je-ne-sais-quoi is for you (if you can describe it).




Does it have to be actives? Couldn't the level trick be done with passives too?

I suppose, I just think that it's more dramatic with actives.

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[mkhtfld76]

Does it have to be actives? Couldn't the level trick be done with passives too?[/QUOTE]

If you wanna use a passive bass put a boost in front of the filter (i use an old BossGEB-7 bass eq in front of my filter mainly for the boost when using my jazz bass because its just the easiest way to get optimal performance from the filter when using passive basses. Its easier to boost the signal than it is to get a filter to react to a bass with a weak signal. Even if you dial the filter in to the passive bass you its not going to quack like it would with a little nudge on the front. I have owned dozens of envelope filters and have a bunch of different basses. Love my passive ones but will never use a filter with one without a boost on the signal. Source Audio Spectrum filter is a phenominal filter pedal,btw.

Sent from my SM-T590 using Tapatalk

 

[Securb]

I have a Cliff Burton Fuzz Wah I use