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What would be on your ultimate bass pedal board?


HazBeen
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There must have been a million similar topics on a plethora of forums on the subject so my topic is not very original, that said hopefully the responses to it will be more usable than other topics I have seen on the subject. I think this one adds a little twist with that goal in mind and hopefully will help people looking to build a board to zero in on a number of cool pedals that are highly usable in the real world.

In an ideal world we would all have roadies to lug magnum sized pedal board solution around for us, but the fact is that most of us are limited to a Pedaltrain 2/3 size board which means you can fit max 15 pedals (assuming they are Boss sized) on your board. With this limitation in mind, what would your ideal board look like?

What (and roughly in what order) would you have on your board and why, what would you power it with etc. Really interested to see what people have to say and will provide my own insights.

After about 10 years of buying and selling stuff actually I am pretty happy where I am currently but my ideal board would pretty much be (I am about 85-90% there... smile....):
Bass > SFX MXR M87 Bass Compressor > Gig Rig Quartermaster 8 (Loop 1 = Sonic Research Turbo Tuner, Loop 2 = MXR Bass Octave Deluxe, Loop 3 = Carl Martin Bass Tube Overdrive, Loop 4 = COG Grand Tarkin, Loop 5 = Darkglass B3K/B7K, Loop 6 = MXR Bass Envelope OR 3 Leaf Groove Regulator (don't know which one I prefer), Loop 7 = Iron Ether Subterranea, Loop 8 = EBS Unichorus OR MXR Bass Chorus Deluxe) > Custom Audio Booster.

11 pedals including the Quartermaster that can do what I need in any setting I can think of.

MXR M87: I tend to stick compressors at the front of the chain, it clean and fattens the original signal nicely and I prefer the MXR M87 over all compressor pedals I have tried
Quartermaster: is a no brainer, it is light, super quality and prevents signal degradation
Sonic Research: have my tuner in a loop as I want ito at least have the option to chose if I want to mute or not whilst tuning, Sonic Research pedal picks up the pitch so quickly it is not funny
Bass Octave Deluxe: love the tracking and most importantly the mid switch to cut through the mix (I emulate analogue synths a lot with OD+Octaver+Envelope and the mid button makes a big difference)
Carl Martin: not very popular but for me it is the perfect Tube Drive pedal with a very good EQ section and I use it to add a little girth to my tone and to push my tube amp
Grand Tarkin: I have a bit of a fuzz fetish, the Grand Tarkin is the best Muff based design for me for 2 reasons, 1. the blend works as an actual blend between dirt and clean instead of layering one on the other and 2. controllable mids baby :)
Darkglass B3K: Up till now the best high gain pedal for bass, full stop.
MXR or 3 Leaf: Probably have a slight preference for the MXR, not the best sounding or most original envelope pedal design, but one of the most flexible so I can use 1 pedal to create a lot of different envelope effects. I place it behind the dirt pedals because they change the response and character or the pedal
Iron Ether Subterranea: this pedal defies proper description, it is an analogue synth pedal in many ways but is not overly cool when used stand alone. Pair it with an envelope pedal and an OD and it is one of the most musical sounding analogue synths I have played
Bass Chorus: probably slight preference for MXR again (they are making some good stuff nowadays aren't they)
Custom Audio Booster: I have tried many boost pedals, this one does exactly what I want and is not overly expensive

All powered by Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2's.

Who's next :)

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For the bass sound that I want, it's an octaver into a filter splitter that splits the lows to a clean channel & the rest go through distortion then into a low pass filter & topped with a dollop of chorus.

So that's Boss OC3, Moog MF105b, PSK SDS2, Moog MF101 & Boss CE2. There's also a routing pedal that I made that is an fx loop & 2 channel mixer which allows me to switch the OC3, MF105b & the SDS2 all on/off at once.

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On top of what I already have I would add -

Univox Super Fuzz
Wren and Cuff The Caprid
Ampeg Scrambler
Boss CS-2
Wren and Cuff Phat Phuk B
Tech 21 Boost Chorus
Tronographic Rusty Box
Catalinbread SFT
Digitech Bass Whammy
DOD Meatbox
Iron Ether Nimbus
Pigtronix Mothership
Strymon Timeline

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[quote name='Mexicola' timestamp='1394038143' post='2387241']
On top of what I already have I would add -

Univox Super Fuzz
Wren and Cuff The Caprid
Ampeg Scrambler
Boss CS-2
Wren and Cuff Phat Phuk B
Tech 21 Boost Chorus
Tronographic Rusty Box
Catalinbread SFT
Digitech Bass Whammy
DOD Meatbox
Iron Ether Nimbus
Pigtronix Mothership
Strymon Timeline
[/quote]

yup, that'll do it!!

I've been buying and selling pedals a long time now, and my current board does exactly what I want, and I wouldn't change / upgrade any of the 6 pedals on my board. BUT, I would certainly like a big drawer of pedals at home and the list above is pretty close to what I'd plump for (I'd add an old EHX microsynth, a pearl OC-7 and a couple of moogs, probably the filter and the ring mod. Don't need another chorus though)... hours of fun :)

Edited by GazWills
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Pedal train mini to start (which I got off OP Harry :)) ... 3Leaf Enabler (as preamp/DI) Darkglass B3K ... that's all I have so far but Soundblox Oribital Mod & Boss LS-2 to switch between two effects are next on wish list .. prob start with a tuner Warwick Rocktuner looks ok (does low A) ... maybe a Thumpinator as well ..... :)

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In - MXR m82 bef - Verellen meatsmoke preamp - MXR m87 bc - out

Verellen rec out to tuner.


The comp is last in the chain because the envelope filter and preamp are sensitive to attack.

Effect-GAS free \0/

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  • 2 weeks later...

Combining what's been on my board for ages now with a few choice upgrades:[list]
[*][b]Polytune[/b] (need - currently got a Pitchblack)
[*][b]G-Lab Wowee Bass Wa[/b]h (need)
[*][b]Team Awesome Fuzz Machine[/b] (got)
[*][b]Catalinbread SFT / Solidgold FX Beta[/b] (got - undecided which I like best, maybe use both :scratch_one-s_head: )
[*][b]COG Grand Tarkin[/b] (need - currently using a BBM)
[*][b]Boss ODB-3[/b] (got - not got the greatest rep, but all the haters have obviously never tried it with a BB or Stingray into a valve amp and sealed cab :biggrin: )
[*][b]Earthquaker Devices Speaker Cranker[/b] (got - nice dirty boost, replaced my Phat Phuk B )
[*][b]MXR Carbon Copy[/b] (got - just used for oscillation :crazy:, so could substitute with a Malekko delay or something else wild sounding)
[*][b]Blackout Effectors Whetstone Phaser[/b] (need - to replace my Small Stone)
[/list]

Oh, and a VT Bass if I have to go direct!

Edited by dannybuoy
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