What 4 'indispensable' effects

[Hamster]

I have quite a few pedals - too many in fact! If I'm honest I don't tend to use much more than an octaver, compressor, chorus and distortion and the rest is just 'board candy' or gathering dust in my music room.

Generally I expect funk players to have a synth or auto-wah, metal players to have distortion, slap players to have compression etc, so .............

Presuming that a tuner is pedal number 5 - what other 4 pedals/effects should never leave your board/rack?

[dudewheresmybass]

as you say, the answer to this question is what style are you playing?

for worship stuff, i need to cover a lot of sounds, so my board is quite expansive.(approx. 10 plus tuner)
for Rock - drive into fuzz (with DI/pre according to venue)
for funkier things - qtron, wah, a drive, and comp (occaisionally a flanger too - but that would make five!)
for jazz - chorus / flange, comp.

[bobbass4k]

Definitley depends on the music, my delay and whammy are never leaving my board (when i get a board, at the moment they're never leaving my floor) but most players don't need a whammy, for my music (weird noise/post/experimental/dance/stoner/doom/space/rock/metal/punk....even i dont know what the hell i play) the big 4 are: Whammy, delay, overdrive/fuzz (lets just say dirt), and my feedback looper if it counts

When i say delay is never leaving my board, i mean my dd-20 is never leaving my board, to be honest i can't remember the last time i used it for straight delay, but i use it for soundscapes, and weird effects, and i love it to bits, i probably wouldn't use a bog standard delay

The big 4 i think all effects players should have: od/fuzz (dirt), chorus, compression, some kind of filter/wah, mainly cos they're all straight effects that can be worked into a regular line and still sound good, not make the effect the focus (like delay or whammy), just compliment the sound

[Hamster]

Ummmmm, perhaps tighten the question down then?

Ok, what is the [i]main [/i]music style you play, and what 4 pedals would never leave your board?

Edited February 22, 2009 by Hamster

[Boneless]

Many would say that you don't need any.
A comp, probably, can be useful though. I'd say a tuner is indispensable, but does it count as an effect?

Personally, I use many effects, I like using them. I have a comp, two drives and a distortion in my pedal board, a chorus, a volume pedal (this may be very useful indeed to make quick volume changes while playing), a preamp/modeler, and I plan to add a homemade line selector/blender/boost in a few days (a blender is VERY useful with drives, since you can blend the wet signal with the dry one, thus preserving lows even with drives that tend to cut lows), and probably a digital multiFX unit (probably the Yamaha Magicstomp, probably the best cheap multiFX unit, old, but still better than most units I've tried in that price range) for all those effects I plan on using maybe once in a while, not enough to spend money on dedicated units (ie. reverb, delay, flanger, phaser, octaver, etc.).

[EskimoBassist]

I play Alternative/Rock with my band Eskimo Sandwich.

Assuming we can have that nice tuner as number 5

I would have to say:
Compressor: EBS MultiComp
Overdrive: Boss ODB-3
Fuzz: Bass Big Muff
Octaver: Boss OC-3

But even as a stripped down board I would also need my CEB-3 Chorus, WOBO Dual Looper and my MXR M-80 D.I.

So I guess I lose the game as that's 8!

[dangerboy]

When I have very little carrying capacity, and I'm playing with art/noise/post/alt rock band Songs From The Shows (www.myspace.com/songsfromtheshows), I take:

Preamp pedal (Tronographic Rusty Box)
Distortion (home-made fuzz)
'Screamer' (Fuzz Factory or Devi Ever Soda Meiser)
Cheapo analogue delay

Edited February 23, 2009 by dangerboy

[ahpook]

ok...for playing with eat lights (drone/krautrock/noise), mine would be:

mxr micro amp
owen gremlin bass overdrive
hbe hematoma
ebs microbass

[Finbar]

Hmm. Toughie.

I play alternative rock. Its kind of post hardcore, I guess? Maybe? These aren't necessarily the 4 most musical pedals I have, and there are things like my chorus pedal that I leave on all the time but I could play without. But if I was to say that our set would go badly without 4 of my pedals, I would probably go with:

Clean boost - tapping needs moar to cut through sometimes
Whammy pedal - we use the harmony functions a lot
Distortion - chords sound poopty clean
Looper - we make noise.

Probably not what most people would go for.

[umph]

i use quite a few effects but i reckon i could survive with
distortion - tonebender clone
chorus - axl cheapo one - does a great range of sounds
octave - micro pog for octave up and down
delay - ps-3

if i could have more i could do with some envelope filters to ;< i play post metally stuff

[joegarcia]

My main project is kind of stoner rock sort of stuff and I'd probably strip down to:

Blackstar HT-Dual (two channels, so can cover overdrive and distortion)
Foxrox Octron
Messdrive or Russian Big Muff for fuzz
EHX Memory Man with Hazarai

But I would really miss my Marshall Guvnor, Snarling Dogs Mold Spore and Bugbrand Weeviliser Extreme.

[Rich]

I would say it's pretty much the ones you say you're using... octaver, compressor, chorus and distortion. A good synth pedal is a worthy addition. It'd be my one of the four, as my compression is in the rack.

[xgsjx]

Good shout on starting this topic. Helps identify what's most used for different styles of music (states the obvious ).
I play a mixture of styles but mainly rock so I like the idea of using a compressor & an octaver & might get use from a chorus too.
Just now I only have a filter & a MuRF (which does do some very convincing chorus like effects and has great analogue distortion) but fancy building some pedals such as BYOC.

Edited February 23, 2009 by xgsjx

[cheddatom]

I play fairly heavy alternative rock music. I would die if I could only gig with 4 pedals!!!

Having said that....

Barge Concepts blender/feedback loop thingy
Zvex Wah Probe (or one of my other wahs, but this is my favorite)
EQ Pedal
Ibanez SS10 or whatever my weird distortion/chorus box is called.

I need to be able to have two different levels of overdrive, so the EQ would give me that. A gig without digital delay would be frustrating though.

[DanOwens]

With the Waits-style project:

Moogerfooger Low Pass
OC2 Octaver
Mammoth Fuzz
DL4 Delay

But thinking about it, if my board was stolen, I'd happily gig without any of them. But that defeats the purpose of this thread.

Dan

[bassicinstinct]

TU2 > BBE Opto Stomp > Boss OC2 > SABDDI.

[Adrenochrome]

1. Flanger
2. Compression
3. Overdrive (Marshall amp model)
4. Chorus

...but I also use the Octaver on my amp very occasionally.

[rbatts2000]

Can I cheat and say my Zoom B2 multi-effects pedal? After all, it is only one pedal (and it even includes the tuner!)

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

1. Behringer cheap-as-chips pedal limiter/enhancer.

er... that's it.

I never bother taking any of my other pedals to gigs. If I wanted to make funny noises instead of a solid groove I'd have been a geetarist or keybored player.

... ducks for cover

[Dr.Dave]

Indispensible. I'd hate to think I couldn't do my gig if a few FX pedals went tits up.

However - 4 things that are handy that aren't a bass and an amp (though I've cracked on a few times without an amp)

Tuner - though we should all know how to tune without one

Compressor - makes us less human but more consistent

Chorus - now there's pretty when we don't over do it

Reverb - brings the dead back to life in certain circumstances

[dannybuoy]

For me, I can get away with using these as the essentials:

1. Preamp / Amp Sim (VT Bass) - makes my Markbass amp sound like an old school Ampeg, and is great for sending an amp-like tone to the PA, or putting into the FX return to bypass the preamp of crap amps

2. Overdrive (modded Bad Monkey) - essential for tunes that need a bit more grit, or for boosting choruses/solos etc

3. Fuzz (Supercollider Beast) - for when something more than light grit is required, and for creating noise loops with the oscillators

4. Delay (SMMH) - Used for a bit of delay/reverb in ambient parts, and for creating noise/drone loops with the Supercollider. It can also be used for chorus/flanger sounds.


I also have a Wolly Mammoth clone, Tonefactor 442 Filter, Boss OC-2 Octave and CE2-B Bass Chorus which are great for using with the above to make synth sounds for shits and giggles.

[Hamster]

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='417317' date='Feb 23 2009, 12:34 PM']... ducks for cover [/quote]

That's quite a unique use for a duck - does the drummer throw them bits of bread?

[Lfalex v1.1]

[quote name='Hamster' post='417628' date='Feb 23 2009, 05:42 PM']That's quite a unique use for a duck - does the drummer throw them bits of bread?[/quote]

Let me guess, he uses grissini for sticks?

My 4 (as a non FX user)

Overdrive
Chorus
Flanger
Delay

Last two with a Tap Tempo function.

[thisnameistaken]

Octave, fuzz, filter, pitch-tracking oscillator.

But a wet/dry blend control is useful sometimes.

I mostly play hip-hop and funk-influenced electronic music.

Edited February 23, 2009 by thisnameistaken

[clauster]

Pretty much just a compressor/limiter for me, maybe with something else for a bit of grind once I've found a pedal I really like (possibly the VT bass, but I also want to try the tone Hammer). If I've got to add two more then chorus and delay/looper.