Want to know about Bass Effects? Episode 5 of the Bass Tone podcast has you covered!

In this week’s podcast you’ll learn all about:

• Equalization (EQ), the cornerstone of a good effects chain
• Compression and Limiting to even out playing dynamics
• Multiband Compression
• Distortion, Overdrive and Fuzz Effects

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What’s your take on Bass FX? Special sauce or better off without ‘em? Let us know in the comments below!
And don’t forget to check out the recent “Bass Effects” article.

Traditionally, bass players didn’t use as many effects as guitarists, but I’m on a mission to change all that.

Used badly, bass effects can render your tone unsubtle and tiring to listen to, and result in you being totally lost in the mix. But use them well and you can achieve sonic nirvana and create brave new bass tones of your very own.

I think much of the bad rap comes from the terrible mess that guitar effects can make of a bass signal, but specialist bass manufacturers now make superb ranges of pedals, turning all that tradition on its head.

Boom and Bust

The place to start, before applying any effects, is your EQ. Setting the bass, mid and treble balance on your bass itself (or your amplifier) gives you control of the trade-off between articulation and low-end thump which is always key to a good bass tone. For example, dub bass calls for a thick, gloopy, neck pickup tone that will flap the bass bins and get the reggae girls bogling.

Players who favor high-register melodic or chording approach, like Chris Squire of the band Yes require a toppy sound without too much low end getting in the way of the speedy runs.

In this example I play a Sting style dub reggae riff with a dub tone, and then with a trebley tone

In the second example, I play an intricate and fast Chris Squire-style riff first with the dub tone, and then again with the trebly tone

As you can hear from that example, each tone suits a particular style of playing. There is no bass tone magic bullet!

Squish

Many bassists use a compressor or limiter. Unlike with guitar, which uses these to increase sustain and make picking sounds clean and level, on bass it is normally used to tame the percussion-like peaks that result from slap techniques.

A compressor (more precisely called a “dynamic range compressor”) is a device that Click to read the rest…

Missed part one? Catch up here.

Last time around we talked about the basics of amplifier distortion: What it is, where it came from and what it sounds like. Now it’s time to discuss the non-amp distortion gizmos out there that claim to be able to replicate the dirty sound of amplifier crunch. Bold claim! Can they do it? Let’s find out.

First, we need to define a few terms so that you aren’t flying blind! We have already established the 3 primary distortion-creating sections of an amp:

1. The pre-amp, consisting of the pre-amp tubes
2. The power amp consisting of the power tubes
3. Power tube compression and drive.

The basic functions of these 3 sections are as follows:

Pre-amp

This is where the input signal is shaped, EQ’d (most of the time – but there are exceptions!), and distorted to various degrees. Since this is the first stage only, pre-amp-only distortion is described as being raspy, over-compressed (due to the particular characteristics of the pre-amp tubes), and thin sounding in general.

Power amp

Click to read the rest…