Posted by Eric on December 03, 2003 at 21:33:58:
In Reply to: Electric bass effects? posted by Greg Guest on December 03, 2003 at 20:06:25:
I use electric bass effects with amplified tuba and occasionally with bass guitar. Mostly I need an effects pedal as a preamplifer for my amplifier and speakers, but the effects are fun too. I found the sound quality of Digitech pedals to be the best after trying them out in the store with an electric bass. Its far cheaper and easier to get a digital multi-effects pedal than to buy a seperate pedal for each effect.
I have a Digitech BP-8 for stage work and a Digitech BP-50 for my portable battery powered amplifier. The BP-8 was $300, the BP-50 was $80, and both sound basically the same. The difference is in the variety of effects, how many effects you can use at one time, and how much control you have over them. For instance, the EQ on the BP-8 is 4 band fully parametric whereas on the BP-50 it is simple 3-band bass midrange treble. Frankly, I would be perfectly happy with just the BP-50. It produces every effect I can imagine, and with the addition of an expression pedal does almost everything the BP-8 can (and the BP-8 does far too much). The BP-50 does eat 6 AA batteries every 20 hours, so a generic 9v wall adapter would be handy. It normally doesn't come with one and the official one is overpriced.
The octave effect is great for adding pipe organ bass to a brass quintet, assuming you have a good bass speaker and no staunch purists in the group. Get a cheap plastic karaoke mic, drop it down the bell, and enjoy the wonders of electric tuba!