you’re going to be surprised how far that setup can take you.
2 Likes
although @howard solution is the cheapest and cleanest if you really want a pedal solution to solve this you just need a pedal with two channels. doesn’t really matter what, although it will need to be an always on pedal so a preamp or compressor would make sense. set channel one gain for bass a, channel 2 gain for bass b. you can level match them with a spl meter, a phone app will work. put it last in the chain.
edit: a 2 channel preamp would usually have a clean channel and a dirty one, so that might not work. quite honestly a very easy way to do this would be to get two identical and cheap mini boost pedals and put them side by side on your board.
3 Likes
$50
actually what am I thinking (it’s early Saturday morning). you would only need one of these, to kick on when you’re playing whichever bass needs a boost. duh. but again, realize this is just a volume knob you control with your foot instead of with your fingers on your bass as Howard said. the only advantage I could see with this is you could get the level exactly right with the pedal and never touch it again. while with the bass volume knob you’re probably going to at some point be changing it and will need to remember the exact position to set it back to. now I’m laughing because I have 6 basses and I’m imagining putting 5 of these in a row on my board 
6 Likes
I’m sure of that.
I might just add a dedicated compressor to the chain.
1 Like
I’m compressor shopping atm. So far, the Empress is winning.
2 Likes
I have one of these for other reasons, but this would work. Set both “volume knobs, lol” and then just press the pedal.
Basically a very flexible mixer in a pedal form.
7 Likes
yep and I bet it’s dirt cheap too
2 Likes
If you’re looking for ideas, try out the octave effects. A higher octave kind of sounds like a guitar playing along with your bass line. A lower octave creates all kinds of mayhem that sounds like an organ.
Reverb is nice, but a little goes a long way. Too much reverb and things can get real muddy.
Chorus and Envelope Filters are both fun to play around with.
My recommendation is to take each of these effects one at a time and play to the effect, like your playing a whole new instrument. Once your comfortable, then start combining them. I always start off with turning everything to its most extreme and adding in too many effects (I get excited that way) but this is rarely, if ever, the best way to go about it. Mostly, try using the effect to add a little something extra and see what inspires you.
The dirt options on the Zoom are functional, but don’t expect to be wowed by them. It’s a great device for learning what you do and don’t want.
If you find an effect you really like but it isn’t quite giving you what your looking for, that’s when I would say to try out an individual pedal for that sound. There are plenty of people that give recommendations.
Lastly, I wouldn’t focus too much on the presets. They’re pretty extreme and designed to show off what the pedal can do, not what you want it to do.
Good luck Jerry! I look forward to seeing what effects catch your interest.
2 Likes
I had an empress and eventually sold it. a really great pedal and I love the led meters. but to my ears anyway 
it wasn’t exactly what I would consider neutral. it was adding some warmth that wasn’t what I was looking for, ymmv. a ton of people love it. I went with a DG hyperluminal.
3 Likes
@sunDOG This was going to be my suggestion also. The GEB-7 Boss Bass EQ has six sliders for EQ and a seventh slider for boost. I like it because it’s doing double duty for the amount of space it takes up.
The LS-2 would work. It’s a great utility pedal.
The Spark would work too. It’s well loved and it’s cheap!
The hard part with some of this is, there’s not just one way to solve most problems. For instance, if you’re planning to add a DI to your board, You might be better off getting a preamp with DI. The DI will still work whether the pedal is engaged or not and when you switch basses you can engage the preamp for boost and EQ adjustment.
2 Likes
I thought the Tone+Color switch on the Empress was neutral when in the center position. Was that not your experience?
2 Likes
still sounded colored to me 
3 Likes
Each patch on the Stomp can have several snapshots too. It would be fairly trivial to set up a snapshot for one bass and another snapshot for a second bass within the same patch. Just use the right snapshot based on which instrument you are playing. Or another complete set of patches, or whatever. Sky’s the limit, tons of flexibility.
4 Likes
That looks really interesting. Like, really really interesting. My biggest question right off the bat, with the USB interface on it would be, is it an analog? I’m trying to avoid blending analog / digital as much as possible. Having them both on the board seems like it can introduce extra noise (which tbh, the ISO power brick should solve anyway).
2 Likes
I really liked my DG Super Symmetry. Too bad I sold it long ago. Oh well 
2 Likes
Thanks for the info Eric!
1 Like
LS-2 is a great pedal. I would use it more for routing multiple effects loops instead, but yes, it would be a (very complicated) solution to this problem as well.
I guess what I am not understanding is the aversion to simply using the volume knob right by your hand on the bass, as there will definitely be a volume/gain knob involved somewhere regardless 
1 Like
It probable is! This is something I see as a virtue though
Haha, I did the opposite.
Kinda.
Although the HL is awesome, it wasn’t as intuitive for me and, really colored the tone IMO. I LOVE the empress’ LEDs and ease of use. I don’t notice any coloring of tone, but also don’t use it as much, it’s on my mini-board. My main board compressor is the OE Cali-76 TX-L. What a pedal!
3 Likes
1176, solid classic
Definitely not tonally neutral, but that’s not a bad thing.
1 Like