Pedalemma

totally OK with that. I’m pretty much into overdrive too :grin: and I never felt the need for a noise gate, even with a guitar (which is often WAY MORE overdriven than a bass).

by the way, and if you really want a noise gate @PamPurrs, you might be interested to know that the best one I ever tried is the ISP Decimator.

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1 - Boss NS-2
—TC Electronics Sentry
—EHX The Silencer
2 - Boss BC-1X
----San June Optical Compressor G8-cp
or if you are using Dyna Comp in the B3n,
----MXR Dnya Comp Bass
----MXR Bass Compressor
----Keeley Bassist Limiting Amplifier
3 - I am shopping reverb pedals and, well, I will explain below.

1 - Noise Gate. There are 2 types from my research (which is not hugely extensive, but, eh, FWIW). 1 - a pedal that goes in your chain, and you set a threshold, a level to you don’t hear the hiss and static noise. This often sucks your tone of the pedals, and you may need to adjust them up much higher to use them effectively.
second, there is a pedal that LOOPS your pedals thru it before they go into the rest of your chain and the amp.
So the first gate effects ALL of your pedals in the chain (or All the ones After it, I have not tested these types of pedals, only watched reviews)
The second type, you can select which pedals you want to use the noise gate on, and the rest are unaffected.
This second type is really good IMO and IME. So I loop ONLY the noisy pedals thru the Gate, the Compressors and Drive / Distortion / Fuzz. I set the level of the gate, when the pedals are on. I set it to where it just stops the HISS / STATIC when I am not playing anything, but as soon as I play a note, the gate is open and everything passes thru. All my modulation pedals (which would be your Reverb) do not go thru the gate, only your Tube Screamer and Compression Pedal would go thru the gate. Since the Compression and Drive pedals play into your overall VoLuME, it is pretty easy to get everything set up right, and the gate only is killing the sound while you are not playing notes. Believe me, this is so nice, since I keep my bass around my neck, plugged in all the time, like when I am sitting typing this. It is also especially nice if you ever practice with headphones thru your pedals, thru your amp, it is so nice to have silence when you are not playing.
THIS IS A PEDAL I WILL NEVER GET RID OF, AND. IT WILL ALWAYS BE ON.
The only exception to that rule would be if I were playing a large venue, that was much louder (between songs) then the hiss / static ever would be, and I would be going to the sound board anyway, and they have their own gates. Chances of this happening are pretty slim

The TC Electronics Sentry and the EHX The Silencer look like fine options.

2 - Compression pedal This Boss BASS COMP BC-1X is outstanding. it is a state of the art, brand new technology pedal (it won’t be on the list @howard showed you, only because that guy stopped doing it in 2018, before this pedal showed up. however, he does list the Boss Limiter LMB as one of the top budget compressor pedals, and I am sure he would have rated this much higher). I will again, put examples below of my compressors
2nd
is the SAN JUNE optical compressor. I lucked out finding this $66 pedal. I fell in love with this pedal within about 3 minutes. it is everything I could ever want in a compressor. I got it before I arranged a trade for the Boss Bass Comp pedal (I can’t believe that this person traded it to me for what I gave him, but he offered the pedal for mine, I didn’t ask, so I don’t feel any guilt).
After playing with the San June, I started thinking that this pedal was equal to, or a copy of some pretty incredible compressors. The Keeley Bassist, limiting amplifier, and the MXR Bass Optical Compressor, and others like the Lamplighter. etc…
I then started reading the reviews on this pedal, and others, that had The Bassist, or the MXR, compared it to them, saying it was every bit as good, if not better. One guy even said it was almost as good as Studio Rack compressors, like the 160, which is a $2000 compressor. Again, I can’t speak highly enough of this compressor. I am not a pedal guru, but compression is one that I have played with, used and researched quite a bit, and not just in the last 6 months, I was a compression geek back when I played guitar, and I am also a compression geek when it comes to home theater audio and such. I am not the best at technical explanation about it, but I understand it enough to be able to stand by my compressor recommendations.
For me to recommend one of the two, over the other is hard, it depends on who is using it and for what.
#1, my San June (which I kept, AFTER, getting the Boss Bass Comp, when I could have sent it back for a full refund) is my ALWAYS on compressor, IT, and my Noise Gate remain on, weather I am playing clean, or overdriving my sound, distorting it, fuzzing it, modulating it (reverb, chorus, Delay, etc…). it is always on, unless
#2, the Boss Bass Comp. This is compression with extra UMPH. Many compressors sort of DULL the signal, which can be altered thru the rest of the chain, but they kind of can take some LIFE out of your tone. Some muddy the tone, and other types of compression (which IMO and IME are better for guitar) try to add life back in by sustaining the signal. My San June does not muddy or dull it at all, it is a subtle evening out of the signal, bringing the loud plucks down and the low plucks up so they are very even.
The Boss does just that, but it adds life back into the signal, not really adds, but it allows the passion of the playing to be heard, while it evens out the dynamic range. you can really hear how the Boss sounds SO ALIVE in this sample.
so, I leave my San June on all the time, unless I switch over to my Boss, but I have even tested and played with them both on, and it sounds pretty damn good that way too. I WILL SAY, WITH BOTH COMPRESSORS ON, THE NOISE GATE IS VERY NECESSARY, THE TWO COMBINE FOR A REALLY LOUS HISS. that said, just one is pretty hissy as well.

Clean

San June Optical Compressor G8-cp

BASS COMP BC-1X

#3 Reverb, oh boy, I could go on for days. I have been testing Reverb pedals, and I have written quite a bit in my thread “UNBOXING - PEDAL BOARD BUILD”, so I won’t go into it too much, I have already made this a long post.
I currently have the Boss RV-6, the newer model to what @howard has. I LIKE it, I am not IN LOVE with it. I am not huge on reverb. like my compression, I only like it to be noticed a little bit. I tend to like SPRING / PLATE / ROOM and HAL all the rest to me, are lame. I don’t care for Modulate, Shimmer and others that you get with some of the big name reverb pedals. Since I will probably ONLY ever use these, mostly Spring or Plate, I am thinking I will be better off with a Spring, or Plate, or Spring / Plate reverb pedal, like the EHX Holy Grail, or even the GOKKO Creepy that I have already tested and sent back (even tho I liked it very much, and could get it to sound almost identical to SOME of the Boss reverb types, the types I like).
I am still hunting and I just ordered this to test against the Boss. The Ammoon PocketVerb. if it sounds good to me, and doesn’t sound crappy, this might be the right reverb pedal, and am not sure that I will keep the Boss RV-6. I liked the sound of the Gokko creepy against the Boss, but did not like its controls so much, and this one matches the controls, but in a more legible way for me and my bad eyes, the Boss is a pain to read from. Also, there is a EHX Holy Grail for sale on offer up, $85. if I could get him to sell it for $60, I might get it and return both the Boss and Ammoon? Verb is a tough choice for me, I am almost thinking to go without, just like I go without DELAY and TREMOLO, for now at least.

If they had the full sized TC Electronics Hall of Fame 2, I would get it and be done with it.
I may also just use reverb out of my Zoom B1-four or MS-60b, since they have the Spring and Plate among others that work just fine.

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Sorry for the offtopic deviation, but… thank you! I didn’t even knew this site existed. And the icing on the cake is that it’s not USA-exclusive (we pay a lot in customs taxes over here… and I mean a lot ! Sometimes double the product’s value when something comes overseas)

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A - Thanks, I think I will start to sell on Reverb, I have a few things I am trying to flip at the moment.
I just flipped a Daisy Rock Candy Crush girls guitar last night from Offer UP
Paid $20, sold for $120

B - I only pay retail on Amazon, because of their return policy, allowing me to basically CHECK OUT PEDALS, as tho it were a library.
I could have funds refunded to my card, but it is easier to just keep the pedal I like, or buy what I want / need with the credit. like strap locks, strings, etc… things you sort of have to pay retail for.

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Alright, I gotta ask, and I can’t figure out how to do it delicately. But aren’t you worried that at some point Amazon is going to cut you off? Do they do that?

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I’ve often thought of that possibility as well, although I don’t return stuff nearly as often as @T_dub (I’ve heard they built a private entrance for him at the UPS drop off). :rofl:

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Oh you mean TDub Way

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Using return policies as libraries seems likely to get companies to revise their return policies, yeah :rofl:

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Everything I buy on Amazon Prime is sold as “Free Ship / Free Returns.
They can not refuse a Free return if it is advertised that way.
Plus, in reality, we are really talking about maybe 10 pedals.
My purchase history, for the past three months is probably over 50 items, maybe 75. Not all, or even mostly music stuff, many other goods, things I get for my daughter, just in general, I use Amazon a lot, and have been a prime member since it started.
I really don’t see how they could cut me off.
And in the next 4-6 pedals, I should be done, and that will be keeping 2 of them.
Amazon is certainly not “hurting” because I return a few of the things I buy from them, and because I have the money turned to credit, not returned to my payment method, they don’t really care.
Online shopping needs the good return policy, otherwise people will keep buying from stores, which is fine too, and if I could just go to a store and play pedals side by side, I would do that instead, but I can’t during Covid.

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I can only echo what T_dub has said. I would imagine they see him as a repeat customer and therefore a valued customer at that. In these uncertain times anyone who spends money regularly with a business is a blessing.

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Oh yeah, I’m definitely not thinking it’s some giant scam or something. I mean you DO keep the ones you like, I was just more wondering if you ever get nervous about it. Because I know I would, but I’m getting more paranoid as the years go by :grin:

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They have started making it less convenient. And I was talking to one of the girls that works at the UPS store, and she said they did the same thing to her, and she has noticed they have done the same to A TON of people, as this has become a trend of people doing the FREE SHIP / FREE RETURNS.

But by less convenient I mean, either I need to take it directly to an AMAZON OUTLET (store front) which is about 5 miles away instead of around the corner, OR they just make me package the item, instead of showing up with only the item (when the UPS store Prints / Packs / ships). So now I need to PRINT the label and BOX it before I drop it off.

A minor inconvenience at most.

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