Hey everyone!
So I finally got my amp after a long wait (Rumble 800) and I’m looking to build a minimal but effective pedalboard.
I know I want to get a tuner, and I’ve seen most go with a DI pedal as well.
Is there anything else you’d recommend? Octave and OD/FUZZ?
I’ve been watching the comments about the new ME-90D as well as that has pretty much everything.
For context, I’ll be mostly playing in smaller venues like bars and small stages.
I still say that when you’re first starting out with pedals, getting a decent multi-fx right off the bat is a good way to start so you can really experiment around with sounds and stuff. In most cases, all you’ll ever need is a MFX. Personally, I started that route and eventually realized the only pedal I needed was a slightly better MFX than the one I started with.
Most of them (Zoom, Hx, etc) will have a tuner built in as well.
Edit:
The reason I go this way is because, when you think about it, your guitar is the foundation of your sound. From there, the pedalboard and its configuration shapes it to your personality and preferences…or the preferences of whomever you’re trying to emulate. After that, your amp and its settings present your sound in the best way possible for the room. Each person’s pedalboard is ultimately a reflection of themselves and most advice is going to cater to that person’s preferences.
Hell yeah, brutha. I just got a Rumble 800W combo amp a few weeks ago too. I love it. What a great, portable piece of equipment. And it’s versatile too (quiet practice to blowin’ the roof off). I think I’m around where you’re at on the gear continuum as well. i.e. got a sweet rig so now I’m looking into pedals too. Good luck finding the right pedals. I’m just looking to learn a bit from the thread.
Loving it so far!
I still can’t figure out how to use the overdrive though. Not sure if the levels need to be at a minimum amount in order for it to work?
I tried with the pedal as well but nothing happens when I use it as well. Turns on, gets a bit louder but no overdriven sound lol
Try the drive and level at noon and either press the overdrive button (between the drive and level knobs) or activate the foot switch (not trying to be condescending but it should be plugged into the FTSW(foot switch) port in the back). A red light should pop on to show you it’s engaged too. If you don’t hear a distinct difference, it may not be working properly.
Does the gain have to be at noon as well?
Not condescending at all! I’m asking for help so any info is great.
Thank you!
I’d suggest the following pedals, in no order of importance.
Compressor, EQ, Octave, Chorus. Those are all the ones I typically use. I don’t think a tuning pedal is necessary, it’s pretty easy to get a quick tune with a clip on or through your DAW. As others have suggested, a multi FX is probably the best route since you’ll be able to get all of those effects and then some.
I don’t have one (yet) but the HX Stomp from Line 6 has about everything you’d need and it’s a lot easier to have everything contained in one unit as opposed to a full pedalboard. I recently bought the Pod express bass from them and it’s essentially the HX stomp but super simplified. Has almost every effect I want but the user interface is a little tricky since there’s no digital display so I’ll be replacing that with the Stomp once my wife gets over the Stingray I’m about to buy 
I usually keep my settings at noon across the board but I think you can play around with the gain because it just controls the intensity of the signal from the bass (first knob, first signal mod). And, cool, I’m not trying to be a weiner. I’m still new as well so I’m definitely not a know-it-all.
Mine is currently getting over the Rumble 800 which was already over 1k LMAO
Ahhh I missed that looking through the manual.
Thank you!
I’m in an apartment so I was a bit hesitant to mess around too much and shake the building lol
You should be able to plug in headphones and still get the overdrive sound if you want to experiment that way. Just need to be careful not to damage your own hearing then
What? What was that? Something about hearing?
Well, I’ve gone the rounds with pedals on bass and have given up. That 800 is a lot of amp and you might find it difficult to throttle it back for small venues. I have a 500 and run it no more that about 20% for everything I do. I have a 50 watt Ampeg that’s plenty for smaller gigs and it has some built in effects that actually work versus a pedal.
The overdrive on the Rumble is pretty subtle, even at maximum. If you’re looking for something more grindy/fuzzy then you’ll need a pedal for that.
I keep the drive knob set at maximum and the level knob fairly low so it doesn’t change the overall volume too much.
Gain boosts the level of the incoming signal. So, it can affect the drive, but I’ve never had mine loud enough for it to make a difference.
As for the EQ, use it to adjust for the room. Otherwise, try using the bright, contour, and vintage buttons to adjust your sound. It’s pretty versatile.
Depending on the genre of music you play and how often you’ll need the wet or dry effects. You can just get the Boss GT 1B or Zoom equivalent.
First pedal, I’d recommend is the compressor or Preamp.
My Wampler Cory Wong is finally arriving this Saturday.
I don’t use any kind of drive. I like autowah (envelope), octaver, harmonizer is also interesting. The rest of what I use seems to be for clean signals.
I genuinely don’t understand that comment. I played mine at a lower/reasonable volume at practice tonight with a drummer and it sounded great.
I’m finding that I don’t like a lot of overdrive or much fuzz on bass, which is odd because that’s my jam on 6 string. I generally use a bit of gain to bring out the natural growl in my Precision. Mostly agree about comp / preamp or preamp / comp although I like tuner pedals more than clip ons and that would be right in there with preamp / comp / tuner for me. As far as the “fun” pedals, I’ve got an envelope on my radar. If I have to choose one over the other, I’d go with a chorus over octave. It might be all in my head, but I think of chorus effects as being less situational. Haven’t had a chance yet to play with a harmonizer but I’ve read good stuff about them. Somewhere down the line, I’ll end up with a synth pedal to make fun noises with too.
personally the order I would buy pedals for bass is:
with the order of the last three being genre dependent. All three play very nicely together.
Then after that go crazy on the other stuff like octavers, synths or env filters.
One thing that found extremely useful when starting to play with effects was a cheap looper pedal.
You can put it at the start of the signal chain, capture a riff, which now becomes your source, and then experiment to your hearts content tweaking settings on the subsequent pedals.
It’s much easier to experiment this way than to try to play the bass as you tweak effects.
