Tom’s 5 Essential Bass Pedals

I used to think that bass pedalboards did more harm than good to the music. However, recently I’ve found that I’ve wanted to be able to create a stage sound closer to the recordings my bands have made in the studio. So I’ve built up a basic board that you’ll see me use constantly now, even when teaching in our lessons together. I’ve included what I believe are the 5 essential bass pedal effects to have in your arsenal. I may expand on this board eventually, but for now it has everything I need (and believe you need) to elevate your own playing experience.

The very first pedal that I recommend you add to your board is a tuning pedal. These pedals have the greatest utility to any player, before you even think about altering your sound. The self explanatory part is that it helps keep you in tune (the number one most important thing), but they will also function as a mute switch for your signal. This is extremely useful on its own, but also, as you add more effects to your chain, it becomes a much faster solution for cutting your sound off quickly (rather than attempting to stomp on 3 different pedals at once, or quickly reaching for your volume knob). There are many great tuning pedals, the one I personally use is the Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner.

Next up, the second pedal in my chain is a compressor pedal. I find these pedals useful for making my sound more consistent. They drop your high dynamics and bring up your low dynamics to get them closer to each other in volume. Most compressor pedals will let you control how much your signal is compressed. This way you can still have a natural sounding dynamic difference while evening out all your notes at those different levels. The compressor pedal I use is a Pulp N Peel V4 from JHS Pedals. Other popular pedals include MXR’s M87 and M282, and the Darkglass Hyper Luminal.

Now this next pedal could really be a few different kinds of pedals, but I’ve opted for an octave. Other honorable mentions for this slot can include a chorus, flanger, or envelope filter (you can also mix and match these on a bigger board of course!). As for octave pedals, they take your signal and duplicate it with the same note either an octave below, above, or a combination of the two. I like how they let you thicken your signal without having to worry about hitting two strings identically at the same time, and they allow for faster octave runs creating a unique sound. The octave pedal I currently use is a Boss - OC-5.

Next in the chain is a preamp pedal. This pedal serves an extremely important function for the gigging bassist. Consistency. Preamps let you control your tone from your board before it even gets to an amp or speaker. Lots of different venues have lots of different music gear. There’s going to be gigs played on whatever bass combo amp the venue could get their hands on. And there’s going to be gigs where you’re plugged straight into the mercy of the PA with no control over your tone at all. All that’s to say, the best way to save time (and your sound), while also getting a killer bass tone is to use one of these preamps. The preamp I use is the Darkglass Microtubes B7K Ultra. You won’t find a shortage of preamps, but other brands with great pedals include Sansamp, Gallien Krueger, and Aguilar.

The last pedal on my board (for now), is a distortion pedal. When you want to get heavy, these pedals give you a crunch and punch in your low end that helps cut through the mix. They are super versatile and many of them will give you access to a wide range of settings to configure how you like. I like to use my distortion to increase the treble and general attack of my bass lines while having that crunchy low end texture that you don’t hear in a clean bass. It helps drive the band and give a grittier rock/metal sounding tone that elevates the emotion behind the music I play. There are many great distortion pedals out there, I have one included with my B7K Ultra preamp that gives me the exact sounds I need for my music. You can’t go wrong with any Aguilar, Darkglass, Ampeg, MXR, and many more brands. These days you’ll find most pedals will have something they can offer you for your sound, it’s just about going out and experimenting to find the best thing for you.

Before wrapping up I just want to take a quick moment to mention pedal chain order. Just like the pedals you choose, the order in which you place them is very important. Try to think about which effects you want the cleanest signal for and put those ahead of everything else. The specific order of my board is: Tuner > Compressor > Octave > Preamp+Distortion. In an ideal world I’d like to have my octave between the preamp and distortion, but I’m limited by the fact that I have the distortion on the same pedal as the preamp. Things that are specific to getting a good bass tone should go ahead of the effects so you can have the best version of your clean bass before you alter it in any meaningful way. Luckily, a compressor can do a lot of heavy lifting for tone and having the octave pedal before the preamp isn’t detrimental to my sound. I could put the octave after the distortion but in the scenario where I want to have a distorted octave, it is much better to have the octave first so it has an easier time working with the signal. 

It’s also important to remember that at the end of the day, whatever sounds good is what you should go with. Whether you decide that the octave works well after the distortion, or you want to put the preamp before everything else, you can! My job as a teacher is to help you find “your” sound, not to turn you into me. I’ll always advocate for you to do what you think is best and help guide you toward doing that in the best way possible. The best thing you can do for your pedal board is go to a store and just try as many as you can, find the ones that feel right for you, compare as many as you can and just have fun with it!

So there you have it, those are the 5 essential bass pedal effects that I think belong on your first pedal board. If you’d like to learn how to use these pedals in your playing, use my contact form to book your free trial lesson with me! I can offer online lessons if you have your own equipment already, or I also teach in a home studio in Tarragindi if you feel that you learn better in person. I hope to see you soon!