Should You Get an EQ Pedal? | Bass Tone Tuesday

14 thoughts on “Should You Get an EQ Pedal? | Bass Tone Tuesday”

• This video was SO helpful. Thanks for doing what you do 🙂

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• Thanks lvan
  Your experiances are always helpful

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• Yes. But you first want a bass you can work with, pickups you like, clean electronics, a proper set up, live strings and so forth.

  PA guys really like the OG Sansamp, it's a good starter. Ilja Lappin stacks 2 of them.

  Recording at home I think pedals are a better way to shape tone and sound than plugins in the DAW. I'm not a Helix person tho.

  Coming at the question from the Sean Hurley/Pino Paladino kind of point of view, without an amp, everybody should try some sort of full voltage tube pedal that can be clean, or a good jfet based preamp pedal, preferably with a compressor in front of it, to understand how touch and attack shape sound. If you can DI from there great, you can mix it with your post-pedal chain signal.

  Once you're able to hear yourself both clean and somewhat driven then learn how to eq the signal. A quiet graphic eq pedal is a good thing, parametric EQs are also.

  Then fuzz and drive and overdrive and modulation and reverb…

  A Juan Alderete thing isn't so different a path from Sean and Pino but definitely different. It's more sound design than tone shaping but the gain and EQ principles work the same.

  At the end of your ampless pedal chain use at least a very good transformer based DI at the end of your pedal chain like the Radial JDI, or build your own with the same Jensen transformer (or a Cinemag!) for stable line level signal instead of hiZ. Or an IR or speaker emulator with DI but those are definitely fancier than amp and cabinet models in the DAW.

  Perhaps a demonstration Ivan? ????

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• Ivan, You've never steered me wrong! I bought this pedal as well as the Mesa WD-800. I'm really happy with the pedal but was curious about purchasing the larger DI-WD2100 that is the compact version of their older rack mount. I don't think you reviewed that one. Do you feel the added expense is worth the added features?

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• muy de acuerdo, gracias por compartir tu opinión Iván

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• Hi Ivan !Great flick !!!! Question. Do you go to Backline Amp via direct input ore FX send/retun (if there is on the Backline Amp) when you use your Origin BassRig Super Vintage ? Depends of the EQ possibilities I guess, but I'm interesting to hear your opinion .If you use the direct input I guess you set the Amp as flat as possible ?

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• Ivan. Really informative video, as always. And I have to think that my question about the DSM Simplifier vs. the Mesa Boogie might have had some influence on your decision to make this on. However, I was waiting for you to address one specific use for a preamp pedal that I'm primarily concerned with, but you never touched on it.
  What are your thoughts on the importance of a preamp/DI pedal specifically in a studio or home recording environment? My use, as I'm sure is the same for many others is to go directly into a DAW. No miked cab. Just the 1/4" bass output directly into the interface, vs perhaps the base to preamp DI pedal and XLR to the interface.
  How do you feel about the usefulness of the preamp pedal in this environment?
  Thanks again, Ivan, for any thoughts your willing to share.
  Best –
  A –

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• I have the Aguilar tone hammer pre-amp on my pedal board for the reasons Ivan explained. It’s an option if I need to change EQ or volume for a section of a song, but it’s also good for direct to the desk particularly at band practice. I’m pretty sure it all sounds better thru my bass amp but in the context of a band with 2 guitars and a noisy drum kit the bass sounds very solid and clear direct to the desk via the Tone Hammer.

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• One thing I would add: a preamp/di can be your backup rig. That’s initially why I bought a tone hammer was to use in case my amp didn’t work. Only had to use it once in 2 years as backup but like you said, I had great peace of mind being familiar with it and being able to send a sound I liked to FOH.

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• I use a drive or preamp pedal in the fx loop of my HX Stomp with eq blocks before and after. Each patch pushes the pedal differently with altered volumes and eq, so it’s like having multiple of the same pedal but with different levels of drive and eq

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• Using a preamp in the FX loop and get 2 amps in 1 is an interesting idea. My amp has a good EQ section and I like the sound of it most of the time, but it would be fun to connect a (good) tube preamp in the FX loop and get a more, hopefully, tube amp sound for some songs.

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• In the 80's or 90's I purchased a DOD bass eq. Effects and information were limited for bass. Sounds like a lame excuse, but that eq pedal helped me when using guitar effects . Thankfully there is a whole universe of bass now. Great vid. Thanks

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• Can you show us the eq section on the Quad Cortex?

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• I've had 3 preamps and one digital multieffects. To all starter bass players out there, I'd like to tell you that sometimes pedals and amps don't get the job done if your bass doesn't sound good from the beginning. So first upgrade your bass or sometimes you only need a good set pf pickups, before you start getting preamps because those effects and eqs are only going to change some of the frequencies your bass is giving.

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