So I finally bought a bass...

[Sensei Tim]

...after procrastinating and waiting I finally bit the bullet today.  Got a *great* deal on a Warwick rockbass corvette $$ 4



I have a clone theory chorus/vibe/flanger already.

What are some other must haves?  Im thinking about a blueberry od and maybe a compressor?  Also a di box for recording is definitely near the top of the priority list..

Any other suggestions?

Back to practicing ;)

[Synsound]

I really liked the sound of my bass through the Amp 11.
The EHX Talking Machine is pretty bad ass as well.

[Beaker]

Nice score. Personally I'm not a fan of Warwick basses at all - I just don't like their sound and I hate their look. That said they are very popular, well built and are very versatile, so if you like the sound and the aesthetics, you have a mighty fine instrument!

I know I'm like a stuck record on this, but the ROG Ginger is a must have as far as I'm concerned.
Great live, great for recording - either with or without an amp. Do yourself a favour though and fit a charge pump for 18V option, it's well worth it.

Zach has done an immense amount of work on the BJFE Blueberry, so check out his contributions on this pedal.

A bass Germanium Giant is well worth a build too.

I'm not a big fan of bass effects really, and really don't like compressors on bass, so can't help you there.

[Sensei Tim]

I spent the whole day going to all the music stores in town trying out basses... Everything from vintage modified squires to fenders to Ibanezes and so on

Really liked this epiphany thunderbird but the neck wasn't cooperating with me.

There was an ibanez sound gear sr300 or something that was really close 2nd to the Warwick.  I was hoping to find a Spector to try but nobody had one.

I really love this bass. Sounds amazing.

I used zach's bbbod schematic to build one with a local bassist and added an amz mosfet  booster to the output stage and he loved it!  I need to build one for myself now and see what all the fuss is about ;)

[Beaker]

You did the right thing Tim, try everything and buy the one you just can't walk away from!

[rocket88]

Hey Tim, congrats on the purchase and that's a hell of a deal if you grabbed that for $4. Like beaker I've never been a fan of Warwick, even their high end custom models. I can never get them to sound how I want them to, and I'm a big guy so the body always felt off and too light for me. Probably due to the fact that most of my basses are on the heaven end at 9-10lb range. Btw, not discharging your score or anything, it's a hell of a quality instrument and can sound amazing, shit a bunch of bassists I love use them like Larry Grahm and Bootsy. The necks are fantastic and fast.

But anyways, I figured as one of the resident bassists I'd give my $.02 on some great pedals to have. Here's some I have on my top list that I won't take off my board:

1. BJFE blueberry - has less mid bump compared to the Bearfoot one, and to me sounds more natural in it's tone and distortion.
2. EHX Green Russian Muff - for me it's the muff to build for bass. The low end is immense and smooth, the god of bass fuzzes IMHO.
3. DAM Ezekiel - great distortion, and lots of character based on the diodes you use it can be a Swiss Army knife of bass distortions.
4. Emma Transmorgrifier/BJFE Pale Green Compressor - I've build and modded the emma for bass and it's a great compressor that can give you an SVT type grit if you set it right. I haven't built the Pale Green yet, but from what I've read it's beyond natural and doesn't color your sound one bit. I've now taken the comp off my board as I can't get it how I'd want it, which is user error not the pedal, but have recently given up on messing with it for now.

Notable mentions:
Barberhsop - fantastic OD, 2nd to the BJFE blueberry
Brassmaster - nasty, gnarly octave up fuzz
EHX Small Clone - gorgeous watery chorus
MXR Phase90 - I perfer this on bass as it seems to hand the higher output of bass pickups better then some of the mutron phaser ii (which I absolutely love), and with the added depth control you can get a light phase to in your face phase
Mutron III - bootsy has used one for years, enough said. Secret is to run a big muff infront to get that classic funk sound from it.

The list is endless, but these are the first few to come to my mind.

[Sensei Tim]

Hah I wish I scored it for $4.  They call it the $$ because it's a double 'bucker lol.  I've always loved the look and sound of warwicks (and rickies)

The bjfe is on my to build list. Thanks for the heads up on the muff and compressor - I'll definitely check both out.  I'm building a Rams head muff now For someone - do you think this will give me a good idea of how the Russian muff will sound?

Also, any suggestions for a low cost practice amp? That sounds good? Played they a small traynor and a fender (I think) and I think the traynor sounded better, but it was also in a much smaller room...

[rocket88]

ah, still a hell of a good price. i'm a huge fan of ricks too, just not a fan of the neck design, they're super susceptible to neck bow due to the dual truss rod, dual adjustment. part of my issue with spending major cash to get one.

but, i digress. i've got a rams head, and while it's a great muff, the rams head has less low end and to my ears not as smooth fuzz. i'm going to say it's a night and day difference, mostly because to me there's never enough low end . i reality it's going to give you an idea of the russian, but the russian will be smoother and have more low end. i build mine with different values then the ones in the layout posted on the main page, but that one will get you close to how mine sounds. don't build the one that has the 1uF electro coupling caps, that one will end up being way too muddy IMHO.

as far as practice amps go i still have and use my old 25watt solidstate fender BX series amp that's probably 20yrs old at the point. can't get rid of it since it was the first amp i got when i started playing back in 6-7th grade. the newer fenders aren't as good as the older ones IMHO, i think it's that they try to add a bunch of features instead of just making an amp that sounds good. i really don't use mine that much and stick with my main amp because i found that everything would sound different on the fender then on my mesa and i kept having to readjust the pedal settings.

do you know what model amps you tried out? what price you thinking about? i've checked around and found some suggestions for amps $100 and under and there's apparently a little 25watt ampeg 1x8 that's supposed to be really nice, and the fender rumble 15 watt is also supposed to be pretty nice too. that's not the newer fenders i've seen that replaced the old BX like what i've got, it's a simple straight forward amp.

[Silver Blues]

That little Ampeg is a nice amp. I noodled with one for a pretty long time in a store before I bought my Micro VR, and it sounds way better than you'd expect for such a product.