Ditched my effects and improved my tone

[leroyd]

Last week I turned up to a gig and forgot to bring my Boss GT6B effects processor. Just went straight form the Bass (A Sadowsky NYC JJ) into the amp. I did not realise how much of my tone was being sucked out by the processor.Got a much better sound. No more effects for me. Any similar experience from Sadowsky player out there?. Any comments Roger?

[Gerard Burick]

I sometimes play with a Digitech BP355.  I have no complaints, though I often play with nothing between my bass and my Ampeg SVT 4 Pro and Ampeg 8x10, besides the instrument cable and speaker cable. 

I don't have an opinion about Boss, but I've noticed no degradation of my signal with my Digitech. 

Here is a list of what I use.  I will do my best to list things in the order they are run in my chain...

Sadowsky Standard 5
Sadowsky Modern 5 JJ
Sennheiser Wireless
Korg DTR1000 rack tuner
Sansamp RBI
Alesis 3630 compressor (first channel for bass signal, other channel for when I use my morley wah to tame the signal, but retain tone)
Ampeg SVT 4 Pro
Ampeg SVT810E

Effects: on effects loop of Sansamp...also listed in order.  I sometimes use my 50/50 button to blend the effects loop while maintaining some of the original signal.

MXR Bass Envelope Filter (I run this first to maintain proper filter dynamics)
Digitech BP355
MXR Phase 100
Morley ABY box (used to hard bypass Morley Power Wah Boost)
Morley Power Wah Boost (I did some work to make it sound beefier)

I feel that all of these pieces of equipment do a great job of retaining the overall sound of the bass, without robbing tone or loss/gain of signal. 

[Maurilio]

In the '80, when all that electronic-multieffects crap came out, I went through a phase of making my gigs a nightmare. The last unit I bought was a ART SGX nightbass…. that thing gave me so much troubles that one night at a gig I ripped it out and went direct to the PA…. never looked back since.
For me Bass-Amp, period.

M

[TXBASS]

Bass > amp 100% of the time for me.  Nothing else is needed.
I rarely even use a tuner pedal and use a clip on tuner for the G string and tune with
harmonics from there.  Once it's tuned up no need to tweak the tuning all night.
And it usually comes out of the case about 99.9% in tune.

[leroyd]

Bass > amp 100% of the time for me.  Nothing else is needed.
I rarely even use a tuner pedal and use a clip on tuner for the G string and tune with
harmonics from there.  Once it's tuned up no need to tweak the tuning all night.
And it usually comes out of the case about 99.9% in tune.

Yep. I am still a happy bunny working without effects and going straight to the amp. It forces me to experiment  more with my onboard pre amp, vtc,  pickup pan and hence getting to know the true quality of the Sadowsky bass, as opposed to setting various patches on my bass processor

[rob2966]

Live I usually only run through my Radial Bassbone.  The tuner is on the tuner output (not in the signal chain) and I have 3-4 effects pedals (flanger, OD, delay, sparkle drive) in a switchable loop.  It is a nice way to keep the occasional effect without killing the chain.  The Bassbone also has a nice DI so my amp is just used as stage monitoring.