Times are also changing for the bassists of the world. No longer are they forced to stick to a basic, dry bass sound, but can butter the rhythm section up with some melodic lines and even chords, or they can dip their sound in some roomy atmospherics with the help of a dedicated bass reverb or delay pedal.
Reverb & Delay Pedals for the Bass
While reverb and delay might sound a bit similar to a lot of people, they're actually very different effects. With a delay, your bass sound is copied note-for-note and then repeated at a specified rhythm, a bit like the echoes you hear in underground caves. And with a delay pedal, you can control the number of echoes or repeats. Reverb, on the other hand, mimics the natural reverberations of certain spaces - imagine the effect of clapping your hands in a massive, empty cathedral. These days, you can get reverbs that mimic the sound of playing in everything from an empty room to a massive hall, or more old-school reverbs like plate and spring. Use one or both effects and you can throw your bass sound into a new dimension.
Find the Best Special Bass Effects at Bax Music
If you're having trouble picking out a specific reverb or delay pedal, then have a look at bass guitar stompboxes that offer a few different flavours of reverb or delay, this way you can try out some warm analogue delay or tight digital delay and see what fits your sound best. You could also go for an effect pedal that bundles reverb and delay up in one box, or a multi-effect pedal that sets you up with a massive stack of different bass guitar effects in one shot. If you want to make sure that your dry tone stays intact when your effect pedals are switched off, then go for a true bypass bass pedal.
