Bass effects, junkies and paint metaphors

I am a big junky for effects these days. I'm totally strung out on my EH Octave Multiplexer. I'm always jonezin' for a hit from my Line 6 DL4. My knees are raw from turnin' trix to get a dime-bag of EH Bass Balls.

I've always believed that effects have useful role when used to enhance an already good sounding idea.

For many years I didn't use effects. Here's why.

I remember playing with a guitar player many years ago when I was new to the bass. This guy would play with all kinds of effects all the time. He would combine chorus and flangers and delays to build up these wild sound-scapes. The sounds were over-the-top and in-your-face. The underlying rhythmic, melodic and harmonic ideas were usually pretty dull and predictable. Without the effects tap-dance routine, everything this guy played sounded the same. Where's the creativity in that? His approach to applying effects always seemed really backwards to me and I thank him for the lesson he taught me.

The lesson this experience taught me was that you can't white-wash unimaginative musical ideas with effects and expect to magically transform them into good ideas.

I like to think of effects as paint. Paint requires a good clean surface for it to be effective. If the surface is weak and crumbly like a rotting picket fence, does the paint really improve the overall quality of the fence? Any musician who relies solely on effects to sound inventive isn't fooling anyone. My point being, learn to play you instrument well. Learn to sound great before applying effects. Let the effect add colour to an already solid and strong musical structure.