I was wondering about this thing. Usually all teh Bass effect pedals or multi-processors are more expensive than guitar. So like whats so great about them? The only thing I can come up with is that the Frequency response of Bass would be much wider. Guitar's Low E string produces fundamental 84 Hz Bass's low E produces 42Hz So does that mean that Guitar FX have a low cut off ~ 84Hz, which makes them useless for Bass?
Guitar FX wont respond equally well across all the frets in a bass guitar. Lets say you use a Guitar Flange for Bass, the extent of Flange happening will vary across frets which is not very nice. Bass effects are much more uniform. The extra cost for Bass FX is not because of production costs. Lesser units sell, so they have keep a higher margin to justify their continuing production.
The only thing I can come up with is that the Frequency response of Bass would be much wider. Guitar's Low E string produces fundamental 84 Hz Bass's low E produces 42Hz So does that mean that Guitar FX have a low cut off ~ 84Hz, which makes them useless for Bass?[/QUOTE] But does the bass really have wider frequency? I mean yes, it might be octaves lower, but frequency for the same note is always uniform. and that way, guitar, normally by virtue of having 6 strings and 22-24 frets, would have a wider frequency range. Then what is it? But one thing I can tell you, the bass processor does not work on a guitar, even if you play only the low E.
Well by wide frequency response I meant this: When you pluck the Low E string of Guitar: the string produces: 84, 168, 252, ... , n*84 Hz - all these frequencies. When you pluck the Low E string on Bass, the string produces: 42, 84, 126, 252, ..., n*42 Hz - all these frequencies. n is any natural number you can think of. Yes it produces those many frequencies. Its clear that the Low E of bass very much covers low E of guitar as well as many other frequencies. Hence, the wider frequency spectrum. Bass not working properly on Guitar processor is expected, but Guitar not working on Bass processor? :shock:
The POD XT now comes with a bass expansion pack where you can add all the bass amps and effects from the Bass Pod XT into it and use it to play your bass as well ($99). So I don't think there is any significant difference in the way they pick up frequencies or the modeling technology (it might be different for other manufacturers though). It must be just a lower volumes, higher margins game
Yes thats true. I have a completely unused Zoom 506II bass processor, the only time I took it out of the box was to test it on my guitar, and it did not work. There was no response, or the response was not what it should have been.
Guitar has more range 'cos it covers 4 octave range of frequencies where as the bass is less than that unless it's a 6 string bass. Even if you take the case that both of them have the same wide range, the overlap frequency range is pretty less. So bass processors are tuned to the lower range and the guitar processors are tuned to the higher range. Normally vocal processor work decent for guitars. One of main reasons why several of the guitar effects are used for vocals too.
