Ghost_Bass

1. "Whatever bass you play, you'll sound like you'' / ''It's all in the fingers''

I agree with this 100%. All of us have our unique perfect bass tone in our heads. No mather wich bass we pick up we'll attack it, place the right hand, set the tone knobs in the bass and EQ the amp in order to find "our sound". So, in the end, in the hands of a player a Musicman or a Precision or a Jazz will sound pretty similar after all that tinkering (exceptions exist obviously, if one wants to play slap lines all the time it will be dificult, but not impossible, to do it on a P). The reason we have so many variety of basses available on the market is to make it easier for each one to find "that bass" that comes with "our sound" out of the box with minimal tinkering. I've found it, thankfully, after trying lots of basses, amps and cabs. I can say that i have the perfect combination for "my tone" TRB5PII (prosteels) / Shuttle 9.2 / BF S12T all set flat! All nuances in sound come from moving the balance knob and changing right hand placement. I've played with lots of diferent gear over the years but sould allways got close to my tone with a bit of EQ here and there. In fact, my drummer who's been playing with me for over 10 years has often commented on why i bothered with gear so much as i allways sounded the same in his ears (and he's not deaf... yet). My current lead guitarrist is in the same place right now, he's been changing his amplification in search for "that amp" but everytime he gets a new toy he'll EQ it and end up sounding like the one before.

2. "It doesn't matter what you play (gear wise), the audience won't be able to tell the difference"

The gear we choose to play is the gear that produces the sound we want and that is the sound we know will blend in perfectly with the rest of the band and make everything sound good. If anybody in the audience notices the bass, most of the times, it will mean that there's something wrong with the gear/tone. When i look to the audience and see that everybody is only paying attention to the frontman whilst shaking their bodies to the groove i know that everything is perfect with my sound/gear.

Oh, yeah , its a mistake, didn't delete the full sentence before writting the new one.the "XLR" should have been deleted too.

Regarding the "Line" issue, my GB Shuttle has the option in it's DI Out to choose between Mic or Line level. Everytime i'm working with a hired sound company i make sure to point this to the techs and ask them what option they prefer. The majority of them ask for line level and say they are happy with the signal strenght during soundcheck. I also use it in Line with my band and my mixer, gain is set pretty low at the mixer and there's no noise in my channel.

Congrats, you now own the best Smith bass i've tried/heard. That 3 knob preamp is magic, has a more "organic" sound. With the 5 knob preamps i allways had to touch the EQ a bit, in your bass it was all flat and the pickup balance took care of the rest. That's the only bass that really could possibly replace my TRB5PII if/when i have the health need to go lightweight.
BTW, when i say "your bass" in my post i really mean that, i had it in my hands, and Pedro is a good friend of mine and a completely honest guy to deal with. Enjoy your new bass

37 minutes ago, Sibob said:

 

There is a big difference between balanced outputs and line-level outputs. The main outputs on the Line 6 pedals will be instrument-level, as that is what any guitar/bass amp is expecting, doesn't make sense for them to be line-level, it would necessitate a fairly hefty pad on every amp input it's connected to. Whether the larger Helix' have separate line-level outs is another question, but certainly the Stomp won't.

As such, a DI box will be wanted, sure you can plug an instrument-level out directly into a line-level in on your desk, but you'll have to crank your gain on the desk to get a decent level, increasing your noise-floor. You might be lucky and have an Instrument-level in on your desk!?

 Use a DI box and not only are you optimising impedance for longer cable runs, but also running into Mic-level, which the desk is expecting from it's XLR input.

Decent article here: https://www.soundonsound.com/sound-advice/q-why-do-i-need-use-di-box

For what it's worth, for a cheap, hand-built, compact DI solution, I'd always go Orchid. Wouldn't touch Behringer with a barge-pole, for a number of reasons.

The Helix stomp looks very cool, could very well be a replacement to my Line6 M5, although doubt it will be out before my self-imposed gear ban in 2019, perhaps a NAMM announcement. That said, probably means it will be really cheap come 2020 when I'm buying again haha.

Cheers
Si

I can't find where (i think it was on that interview of the developer) but the Stomp had two "Send" outputs that you can choose inside the pedal software if you want it Line or Instrument Level, the outputs are XLR 1/4" TRS jacks, in Line output the signal sent is balanced so you can simply use it as a DI out for the mixer without having to add too much gain. Having tha Stomp exit setup for DI purposes makes it handy to have a balanced 1/4" TRS to XLR adaptor at hand since pretty much every sound guy will come to you with a XLR cable in his hand to hook you up to the PA. 

13 hours ago, AdrianP said:

Just got back from the rehearsal. Went OK actually. I spoke to the BL beforehand to tell him frankly about my trouble engaging with the song. So we all decided that we'd have a go at a section from the middle and not try the whole thing. And we'd do it as a link from one song to another; not as 5 minutes of torture. Better for me and more palatable for the audience (supposing there is another audience).

We also spoke during the break about doing some vocals. The other guitarist has a decent voice so we're going to work on a few different songs now with him singing. Which could lead to a change of direction for the band. And it wasn't even a 'clear the air' discussion. Just mates talking about want we want to do. So, unless I get 'that call' from the BL in the next few days, it all seems to have gone quite well. 

So thanks to Team Basschat!

Sounds like you just had the most important chat of your bands career. Hope it all works out, i think you're heading in the right direction with adding the voice, you'll sure get a better ersponso from the audience as they really need a singer/performer in the front to engage with (now you need to see if the second guitar is a performer and not just a BV that can carry a tune, maybe some prospection for a front man/lady may be the next step for the band). BL can still have his moments (Floyd, Dire Straits, etc.), create a set list with bands that people enjoy hearing and have good solo moments for the guitar to shine a bit.

Good luck

Just make (or have made) a 1/4" TRS to XLR cable adapter and stick it in together with the rest of the cables in the case. Done!

1 minute ago, CameronJ said:

I know what you mean - the only option really is to either connect a dual expression switch giving you the ability to turn on/off block #4 & 5 (still leaving #6 unswitchable individually) or connect a MIDI controller footswitches and map the CCs to be able to control all 6 blocks. I may do the latter when I eventually get a Stomp.

Yeah, you're right, but that really defeats the purpose of "making it small" doesn't it? I think i'm not made for multi-fx as i don't want to change patches to change sounds especially mid song, i would like for a multi-fx to work as if it was a series of single, good quality, pedals. The B3 was excelent in its design but the sounds just don't cut it enought to replace my pedals, it also isn't very transparent sounding, it really changes the tone of the bass even with everythingin bypass mode and all global settings flattened. Maybe forgetting about the amp/cab sims and going for the HX effects that will start to pop up in the FS secction is the way to go for me. Not as small as i would like it but still smaller than my current pedaltrain-nano harley benton clone.

The stomp seems like a great little thing and could possible replace my pedalboard (tuner-octave-wah-distortion-compressor) but i would need to see if the fx are as good as my current ones. I would use it with a single patch leaving the 3 knobs only to turn on/off the three effects. Compressor is allways on and the mute/tuner would need to be activated like on the B3 (pressing one of the knobs for a bit more time, if possible). I would also take advantage of the amp/cab sims to create a second patch to get that true V4B/810 valve sound that should be spot on since Ampeg has recently joined Line6/Yamaha family.
The trickier part would be to have it reproduce all the effects i like, the B3k, the Bass Octave Deluxe and, most important, the 3leaf GR (lovetone meatball). I'll need to try it to see for myself. In the meantime i'll have to convince my guitarrist to lend me his HX effects to try the sounds in it.
Only thing that really annoys me in this is that why are we given 6 blocks (6 possible fx or amp/cab sim) but only three knobs that don't really allow for all 6 blocks to be turned on/off as we please? Maybe there's a way to do it and i haven't read about it yet...

I've seen that interview. He also left the door opened to adding more blocks in future upgrades if they see a public demand for more blocks in the unit.

Go to min 2:40 to see the tap/tuner thing.

23 hours ago, Dood said:

Am I right in reading that in stomp mode, you only actually have two buttons to turn effects on and off, leaving the third as Tap Tempo and Tuner access?

No, i've just seen the video on Line6 site and the guy said something like you could assign the third switch to one of the effects and even plug in two adicional momentary footswitches.

Bigger amp (or one that'll go down to 4Ohms bridged) would be the safer option. you don't know the tolerances of the amp or the real impedance of the cab. You can check the impedance of your cab by mesuring it's resistance with a multimeter (on the ohm setting) then multiplying the reading by 1,3 should get you in the ballpark of the actual impedance of that cab.

I would go as far as to say that a HPF is a must have in this day and age where almost everybody is going through the PA in pubs/etc.

It helps clean the stage sound and get better note definition / cut the mix without having to turn up a lot. I'm using a GB shuttle and it's internal HPF is in the sweet spot (i would say it's above the 30Hz of the Magellan). A variable HPF like in the Mesa Boogie Subway 800+ that can go all the way up to 80 or 70hz if needed would be a great and helpfull tool. Guitar amps shouldn't even be released without one! 😂

You should still contact the store and Fender, maybe you get lucky. The warranty has just passed but they may choose to be decent persons and fix your problem regardless. It's a situation that shouldn't happen, a truss rod can't break on its own, surely a design flaw. They should take responsibility for that.

If you're happy with just adding a note one octave up then buy a octave down pedal, and then simply play that line on the upper octave and let the pedal put out the bass.  Cheapest alternative!

Is it too late to sell the rack case and buy a new one with the correct screws:

or even better, with adjustable screw spacing:

Sure. Go ahead, as long as they're in good condition, i use them all the time. 

The room is fine and will be filled with people. There's a house sound tech to control the PA and he will get a DI PRE-EQ mix. My sound for the band is the sound of my TRB, unchanged, only louder and maybe a bit of high-pass filtering in the muddy end. I'm using Genz Benz amp and Barefaced cab to get this FRFR result and sounds great on stage. This is the reason why i'm looking to get a flat'ish Eq on the amp as all my diferent tones will come from the bass (and a bit of fingers). 
The bit that worries me about the MB are those honky/boxy mids i've heard on other MB gear i've tried in the past.

No Parametric EQ here so i will have to find some time to EQ it to my taste. Maybe use the filters to attend to the voicing, lik eyou're saying. A bit of VPF to tame the mid bump and a compromise of VLE/High/Mid High to try to get rid of the hiss and bring in those missing useable highs? I don't want to take more gear than i need to, i would prefer to take my shuttle 9.2 with the 10" cab from my Promethean combo but i'm trying to make things easier as possible and avoid lugging unecessary gear.

I think i undestand what you're saying. Is there a parametric EQ to boost those "lower highs"?

What about the VLE and VLF? They're my main concern, what do each do? I think one is a mid scoop but don't know what the other does.

I'll download the manual and have a read but any input from people who ownes or had owned one is very apreciated.

Cheers

Hello everybody.

I'm in need of a few pointers from BC'ers regarding this combo. I'll be playing in a venue in the end of this month where i'll be using this as the house backline. I'll be going through the PA so i only need advice for stage monitoring. I'm looking to get a EQ as close to FRFR as possible. I've never owned markbass but i've tried a few and they're voiced a fair bit. Add the VLF and VLE controls to that and i'm looking to spend a bit of much needed time for other things on getting it to sound flat.

What would you good people, who know your way around this combo, advice as a starting EQ point to get me in the ballpark of a flat response? Thanks

Great! I'm glad it worked out

Fitted my new ones. They're great. The latch-on system is a nice addition and the new nut is awesome. The button to pull to get it out is a bit smaller than the older version, it shouldn't been changed. the strap button with the build-in screw is also a miss in my opinion. I think Schaller only needed to add the new nut and bevel the latch-on system in the old unit to have a winner. Maybe gen3 will sort this once and for all.

You should try contacting Spencer directly at 3Leaf. Who knows, maybe he offers to take a look at your pedal even out of waranty.

I also check them before every gig. They won't come completly loose during a gig unless you're playing bass whilst jumping in a trampolin for 3h straight