Jakester

Really odd one, this. I’ve just done a couple of gigs over the last few days, and every now and then there’d be a big ‘bang’ or ‘pop’ through the amp. It’s not the lead (tried three and it does it with all) and I’m fairly sure it‘s not the amp, as I didn’t ever experienced it with a different bass - the only thing that has changed is I’m using a new-to-me bass. It’s a Lakland Skyline 55-02. There isn‘t any drop in signal when it happens - there’s no cutting out or buzzing which would suggest a dodgy jack connection - and it doesn’t seem related to the plug moving, though I have noticed it occurring more if I shift position when seated, for example. Despite the lack of signal cutting out or buzzing, could it still be a jack problem? Anything else to watch out for?

That's exactly what I do. Search by song or artist to get a sound I want to approximate, then tweak to get it exactly how I want on the desktop app.

I use the Behringer control app and it’s been fine, but that’s with a laptop or and iPad. I don’t think it works with iPhone though. I’ve used Mixing Station and Xair Monitor Mixer - the latter worked best for the monitor outs (duh!) but haven’t used it for a while and looking at the reviews may not have been updated as much..

I had a Baby Sumo for a while - be aware you will probably need a hefty preamp before it to get the level up to anything useable. I had a preamp on my pedalboard which worked fine with a 'normal' amp (even straight into the effects return) but it didn't come anywhere near the level required to properly drive the Baby Sumo.

A double bass endpin thingy - https://wolfproducts.com/products/super-end-pin/224/79/super-end-pin.html, and it was Caswell's. Won't be using them again.

It has arrived, so no harm done I suppose. Still blooky annoying though!

Well, I've received a shipping notification, so fingers crossed ! Cutting it fine for the weekend though...😬

It must be great being so amazing that you never make a mistake, eh? Thanks for coming down off your pedestal to let the rest of us know how great you are though. In the grand scheme of things it isn't life or death. It isn't even a particularly expensive item. I am less irritated by this particular occurrence as I am with the general trend of retailers (and in the main it seems to be music retailers) to advertise stuff as 'in stock' when it isn't. Yep, that's how it should be. Anything else is just 'bait and switch' and poor customer service.

I’ll wait for it to arrive first. That said, they’re not a mainstream retailer so not sure what difference it’ll make anyway.

If it included microchips I'd understand, but it doesn't!

Sorry in advance, rant incoming. Why to shops say items are in stock, when they aren't in stock? I ordered something from a well-known UK musical instrument supplier (probably not who you're thinking of though!) last week. The item I ordered was showing as "in stock" on their webpage. I ordered specifically from them because it was marked as "in stock" as I needed it for this coming weekend. Everywhere else had it marked 'to order' or 'back ordered'. It has been five days since I placed the order, so I've just given them a call just to check it will arrive in time. "Oh, it's been delayed coming from our supplier", was the answer. "But your website said you had it 'in stock'?' queried I. "Well, when it arrives with us from our supplier we will have it in stock, won't we?" came the response. "But that doesn't mean it was in stock with you when I placed my order on the basis of it saying 'in stock' on your website, does it?" quoth I. "But it will be when it arrives with us, won't it?" was the further retort. I mean? Whut? If it is not physically in their possession pending delivery, it is not "in stock". It is "on order" or "awaiting delivery" or "backordered". Even more clearly, it is a product which can be 'ordered on request'. It's now too late to get from anywhere else in time so I have to hope it will arrive with them in time to be sent to me. This sort of thing really boils my fosters. IT IS NOT 'IN STOCK' IF YOU HAVE TO ORDER IT FOR THE CUSTOMER!! THE FACT YOU CAN GET IT SUPPOSEDLY WITHIN A DAY DOES NOT MAKE IT 'IN STOCK'. IT IS DEFINITELY NOT IN STOCK IF THE SHIPMENT IS DELAYED FROM YOUR SUPPLIER!!! 😡 I have no problem with retailers not holding stock and ordering on request. In fact, it seems sensible to me. But saying you are in possession of an item when you are not I find really annoying. It seems to be very much particular to the music industry, too. And breathe....

Ooh, cool, I'll try to head down. My jazz jam is on the Thursday before if you're interested? https://www.bathfringe.co.uk/event/jazz-social/

Could you not just apply another veneer to the top, a'la @Andyjr1515?

So I had a bit more of a tinker, rejigged the preset order and had a play with the on/off state in the C4 editor, and it's clearly a DMC setting rather than a C4 one. I think I've seen something that says there's a global on/off setting for preset selection so I'll have another go later on. Almost there though!

You have access to 3 presets via the toggle switch and another via via the alt button. I’m struggling to think of another pedal the covers as much range that doesn’t need at least one hand control as well as pedal switch - I suppose you’re looking up a range at the Helix stuff?

Well, I thought it was interesting… 🤣

Like many others on here, I've been tinkering with various multi fx and controlling them via external pedals. I had a Zoom MS50B a while ago which I was controlling using a Gen2 DMC Micro, but I found I wasn't really using all of the effects on it, and those that I was sounded slightly lacklustre (IMVHO). So I recently found myself with a Source Audio C4, which I love. The editing options are way beyond whatever I can think of, and it covers all of my effects bases, which is squidgy filters, the odd octaver, chorus and some nasty synth bass occasionally. I predominantly got the C4 to use as a filter with additional options (yes, I know the Spectrum is a better 'standalone' filter but I wanted the occasion synth option). However, I've rapidly found myself using it a lot more which meant I was needing to use more than the 6 switchable presets (I mean, I wasn't using them all at once but I wanted to be able to change presets more easily on the fly). Which meant going back to something like the DMC Micro I had with the Zoom. The downside of using the Micro with the C4 was, unlike on the Zoom, there was no display, so the Micro only showed preset number. OR SO I THOUGHT! Looking at the latest version of the DMC Micro, the Pro, it has a new OLED display screen which means it can show present names as well as numbers! Perfect, so I decided to buy one from Andertons. First downside - Andertons don't sell the gHOST USB adaptor. I've bought one from Disaster Area direct in the past, but for a cheap cable dongle it came to about £25 once shipping was included. Plus, that was pre-B-word so I have no idea how that might have affected things. I reasoned that Disaster Area probably wouldn't have manufactured their own USB Host cables, so took a punt on this for the princely sum of £2.95: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00DM6EMQ2/ Along with a generic USB-B to USB-mini cable. The last of these arrived this morning, so had a punt at wiring it all up and DISASTER - it wouldn't communicate with the C4! Dangit, thought I - should have splashed out on the DA one instead. Start going back through the manual and I'd overlooked "make sure the MIDI channel on your device is set to 1". Delve into the C4 setup screen, and voila! They're talking. Problem 2 - despite loading in the presets on the C4, the Micro was only showing numbers. More delving in suggests irritatingly the present names don't carry over, so you have to manually edit the names on the Micro to correspond with the names on the C4. Someone suggested online editing on the pedal itself - which frankly sounded like a nightmare to me. Thankfully Disaster Area have a webpage editor, but even that is a little fiddly - you have reconfigure the Micro to USB MIDI to communicate with your computer, and you have a character limit of 8 letters/numbers. However, once it's done, it's done, so (leaving aside the fact I clearly forgot to do present no16) I can now have all the present names displayed on the Micro and cycle through the C4 presets easily. Hurrah! Only downside so far is cycling through switches the preset on - I'm sure there's a setting somewhere so more digging needed. So far it's seeming like a great solution.

Was going to ask a question about a pedal, but then went for a good deal on something else instead!

Recently did a gig where someone else was using my amp (combo and ext cab). Horrible farting noise coming from the combo, ‘crap, it’s blown the speaker’ we think, unplug that and just use the ext, ‘oh no, awful farting sound still, head is knackered, what can we do?’ Turns out the guy just hadn’t properly pushed his jack into his bass. Second set after someone else had used it, first chap back again - ‘oh no, no sound, head is fecked, check all the connections, it’s borked’ - he hadn’t pushed the amp end of the jack properly into the amp. 🙄

Just bought and absolute minter of Lakland 55-02 off Les/Dusty. He was hugely helpful in arranging handover and is a lovely chap to boot. The bass was/is mintier than an extra strong polo. Highly recommended!