fretmeister

I love Ovnilab... Am I right...

I've had them both. Again, both very good. I think the Empress has a cleaner sound to it whereas to my ears the 76 added a bit of warmth. The Keeley Pro is up there too - lots of fine control. I'm tempted with another Empress now that the enclosure has been updated. The original one, being a wide box with side mounted jacks making it take up even more board room was quite annoying. If it hasn't had been very good I would have sent it straight back when I got it. The new slimline one has solved that.

I've changed machineheads on many basses, always to get the weight down. Swapping from large plate tuners to Hipshot ultralites can lower the weight by half a pound, and when that is right at the end of the neck the balance benefits are massive. I really don't understand why many makers keep using unnecessarily heavy tuners.

The drop in value of kit that I like doesn't bother me. If I've kept something for years then chances are I really enjoyed using it. The drop in value is just the cost of that enjoyment. And even when it drops or a new thing comes out - the item sounds the same today as it did before. I'd really like the try the QC - but I'm waiting until they do the firmware upgrade that will allow the Neural plugins to be run on it. Then I'll decide whether to spend the money.. which TBH is likely to clash with my kids being at university so I might not have any money anyway!

Class A/B power section. Mmmm.... hefty.... [/Getting my coat]

In the end I moved mine on - in fact all my compressors went when I got the Boss BC-1X. That's certainly a dark horse. It's multiband so there's a lot going on behind the scenes but I found it much easier to dial in and it suits my needs a lot better (I'm not a fan of using the words "best ever" type nonsense). The only downside about the Boss is the battery drain is horrific so it's really a power supply only option with a battery for a backup. It should definitely be mentioned in the same sweaty GASsy breath as the Cali76, Empress, Keeley Pro etc though. It's just a great compressor and a massive step up from the older Boss offerings.

The thing that makes me laugh the most is the "I took the £300 Aguilars out and put in a £300 set of Nordy's as an upgrade. So the price is £300 higher because of it" "Are you including the Aguilars?" "No" 🤡

I had one for quite a while. The magic is in the HPF control. That is very clever.

I'd get an Ibanez.

I have a tuner app on my phone. Seems easier than a noise generator on the same device.

Series 2 is a lot lighter. I'm just about in the East Mids near Towcester if that is any good to you? I have a TT4 superlight.

Smartphone / interface and the free version of Amplitube.

I'm confused at the idea of swapping basses as described by some posts. If you have ADGCF and never play lower than the A, why not just keep the bass in that tuning forever and learn all the songs for that tuning? There's more than enough range.

I had my side dots drilled out and replaced with old fashioned bright white plastic dots. I've had a variety of UV reactive stuff and it's all been crap. So for me, it's either just a visible bit of plastic, or go the whole way and get LEDs.

I used to do this with a Yamaha P5000S power amp and a PodXT Rack. Smegging loud it was, and very versatile.

My assumption that the ones labelled “thin” could not possibly be what I want, combined with the Hassle of auditioning 100 files only 16 at a time instead of being able to try all of them, with just a twist of a knob on the modeller. And / or the hassle of having to take a PC to rehearsal to do the IR swapped in those batches of 16. Not being able to instantly A/B IR 2 in batch 1, with IR 4 in batch 2, but having to delete and upload again and again. Probably having to make written notes of what I liked in Batch 1 of 16 files, then Batch 2 etc. then making a sub batch of 16 I liked to listen to again and A/B them. With 100 files and only 16 slots there would probably have to be a third round of the batch process. I would have probably given up before getting to the one that was actually perfect for my needs. All of that nonsense can be avoided by having enough slots. IR slots are just a library. Doesn’t mean the content is used all at the same time. But there’s no good reason to limit ease of use. Some modellers have 3000 slots now!

The “know what we like” thing is interesting. My favourite speaker is the Celestion G12-65.So I bought the official IR from Celestion. In addition to the different mics and distance files etc there are also dozens of “fat” “thin” “dark” “bright” etc etc of them. I had no idea I’d prefer the thin option. Seems counter-intuitive for the stuff I play. But it has a bite to it I really like. If I only had 16 slots I might have never loaded it up to try.

Home auditioning for live use doesn’t work though. Good tones at home are very different to good live tones. Good old Fletcher-Wotsit curves.

I disagree. while a live player might find only 2 or 3 favourites the process of auditioning them is greatly hampered with only 16 slots. Nobody wants to drag a computer to rehearsal just to swap IR in and out for that process. When you buy an IR product you don’t just get 1 file, you get hundreds. Even just for a 4x12 loaded with V30 speakers it will have anywhere up to a dozen microphone options and then for each of them there will be close, medium, far, room mic distances. And then the same again but with the mics on axis and various degrees of off axis. So 12 mics, 4 distances, 3 axis positions. That’s 144 different IR files just for a solitary 4x12 cab. Only 16 slots would make selecting and narrowing down favourites an enormous hassle. And then do it all again it the player likes a different cab for clean sounds. It’s nothing to do with over indulging and everything to do with practicality and ease of use.

Yup. It makes a big difference.

I've got the Burton one. As a wah alone it's a bit too polite, but with the fuzz, and then another Fuzz as burton did for some tunes, then it is gloriously filthy!

I'll send the wife down. It will save me a job afterall.