fretmeister

No. I'd like one (I miss my original AO) but at the moment I play live in a Big Band only and for home playing and recording / writing I do everything with Helix or a selection of plugins. I only have 1 bass specific preamp pedal these days - the Tech21 Steve Harris model. That is the most versatile preamp pedal I've ever known and will do McCartney through to Lemmy. I suspect if I got the Photon it would be great fun at home for a while, then I'd start not bothering to plug it in and just going direct into my PC again... and then I'd look at it and think "there's £400 I'm not using, what else could I have if I sold it..." and that would be it. I'd love it if Neural did an AO plugin though. The Parallax gets very close but it's not quite the same.

I had the original AO pedal and I definitely preferred the Alpha side - it was more defined whereas the Omega was kind of uncontrolled.

I like the sound of it too. I wish it had an FX loop though - to put other effects between the drive and the output / IR

BassTheWorld demo up

All my heavy gear went on Doc's orders after lots of surgery. But it was two Marshall VBC412 cabs. one powered by a Hartke HA3500 and the other by an Ashdown MAG400H (red one). Split signal bass. Best sound I ever had. Never needed a rhythm guitarist!

I still like him - he's got great enthusiasm for the instrument. That strange 2 string he's got is intriguing too.

That was lovely! Not heard that version before.

It was a joke - aimed at those who think all of Patrick Hunter's demos sound the same! Was probably a bit subtle! I'm looking forward to the Nate Navarro demo - he's usually very good with new products.

The Helix has it all in anyway - and it gets free firmware updates.

I heard it last week. (sorry)

I saw Walter Trout at The Stables once. The support band were fine - loud but not excessive. I lasted 2 songs of Mr Trout before I realised it was completely stupid to stay in the room any more. It was actually still too loud behind the double set of doors into the auditorium. Madness. When I play I use the old fashioned yellow foam plugs. Over 20 years of using them I have got used to the massive treble roll off. I might treat myself to some ACS though once I feel it's safe enough for proper gig attendances again.

I used to use a pair of them - as BigRedX said - the little grooves are wrong for bass so I used bluetack to space out the 2 ebows to activate the outer 2 strings only. The E string almost always needed a bit of help starting but the G was fine. Lighter strings were always better.

I would have liked a BF610 but some of the narrow doors and spaces I have to fit through mean that the tilt back wheels are not facing the right direction! I want Alex to make a vertical 3x10!

You'll be doing the Bass 'n' Vac dance next!

I'd love a Barefaced Six10 but I'd have trouble getting it in the car with my other gear. In my 20s I had a pair of Marshall VBC412 cabs. They sounded amazing but they were about 110lb each iirc. Like all big Marshalls they had casters, but it was still a nightmare getting them in and out of the car and up steps. they are still my favourite cab of all time but I'll never be able to lift them again!

I like tinkering too. I am a big fan of EMG because they are so quiet for recording and they really transformed my Sandberg TT4 (jazz). So I have EMGs in a couple of different basses. And I put Aguilars in my Ibby EHB because the stock pickups were so muddy. If EMG's had done a set the same size as the routing holes I would have gone with EMG again. For regular guitars - I change pickups a lot. For my strat I have ready made scratchplates with different pickup sets and it connects with 2mm banana plugs so no soldering is needed. My Strat is lovely so I like to play it for just about everything so I have single coils and humbucker set ups. But - after saying all of that I seem to be playing my Precision more than anything at the moment. It has Hipshot Ultralites on it now but other than that it is stock and it sounds great.

It's only the old really heavy ones that go that cheap.

Nah - that's too sensible!

I have a Thumpinator and I've tried it at the beginning of the chain, the end and in the FX loop. I liked it best at the end of the chain before the amp - last place on the pedal board.

I'm slowly warming up to the idea - like you say, it's not for me. It's for the kids. They will want to have a bit of fun, and their families will want to see what they've been up to this term. My kids have moved on from there to other things but it was such a brilliant place for them to play with others. So I will do my part. I will wear a big stupid Xmas jumper and try not to play any wrong notes. With a bit of luck it will help get the numbers back to pre Covid levels - we used to get about 175 kids / young adults attend every Saturday morning and with Covid it's no better than half that at the moment. Fingers crossed it goes well enough to not put anyone off coming next term! There's 2 good drummers there. Very different styles. I'm still recovering from when Jazz-Drummer had a day off and Double-Kick-Metal-Rimshot-Drummer depped. It was interesting doing a Burt Bacharach tune with Mini Dave Lombardo on the drums. Raindrops keep falling on my head ...bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada badabada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada

So put 1 cab on each channel. Job done.

Did the PA have phantom power turned on the channel the keyboard was using?

Do they ever do any actual journalism?