51m0n

Anyone else seen the elephant in the room? https://www.quilterlabs.com/index.php/product/bass-block-802

I never reckoned the BB800 was overly grunty in the lows. I think it's strength is the way the preamp thickens up as you put too much into it. Gets a nice very slight grind going on. Very loud though. Compared to my big amp it's not got anything like the umph down low, but that's 1200w so it can push enormous amounts of air. The BB800 gas covered a 400 capacity 2 storey room without pa though. Close to too loud apparently, for a funk band. That was into a big twin 2, so massive air movement 🤩

That graph isn't quite right actually... [Engage pedant mode] The compression doesn't begin to stop until after the threshold is crossed in the downward direction. In fact the crossing of that threshold is the point from which the release time is measured. Achieving 0dB compression only after that. The attack and release are also non-linear. Compression is seriously complex to draw. I have never seen a really accurate compression graph drawn... [Pedant mode off]

Oh of course, time for the regular biannual basschat compression bunfight, should really put it in my calendar.... Here we go:- Compression used properly doesn't smash your dynamics Compression is a much more subtle effect than preamp side effect compression due to time control of the effect. It's actually more of a transient control. You can't hear transparent compression on its own, hence the transparent... But it is still powerful in the mix. Effects obvious compression will change your dynamic range, cos you're smashing the stinky poo out of the signal... Cheap compressor pedals generally are only useful for heavy effect compression cos you can't tell what they're doing cos they have inadequate metering... There you go 🤩🤘

A downside to EA is that they haven't got any rack ears for their amp - something I am getting very irritated by. I don't want to jury rig some dodgy shelf solution, get me the damn rack ears you swines! Their after sales have strung me along for months over this now. Not impressed at all!

Well its an interesting thing, they are definitely very tasty preamps, but the rest of thee signal chain does not quite live up to expectations IME. What can you say, I was suckered by the lovely preamp, I am a fool Having said that the EA was not available when I was originally looking, and it has a more full featured preamp that sounds every bit as sweet IMO, and a fricking huge power amp that certainly makes the Trickfish 1k tremble at its SPL capability. And the nicest input level meter I have ever seen on a bass amp (got to love the flashing lights mate)

I had a Trickfish 1k and it didn't work out, in all honesty there was definitely something not quite right about it, it went back and the 'fix' made it worse. Anyways I now have an EA iAmp Classic which is an absolute tone monster and as loud as bombs. Worth a try if you are still searching....

Do New Moon do equipment as well as instruments? Could only see instruments on their website...

Not a member I'm afraid...

It's time to insure my kit again, and my normal insurer has more than doubled the cost this year. Really not impressed! Any recommendations for a decent insurer? Ta!

It is very good IMO...

Chaps, thank you all! I knew I could rely on you lot to have figured out this stuff already, brilliant stuff! I never realised the db was in fact a very ornate walking stick, having been under the impression it was in fact a very ornate canoe... You live and learn

Well blow me down, I've never heard the rubber doohickey described as a ferrule. You live and learn! The right one of these with a 5p piece dropped down it might be exactly the right thing. Great shout! Thanks

Whilst this is great, the issue is its for a 15 year old and he will not remember (best will in the world) resulting in knackering the floor at home when he is practicing. I know this to be true, it is absolutely guaranteed. Trust me! The only way to protect the floor is to have something permafixed to the db that under no circumstances could be removed, forgotten, missed with the spike or in any way lost...

Tried it, won't fit over the endpin at all 😭

Hi db experts! My son's db has gone through a bunch of rubbery endpin floor protector things now. It's all getting very tedious. Can anyone recommend one that will fit a larger endpin that will protect a floor and last more than an hour or two? Ta!

Missed that, never been great at the RTFM thing

The Trickfish 1k. Sounded great in the shop. Seemed very loud. In practice wasn't. Also had a very strange noise issue. Sending it back it was returned with different issues. Eventually replaced with an EA iAmp Classic. All is now right with the world...

This is an interesting point. There is another argument regarding on stage dispersion from the guitar cab. Guitarists (in a smaller venue) tend to want their cab to be their main monitor. If a cab has a better dispersion then the angle that the cab faces compared to the angle to the guitarist's ears is less important, which helps the guitarist because he can hear his amp better with less amp output. It also means that as the guitarist moves around they hear their cab amplitude and tone change less. In other words they are happier. This in turn means that the amp output, although more general/dispersed, is actually lower on stage. Good mic technique and placement can really minimise the problem of spillage IME, the lower the spillage level the less the problem, and on stage nearly everything is very very close miced (less than a couple of inches is typical) which means the spillage volume compared to the source volume is pretty tiny. An amp that disperses poorly tends to get cranked up to compensate the poor dispersion. In turn that means that more energy is bouncing around the room (again smaller venues exacerbate this immensely), even though much less is useful (ie getting directly to the guitarists ears). To combat this you tend to have guitarists need a monitor chucking out their amp sound as well. It all just gets worse and worse. If you can get your guitarist to set a very low level on their poor dispersion cab, they will need a comparatively higher level in their high dispersion monitor to compensate. Final point. Guitarists will turn their amp or monitor up until they can hear themselves comfortably. With a poor dispersion amp as the main monitor in a smaller venue the result of this is very directional guitar sound hitting the room, and mixing with whatever you put through the PA. Resulting in nulls and peaks across the stage. If you have a high dispersion amp then less energy tends to hit the room. If you rely on a monitor for a lot of guitar feedback then you have the same wide dispersion as a good dispersion monitor on stage. So yeah whilst excellent dispersion can seem like the last thing you want, in practice it can be a lot more complex than just poor dispersion good for micing, great dispersion bad for micing in my experience.

That's insane.

So @Al Krow offered me a lend of his Becos Stella Compressor to try out and see if it "lived up to the hype" (some of which was mine based upon the feature set alone). So huge thanks to him for that! TLDR: This is flat out the most transparent and full featured pedal format compressor I have ever tried. Which may or may not be what you need I had it for a couple of weeks, used it with my band and mainly in the den listening to it in mixes trying to see how much I could get out of it. I don't normally do gear reviews, because they are time consuming and what might seem great to my ear could be utter crap to yours anyway. Compressors being a particularly ephemeral topic in light of how hard they can be to hear if you don't know what you're listening for exactly I realise I am on a hiding to nothing. So whatever ends up written here please take with a pinch of salt. First points to note, this is a VCA compressor built around a THAT Corporation Analogue Engine chip (which retails for about $2.40 for an order of 2000 chips). So a relatively low cost chip at the heart of this thing. But still a good clean VCA compressor chip in a well designed circuit can still be a phenomenal tool in the right hands. As for how I tested this, I plugged it in between my Roscoe Century Std 5 and my EA iAmp Classic driving a Barefaced Big Baby, whilst playing some of my band's mixes back through my little monitors without the bass channel up to see what the result was in a mix. I also used headphones to really try and focus on the absolute leading edge of the note (the transient) when playing with the attack/release controls. The Lab First Impressions Lots, and lots of controls! All the important contenders are there, and better yet properly named. Ratio, threshold, (make up) gain, attack and release all present and correct. Some of them are frickin' tiny!! I truthfully couldn't really tell where the little arrows were pointing on the wet/dry and saturation controls without my glasses, and the light being 'just right' I would need to fill those in with some white paint to be able to use them easily. Bummer! On the plus side I don't think the micro-pots are in any danger from foot stomps on the big switch, the clearance seems more than adequate. Also, why the dashed lines all the way around the main controls? So I know it goes from 1:1 to infinity:1 ratio but I have no idea where 4:1 or 2:1 or 10:1 is on that pot. What a massive error. Now I know I can calibrate this with a DAW and some time, but for crying out loud why not figure that out for me? Yes I would use my ears to get what I want out of it, but actually I really like being able to get into the ballpark without guessing. That is a real shame on an otherwise great device IMO. The enclosure seems really nice, very solid, yet pretty light. I like it! First Thoughts In Operation No noise at anything approaching a reasonable set up: if you want to dime the output gain or the ratio and threshold its going to accentuate the noise, but that is simply not a realistic set up and even then its what I would call studio clean. I've played with a lot of pedal compressors and they are almost all let down by internal noise. Not this one. Its clean. Like an operating theatre. This is really really transparent. So what does that mean? Its a VCA compressor, it is designed to change the amplitude of the output in such a way that when set up correctly it is very very hard to tell that it is doing anything. In that first picture I was getting between 4 and 12 dB of gain reduction and couldn't hear it out off a mix (yeah I'll come on to that wet/dry setting in a bit). The LEDs are superb, the gain reduction feedback from them is absolutely excellent. Good enough to properly tweek attack/release times to help get the kind of bite point and release point to let you choose how overt you want this to sound. Just superb. SCF That little toggle switch between the Threshold and Attack controls is the Side Chain Filter selector. This is super useful for bassists, because we dont necessarily want the low end of our notes to trigger the compressor, instead letting the mid range and top end be what the compressor is listening to can produce better results. I preferred this control at the L setting where it lets through a lot of the lows and triggers mainly on the top end of the response. This is where the massive tweakability starts though, you can find settings in this pedal that work better with this switch in other settings. There is no right or wrong here, its just what works for you. Knee Switchable between a Hard or Soft knee, again tweakability is what this tool is about. I liked both setting for different ways of approaching compressing. In the above picture I had it on a hard knee, but because of other parameters settings I would still call that a super super transparent gain riding type of setting. Its going to pull up the lower end of the note envelope and quieter notes in general, giving them a lift, but absolutely not adversely affect dynamics and feel because of the other super cool control... Wet/Dry Oh yeah baby! This is the secret super sauce for compressor nerds. Especially coupled with the SCF it means you can set up very overt compression that is smashing everything, then use that purely to pull level up rather than to crack down on it. This is New York or Parallel compression. It totally changes the sound of the compressor and the feel too. Set up like it is in the above photo with the threshold super low and the ratio very serious, with a slooow attack a hard knee and the wet/dry dialling the effect right back compared to the dry signal you will be hard pressed to hear this compressing or feel it, until you put the result in a mix and start playing with a lot of dynamics. Your tone will change as your dynamics do, but your playing will just 'sit' in the mix because as your dry signal drops off the wet signal takes over, being compressed. Dialling that wet/dry over toward wet makes the compressor take over earlier, but even on fully wet this is still very transparent, and grabbing between 4 and 8dB of GR. I always try and dial in an 'always on' kind of setting into a compressor first, because it is the hardest to get right IME. You want to improve the way the bass sits in the mix of every song in a set, without getting in the way of the dynamics, regardless of technique. Sounds impossible, but this kind of compressor gives you all the tools you need to do exactly that. It is simply superb in this role. Lush even. Timing Simply a way to turn on automatic attack/release set to either fast or slow speeds or set it to manual to take advantage of the attack and release controls on the device. Me, I am all about the manual controls on compressors so I didn't even switch this thing out of Manual, but the miniature version of this pedal has great reviews and no manual control at all. Personally these two manual timing controls are why I would want this pedal over the little brother, so this switch is irrelevant to me... Overt Effecty Compression There is another role for compressors though, where you might only want to use them for a single track or section to really grab your tone and make something happen to it that can be heard. Some transparent compressors aren't so good at this sort of thing, personally I dig really good optical compressors on this role, but they ahve to be quiet when pushed to extremes (because thats where you are going to go with them to get them to do this really overtly). VCAs can do this too, they are the toolbox of compressors after all. Basically you want to take all the settings and just accentuate everything, so fully wet (at least to begin with), a higher ratio and a lower threshold for a start. But the real nuance of this type of compression is all about the attack and release. Normally you would be looking for a hard knee for an overt compressor, but I found with the Becos that the soft knee, when coupled with real extremes of threshold and a fast attack time started to get a bit like an optical compressor, the slower curve on the attack time did something really nice to the front of the note as the attack was shortened. Then its a case of dialing in the release so that that compressor gets a chance to reset between notes and yet is long enough to be heard. This is a case of a lot of trial and error. I ended up with something like this, where I backed the wet/dry off a bit so that fingerstyle and slap both seemed to work equally well and got really really fat and super punchy, loved this tone:- Tilt-EQ The Becos has a tilt eq, counter clockwise is more bass, clockwise more treble. Dead simple. Works a treat for the effecty side of things too, if you intend your compression to be for a particular playing style or song or whatever you can really dial in a tone to fit the rest of what you do and convey what you need.This is applied after the compression as far as i can tell and works really nicely. The EQ Pivot point control is just a selector for the mid frequency of the eq. Sat Ok, this is an odd one. They have added a saturation effect that is applied to the Dry side of the Wet/Dry only. I am all for kitchen sink stuff in a pedal, this is apparently a germaium style drive circuit. They claim it sounds like tape saturation, which it really doesn't to my ear, it distorts rather too much and rather too quickly for that I think. And to be honest I found it not particularly useful. Unless you are after a particular 'effecty' use for a particular point in a set. YMMV. Limiting This compressor has a ratio up to infinity and a minimum attack speed of 1.2ms so it could well stand in as a peak limiter. However it measures level over time so it wont be as good at limiting as a dedicated device that is really truly reading for peaks and would have fastest attack times measured in microseconds. Conclusion This is one of, if not the best pedal format compressor I have ever used. Being a VCA circuit its not a one trick pony, lends itself particularly well to transparent compression anyway, but coupled with the advanced features here its capable of incredibly transparent leveling to help 'glue' your bass into the mix better. Or fast enough attack speeds and extreme enough ratios and thresholds to make compression a fun in your face effect or super fat core tones completely achievable. If you want a tool to help on the gig, or to get a 'signature' compressed tone or a device in your hands to help you really get an understanding of what compression can do for you then this has to be really high up on your list. It certainly deserves to be there. Thanks again to @Al Krow for the lend of this. Hope the review helps anyone sat on the fence over this little beauty!

My guitarist is currently being seduced to the darkside by the Quilter 101 Reverb and Bareface 112 Sweet, it'll mean his ridiculously unreliable tube amps will stop screwing up mid gig: both his marshal 2x12 and Fender deville 410 are utterly untrustworthy despite him sinking many times their initial cost into them to try and make them less prone to releasing the magic smoke. I cant wait, the Quilter 101 tone is gorgeous, and the Barefaced guitar cabs are insanely good (and a 112 so dispersion is amazing)... Still going to mic him and give him loads in his monitor and put him through FOH to get a better mix for the punters though!

With that little amp she will need to go through FOH. Which is a very good thing! What possible argument can she have for not being put into the FOH??? Does she really think we are living in the early 70's and she needs a wall of fatally flawed marshal amps to get her point across to the Isle of White audience

Hire something cheap in the meantime or spend more later. Its always the issue I know! I understand the dichotomy, really I do, I have absolutely been there. I'll put it another way, if I lost all the kit we have in a fire tomorrow (jeez hope that never happens but) the only difference I'd make to the mixer solution is to go for an XR32 and the extra 16 channel stage box. Seriously, my band could consume channels like you would not believe for recording (5 mics on percussion, 11 on drums, 3 mics for horns, 1 mic for guitar, 1 mic for vox, 1 DI for bass, 1 mic for bass, 4 DIs for keys, 1 talkback and 1 or 2 for room ambiance - no kidding!). I know, loads more expensive, but the options for recording live would be amazing whenever we got the chance to do the big set up, and the rest of the time we can do the gig with just 16 inputs at a pinch. But the 6 aux outs are the absolute minimum I can work with (I'd really prefer 14 aux outs to give everyone their own stereo monitor mix, but we cant always get what we want and I cant justify 6 Behringer P16-M monitor mixers, our keys player has bought himself one though). I honestly cannot run a PA for the band that doesn't offer everyone a separate monitor (except the horns, they can live with a single monitor mix, but they currently dont use IEMs). We are a big big band, with a lot off noise creating stuff, but every time we think we have enough channels someone comes up with a bright idea and I sometimes can't achieve that goal without more inputs on the desk (samples being one such problem). Our keyboard player has to use his own mini mixer at the moment and I get a 2 channel feed off that. its far from ideal though! What I'm getting at is that no matter the solution you get for today, it will not be ideal, and in the long run you are fairly likely to have to buy again to get the functionality that it becomes obvious you need. Its such a pain!

I would advocate saving for longer, it is cheaper in the long run! Plus with the XR18 you can do a phenomenal show real recording by micin everything properly...