burno70

I've wanted a valve amp for years now but the size and weight of the beasts put me off so I went down the light weight route and settled on a mark bass rig. Whilst I love my rig, it's not valve. Need roadies!

I took the plunge and bought a Headrush the other week and what an excellent pedal it is too. Took a while to learn how to use it properly as the instructions are actually incorrect (anyone else had this problem?) Anyway, I'm having loads of fun with it now and although I've bought it primarily as a practice took I would have no hesitation in using it live with my band if the need arises, which I'm sure it will Having said that, I wish you could "peel" the layers of over dubs away 1 by 1 rather than having to kill all but the original riff but it's still ace. The fact that it's a more than reasonable delay pedal is a bonus too. I did consider buying the Jamman as the removable memory is an excellent feature you can store the drum loops and keyboard riffs which could open up a load of new posibilities but having to buy an extra footswitch to make it more "live friendly" and also the much report tone suck put me off.

I use a Fulltone bass drive to add grit to my tone. Comp mode is excellent. Although some users find the volume switch a bit too sensitive.

I bought a Boss OC-2 a couple of months ago and love it. One of my favourite pedals! It's too glitchy below the A but I don't need to go lower than that anyway. I love it's synthy quality and it thickens up your tone which is especially useful if your in a band with one other guitarist.

Thanks Cheddatom you've bin well helpful.

My LMB-3 arrived from Ebay yesterday, had a quick mess with it last nite but will have to wait til the weekend to give it a good seeing to (ooo-err!) I did note though how crap the enhance effect is - that'll be left off I think. Also need to have another look at the trim pots of me Multicomp too. I'll see if I can pick up a Boss LS-2 on saturday as well and that will be the end of my splurge for now. Will wait till next month then may look for a low gain OD. I've got my eye on a Catalin Bread Hyperpak - would this count as a low gain OD?

Yeah a few posters have now mentioned how tweaking a compressor can fatten the tone. I have an EBS Multicomp. I'll give it a go tomorrow and see what happens.

Quality! Some cool riffs in there mate. Love the scratchy texture of the pulse synth. And yes, I now know that I should have requested the expression pedal mod with the Meatwad, damn, there is no cure the the never ending GAS!

Yeah, I'm thinking of going down the Sansamp route, I've used one before and they do sound excellent.

Not sure if I've done the "quote" thing correctly but here goes... [quote]Tried ditching the pedals and just using the bass-->amp? Go back to basics and see if the tone's richer...[/quote] No chance, I love my pedals and there's not much, if any, tone deterioration from them at all. I'm just interested in how bass players are using their effects to get even bigger, beefier tones. [quote]I was just listening to some old Rage albums yesterday actually (going to see them live next week yeoww!) and Tim Commerford's tone is really superb[/quote]. His tone is ace isn't it! Been listening to Battle for Los Angeles a lot recently, love the sounds on that album in particular. Wish I was going to see them too! I seen them at Glastonbury in I think it was '92, still one of my favourit concerts of all time.

Right then, been doin a bit of diggin and now I have a better understanding of bypassed loops. I've also been looking at some of the pedal suggestions. Just missed out on an LS-2 on the bay yestday but will keep tryin - if not I'll just pick one up from Dolphin next weekend. I also like the sound of the LMB-3. With the distortion tho, it seems the ODB 3 and the Jackhammer have as many lovers as haters. Cheddatom, you've advised a low gain OD pedal, can you explain why it would have to be low gain? It's just so I can clearly understand the concept of what's going on with my signal chain here and how it can help beef me up? Also, what other low gain OD pedal options are there. I've read about tonnes of OD pedals but I'm not sure which ones fall into the low gain category? Many thanks, I've learned a lot from this post!

Got more time to reply now and I've had a chance to scope out those pedal suggestions. I've always been a bit snobbish with Boss pedals due to the non True-Bypass / tone-suck aspect although I think I'm a bit more open to them now that I have recently obtained and absolutely love the OC-2. It seems that Harmony Central reviewers either love or hate the LMB-3 and the LS-2, so it looks like I'll just have to take the plunge, look for cheap bargains and decide for myself. Just like to say thanks to all for helping me out here, certainly gave me some food for thought and I'm starting to look at my running my effects in an entirely different way! Cheers

Thanks for the advise, sorry I didn't reply sooner but I'm back in work now Just gonna check out these new pedal suggestions. Cheers all

Dannybuoy, I have a new bass and amp! Don't get me wrong, I love the tone that I'm making, I'm just interested in wringing the absolute maximum tone I can out of my set up (with the addition of 1 or 2 more pedals!) - I got a Shuker with Delano pups and a Markbass rig.

Nice one, I hadn't thought of using blend pedals - this way I could have the bass drive on all the time and use it in conjunciton with the clean signal so it wouldn't be as raw. Hmm, I understand how a blend pedal works - obviously blending a clean signal with an effected one but how does this work in relation to your pedal chain, as in, what would you connect to what? Thanks Again mate

Cheers Mr Foxen, yeah the 3 rigs is definately out of the question. I'm Hoping to find a way to phatten my tone with effects pedals.

Rich, do you know if it's true bypass and if not - is it a tone sucker? Cheers

Just after advise for developing a killer tone. To give some indication of the kind of tones I like think Flea, Justin Chancellor, Tim Commorford - you know, the thick, granite like or just pure phat rock tones. It'd probably be a good idea to list my crurrent pedal board first:- Bass>OC2>Fulltone Bassdrive>EBS wah one>Meatwad>EBS Multicomp>MXR Flanger>amp I find that the bass drive is good for thickening up the sound but I only use it for a few songs, I wouldn't like to have it on all the time as, even though I'm in a heavy rock band, not all the songs require the grind. I think what I'm after is more of a beefed up 'natural' bass tone. I've read that some players use a permanent slight chorus to thicken up their tone. I'm not a fan of chorus myself but have never used it in this way before. Any advise would be most welcome. Also, advise need not be confined to my existing pedals, any new pedal suggestions would be most appreciated (although Not by my wallet!)

Deffo go with the Diago. It's expensive, Although half the price of the DC brick, but it's so light and you can alway expand it's connections as your pedal collection grows!

I got a meatwad a few weeks ago, fantastic pedal it is too. Previously I owned a Q-tron and an EBS IQ and the Meatwad out quacks both of them. It's just so tweakable, I'm getting new tones out of it all the time. I touched lucky and didn't get hit with any import charges. Thisnameistaken - is there any chance you could give us a sound clip of the Meatwad with the expression pedal? I didn't go with this option but am thinking that I should have. Go on, fill me with regret and envy!

Hi John, as much as I would love to be a full time rock star my main job is in insurance (although not music insurance!) but the same principals should apply so I may be able to help. Some company's should accept screen prints from the likes of Ebay or Loot as indications of the worth of certain items. I work in motor insurance and if there is a dispute in valuation we always ask the customer to provide proof of their own valutation and using clippings from auto trader would do. Although, to be honest, you should only have to prove their market value in the event of a claim anyway? It's unusual for an insurer to request proof of the insured items value before they offer the policy? I'm insured with Music Guard, I've advised them of the value of the items I want covered and have the premium paid by direct debit. They have not asked for valuations and I have peace of mind knowing that they are covered. They are Net based and their site is easy enough to navigate, I'd recommend taking a look at them. Hope that helps Ste

Billy Gould's an excellent shout, he hardly gets mentioned on bass forums and I don't know why, he's a class act. Pure metal it's gotta be Steve Harris for me. I love Tim Commerfords style and sound too alhough that's more of a hip hop - metal hybrid thang!