BigRedX

The vibrato mechanism on the Barracuda essentially became a fixed bridge once I fitted Newtone Axion Bass VI strings.

If I had a Fender obsession I'd want to buy from a store that had at least 10 examples of the supposedly identical bass (or guitar) I was interested in so I could try them all and select the one that suited me the best.

Up until earlier this week we had a massive PMT store here in Nottingham. Lots of guitars and not nearly so many basses but all very mainstream and nothing quirky second-hand. It's been over 30 years since I was last interested in a mainstream guitars or basses. I'll stick with well-known manufacturers for high-tech products mostly because I want decent support should anything go wrong. I bought my Helix from PMT (pre-COVID) mostly because they were one of the few resellers that had one in stock when I wanted to buy it. However when I was looking for a MIDI controller keyboard a couple of years ago they were exceedingly unhelpful (as mentioned earlier in this thread).

I'm not keen on built-in XLR outputs unless they are guaranteed to be protected from phantom power voltages. I always use my own passive EMO DI box with my Helix for connecting it to the PA.

If you look at the second photo you can see that the octave strings are above for E, A and D and below for G, B and E. Interesting idea. Something I might look at if I ever manage to find one of these.

These just appeared on one of the Burns Guitars Facebook pages along with the following explanation: Octave down 12 string which Hank saw when visiting the Burns factory. He took it with him and still has it. I believe it was converted to standard 12 string tuning. So this would have been Hanks first Burns.

The problem, as I'm sure I have said before, is that the frequent posters here on Basschat are not really the sorts of people who are interested what the typical bricks and mortar music shops have to offer. I for one don't except any of them to stock what I need any more even when it comes to picks and strings. Also I don't believe that you can make a properly informed decision about an instrument or amp from trying it in a shop. The last time I did that I ended up selling the bass less than 6 months later because it just didn't work in the band setting it had been bought for.

I've got the NUX 5G for exactly this reason works brilliantly for me and is far more reliable than the Sony 2.4G it replaced. I've played some fairly big stages using it without any problems. If I wanted something better I'd be looking at a seriously pro system.

TBH the situation regarding when stuff actually gets dispatched to the UK hasn't changed since the B-word.

Unless the bass is fretless you shouldn't be pressing down on the strings so hard that you come into contact with the fingerboard. For me fretted bass fingerboards are chosen for looks and nothing else.

I think the idea is that they replace your board completely, which is why the larger HX/Helix devices all have built-in PSUs. I simply take my Helix out of its bag and place it on the stage. Plug in the Main cable, MIDI, wireless receiver and output to the PA and I'm ready to go.

I've been looking at what little information is available about the more esoteric features of the Stadium and it looks as though if you want enough outputs to do packing playback seriously you will probably need the expansion box. The following will be important for me: 1. The ability the playback 4 channels of synchronised audio and send them to separate outputs. 2. The ability to synchronise Preset, Snapshot and parameter changes to the audio playback. 3. The ability to send MIDI program change, CC messages, and MTC/MIDI clock to external devices synchronised with the audio. 4. How quickly it loads a new "song" - ideally less than 5 seconds and is linked to Preset selection and Setlist order. So selecting a Preset also loads the corresponding audio and MIDI for playback, and the set order can be quickly changed using the Setlist function. 5. That it has sufficient memory to hold 4 channels of 24 bit audio for at least 1 hour of playback. 6. How easy it is to load all this information into the device from whatever DAW it has been created on. In the past I had a system that used standard MIDI files to control racks of synths and samplers as well as the guitar bass and vocal effects processors in order for my band to play live. While the playback worked really well, getting the information from the DAW into a format that the MIDI file player could use was massively convoluted, and once it had been done required me to run the "live" system to check that everything had transferred as I had intended. Also it then limited us to 16 channels of MIDI control rather than the potential 128 channels that a DAW plus MIDI interface could support. Ease of transfer (or not) could be the deal-breaker.

IME it doesn't matter when in the week you order something from Thomann, if it's destined for the UK it gets dispatched late on Friday afternoon.

But the old devices don't stop working. I was using a Bass Pod XT until I bought my Helix, which was bought on the strength of the features it had at the time of purchase. The firmware upgrades since then have just been a pleasant bonus. Unless/until the new Stadium version offers new features that I find indispensable, I'll be sticking with my Helix Floor

Only if the new version offers lots of new indispensable features. There's a couple of things that look interesting, but so far the teasers have short on actual information, and I don't think what I've seen so far is going to be worth the £2k+ outlay.