dannybuoy

Personally I can’t stand clicking through menus on multi-fx. I’m a hands-on-knobs guy. This looks new one from Boss looks cool however:

https://www.boss.info/us/products/me-90b/

Yes and no… drive will squash but it doesn’t shape the envelope of the attack to make it punchy like a well set compressor.

I put a Spectracomp at the start of my chain, before my Beta.

20 hours ago, Jonesy said:

*puts on thinking cap* Who do I know in the States that I can send this to, so they can then ship to me.............

I’ve only used them for small things like pedals, but you could give this a shot: https://www.shipito.com/en/

On 26/02/2024 at 23:37, dannybuoy said:

I’ve done something similar, split the signal with one Sansamp, run the parallel out into another Sansamp or Darkglass box, then blend together at the end with a blender pedal.

I gave this another try today - Sansamp BDDI with the parallel out going to a Leeds, then a Mosquite blender used to mix them together.

With the Mosquite set at 100% I can essentially use it as a channel switcher. Set at 50% I can switch between pure BDDI and a mix of BDDI/Leeds.

It sounds particularly good blended with the presence/treble dialled back on the BDDI and the bass rolled back on the Leeds, so that each pedal is handling a different frequency range. 

Mine arrived a couple of weeks ago, without an additional PCB trinket! No import tax (on a single Jive at least).

I’ve done something similar, split the signal with one Sansamp, run the parallel out into another Sansamp or Darkglass box, then blend together at the end with a blender pedal.

Don’t be put off by the toneprint functionality of the Spectracomp. I geeked out and tried every preset going and fiddling with all the parameters just to find that the stock preset was pretty much dialled in perfectly out of the box. So I reset it back to that and haven’t touched that side since, and I just have a simple one-knob compressor. I have owned several much fancier comps in the past but this one is perfect for my needs.

Tech21’s new XB Driver will likely be the king here, but it’s not cheap. It’s like a more flexible DP3-X (which uses a similar approach but with a fixed crossover frequency).

Tech21’s YYZ range do something in this vein also. The dry signal is EQ’d to boost the bass and roll off the highs, and the ‘tight’ button rolls off the lows hitting the drive circuit. And the EQ knobs just affect the drive channel.

Orange Bass Butler is also worth a look, like the YYZ it doesn’t actually have a crossover, but you have 2 channels in parallel with their own EQ, so you can roll the bass off one and the mids/treble off of the other.

14 hours ago, tayste_2000 said:

I only tried my jive in a loud band situation so haven’t had time to really evaluate.

 

Oddly really didn’t like the spark but still love the mojomojo.

 

When I get chance to meet up with a friend I’ll finally get the Tone Factor Cream Pie back just debating having a W&C Phat Phuk (for the 3rd time) to try it against 😅

The Spark is best in clean mode I find, it has the deepest lows that way. At first I was using it in Fat mode and preferred the Mojomojo until I realised I could flick it over to clean and just turn up the gain. The Mojomojo was just too murky sounding for me.

On 24/11/2023 at 11:56, tayste_2000 said:

For an all in one you might want to give the Aguilar Tonehammer a look.

 

Just don’t think of it as a 2 channel preamp, it’s a preamp with 2 different sounds that you switch with a footswitch. Therefore the hugely different volumes, tone, eq centres etc don’t bother you so much you just like the option.

 

Also it’ll run on batteries and phantom

+1

I’ve had all the pedals Supernaut listed and also really like the Spark. The Tonehammer is the closest thing to the Spark with a mid control. It sounds a bit creamier. I have a Jive coming also that I ordered months ago on sale and am still waiting for it to arrive!

Sorry if I missed the finer points of your post, it was a bit late for me to absorb a wall of text!

But yeah, my guess would be string coating acting as an insulation, but the nut makes a firmer contact which forces more metal-on-metal contact.

My P bass doesn’t make any noise whatsoever now that I’ve sorted the earthing issue out further down the chain, so this whole conundrum of touching nuts doesn’t even come into question. Hope you get to the bottom of it!

What are you plugging into? I get a lot of ground noise if I plug certain preamp pedals in between my bass and my battery powered Phil Jones Bighead headphone amp… but that noise disappears when I plug in the charging cable, and I don’t get any noise through my amp either.

I thought the Beta worked really well live as a dirty boost. Loads of other pedals that sounded fine at bedroom levels seemed to drop lows at high volume except the Beta and Blower Box!

Nice! I wish they offered a fretless though.

https://www.fender.com/en-GB/ukuleles/concert/fullerton-precision-bass-uke/0970583500.html

Speaking of finding happiness with cheap pedals that fly under the radar and parallel blending… I have found solace in the Hartke Bass Attack for my always on scooped dirty tone, with a TC Spectracomp in front of it. This is after trying almost everything on offer from the likes of Darkglass and Tech21, as well as the Origin Effects Super Vintage. Then I’m using the parallel out from the Hartke into a Boss HM-2 and using a Mosquite Blender to mix the 2 pedals in parallel.

When my old Mk1 OTB died, I took it into PMT in Cambridge, who then sent it onto Orange for a repair. It was 2nd hand and well out of warranty, and if I recall correctly all I had to pay was the courier charge!

👀

I can assure you they’re not all like that! Mine are all loose.

9 minutes ago, toneknob said:

pdbass https://www.youtube.com/c/pdbass

Funny how the algorithm works, almost 100K subs and I’ve never seen that one before, yet it popped up those other smaller ones randomly in my feed!

30 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

Without a doubt:

 

https://www.youtube.com/@howtobbqright

 

 

I was meaning bass oriented channels, but fair enough that looks good! 🐷

There are lots of popular channels out there from BassTheWorld, The Bass Channel, JuliaPlaysGroove, Scotts Bass Lessons, etc… here’s a couple of new-ish channels I subscribed to recently that don’t have many followers but are well worth a look:

Bassed - a couple of bass geeks from Kentucky who review gear and interview players

The Wetter Bass - gear reviews tastefully done, great playing and always gets the best out of the pedals being demoed

Shout out any others that deserve more attention down below!

FWIW I rate the cheaper digital example of the TC Spectracomp over the Keeley and the Cali! Don’t write it off if you haven’t tried one.

The whine can happen with digital pedals sharing power (the cab sim is digital). Happens with EHX digital stuff, but not TC - perhaps they have better power supply filtering going on!

I thought it was based on the Ampeg SB-12.

On 06/06/2023 at 04:19, Bagman said:

I’ve got the Beta Germanium the Beta V is considerably better for me

 

Flats or Rounds

Active or Passive 

Fingers, Thumb Plectrum 

 

all useable. 
 

probably my favourite Is flats , precision with light drive

I’ve not tried the Germanium, let me know if you fancy swapsies for the LM308!