dannybuoy

Bearfoot Blueberry, Aguilar Tonehammer, or Xotic Bass BB Preamp would be my recommendation then. Also heard good things about the Creation Audio Grizzly but I can't vouch for it personally. SolidgoldFX Beta, Catalinbread SFT and Way Huge Pork Loin are all good for this also (but I preferred the ones previously mentioned to these).

[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1471945551' post='3117111'] I don't think it's necessary to go as far as taking vocal lessons...[/quote] I don't think it's necessary to go as far as purchasing a pedal! Maybe try some vocal coach tutorials from YouTube as a taster, you might be surprised at what you can do with technique alone. Mouth shape, mic position, etc can make a big difference.

Bolo is right. I recently did this with filters, I only kept the pedal if it made me gurn.

Lots to choose from in this area, depending on budget. Are you after a brighter more clanging sound, or a more vintage/wooly/thumpy sound? The VT Bass is a top shout, I liked it so much I bought the VT500 amp. The DI, amp, and Fly Rig variants also have a 'bite' switch unlike the others (they have the bite permanently baked in), turning that off gives you access to some nice mellower sounds too.

Watch live online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/live/bbcfour

A lot of those necks and bodies are cheaper from Strings Direct by the way. But Stratosphere obviously have a much better selection!

I'm 36 and in the same boat and will be starting with this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0996727604/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_awdl_x_QtIUxbGZSQQC9

[quote name='P Kool B' timestamp='1471805906' post='3116043'] After having a listen online (I know, not the perfect way to find out the sounds of amps), I'm torn between the GK mb200 (because cheap), GK mb Fusion, and Aguilar Tonehammer. I LOVE the Tech21 micro amp, BUT the sound would just not fit. Thing is, if I got the mb200, I could possibly afford a little cab for home use too. The possibilities. [/quote] The Tech21 is actually a lot more flexible than you might think. With the blend knob off it is essentially a clean flat amp with EQ. It also has the bite button, which when disengaged takes out the high-mid / treble boost baked into the signature VT Bass tone and gives you a really warm vintage sound. A lot of the demos concentrate on the overdriven tones but it has some great clean sounds in it too. The DI output level is affected by the amp's master volume though, which is dumb to say the least!

Chromes are quite high tension though. You may find yourself so in love with the syrupy warm tones coming from your bass that you will even roll the tone down a bit and wonder why you wanted bright sounding flats in the first place! I have TIs on my P, and have a set of GHS ready to try at some point. If you do go for TIs, I think I have a spare low B somewhere...

Oh yes and rumour has it this is the exact same pedal that Hartke have rebranded and released as their bass chorus (for 4x the price!). Btw the finish is matte and badly applied, came with a free dirty fingerprint smudge, the pots feel really flimsy and the footswitch is loud and clicky (mechanically that is, no popping heard in use). But for the money you can't go wrong! [url="http://www.samsontech.com/hartke/products/accessories/pedals/hc33"]Hartke HC33[/url]

Btw, in my experience there are two main source of noise in pedalboards.[list=1] [*]Some pedals can introduce hiss or whine into the signal just by sharing the same daisy chain. Try unplugging the power from each pedal one at a time to see if there is a main culprit. [*]Some patch cables have poor shielding and take in a lot of interference, especially if you have a dimmer switch nearby. With my dimmer switch on, I put my patch cables in a true bypass looper and found that anything with plastic jacks, added a massive amount of buzzing to my signal just by having one single patch cable in line! [/list] After taking out the problem pedals, or putting them on their own separate supply, and ditching all the dodgy patch cables, I have a very quiet setup with my Johnny Shredfreak PSU now!

Truetone CS-12 has AC output and can handle anything you can throw at it!

I had an inkling that a chorus would work really well on a track I'm to play soon, so thought I'd pick one of these up for £15 delivered from eBay. Zero low end loss and it sounds great! Lovely warm sound from those analog bucket brigade delay chips. Recommended if you're after a chorus on the cheap! http://www.nuxefx.com/index.php?m=content&c=index&a=show&catid=52&id=235 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYW0mYYN3-4

The MB Fusion and Tone Hammer are fine amps, also maybe look into a Tech21 VT500 or (the now discontinued) Orange Terror Bass. Actually if it was likely to be just used for practice and being lugged on a train I would just get the GK MB200 or TC Electronic BH250! Then if you wanted to change the sound of perhaps do so from a pedal; but the TC has tone prints that should cover a lot of ground. It also has a tuner, so one less thing to take to practice!

Ask Kiogon for a solderless kit and you can just screw the pickup and bridge earth in place without having to solder a thing!

Yup - very few basses have active pickups, they are nearly always passive pickups with an active preamp.

Are you chaps using it on bass? Vibe isn't something I'd ever considered.

I've got a Manta and dual expression pedal on the way to me... Considered the hot hand but wasn't sure it would work for what I need - controlling very subtle opening of an almost closed low pass filter, and doing a slow steady sweep over a few bars. I'll probably get one to try if I see a good deal on one! I like to play Super Sharp Shooter whenever I'm plugged into an octaver too!

Sounds quite similar to the Tone Hammer from your description. That pedal does Motown like no other! For pick playing my top 'pick' is the Blower Box set to low-ish gain.

Yup, I've been thinking of contacting both Tom and Max for a quote to see what they come up with. I do prefer the aesthetic of the COG pedals however.

Alternative layout for you - JMJ! You can get the MM pickup in the sweet spot then have the J's either side in a sandwich. The J will be quite far back in the 70s-ish position but it should be a good setup, best of both worlds!

[quote name='DanEly' timestamp='1471589000' post='3114153'] Pretty sure the GigRig G2 does this? [/quote] At £749, I don't care what it does! A little 1590A nano box with one footswitch and a couple of mini pots would be ideal. Maybe if there's enough interest and it's a common problem for everyone, someone like Tom at COG or Max at SFX could get on the case and do a small production run?

Never. Although if it ever did happen, I bet it would be my Yamaha BB1025X. Those new bridges are string through body combined with a really sharp fulcrum resting point at the saddle!

I have a few pedals that suffer from one of the following issues:[list] [*]Volume drop or boost when enaged, but no volume knob on the pedal to sort it (e.g. Mini Q-Tron, Phase 90) [*]Pedal sensitive to input levels, e.g: [list] [*]My Mr Black Fwonkbeta only triggers properly with reasonably high output bass [*]My COG T16 sounds much fatter with a more consistent tone with a slight clean boost before it [*]Various overdrives don't react well to high output basses [/list] [/list] I want a simple true bypass loop pedal that has a gain trim control on the send and return. Does such a thing exist?