dannybuoy

Rumoured to be coming soon...

Anyone tried this out? NeuralDSP is Doug Castro's (Darkglass founder) sister company, they have a new parallel processing bass distortion and cab sim plugin with presets from Nolly Getgood and Jon Stockman etc. 14 day free trial too: https://neuraldsp.com/products/parallax/ I'll give it a bash this evening...

Yeah, I'm not much of a fan of the B7K with a P Bass either. The natural eq curve of a P bass kind of fights against what the B7K is trying to do to your tone. It's a perfect fit for a J bass however! I have 2 general approaches to bass tones, either dominate the low mids with my P Bass, or scoop the hell out of the mids, dominate the low end and slice through the high mids with my BB in the middle pickup position!

Try using a crossover to send everything above e.g. 150Hz to the BDDI sim, and the lows to a compressor. The BDDI sounds quite bloated if you crank the gain, but if you divert the lows to a separate parallel chain, you can crank the gain more and get a tighter sounding distortion. Then once you get that figured out, you enter a hole rabbit hole of having the entire palette of guitar distortions and amps open to you, because it doesn't matter if they drop the lows!

First off it sounds best with a scooped growly bass, like a Jazz with both pickups on, or a PJ, etc. If you're playing a classic P with flats for example, this is not the distortion you are looking for! Attack switch needs to be on to get the full growl out of it, grunt gives a bass boost before the gain section but I find that to be a little too much so I turn that off. Set the EQ to flat at first, the gain to where you get some nice crunch when digging in, and the volume so that the volume is roughly even no matter where you set the blend (the volume only affects the dirt side). Try the blend at 1 o'clock and adjust the master volume to taste. If it's too fizzy sounding, try it in a mix and you may find the fizz disappears amongst the rest of the instruments. Or you can add a LPF or cab sim to the end.

You could get close with either of those basses on the neck pickup, flatwounds, and a warm preamp/overdrive. Although a Fender P wouldn't hurt!

I installed the trial of Helix Native again last night to check out the Sansamp addition. I found it pretty easy to set up a dUg patch that emulates the DP-3X! Crossover split at 200Hz, lows to a compressor then EQ (I applied a bass boost with the parametric). Highs to a further HPF to roll off below 800Hz and boost the gain, then into the Sansamp with the blend at 100%, presence and drive adjusted to produce a nice grind. I didn't spend very long dialling it in but auditioned it playing along to some pre-recorded tracks that I've been using the DP-3X with and it wasn't far off!

My TI flats have been on my P for 10 years now, so they've worked out pretty cost effective!

When you say the cables work with other devices, do you mean for data or charging? Some USB cables carry power only.

If the power socket is knackered and you don't fancy trying to fix it, you could try using a 9V battery clip to DC jack adaptor. They're also quite handy for powering old pedals that don't have DC jacks, like my old Mini Q-Tron!

I was just about to suggest the DiMarzio Model P/J too, same as the ones in the bass above. The J is a split humbucker to keep the noise down. More output and bass than a typical P/J pickup, but not over the top or scooped. Black polepieces too, if you're into the stealth look!

If you upgrade the electronics in the bass, you've wasted quite a bit of hard work if you don't like the result. A preamp pedal you can just send back and try another. Most preamps designed to go in basses are little more than EQ, but many pedals have a bit of drive and/or compression available, which might be just what you want if you're after 'edge' or 'oomph'!

That one'll probably be fine... It doesn't have isolated outputs though, but you probably won't need them. If you want to buy one supply now that'll fit under a nano, has isolated outputs, and don't mind spending more on the premium stuff, look up these: Cioks DC5 / DC7 Truetone CS6 Strymon Ojai R30

That's not much current, so pretty much any power supply with 9v and 18v outputs. Or a standard 9V supply with an 18v converter tip.

I might pick up one of those wooden ones - I had one of the flimsy metal ones and it didn't last long!

Same here. I find raising my right leg several inches off the floor helps, even if it's just a box or something sturdy!

I find 500mA difficult to believe for the Tonehammer. It's analog and has no tubes, probably well under 100mA. It works on 48V phantom power too btw! EDIT: 7mA according to the manual: http://www.aguilaramp.com/wp-content/uploads/manual-tone-hammer-v1.2.pdf

There was a thread on this a while back. Playing with it on my left leg is something I'd never considered a thing until I saw that thread. I tried it, and instantly hated it - my back is twisted, the 1st fret harder to reach, the bass doesn't feel balanced, and the jack plug is sticking into my right leg! I play with it on my right leg and prop my foot on a footrest.

^ BB425 has the laminate neck and thru-body stringing also. Which pickups are best would be down taste I suppose, I've not compared them! But as the previous owner of a black BB415 and current owner of a black BB1025X, I say get the black one!

It will sound a bit harsher, so then you might find yourself needing a tone knob all of a sudden! I tried rewiring the S1 switch on my Precision to a tone/vol bypass, it sounded thinner that way, so switched it back.

It's quite different, the YYZ has less sizzle and a lot more midrange, and doesn't have the same low end punch as the DP-3X due to the lack of compression. IMHO the DP-3X is the way to go if you want the bass to help make the entire mix sound bigger and better. YYZ if you want the bass to be more of a lead instrument rather than a supporting one.

I thought all BB 5 strings were 18mm? My BB415 was and so is my BB1025X, I believe the new ones are also.

Yeah he stated so on the TB thread. Most likely recorded direct from the pedal. Is the Sansamp model available on the Helix yet? If so I'd try a clean signal EQ'd with a bass boost and treble cut, in parallel with a HPF (the tight switch) into a parametric mid boost, into the Sansamp. Might be able to skip the mid EQ if the Sansamp is modelled after the v2 with the mid control AND that pedal has the mid control before the clipping section like the YYZ (I've no idea but it's easy to tell by seeing if boosting/cutting mids gives you more/less grit). £249 is rather expensive yes. I don't know if @tonyxtiger has any left at the discount rate. I got mine from US eBay for about £170 delivered, no customs charges and took a week - but you take a gamble on whether the seller marks the package value down! Quite a few do by default, they must realise it's good for business!

It's Tim Starace, the bearded chap who's posted many many vids of Rush covers with various Tech21 preamps. I just assumed he was in a Rush cover band or something, but was pleasantly surprised by that track also. I'll be checking the album out later!

Great example of the YYZ pedal on a track here: