dannybuoy

Don't be too swayed by my opinions on basses I've never seen or played! Ibanez must have chosen to go with named brand pickups for their more expensive model, doesn't mean they are necessarily better. Maybe ask this dude on Youtube, plays a lot of metal and has the SR:

Frets will wear at the same rate, i.e. very slowly. Stainless steel strings will produce more wear than nickels. I wouldn't make it a factor in the decision making process unless you prefer the feel of one fret type over the other. Many bassists prefer the thinner vintage frets, for instance Dingwalls come with them, and also new Fenders.

Wise to wait 2 days before ordering, You'll probably change your mind at least once! Just looked up that SR306EB you were looking at and I'd be tempted by that if after a 6 string. I like the fact it has coil taps plus a fairly unique (in that I've never seen it before) 'powertap' option that gives you the growl of single coils combined with the low end of humbuckers. Not sure how that works but it sounds good for metal!

CITES should hopefully not be an issue any more: https://www.thestrad.com/news/cites-exempts-musical-instruments-from-rosewood-permit-system/9382.article

‘Good tone’ is subjective though - e.g. any bass I’ve played with Bartolini electronics has sounded really dry and dull, so for me I would probably skip the Corts. I had a Ray4 that sounded pretty good to me, I love the Stingray sound so would probably choose that from the list if buying blind (deaf?). If a passive PJ might float your boat, I’d look at the Yamaha BB435 also.

Depends what you want to do with your chain. If you want a Royal Blood style fake guitar, going to an amp sim and possibly other effects, but keeping the low end dry, you'd need something else.

If it's 9V DC and under 800mA, this might do the trick, worked well for me when I had a similar situation: https://www.amazon.co.uk/JOYO-ZGP-Guitar-Effect-Supply/dp/B07CS6T95Z

The Mosaic can't solo the octave up however, which might be important if using it in a parallel setup to generate a fake guitar sound. I think the algorithm is the same as used in the Whammy range though, just minus the tone control. The Ricochet is fun as an octave up as you can put it in momentary mode and do pitch divebombs when you press the footswitch! The Bass Whammy has a few modes that are fun to add on top of a solo octave up: +5th / -4th as mentioned earlier can be used to generate two different inversions of power chords, letting you change between a high and low one by rocking the pedal. +5th / +Oct lets you have a power chord with the heel down, then be able to bend that up to an octave up. +5th / +6th spreads a semitone over the full range of the treadle, so you can do a power chord but then press the pedal slightly to do a bluesy bend on that 5th up.

BTW, I found it sounded better to just play the added 5th on the bass rather than use a 2nd pedal to fake it. It ended up simplifying the setup a lot!

The Whammy can only add the otctave or the 5th, not both at once. I’ve used a Mooer Tender Octave (MicroPOG clone) into a Whammy with good results. The Bass Whammy setting 5th up / 4th down works well since they’re the same note an octave apart, and you can slide between them with the pedal. The only other small pedal I know that can do an octave up plus a 5th is the T-Rex Quint Machine. I don’t think any of them sound very natural clean though, but you can get away with adding distortion to mask it!

I've done a rehearsal with a loud guitarist and drummer with a crappy 60W Behringer combo before, and could hear myself fine. I'm sure with a decent cab it would be plenty audible enough for personal monitoring. We won't know for sure until someone does a field report!

Main uses would be as a stage monitor when your sound is mainly provided by the PA, or for recording. Shame they didn't use an XLR out for the DI rather than a balanced jack, and they missed a trick by having a headphone out but no aux in.

They are well reviewed around here. If all you want is a simple passive A/B switch, it’s hard to make a bad one, they’re mostly all the same, just a footswitch hooked up to some jacks in a metal box! Some of the more expensive options (e.g. GigRig, Lehle) will have soft touch foot switches and relays though which makes them nicer to step on and also reduces the chance of any popping noises when switching.

Usually a mixer wouldn't be ideal for passive basses due to having too low an input impedance, but some of those linked are labelled 'high impedance' so may well be up to the job!

Parallel definitely sounds better there, but I'm not a fan of dirt into filter unless you're going for synth sounds. My choice would have been filter into dirt in series!

That's precisely what it's for. Or for taking or pedals that suffer from tonesuck when bypassed out of your chain. It's just a mini version of the longer true bypass loops you often see on boards.

Cool! I like the tight switch but sometimes feel it's too extreme and I have to compensate by boosting bass and backing off the blend.

That looper does not do parallel, were you intended on using it in combination with another blender?

The 1025 pickups are very high output and a lot darker then a regular P pickup. The newer pups are supposed to be more vintage voiced and sounded quite a bit brighter when I auditioned a 435 vs a 2025X in store. If you want that old school precision and flats sound though, you're better off with a Fender.

The new generation (434, 734A, P34, etc) will sound closer to a Fender than the previous generation (424, 1024, 2024, etc) due to their more traditional alnico pickups.

I hope they add the 'tight' button from the pedal to the rack version. It's too bloated/fuzzy otherwise if you have a hot bassy bass like my 1025X. An adjustable HPF knob for the drive channel instead of the switch would be even better @Tech21NYC!

Chancers. It’s worth 50p. There are loads of people trying to sell theirs for 99p with no bids!

Most players are self taught, I wouldn't worry. I made the transition pretty easily from a 4 string Precision to a Yamaha BB415. The neck was a similar size which helped, I found most other 5 string basses too wide!

Depends what you're trying to achieve. E.g. a typical synth style chain with octave, fuzz, filter, modulation in series would not really work if you put all those effects in parallel. It's a bit like eating a cake vs eating a raw egg, a spoon of flour and a spoon of sugar, whilst sat in an oven. It is useful though for blending 3 different voices together though - say a traditional bass sound, an octave up fake guitar guitar sound, and a synth or organ, with the ability to switch each channel on or off. Or even just 3 different bass distortions to create a fuller sound. Only problem I can see there though is maintaining sensible output level - if you used that Tri Parallel Mixer with say a Sansamp and a B7K in their own loops - would you get double the volume if blending both together?

A 105 E string with a 115 B string? 🧐 Should be more like 125/130 surely.