funkydoug

yes, sorry everyone! getting my spark pedals mixed up. There's the 2 by TC and one by Tone City (called All Spark).

Is the TC mini a totally clean boost then? no added magic?

hope you don't mind me hijacking this...
what does the tone spark sound like? There's nowhere that says it is a tube preamp emulator, but that is my guess ... or is there something else going on?
Cheers, Doug

Another vote for the SMX 250. Awesome. @DeeDee got me hooked! It sounds fantastic, very very flexible and as DeeDee says, there is so much power there. Don't be put off by the Watts figure , these are hugely loud amps.

The cabs also sound amazing but are heavy.

There's an SMX head or two for sale on BC at the moment. Moving them around the country with couriers is a hassle but not impossible!

Hiya Mick,
So do you mean that the SMX sound can't be remade by assembling pedals chosen for the job? Not the news I was hoping for, ha!

I wonder whether the power stage is the bit that is hard to recreate??

In the meantime I've got hold of an SMX compression pedal so the first part of the jigsaw is there...
Cheers, Doug

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Cheers Danny,
That does look like it could ignite some GAS!
However, I'm still wondering about the SMX sound... Is this this thing faithful to that sound?? I think a few of us would agree that the SMX was a really special amp... Do any techs who have worked on them have a view of them based on their experience??
Quite likely to get the Transit B thing anyway though as it ticks a lot of boxes.
Cheers, I think

I'm in love with the sound of my Trace SMX12 amp. I'm also aware that it is about 25yr old.
Would it be possible to recreate the sound using modern gear??

I'm thinking you'd need; dual band comp (ashdown or EBS), tube preamp that stays clean (Eden do a pedal one I think) and a graphic/ flexible EQ pedal.
All of it quiet and lossless.

So, I suppose my question is... Is the SMX sound the sum of these parts or is there something else in there that is not on the front panel???
Cheers, Doug.

PS. Yes I could just buy a second one as a backup plan, it that would be too easy!

Price drop

It's used but in good condition. It's a nice gig bag for 2 basses but they come with a built in weakness in that the metal clips that hold the shoulder straps on are made of cheese. I've replaced these with carabiners... Call it an upgrade! 

Pics added

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Yep that's what I've read too, and it sounds more drive than muff.
Blend control is really effective too.

great BCer - very smooth sale of comp pedal. Thanks, Doug

Bought a Trace Elliot combo from DeeDee that he'd modified. He was great - offered to meet halfway to avoid a courier. Lovely guy and a stonking amp!
He clearly knows his stuff and cares about his gear.
Thanks, Doug.

I'm in Newcastle ... not exactly convenient if you're in Brighton unfortunately!

What I would say though, is that when I bought this thing it came delivered by courier, and it has been faultless.

Price Drop ... will take £300 now.

hi folks,
I thought I'd share my experience with the EHX bass battalion with you. I haven't seen many reviews of it online at all and it seems to exist below the radar of many folks looking for their preamp-DI-drive-comp-box, so here goes...

First things first, as the title suggests, I love it. There a few reasons:
1) It is solid and sturdily made - as one would expect for one of these things. Easily in the same ball park as the rest, despite being quite a bit more affordable
2) It clean section simply sounds great. The main things to notice about it are that the 4 band EQ has a shelving bass that kicks in at 200Hz on the bass end. This is different to most (all?) others in this category both in that it is a shelf not a notch / peaking EQ and the frequency; 200hz is way higher than most other bass knobs! the closest I've seen is the VT bass @ about 120hz, while most are at or below 100hz. That's a significant difference.
The mids are low-mid @280hz and high-mid @750hz but they miss out the zone of honk (at about 500hz) meaning, in my experience, you can add some heft in the low mids and / or some bite in the high mids without the honk-factor. The treble end is smooth, glassy and ... erm ... nice!
3) the drive section is also really flexible, and can go from barely there bite / sizzle to full on distortion. It is way more flexible, and subtle, than the branding would lead you to believe. I sold a lovely vintage drive pedal because this does everything I want in one box in that regard. I was pleasantly surprised by this, didn't really expect to like the drive section much at all (I bought it mainly for the clean+comp)

now .. I didn't say it's perfect...

The compression end of things is fine for me, and does what I want from a comp, in fact it does subtle comp as good as my ears can hear, but that's about all. If you want something more technical / more demanding from your comp, then I would not expect to get it from a one-knob job like this, and that does seem to be the case here. Keep it subtle though (in an always-on kind of way) and the comp does a really nice job. For the compression anoraks ... the comp comes before the drive and EQ, so if your forensic analysis shows a roll off of anything you are only the twist of a knob away from addressing that ... but I can't hear anything missing from the tone.

The noise gate... bit of a novelty as the pedal itself is quiet and the gate seems to be ... basic... but I just do't use it.

Bells and whistles: It drives headphones really well so makes practicing with 'your tone' very do-able.

All in all, I think it is highly under rated. The paint job and the price might lead you to think its a bit of a toy, or that its a bit 'rock', but I have been very pleasantly surprised.

Hope someone finds this useful!

Doug.

Dan bought a pedal from me. Smooth transaction throughout. Thanks

Just to add to this love fest, bought a pedal from Bigwan, one he'd assembled himself from a clone kit. It and he were marvellous! So good that I nearly bought another one...
Thanks and all the best, Doug.

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Hi folks,
Bought this from bigwan here only a few weeks back and it is marvellous; truly a great little drive pedal.

For anyone unfamiliar with them, they're direct clones of dark glass vintage micro tubes and they do an amazing impersonation. Beyond that, it's just a stone cold killer of a drive pedal.

See http://schalltechnik04.de/en/instructions/Guma antique

Only reason I'm selling is that I'm very happy with the rest of my set-up now and this would be in the drawer being wasted.

It was built from a GUMA kit by bigwan who has done a pro job and is in absolutely perfect, scratchless condition. Pics to follow

Selling for the same price I paid, £50 posted in the UK.

[quote name='ricksterphil' timestamp='1507315140' post='3384771']
Pm'd re trade
[/quote]

Nothing in my inbox buddy... Want to resend it?

This is still available folks...

very clean example with original box & the velcro cut-out is still waiting to be used.

Its a high quality comp pedal for any instrument, and the Ovnilab review confirms what my ears tell me - its really good with bass guitar.

[url="http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/vicegrip.shtml"]http://www.ovnilab.c.../vicegrip.shtml[/url]

[attachment=255091:20171006_154207.jpg]
[attachment=255100:20171006_153958.jpg]

More pics here: [url="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0rQ2P3aqdeSOTdwQkVxeVkzU3c"]https://drive.google...OTdwQkVxeVkzU3c[/url]

£100 posted to your door.

Cheers Doug.

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