Dood

I'm looking forward to hearing these! I found one review on YT last night - i feel sure there will be plenty more very soon!

Bless you Bartleby! Cheers!

How does it sound bartleby?

Maybe bass chat should put together the top 50 bass players poll!

Yup, I do need to spend more time in that forum browsing, not just modding. +1 to that Kiwi.

Thank you Mark, a big +1 to you and all those who have very kindly offered feedback in this thread. Much appreciated. You've all been brilliant, thank you! Great comments!

A swift and friendly exchange with Mark, new owner of a preamp I had for sale. No problem, great comms, job done Thanks Mark!

He he he!! Annnnnnd I got an email back from MXR technical support saying that the pedal will work fine in parallel - no issues. I reckon I might try one!

Has anyone put one of these in an LS-2 loop for a bit of parallel compression? I have an LS-2 but not had the opportunity to see if it works without any phasing artifacts.

The Line 6 board i am afraid is a proprietry communication system and thus no MIDI - I'd recommend picking up a Boss FC-50, otherwise known as a Roland GFC-50 off eBay. You can connect a cheap expression pedal to it. They are discontinued, so cheap but practically bomb proof too!

[quote name='TG Flatline' timestamp='1361633321' post='1988573'] GarethFlatlands has I believe, I'd drop him a PM if he doesn't show up on here [/quote] Thank you!

Hi BassChatters! I've been messing around with my gear quite a lot recently. My original plan was to find a 'parametric EQ' pedal that had a D.I. out on it for daisy chaining my signal paths on in my rack set up. Something simple that'd be left on all the time. Interestingly, just by roaming basschat and talkbass, one of the options that came up was the Aphex Bass Xciter pedal. I have to admit, I have never really looked closely at these, as I assumed that they, like the BBE Sonic Maximiser only actually affected the treble frequencies. (The low control on those is - or at least was on the unit I had just an EQ bass boost at 50Hz). So, out came the manual for the Xciter to check it out. I was interested to see that you could 'tune' the low and high pass filters on board as to how much of the audio frequency range the pedal would interact with and they both truly processed, rather than, as I mention above, just added EQ boost. Certainly the areas of frequencies I was looking to target were covered by the 'lo-tune' knob. All looking good, I managed to grab one off of eBay for a good price and have spent today playing with it whilst..err... 'working' ha! I'm really happy with how it sounds in my rack, but then I had a great idea! (Yes, yes, I'll get to the point!!) I've noticed quite a few people suggesting that D Class amplification and Neo speakers combined don't sound like Mosfets and Ceramic speakers - something perceived in the lows just isn't there for one reason or another. This quote from the manual got me thinking: [font=Helvetica][size=3][b][i]The Big Bottom - What Is It?[/i][/b][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]Low frequencies are the most difficult to reproduce[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]well. That is because of many problems involving[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]acoustic mass, standing waves, and acoustic interference.[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]It takes huge amounts of power to project[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]a strong bass note. Those of you who are bass[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]players know that. Simply giving bass frequencies[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]more power can heighten the volume level, but at[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]some point it is impractical to go any further. Big[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]Bottom was developed to get an extended and stronger[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]bottom end with existing amps and speakers.[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]Whereas the Aural Exciter clarifies and projects the[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]sonic details mainly carried in the upper frequencies,[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]Big Bottom improves the low end reproduction.[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]In certain ways, Big Bottom behaves like a bass compressor,[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]because it extends and sustains the notes.[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]But, unlike a compressor, it does nothing to stop[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]the leading edge of transients. It does not reduce or[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]diffuse the snap, pluck, or punch. And, because it[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]uses a dynamic, constantly changing kind of boost,[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]it progressively augments the deeper tones as they[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]decay, making the notes more solid and allowing[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]your amp and speakers to develop their maximum[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][i]output more safely.[/i][/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3]Would it be possible to add back in that perceived loss using the Xciter? Well, I kinda know what is being suggested and I certainly think that this little pedal does a very good job of adding in weight and girth to the sound without just boosting at one single EQ centre (which can lead to an uneven boosting I think). If you feel that you are suffering from a thin low end, I'd suggest picking one up! I grabbed an older version with the blue and black casing, but there's a newer silver model out too. I set the Lo Tune to 10 with a blend of around 3-6 on the control, but didn't need much on the Hi Tune and Hi Blend knobs at all, maybe 2-4 on the blend as my basses are fairly clean sounding already.[/size][/font]

Hey all in D.I.Y land! Here's a 'have you tried' type post! - You may have seen my posts about being interested in a compressor pedal with a dry blend. On having abit of a search round google, I see that B.Y.O.C have a design for a '5 knob compressor'. It's 'ratio' control actually sets the level of wet and dry mix - something that immediately interested me. Has anyone built one or owns one who would be willing to do a quicky review? - I like the idea of this pedal as it would allow (to some extent) further modding to perfection. In my utter laziness, I may even scout out for someone to build one for me with some sexy graphics on the outside!

Ok, I'm back - you mean, it flashes once with a dash in the middle of the screen? - yes, the tuner is telling you it can't read what you are sending it. It can easily do my low B, but struggles a bit with my much lower F# string - but is fine using a 12 fret harmonic. They are brilliant tuners, highly recommended - i have one clipped on to most of my basses! So small, they can stay on the headstock all the time, can't they!?

I'm not sure about the flashing bit, all of mine don't appear to exhibit that! Try moving the tuner to different spots on your headstock, as well as tuning using the 12 fret (octave) harmonic (not the fretted note) to see if that helps on those lower strings. I have both the older (green to red) display and a couple if the new (gree to orange to red display) models. I will see if i can replicate your problem. What base are you using and how old are the strings? (Dead ones may affect the tuners ability possibly?)

I've taken delivery of some Balanced Tension strings that I will be testing very soon. I have to say that I really don't think there will be any noticeable difference in volume of a string being of a very small gauge difference. For example, 105 to 107 is such a tiny change, I'd be very surprised if it affected overall string volume. We shall see!

Excellent! - I haven't had sets through yet - I've been a bit busy elsewhere!