thisisswanbon

Appreciate the input everyone!

We're looking at the RCF Evox 12s, the HK Polar 12s, and the Electro Voice EV 30M at the moment, pretty varied prices and the new drummer is insisting 12s won't be enough subwise, but these systems all seem awesome!

56 minutes ago, jimmyb625 said:

The RCF 745 gets some really good feedback from people on here. You may be able to use them without a sub,depending on the size of the room you're playing.

They've also released the 945, which could be another consideration?

I'll check it out, thanks for the shout! 🙂

31 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

Presumably, your replacement drummer will have transport, so that's three vehicles (unless he carries his kit in a Smart car). A PA cab in each and sub in the other should be doable. You won't necessarily need two subs if you do decide to replace the Alto. It's surprising what a good quality single 12" sub can do. I often use just one of mine with 10" top boxes and it's ample for surprisingly large rooms. Your existing top boxes are 12s, so they can perform some low end duty. It doesn't seem you'll gain much by replacing them with larger 15s. Three smaller boxes - one in each vehicle - will probably be a more practical proposition.

New drummer's car IS the second car 😬

Replacing the alto seems like the easiest option (it's an awful flubby sounding thing). Out of interest, which sub do you use?

10 minutes ago, colleya said:

We swapped our Alto sub for an RCF 702 sub. 12" speaker, sounds great and is significantly smaller & lighter.

 

I get the full PA and my rig in an Octavia estate with room to spare and the passenger seat free too. Cavernous cars.

Do you just use the one sub?

6 hours ago, bertbass said:

How about just getting another van?

Did think of that, bit too big of an outlay though unfortunately; we've been lucky in that our last 2 drummers both happened to have their own vans!

4 hours ago, Burns-bass said:

I can fit two basses, two cabs, and an entire PA system in my Dacia. It’s doable with some planning 

At the moment I get my cab, 2 basses, pedal board, amp head, cable bag, 2 speakers, 1 monitor, desk and backdrop... Still leave quite a bit for the second car (our keyboard players set up is pretty big) between the kit, sub etc etc it's just going to be a bit much I suspect 

Still available

Hey everyone!

My band are in a bit of a tricky situation, our drummer (and man with the van) has told us he's leaving in June, which means we're without a van! 

We're now in a situation where we need to try and downscale our equipment to transport between two cars, main issue being the p.a. We've always worked with two RCF Art712(I think) and a single big alto sub... We're either going to have to get two smaller subs, or maybe a full p.a. rig! 

Anyone else transport gear in cars and if so... Any recommendations for p.a. or possibly just sub set ups?

6 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Meh... 

 

Sounds alright, but not exactly blown away by it.

 

Update of firmware and editor worked without issues though.

 

Well except for the fact that the editor won't let me transfer third party IR files, even after I run them through the official NUX converter on 48Khz 24 Bit resolution/quality it claims that they aren't Wave files and stuck saying loading, then if I click the IR graph, where it says "loading" a blue field forms around the "loading" letters, and then if I click that again it turns into a white text box saying "loading", where I can actually delete the letters and write something else (all the while the rest of the editor continues to work as it is supposed to, and I can still load the stock IR files. 

 

Any of you any idea of how to make the editor recognize the IR Wav files?

 

That's a shame!  Nothing worse than an underwhelming new gear day!  I really enjoy mine, but I came from a tube pre so found the clarity refreshing.

I had no issues with WAV IR files, I just click the empty slot, click the upload button and choose my file,  even at  96Khz (or whatever the official number is).  They upload straight away.

2 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Somehow the delivery failed because of a slightly miswritten address otherwise I would have had it early this afternoon, but instead it got dropped off at a pickup point, and I just got the message that it was ready for pickup, so within an hour I am going to pick it up.

 

Very exited!

 

Just hope it will be free of all the issues I've read some people has experienced with getting the, quite crucial for this pedal's functionality, software to work properly.

 

Still at that price for, judging from what I've read and heard, such an absolutely amazing pedal I guess somewhat lacking quality control is fully acceptable, after all I still got 30 days full refund with no questions asked.

 

Will report back as soon as I've had chance to test it properly.

 

Though really I am just looking for one set and forget tone, so just going to browse through the combinations while twisting knobs, until I find the one that works best for me and the rest of my setup.

 

Really looking forward to this!

 

If it's any help, only issue I encountered was using a cheaper usb cable. When I swapped to a better quality one it worked fine. Just follow the instructions; especially the update ones, and you can't go wrong!

2 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

It is off the shelf … it just comes in multiple parts and needs code installing on it! 

I'll rephrase... "Off the shelf for idiots"

2 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

It’s the trinket m0 so it can act as a midi host - there’s two socket on the pedal a USB power in from the Cioks and the Adafruit out to the C4

code was done by someone else and I found on GitHub

hardest thing was the metalwork!

Wow, that sounds very involved though; far too much for my tiny brain to comprehend... I was hoping you'd found an off the shelf alternative to the Disaster area stuff.

8 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

my first board!
 

So for years - no pedals, or a few and then sell… nicest sound I ever had was a hellborg preamp which was a bit big to take as a pedal… I loved the sound though 

 

Then a Zoom B3 which was nice, but got sold

Then a Zoom B3n which stayed for a while - mainly playing at church will all in ears setup … so amp modelling is good

Then a HX stomp for years

 

but the more I played the more I refined “my sound” down to

comp> amp model> HPF/LPF acting as a cab sim and then di out

one footswitch for a drive

the other for chorus

sometimes synth patch 

 

”I could simplify this down and avoid screens and swearing trying to set my gain staging in this box” I thought “it might be cheaper” I thought 

 

it wasn’t.
But @krispnpointed me in the direction of a colourbox for the transformer channel strip thing I like … and then two big pedals and two power supplies was a bit of a pain wasn’t it…

so a change was afoot, @jimbobothy helped convince me of the best approach … the soldering iron came out and much time and more £££ than I want to think about it all works!  
 

 

pedal chain for the one person who reads on after the photo…

 

• tuner
• Source audio C4 synth  (plus the  Adafruit based preset switcher - ain’t pretty but was cheap)
• Broughton Omnicomp (optical compressor, sounds nice)
• “Irn bru” barbershop clone (I don’t like many overdrives on bass - love this)
• John K mini XO ( crossover drive pedal set up fuzzy and aggressive - thanks to @binky_basswho picked it up from the recycling forum on here broken and kindly passed it on)
• Frog FX1 preamp - (alembic/fender showman preamp in a box, using a early 50’s telefunken ECC82  running at a scary 180v)
• tech21 bass boost chorus (very lush)
• shallow water clone (tape effect random chorus envelope filter thing, sounds great, very sensitive to input gain)
• Vong filtrung - set up so the HPF on, LPF is footswitchable, and volume knob is to set the input into…
• JHS colourbox v2 - which to be honest is the pedal despite all the rubbish before it!  

All a bit over the top for a basic tone needs but it does sound good - esp with the valve preamp, it just sounds warmer and punchier at the same time 

 

 

edit: voodoo labs small ex board and Cioks dc7 underneath 

I had a similar experience with the HX stomp... your board looks far better than mine though! Did the Adafruit require any sort of midi host? 

Another example of lazy design work... They've looked at what's popular at the moment (Serek etc as previously mentioned) and stuck a Sandberg neck on it.

I'm sure it'll be fantastically made, and most likely sound brilliant too... But I bet it comes with a hefty price tag for something other companies are already doing better.

Lovely basses that play and sound great... only issue I found was that I'm very animated when I play, and it always felt like it was going to break.  Well, that and the static issues on the tort pick guard, and the bridge saddles kept losing height... oh, and I always felt that it could've done with more tonal options; it felt that from full tone to the smallest roll off option was always a massive jump.  Maybe I didn't like it as much as I thought I did...

18 hours ago, EmmettC said:

I think it's done. To make the Capo work as a di, I made a little patch cable with a low profile xlr, so to plug into the pa there's an xlr socket at the side of the board beside the output jack for the amp.

It's very much an all purpose board, mainly for my wedding band, but also a blues rock original and an industrial band. It covers it all pretty well, having 2 eqs makes it easy to swap between bass guitar and upright without too much hassle....

Wow!  That's an impressive board!  How do you find the new Darkglass Fuzz?  Does it do the gated fuzz type thing?

Two Notes Le Bass pre-amp DI pedal - £140 (+ £5 shipping)

Cioks DC5 w 2 x Current Doubler Y Cables - £100 (including UK p+p)

Cioks DC5 w/ 2 x Current doubler Y cables - £100

Brilliant premium PSU, will comfortably fit under a pedaltrain nano.  5 isolated outputs with variable voltages (2 x 300ma 9/12v, 2 x 100ma 9/12v, 1 x 100ma 9/18v outputs).  Brilliant condition, has lived under pedal board with no issues.  All cables included as well as 2 x current doublers to bridge 2 outputs and run higher current draw pedals (this ran the aforementioned Le Bass as well as a Source Audio C4 and other various analogue pedals).

Two Notes Le Bass - £140

Le Bass is a fantastic Dual stackable channel tube pre amp with a clean channel, high gain channel, and ability to stack or blend the two.  Also has headphones out, XLR out and analogue cab sim.  Tremendous bit of kit!  Has a couple of small scuffs in the paint through use, and PSU no longer works (notoriously flimsy) but better quality ones can be picked up cheap enough on ebay etc.  Velcro also underneath to save you the hassle 😉

2 hours ago, la bam said:

I used this last night with our tribute band. Straight into the practice rooms pa (mixer set flat) which had x2 unmatched mid budget to cheap 12 speakers.

 

Set to MLD amp, SVT 810 cab sim, very slight bass and low mid boost. Very light drive on.

 

Best sound i ever had. Cant wait to hear it through a top pa.

 

Rich, powerful, well balanced, fitted the band perfect with no need for tweaking. Very controllable as the pa spread the sound all over the room.

 

Over the moon with this pedal.

Awesome!  Did you experiment with the other IRs too?  I like that is shows you a graphic of what each IR is doing to your tone.

Mine arrived last night, update etc went as straight forward as could ask for.  Only had headphone use, but it sounds fantastic.  All of the IR's sound great and surprisingly accurate (better than the HX stomp I had) but I landed on the Starlifter and a Celestion 410 I bought for said stomp, but only because I'd bought it so feel that I should use it.  If this could be changed remotely without pc linkup, I suspect I'd be forever changing the amp and IR

5 hours ago, ern500evo said:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175596859591?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=2Kavy7ytQ9W&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=oWU6BdMXQRy&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
 

The body on this bass looks very familiar!

This hurts my eyes.

1 hour ago, Wilson_51_ said:

Just resurrecting this one a bit as I’ve been messing around at home with pedalboard (fuzz etc) into audio interface for use in logic. It sounds horrendous until I put an amp sim on.

 

which made me realise that is this essentially the sound I am sending to the front of house or does the di on my Ampeg SVT-cl colour the sound so it sounds nicer? I may have to experiment. 
 

Im thinking if it does sound like this to front of house. either asking to mic the amp at gigs or I’m wondering whether splitting the signal and adding a Ampeg sim pedal to the board plus DI. would be a viable option. 

This seems to be a massive struggle with drive and FOH.  You'll need a cab sim in some capacity or a LPF and HPF to shave off the high end and roll off some of the lows as a cab would.  The only pre amps I've seen with separate EQ for DI and cab sims (except for HX Stomps etc) are the Origin Effects bass rig pre amps.  I'm sure the more learned folks amongst us could suggest others though...

8 hours ago, dannybuoy said:

Definitely helps with the Diabolik to run a passive bass direct in, then the clean tone sounds really dark and bassy. Flick to active, or put any buffered pedal in front, and the clean tone sounds thinner and full range.

 

I’ve not used the Amptweaker either, but seems more versatile, perhaps a bit more utilitarian / vanilla / boring. Whereas the Diabolik might be more limited but it has an incredible sound that you might struggle to replicate and it’s more likely to generate bass face.

I did try this also, although the only things I had in front of it on my board were a true bypass tuner and true bypass 3 Leaf octabvre mini...  I had very similar results with all 3 basses when the pedal was the only thing in the chain.  You're right though, I still watch the JMJ demo on youtube and the bass face comes out every time! 

17 hours ago, AinsleyWalker said:

Looking for a new fuzz and currently the Malekko Diabolik and Amptweaker TightFuzz Bass Jr are currently likely contenders. 
Any opinions on how they compare/contrast? 
Cheers!

No experience of of the Amptweaker, but I recently bought a Diabolik and returned it.  They get amazing reviews by both critics and forum users, and the youtube videos sounded extactly what I was looking for... I just couldn't get anywhere near those sounds! I tried an 18V fender jazz in active and passive, a Harley Benton passive MB4, and a passive P bass, and all of them sounded thin and trebly unless there was more clean signal than I wanted to have.  Even then, there wasn't the massive low end described by other users.  A couple of guys on talkbass did say they had a similar experience.

Again, take this with a pinch of salt as it could've been something I was doing.  Then again, there's only so much you can do with 3 knobs!

FWIW, I went back to my EHX Sovtek Deluxe big muff.  Doesn't do the gated thing but it's got all sorts of fuzz tones and gets close to synthy territory with sweepable foot switchable mids, wicker control and clean blend.  Might be worth checking out.

I did fit these, once.  They were horribly expensive for knobs, and took almost a year to arrive.  I've also gone back to 4 string so this doesn't go out much now.

Changed the tuners on my Harley Benton MB4 BSK, was fairly under the influence though and butchered it... I'll never change a part on a bass again.

I may very well go the the Warman route myself pick up wise, are they difficult to fit?

took my bass out to a gig on Saturday - straight to FOH via my Two Notes Le Bass Pre with bass boosted a touch and cab sim on.  Guy comes up and first words are "Muddy that, mate".  I did have the tone rolled back around 3/4" to be fair, and he did say it was better after a bit of adjustment (he did ask if it was an EBMM which surprised me).  After having a conversation with him, turns out he plays bass and had 3 Bongo basses.  If that's what he was comparing it to then I think "a bit muddy" is more than acceptable given the price difference!

Not sure if this counts as a small board, but it's clearly too small for the pedals on it so I'm going with that! 😬

I've been around the houses lately with this; been through a Sansamp VTDI, then an HX stomp in place of the Le Bass, and a Diabolik in place of the Sovtek. I also had an optocomp at the front of the chain.

I Found the low end on the sansamp to be bloated and unrefined.

I then found that I was shoehorning in effects and over complicating things because I could with the HX stomp and was never truly convinced against analogue counterparts (it couldn't even kick my hot wax off my board).

I also just didn't like the flavour that the optocomp added.

Reasons for losing the Diabolik were I just couldn't get it to retain low end (despite general consensus of huge low end retention) unless I had so much clean dialled in that it no longer sounded synthy.  I suspect it just didn't get along with my basses though.

The Le Bass is a fantastic pre, which I'm using as an always on sweetner, and fusion mode for a dirtier rock tone. Struggle to get A, B, and A+B all matched for use at the same time, but A and A+B are worth the cost of admission.

The Sovtek is a hugely versatile muff with clean blend, and whilst not as synthy as I'd like, with the sweepable mids get me somewhere into that realm...

For anyone interested in these basses, thought I'd give an update...

I contacted Thomann about the unusable tuners, they offered a new set or £25 partial refund. How they can do that on a bass of this value is insane, but very stand up of them. 

I put this on top of the Wilkinson tuner price and ordered some black Schaller tuners instead. Much better fit than the Wilkinson's sound, with only 1 hole per tuner to be redrilled. Embarrassingly, I made an absolute pigs ear of this after a good skinful; 2 sheered screws later and a few headstock dings later they were fitted.  I suspect if I'd been sober, it'd have been an easy job though.

the unbalanced string volume was infarct a string issue! Put some D'addario NYXLs on and it sounds awesome for the money. Going to gig it before deciding on the electrics!