thisisswanbon

Way Huge Pork & Pickle for me... If I'm ever in the market for a new drive there'll be no hesitation.  I only let it go as the fuzz wasn't quite right, and the drive wasn't quite wild enough for what I needed for what I currently do. Ended up with a used EHX hot wax and a new EHX Sovtek deluxe muff for the same money as the P&P.  While the Sovtek is the PERFECT fuzz for me, no other drive has come close to the P&P for me.

Sold

4 hours ago, la bam said:

 

x2 210 traveller cabs is more than enough. I've used them on big stages with a 500w head, and only had the master around 9pm on the dial.

Completely agree with you from a volume stand point, my concerns were more with a wattage thing than a volume thing.  My head is 1000w at 4ohm, and 600w at 8ohm.  All of Mark Bass's compact 8ohm cabs seem to stop at 400w so I'd be forever scared of burning them out.

After doing a bit of digging, I was nailed on going for 2 x 210 cabs and vertically stacking; but it doesn't look like they do a 210 cab powerful enough for my head... I have the LM vintage 1000, and all of their 210 8 ohm cabs seem to stop at 400w 🤦‍♂️ and Andertons is out of stock of the 500 watt version until November so can't even exchange... looks like a 410 will be the way to go after all.  Going to hold out for the new MB58R cab reviews start coming through though they look great!

Both of your comments are really interesting to me as I'm SOOO close to selling my barefaced and going for a markbass 104, I've seen comments saying the barefaced stuff smokes the mark bass cabs, but your experiences sound a lot closer to what I was expecting to see!

15 hours ago, bassist_lewis said:

 

I haven't had any issues like that so far, just the odd failure of the tracking to keep up with my shred! I'm mainly putting it off coz the Gigrig high current adaptor puts out 1000mA and that just feels like overkill 😂

I've found with my C4 that unless my playing is pristine then (which unfortunately it seldom is) then it's tracking can be a bit temperamental, but I think that's just synth pedals in general.

There's no worse feeling than when we play stuff like Rhythm is a dancer by Snap! and instead of the big FM synth sound, there's just a dull thud as it hasn't triggered because I didn't quite mute enough; and that bassline is firmly shred-free!

53 minutes ago, bassist_lewis said:

Morning guys, I just got a C4 last week and so far I'm really enjoying building sounds, though its been a while since I last programmed a synth! I have a question about power. The manual says it needs 150mA at 9v. I use the Gigrig power system, and the isolator puts out 135mA per output. To my ears, the C4 works perfectly at that amperage, but are those 15mA reducing the functionality of the pedal?

thanks

L

Hey Lewis.

I once tried to run mine on a Cioks DC5 on one of the 100mA outputs (I know yours is higher, but may still be helpful).  It seemed to work fine, but occasionally it would malfunction and give me a flashing green light and stop producing sound, as if it was in a permanent cycle of trying to boot up.  I now keep mine on it's own 300mA output on the cioks now.  

2 hours ago, fretmeister said:

Nice.

I was tempted by one of those while I was dealing with the delays in getting my AG1000.

I had the same dilemma!  The tube won out for me in the end though, the EQ on those AG1000 amps looks really useful though!  How is it?

On 29/08/2022 at 23:44, Lozz196 said:

Looks great, and I think those eq points are pretty well thought out, maybe treble a bit high but imo all a fair bit more useable than how they used to be. The stock Markbass sound is one that always seems to fit nicely in a mix.

I thought the mid points seemed a bit high, with the high mid especially encroaching on treble territory... seems to work well though!

So I recently had a mid gig breakdown (https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/468243-mid-song-catastrophe/) which put the fear of god into me  In the end, I bought a used Behringer BDI21 as back up for a great price locally, and pulled the trigger on a Mark Bass LM vintage 1000!

First off, I must admit that I've forever been a class D naysayer, I'd tried various class D offerings from TC, GK, Ampeg and Aguilar but bought into the whole "class D lacks 'heft'" arguement (although I thought the Aggie sounded great through a pals Aggie cabs). There was likely an element of listening with my eyes and putting too much stock in other's opinions on local pages etc, but I always went back to my type A/B GK1001RBII.

Anyway... Long story longer, I decide it's time to retire the 18 year old GK, and when looking on the standard online seller pages, 90% seemed to be class D! I'd forever been buying preamps and compressors to try and give the GK a bit of warmth, so figured a tube pre would be the way to go. After a bit of limited reading, I took a punt on the Lm vintage, and 2 days later it was here!

Got to use it in anger last night, after 2 plug and play festival sets on the Friday night and Sunday afternoon.

First thing to note was it held its own and more against a full p.a. set up with the gain at 11 and volume at 10 o clock, to the point I had to turn down. There's some serious warmth and weight behind every note. I was using a Nordy Acinonyx bass with both pick ups parallel, and an array of synth and octave effects. The EQ points were a concern beforehand (68hz Bass, 400hz Low mid, 2k hz High mid, 10k hz high), but with the bass and low mids boosted it was a really musical sound.

This amp head has been labelled on forums as the markbass head for people who don't think they like markbass, and while I'm fully aware that it could be the honeymoon period, I think that's a pretty bang on description from early findings to be honest! 🤌

On 20/08/2022 at 22:03, scannerman said:

bugger,  gone too big for my board again.....and Origin Bass Rig not included!!

 

....not that this board ever goes out like this!

 

 

Great board! Do you find the ultra wave and aftershock, and ultrawave and C4 overlap?

16 hours ago, Jack said:

Two important points I think here. 

 

Firstly, if you'd line to borrow a hx stomp and try modelling for a gig or two you're welcome to, as you know I'm only down the road. I know you said it hadn't worked for you in the past but it's always there. 

 

Secondly, if you do decide to sell that cab then hit me up. 😁

Much appreciated Jack, thanks for the offer... I've decided to stick with my analogue set up and amp for the now.  I'll drop you a message about your stomp though!

I'd love to sell you my cab mate, unfortunately I haven't got the money for the dream cab to replace it 😆

Thanks for all of the info!  I've tried the speakon, and FX loop fix but alas it made no difference... I've had it repaired a couple of times in the past for dry joints and scratchy pots, so I've decided it's time to upgrade and have a Mark Bass Little Mark vintage 1000 coming.  I've tried to warm the GK up for years, so seems a good time to change tack.

So I suffered my first ever real amp issue mid gig tonight...

Playing a cracking wedding, right in the middle of "Omen" by The Prodigy, there's suddenly no bass! I don't use FOH support as my amp set up has always more than coped, so there was suddenly NOTHING... 

My set up is a GK 1001RBII into a barefaced big twin II. I turn around and the blue light is shining away nicely. I do the obvious thing, I make sure my tuner hadn't turned itself on, then I make sure the cable hasn't been kicked out, then I make sure the output cable to my amp hasn't been kicked out. Still nothing. I check my cable at the amp, still nothing. I figure it must be my bass so at this point I'm panicking, so I mine the rest of thep tune. Song finishes and I rush to change bass, but still nothing! Then while I'm franticly scratching my head, our keys player starts the next song. Another song of mining and I'm no further forward. I shout to the singer to stall while I try a fresh cable, direct from bass to amp and it's still dead.

Next up it's straight to FOH, so I run over with my cable and plug in. The signal is too weak! If only I hadn't sold my two notes le bass a few weeks ago 🤦‍♂️. In the end, I crank my ampeg opto comp, and crank my hot tubes side of the hot wax while turning the drive down for what can only be discribed as the most flabby yet farty and downright offensive bass tone I've ever heard.

no idea what's gone on with the GK; but at 18 years old I think it's served me well.

Now do I look at a new amp, or sell my cab and give the modelling stuff another go 🤔

13 hours ago, Quatschmacher said:

Are you perhaps using a charger cable instead of a data cable?

I'd assumed it was a data cable, but checking the cable I use for my pc set up would probably be a good shout!

7 hours ago, Quatschmacher said:

Regarding point 1, is your phone app on the latest version too? If both phone and C4 are on the latest version and you’re still having problems connecting, email source audio support. 
 

During beta testing I did see an issue where the connection graphic wasn’t showing when plugging in until I’d recalled a preset, even though the connection was definitely working. 

Hey Quatschmacher, 

Yeah both app and pedal are latest versions. I'll drop them an email.

The app just doesn't seem to acknowledge that the pedal is plugged in so doesn't show me anything that's on the pedal, my phone does though.

Having a couple of C4 issues, anyone came across these?

1. There is no two way communication between phone and C4 via usb (C4 running 1.21)

2. Using SA tap tempo to control my tremelo on a patch for bonkers by Dizzee rascal; the tap tempo doesn't seem to track what I'm punching in, sometimes it jumps by 20 BPM or more, and I'm not THAT bad with timing. 

Issue I have is our drummer is over excitable, and comes in a good 10~15bpm faster than the intro sample, and when I tap the new tempo in it doesn't just speed up the tremelo, it seems to restart it and puts it out of sync with the rest of the band before I can get it back under control. I've tried setting it to restart when triggered and not, but no difference. I thought the tap tempo would just slow it down or speed it up in real time 🤯

1 hour ago, andy67 said:

 

I'm fairly new to Spector basses myself but I do own a Euro LT4 with the Bartolini/Darkglass combination and I absolutely adore the bass and tone from it. The deals on the performer and legend look ideal. May be worth saving for a little longer and picking up a used Euro/Rebop/Eurobolt which may suit you better? There is a rebop on here: 

Good luck, Andy

Thanks for the shout, Andy!

I understand what you mean about the mids... I always thought my barefaced big twin II and Tonehammer 500 was great until I tried a friends Aguilar DB112 set up (Tonehammer 500 and 2 x DB115).  I couldn't believe the mid response on his cabs, it was a lightbulb monent!  Still use my barefaced due to funding, but I'm less than stellar on it.  Doesn't answer your question, but for a vintage sound I'd be looking elsewhere.  What about the Aguilar SL range?

11 hours ago, bassist_lewis said:

I finally got my Schmidt Array XDM350 board on Thursday and I've been working on it ever since. It's still not quite finished, the cable runs are very long, I think I've used some 25 feet so far! Only one more to go for the Jive and I'm fully operational!!

 

I also have a Noble Preamp on order, it should make it onto the board in November.

 

 

What a belter set up!  Those Jive Pre amp pedals look tremendous from what I've seen, Gregor at Basstheworld did a really good video on them.

57 minutes ago, Bassmidget209 said:

This is awesome, I keep desperately wanting to be able to make my bass into a synth. Unfortunately I play in a rock band with rather limited scope for techno bass textures. Doesn't stop me trying though 😂😂

Thanks man! I can see why your rock band don't want you doing synth stuff, but you're totally missing out! I have more fun playing synth stuff then the normal bass stuff!

You'll always hear the arguement of "all you need is a bass, a cable and an amp"... But I couldn't do a lot of this stuff with that set up 🤣

20 minutes ago, bassist_lewis said:

I think its great minimalist no bulls**t setup. All basses covered: octave (mega jealous of the octabvre mini btw), filter (C4 is a filter?), fuzz, overdrive, comp, tuner. I wish I could be so discerning!

Thanks Lewis!  I've tried absolutely all sorts including going the helix route... but the cheaper analogue EHX stuff does it for me to be honest. The octabvre mini is a dream, I use it solo'd for a fair chunk of our set. Between that and the C4, I seldom use a dry bass sound.  My C4 covers filters, a more bass heavy sub octave than the octabvre, tremelo and saw wave stuff as well as some FM synth stuff... it's marvellous!  Our latest promo (hopefully below). Was done first half C4, second half octabvre. 

Far less exciting than the other boards on this thread, but it's taken a lot of swapping and changing (and pedals being moved on at a loss) to come to this set up, and I'm finally happy (for now!)

Those hyperdrive's are fantastic!  I had one as an always on drive for years.  I met James Lomenzo around that time and couldn't stop talking about how tremendous it was.

Currently getting my distortion and drive from a EHX Sovtek Big Muff Deluxe and Hot Wax... the amount of options available between these two is fantastic, especially the Sovtek.  Between the clean blend, footswitchable-sweepable-active mids and noise gate, it's just a well thought out, fantastic thing and all analogue.

Form factor for both is a bit huge, but worth the real estate IMO.

36 minutes ago, stewblack said:

Thought this might be fun. Not a thread for actual synth pedals, which are utterly incredible these days.

I'm after those of us who also enjoy the old fashioned way to 'build' a synth bass sound by stacking individual stomp boxes.

What do you use? In what order? To produce what sound?

I Tried, but the modulation aspect always got the best of me, I always found the chorus etc used to take too much away so it wouldn't sit right.  Sure I would've got there with a better chorus.

I get a great synthy bass sound from my EHX Sovtek deluxe with the mids engaged if that counts? I also may be cheating, but I feed my Octabvre Mini into a saw wave C4 patch with clean mix 60/40 gives some filthy results!