Greg Edwards69

Bass arrived yesterday. I didn't have much time to play with it last night (early night in preparation for today's early radiotherapy appointment), but first impressions are good. Straight out of the box, it seemed to be set up well, perhaps too well, very little relief in the neck - almost dead flat, and pretty low action, and almost in tune! I immediately noticed the tightness and tone of the B string, even before plugging it in - this boded well. Plugged it into my little Blackstar practice amp, switched the bass to passive mode and heard a nice full range tone without any of the mud of my EHB's Bartolini's, and more top end. Switching to active mode sounded pretty much the same, with everything set flat. The EQ centres seem well chosen - the bass knob in particular adds girth without adding subby boom. I noticed a little buzz at the third fret and grabbed a fret rocker. There are indeed a couple of high frets low down, but I'm not totally surprised at this price point - my more expensive EHB has high frets too. But I'm hoping I can mitigate this by introducing a little more relief and setting the action to my preferences before I think about a fret level. The neck pickup looks a little low, too and needs balancing, but I also need to match the volume to my G&L JB2, my main gigging bass. But I'm going to wait until the weekend before addressing any of this, to give the bass time to acclimatise. I haven't tried it on a strap yet, but it appears to balance well when I held it by the top strap button. I'm not sure about the fret markers. Whilst they aren't as bad as the EHB markers, they are a little difficult to see, but that could just be my preferences. Oh, one last thing. The tuners are a bit stiff and sticky, but I see there's a solution available by adding some small bearings But I have to say, so far, so good. The small issues I have found so far are not surprising at this price point and straightforward enough to remedy.

I've ordered the sunburst NEXT HNB5 (wife helped choose the colour) from Andertons in their January sale, should be with me tomorrow. Fingers crossed it'll tick the boxes my EHB doesn't. The sale offer includes a set of Positive Grid Neo Core headphones. Might prove useful, or might end up on eBay if they're not as good as my Katana Go / ATH-M50x combo.

Yeah, I saw those, but I'm still wary about investing that sort of money into this bass if I'm still not going to love it. Not to mention, I downloaded the schematics, and it left me very confused. Wiring basses goes over my head. I could handle soldering a couple of wires to an existing pot, but EMG's solderless kit looks overwhelming, and I have no idea how to integrate with the existing preamp. Even if I could figure out how to intergrate them into the existing preamp, it looks like the EMG's are active only. I want to retain the passive option. Nice, but more money than I want to spend. The Hils ticks the right box in terms of value for money.

Got to say, I do like the look of those Cort GB shortscales. They look a lot of fun. Almost tempting for £299 And I didn't see the Quad Cortex Mini coming. A little friendly competition for the Anagram perhaps? This can only be a good thing for both platforms

I have an Ibanez EHB1005SMS that I like, but I don't love. I like the feel and ergonomics (the neck is lovely, and the whole bass is light and balances well), but it has issues: The infamous, dark-sounding Barts; lacklustre preamp, which I always have difficulty dialling in (possibly due to the Barts themselves); and as for the glow in the dark fret markers... pointless. But also, I wonder if I made the right decision in getting the short-scale version (30"-32"). The shorter scale is a joy to play, but somewhat goes against one of the purposes of a multi-scale, the low B. I could replace the pickups, but the recommended replacements (Nords) are a custom order and not exactly cheap, and I still may end up with a bass I don't love. I like what I see and hear about the Hils basses, particularly the NEXT HNB5. Does anyone have any experience with the Bart-equipped EHB and the Hils that can shed some light?

I see that Xvive have a new stereo version of the venerable u4 system coming. Looks like you plug it into left and right XLR from the mixer.

I added this idea to the wishlist forum on Anagram Answers - allegedly, some DG staff, such as Ivan, look at these and provide feedback to the team. Feel free to upvote. TRS footswitch support | Anagram Answers

No, they don't have hardware personal monitor mixers for this CQ line of mixers - only the higher-end stuff. There is, however, a personal mixer app for smartphones that replicates many of the same behaviours, and it's free. It just lacks the immediacy and 'hands-on' approach of hardware. CQ4You • Allen & Heath

I'd like to see Joe Dart Sterling basses available to the UK without the absurdly high shipping fee.

Indeed. Dialling in a cab block does require a modicum of audio engineering knowledge. It shouldn’t. It should be as easy as selecting a cab.

A fender Aerodyne with 21 frets A less expensive, far east, mass produced Mike Lull range of basses. I’d love of of those IMA basses with the t’bird pickups but I’ll never be able to save the necessary GAS tokens.

Personally, I think there are a few parameter-based things rather than modelling, that make the Anagram sound arguably "better" than my Helix LT. The default settings on the Anagram usually sound great. As has been mentioned before in this thread, many of the Helix block defaults are at "what were they thinking?" settings. Almost every effect block in the Anagram has a clean blend. The Helix often requires you to insert effects on a parallel path just to make them usable for bass. The anagram's parameters are pretty self explanatory for each block. The Helix replicates real world devices, including sometimes misleading parameters, or strange behaviour, and they take a while to get your head around. The cab blocks are usable without much tweaking. It took me years (literally years) to get a usable tone out of a cab block in the Helix. I do wish the Angram cab blocks had hpf/lpf in them, though. PS. Now that DG has demonstrated they can build amp blocks that do drive when pushed, I wonder if they'll revisit the Peggy block or make a new one.

I'd also love to see Zoom revisit their old 9000 series form factor with modern processing. I loved that wedge-shaped device you could jam under an amp handle, and the compact passive remote footswitch for a tidy stage.

A Boss Katana bass practice amp. Their guitar and bass katana and waza products line up well against each other, but there's nothing smaller than the 1x10. I want something akin to the desktop class katana amps specifically designed for bass.

How do you have the Rolls wired in, Javi? Does it mix the signal from the desk the Anagram? If so, is the bass channel muted on your monitor send, or do you mix the anagram over the top?