Al Krow

Great job!

Very true. But if God had meant bass players to have just one bass, She wouldn't have given @ped the idea of Basschat!

I have to say I sympathise with that statement a lot! They might be willing to have a listen out as to how different settings are working in the mix - in my crew, our drummer has a decent ear, the rest almost certainly don't seem to hear any small bass sound changes in the mix! Two tips then from me: - as mentioned earlier make sure that you don't have a volume drop or spike when engaging the pedals; - secondly try giving the mid EQ a slight boost on your amp (or bass if it's active), to help you cut through the mix a bit more.

Hi Paddy - is it when the rest of the band are playing in rehearsal that effects seem to lose their edge? Or are you hearing the difference through the TB500 and BF SC even when playing solo and without the rest of the band? If it's in the band mix, then not being able to hear the nuances of the bass tones when in competition and overlap with the rest of the band is not unusual. If it's even when playing solo, then worth checking that your volume settings on clean by-pass are the same as when you have your pedals engaged with your full rig - this may well differ from what you have them set on with the practice amp and headphones.

Ok our views on what is a "pretty good day!" differ slightly, Woody 😁

Not every beginner is going to be familiar with how to market, wrap and courier their bass to maximise the sale price. If they bought from a retailer they're likely to think about selling it back to the retailer who will want to take their cut. Spending £120 on a bass that's "good enough" has gotta be a pretty low risk way to dip your toe into the world of bass and, besides, which of us long-in-the-tooth bass players hasn't lost a few quid on a bass when moving it on?

Which model did you go for, the 4 or the 5?

But aren't you making a very big assumption that an HB Stingray won't be good enough for a beginner? I mean the OP @mcnach is a very experienced bass player and, from his comments, has been happy with this bass "out of the box". If it's good enough for him with his knowledge and experience of basses, it should be more than decent for a beginner, no?

What is the quality of the aux in / headphone out for use as a headphone amp - is it broadly similar to the quality you get from your Zoom B1-4 or is it a step up as a headphone amp? If it is, that would definitely be another string to its bow.

And we've all failed to mention the most important thing about a 5 string which comes for free...that fantastic thumb rest (aka the B string) 😁

There lots of positional benefits to a 5er including ease of being able to change key, in addition to the the low D, C and B notes - which do give you the ability to play an octave down in those keys as compared to a 4 string, which can be good. And there's pretty much nothing you can do on a 4 string that you can't do on a 5, but not so true the other way around. But I'm sure you know all that already! It's pretty much why I mostly play 5s these days, apart from three solitary basses a EUB, an 8 string and a 6 string, which are all different again. Quite a few folk set out to make the move from 4 strings to 5 but give up before getting confident on 5s. You've cracked it, so why not keep one 5 in your herd and use it when it will be useful and revert to 4s when you don't? Just my tuppence worth.

Agreed about the beyond help, but as long as the missus is on board that's all that counts! 😁 (I'm not currently listing duplicates on the original OP - it's mainly to highlight who has actually owned which models, in case we need to pick folks brains plus a bit of fun...besides youve got your wonderful mega list on another thread which has gotta be one of the most liked posts of all time!)

I did an A/B of my BF BB2 with an AT 212 a little while back (at home during lockdown rather than in a band mix) - this is a summary of what I found: Overall, there was not a huge amount of difference in tone between the two. BB2 mellower and would probably sit better “in the mix”; AT212 was richer and more resonant = more “acoustic” / akin to having reverb added to vocals. Its greater clarity and articulation mean that it would likely “cut through the mix” more easily. Whilst they both handle the open low B well, the AT212 delivered the low B with more punch whereas the BB2 was slightly muddier. Sadly my AT212 was a little mangled by the courier and went back and I've stuck with my BB2 since then, partly due to its more robust construction which I was obviously sensitised to by my unfortunate experience with the AT212.

Which BBs do you still currently have (and clearly weren't a waste of money! 😁)?

And now I know it does presets I might spend some time watching those videos 😁 But tbf, a synth keyboard is unlikely to be on my wish list for a little while, so I'll probably get to hear you playing yours before then.

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Oh you should see his "all the basses I've ever had" thread for the full picture!! And Andy's had more than one of most of these basses too! Check out the very first post on this mega-thread for our collective "wall of shame" of Yammy BBs, which is there for a bit of fun (plus we can also pick the brains of some specific BB owners for their experience). But was it a waste of money, or did it give you a lot of fun and pleasure along the way?

Cool! How close is this to being a roughly correct wall of shame entry for you now then: currently - 414, 1600 (incoming), BB350F(refretted) (prev: 200, 300, 350f, 1100s, 1300, 614, 714BS, 1024x, G4sII)?

That's plenty for me, more than adequate for most live work.

Haha - well that's told me then! 😁

@AndyTravis - congrats on the BB1600 mate, know you've been wanting to get your hands on for a while. Your first?

I was just re- reading @pete.young's very helpful comparison of the BB 2005 vs BB NE2 in an earlier post, which I'm about to get some hands-on experience on and really looking forward to. Happened to come across these two posts at the same time which kinda tie in quite closely with the MII vs MIJ discussion we were having regarding the 1024/5 vs 2024/5. I guess at the end of the day folk will take a view as to whether the feel of the 2024/5 justifies the massive premium that Yamaha were looking to charge over the 1024/5 and vote with their wallet (or indeed go for something else entirely!) If I could go into @Woodinblack's mythical store, where everything was free and I could choose one bass, it definitely wouldn't be a 2025 as I'm really very happy with my played-in 1025; it would more likely be an Alembic or Wal. Now where the heck is that store...?

As this is an analogue synth, I'm assuming it doesn't do presets or is that not the case?

All these new models and pup configs but any classic reverse-P + J 5ers in the range at Euro or Legend rather than NS prices?