Al Krow

One of my favourite Zoom patches is TapeEcho. I've got mine set on 300ms delay - really nice 60s vibe and a very usable sound (think Portugal. The Man - Feel it Still). I've always enjoyed a bit of Tremolo too. Thought I'd put them together to come up with a Tape Tremolo patch and it kinda works as expected! Uploaded to the OP for B1-4 users.

Volume test: Bugera M vs DG M900 TLDR - the Bugera had no problem keeping up with the M900 and will be more than sufficient for handling a full rock band. Did a very quick back of the envelope volume test of the these two amps through my BF BB2 at home. Vol dial: set the gain at 2/10 and varied the volume Bugera: 0 to 2 small increase, 2-5 significant increase, maxed at 8/10 with little increase after that; DG M900: 0-5 moderate increase 5-8 significant increase with small further increase 9-10 and maxed at 10/10 Gain dial: set the vol at 2/10 and varied the gain Bugera: 0 to 5 small increase, 5-8 significant increase, 8-10 maxed with break up drive DG M900: 0-10 fairly linear Increasing the gain or volume beyond 2/10 when the other dial was maxed produced further (too loud!) increases in volume. Neither of these amps is going to have trouble in a band setting!

Not come across that one, but defo sounds like it's worth checking out from your post!

1001M arrived from DV247 this morning. First impressions: First thing I wanted to check was the fan noise, given a couple of earlier comments. Was it going to be worse than I had feared and a deal breaker? You know that moment when you're opening the box and worried you've just bought a lemon (but fortunately if worst came to the worst a returnable lemon)...but it's definitely not! Phew! Probably only 2/3 the fan noise of my M6 which I have totally grown used to and perhaps even kinda like - it tells me the old girl is still alive, hehe! Plenty of punch and decent bass & mid EQ, particularly with the choice of 5 mid centre points although the available treble boost is a little timid for my liking - but nothing that a VTDI pedal won't fix. With the gain maxed there was definitely some "valvey" break up, which is what I might have hoped to get from the T version, albeit less so than on that YT video review I posted a short while back. I guess it's going to depend on what bass and pups you're using. Footprint is a little larger than my DG M900, but fits snugly into the DG padded case which is very convenient. Here's a pic with them next to each other: For £200, first impressions are that it will provide a capable back-up amp to my M900 and I'll certainly be using it in band rehearsals and pub gigs too.

Add in Boss WL-20 and Megaboom and you have a complete portable micro-rig!

My tuppence worth: If you have the patience to get up to speed with patch creation and editing, particularly with the aid of freely available PC editing software, then multifxs can be fantastic pieces of kit and give you access to all those sounds you might want to use occasionally but don't warrant the PB space and expense of a dedicated pedal. Dedicated pedals for your "core" fx sounds will often have the edge in a head to head, unless you're spending serious £££ on a multifx and sometimes even then e.g. the Helix is not going to match a decent filter or synth pedal. If you're not sure whether patch creation on a multi is for you, then maybe dip your toe into the water with something budget like a Zoom before upgrading to a Helix; they're surprisingly good, certainly for the money. I've had both and have happily ended up with a Zoom B1-4 at the core of my PB combined with dedicated pedals:

But what I want to know is why a P34 is a more sensible daydream than a 1024?!

Those Yamaha boys and girls sure know how to make a mighty fine bass!

I think you mentioned you're averse to any fan noise on another thread? If so, not sure how many "Big Iron" amps are going to be able to offer you silent running. I get a bit of fan noise when I start up my Mesa M6 - it's something I've just come to expect on start up but then instantly lost the moment the first note is played.

+1 for Talking Heads and Tina Weymouth. Some seriously catchy bass lines!

I've given the Pigtronix Octava a bit of a spin today and it's been a revelation! It's not specifically geared at bass but having a clean blend does make it very bass friendly. All in all it's a pretty versatile pedal in a compact housing. My favourite setting so far is with the fuzz engaged and you can go from dirty break-up to full on meaty fuzz and with no discernible loss of low end. Also seems that prices have come down since I bought mine used a while back, and you can pick these up at guitar guitar new for £109. Here's a short clip with clean --> fuzz + drive 10am --> fuzz + drive 2pm to give you an idea of what it sounds like. Pigtronix Octava.WAV

Ebony fretboard (24 frets) with 3-piece quarter-sawn maple neck. Swamp ash body.

It is, well spotted! Knobs: volume, pup blend, 3 band EQ. Two switches: mids f selector and active/ passive. It does sound fantastic - maybe I'm still on honeymoon with it, but I've not really been able to put it down since getting it a couple of weeks back. The kicker which, I know you will appreciate, is that it's just 8.4 lbs. I wouldn't have had the confidence to get one new, but a 2 y/o one at used prices and set up perfectly with upgraded pups and played-in by someone as capable as our own @Sibob was too tempting to resist. Zero regrets in doing so - I'm a convert!

Well if it, it's gotta be the worst wanted ad ever! What I do know so far is that it's a "double bass-specific bit of kit" I mean, when you say "specific" could you be a bit more specific?

The first bass I ever played, an Aria pro II SLB PJ (which actually belonged to my missus) was a lovely black one. I've very recently re-joined the club with the newest addition to my herd. Not come across this brand before, but I'm completely blown away by it:

Yeah, but be VERY careful Otherwise before you know it you'll be tempted to play entire songs an octave down 'cos, all of a sudden, you've got some lower notes at your disposal, followed by finding that you can actually play a fair few phrases more easily across the fretboard rather than needing to perform a merry dance up and down it...it will all end in tears. 😁

John's two Amp & Cab patches uploaded onto the OP. Fyi - I've also uploaded a better "Presence" patch - spotted that the limiter I had included with the previous version of the patch, to deal with volume spikes if I'm using for slap now that I've taken my Becos compressor off my board, had the threshold set too low and was squishing the sound far too much! All now sorted!

Ah that would explain it!

Go for it - you're never too old to learn new tricks (well that's my motto and I'm certainly no spring chicken!) 😊 I'm a huge fan of Mark at Talking Bass and the way he teaches. This is his paid online course Learn to Play Slap Bass: Including Funky Videos Lessons and Bass Tab (talkingbass.net) - works out at about £1 a lesson, which frankly is a bargain (and he does a load of other courses too e.g. walking bass lines etc) But he's got plenty of free online material to dip into too including on the basics of slap.

It seems to me that VT 500 is a 500W power amp (I presume into 4 ohms) with a VTDI pre amp, from the control set. Do you know what the bass EQ on the amp is centred at? I'm intrigued that it is has a bigger low end than the DG, given that the DG's bass EQ is centred at 80Hz but the bass EQ centre on my VTDI pedal is at 125 Hz.

That DG M900's days are defo numbered!! But tbf they've been numbered for a quite a number of days but somehow stayed in the henge? I guess it provides quite good support to the amps above it in the stack and is not too shabby on the eye?

I don't like slap when it's done badly or overcooked and gives no thought to the context in which it is being used. Not sure too many bass players do? I think slap can be fantastic when it's played with skill and used appropriately, especially for funk. Most folk can enjoy that and audiences very much seem to! Having worked on the technique for the best part of 18 months, must admit I've got a ton more respect for bass players who have nailed the skilful use of slap. It's a technique like any other and another potent tool in our kits. Some bass players don't like 5 or 6 string basses. Some don't like slap. That's cool.

I don't think this guy would get turned down for audition if he turned up with his 6 string: https://youtu.be/hmkR3gmJh7w?t=220

Damn he's good!

Had a bit of think about best place for HPF when introducing new low freqs via octave-down and filter, and decided to compromise by putting it mid-board immediately before my little Zoom multifx but after all the additional low-f stuff. I'll have to 'fess to having an ulterior motive in that I've got a couple of pedals offboard that I was really keen to find some space for, so I took the opportunity to sling the Thumpinator below board as an "always-on" pedal and have now slotted in a Pigtronix Octava in its place.