Al Krow

I can't believe you've not discovered how good the B string is a thumb rest? Mutes it beautifully 😂

Hmmm...if it's definitely not aimed at bass players then why does the OC-3 go to the trouble of having a separate "bass" input?

No probs - I'll be able to check it out for myself now! Pedal has just arrived and I'm looking forward to giving it a spin tomorrow. A fellow BC'er said they had sold out on Amazon also now...

You make the case well in terms of some of the potential downsides such as extra weight and neck dive. But now I play 5ers I have zero need for a 4 string and there are few songs where a 5 string doesn't add something (eg positional ease, playing a song an octave lower etc) to what a 4 string offers. And the downsides of incremental extra weight and neck dive are very manageable. So why go to the hassle of taking 2 different ie 4 and 5 string basses to a gig, even if a 4 string should be perfectly good enough for most songs, if a 5er does everything a 4 does and can often add a little more? There may be similar arguments for using a 6 string, once you have mastered the instrument?

You play "native" Yamaha BB bass and do great recordings just on your phone, which more than makes up for it! There is no more universal language, we can share, than music!

At the end of the day, if it sounds good that's all that matters! 😊👍

Very good! The odd digression, with the odd oblique reference to a BB (like how does a Yamaha BB bass sound like with a D class or class A/B amp when played through a YYZ pedal?), after 6,000 posts is a good thing to keep us all entertained. After all, how many times can we remind each other that a 1024 is more refined than a 424? And those of us who prefer a fine red to more plentiful plonk will prefer one over the other 😁

Well my own experience ties in with yours: my Mesa M6 is in a class up from any of the D class heads I've had or tried. However a mate of mine owns and gigged both an M6 and a Berg B|Amp and he rates the B|Amp just as highly. That's a pretty good A/B comparison. I've heard clips of him playing his Berg rig with his band and he sounds great!

Hmmm...maybe. But I think owners of the Berg B|Amp would differ with that conclusion!

Nah, not muddy at all sounds really good in fact, although I understand why that might be something to be concerned about "on paper". If the EQ centre points had been lower, then for sure you wouldn't want to be boosting. But I would like a bit more low end punch as featured on gobasserk's clip. I think some circuits just suck low end more than others eg RAT drives are notorious. I think the VTDI has certain rodent tendencies!

I guess the key point is that further clean blend via an LS2 is not going to particularly add much, which is probably fair. I have it set on low EQ boost (125 Hz on VTDI) plus a touch of low end boost on the DG amp (80 Hz) to address plus a fair bit of clean blend. But the core tone on the YYZ seems fuller.

Yes it does have a blend knob.

Can you take a pic of the settings you had your YYZ pedal on too? That would be interesting to see.

Working for me now, thanks. @gobasserk - enjoyed that! Combination of the bass with the YYZ works well. What's particularly good is that you're not losing much, if any, low end with the YYZ (given me a little bit of pedal GAS!). I think I'm getting more low end loss with the VTDI and maybe blending in some clean with a Boss LS2 might be a plan. What pup setting / combination did you have it on? Be good to hear it without the YYZ also; as we all know, drive pedals can completely mask the "natural" bass tone.

Hah I knew the bass is not for sale, I actually meant the clip 😁 it is coming up as "unavailable".

Is it still available? I really enjoy your clips - the sound quality is always far better than it should be on a phone recording!

I don't think most bass players think it's a bad thing, more that they don't hear any real benefit from having one on their pedal boards when playing live. It seems to me that there are at least as many bassists who are perfectly happy without a pedal board comp as their counterparts who swear by them. Besides, if you are making extensive use of dirt pedals as part of "your sound" you're already getting some compression in your signal, and some amps have compression built in also... ...although I note you regard the TC Spectracomp on the TC amp to be "pants" because it acts like a limiter. Nothing wrong with a limiter though. It's a valid alternative which many bassists are very happy with. It allows your natural sound and playing technique to come through / "breathe" for the most part whilst eliminating unwanted volume spikes. It makes complete sense to use bass compression in a recording studio where the compression can be adjusted to suit the style of music and done expertly by a sound engineer (see comment on attack / release below). And if you're playing at a venue with a decent sound engineer who is going to be compressing your signal anyway - so I completely get where @jrixn1 is coming from with his post above. A lot of bass players use their compressors to get more even volume across their strings as an alternative to adjusting the height of one side of their pups e.g. closer to the top D and G strings, but also to prevent unwanted volume spikes more generally. Dunno if that is what you are referring to as "fixing bad technique?" Agreed. It seems to me that the much of the "magic" of a compressor is in the attack and release settings, which actually should be adjusted for each track to suit the style of playing. Something that a trained sound engineer will do in a recording studio. It also seems to be a facet of compression that is discussed very little and perhaps not widely understood (I certainly don't claim to be an expert!) Again this level of refinement / adjustment makes total sense in the hands of an expert sound engineer in the studio, but less so for a bassist doing DIY compression in the Dog 'n' Duck pub? Just my 2 cents FWIW! 😊

Yup, I've had three Ciocks PSUs and a OneSpot previously, all excellent and in the case of Ciocks premium priced. But I've been very happy to go "downwardly mobile" with these HB Iso-Pros.

Continuing on the theme of John's PB hack for PT Metro / Nano boards: having glued (and "clamped" while the glue set) the new feet in place, my HB Iso12 arrived from Thomann and is now snugly in place, with enough clearance over the floor. I slightly angled it using an adhesive cushioned strip at one edge to allow me to use the longer end of the connectors at the PSU and the shorter end above board for use with the pedals. Now just waiting for my Boss OC-5 to arrive from Amazon... The HB Iso series are very good value and really compact which is a great combination! I've had a really good experience so far with its smaller sibling the HB Iso-5 Pro which is incredibly compact but also pretty much noise-free, so no hesitation in getting this more powerful unit from HB. The Iso12 Pro provides 9 x 300mA (all 9V) + 3 x 500mA (with 9V/12V/18V selector switches) all individually isolated. All this for < £95 from Thomann to your door.

But is that really a normal "bass" in common parlance?

I'm pretty sure he was using a Warwick Thumb NT as his goto for quite a while? - 26 frets and defo not short scale!

And yet so many people, at the same time, say that we are "all the same"... gotta be a song in there somewhere? 😄

Fair observation RR. But one person's "laziness" = another's easy work flow to actually get something done?

Pulling these two posts back onto the right discussion thread 😊 Blimey - tracking down to a low B without glitching?!!! That's super impressive (and reminds me of what my SY-1 does, so maybe they did share tracking algorithms which would make perfect sense). But even if it tracks down to "only" give an octave below a low E, that for me is plenty good enough, as you're then going below what we can actually hear, although not having a glitchy note impacting your bass line if you're going even lower is an added bonus. Looking forward to Kev's feedback, too, shortly and hopefully mine will arrive at some point next week also.