Al Krow

A lot of truth in that Kev! And maybe why the topic remains so controversial? For example, I was having a listen to this generally decent gear review of the Boss BC1-X and he recommends a setting for live use (for all the reasons that others have given during the course of this thread) at 6.29+ onwards. He plays both without (7.17) and with the comp (7.29). It's really easy to hear the difference, but personally I so much prefer the uncompressed tone which let's the playing dynamics breathe. Maybe others prefer the compressed tone and maybe it's better in the mix, but the starting point is a singularly unattractive one tonally for me.

Duplicate post.

(I think you meant B3N at the end?) I still find that some of the individual patches on the B1-4 can be noisy, particularly the drives / fuzzes, which mirrors what happens with many dedicated dirt pedals. However the Zoom noise reduction circuit (ZNR) is really excellent (I recommend detection set to GTRIN) and I use that as a standard final fx slot, going from guitar to speaker in the chain, on most of my patches.

Pete it's a very fair riposte and I really also should have learned my lesson about getting drawn into compressor thread debates by now! And to rising to the bait from certain individuals on this forum, whom I've asked to steer clear (to little effect, excuse the pun), rather than taking Chris' wise advice to "ignore" them, which I shall endeavour to do so once again. I do hope some of us get a chance to come along to one of your gigs and to buy you a beer in the not too distant post-Covid future. And to the kind gent who seems to be stalking my band in order to provide comment on my playing style on a public forum, rather than sending his "constructive feedback" via PM, I promise to let you know in advance if I ever require such feedback again 😂 In the meantime, have a good rest of the weekend.

Pete - you certainly can and it won't be a patch on what you have done and I have a huge amount of respect for you and many others for your real world experience, although I appreciate it doesn't always show in the cut and thrust of some of our exchanges! So please rest assured, my comment wasn't directed at you in any shape or form; it was more at folk who do 2 or 3 gigs a year but are prepared to lecture the rest of us on how we should be playing live. That irks. Maybe it shouldn't. I typically averaged one or two paid gigs a fortnight pre-covid, with about half of them being at a distance where it wouldn't have been possible to get back to the ranch for spares. Here's Scott's advice on what he would recommend for the first five pedals on a pedal board (in addition to a tuner). In terms of his #1 and #2 I totally agree with him. Like you, a compressor doesn't appear to be on his list for someone starting out!

Not entirely convinced this is playing to your strengths?

The funniest is hearing from folk on BC who have comparatively little experience of playing live, lecturing others on what they should do when playing to a live audience and also what spares they need to be taking to gigs. Hilarious.

Excellent and a seriously long list! Are they actually live users on pedal boards or just endorses though? The gear rig videos you recommended checking out does look like a very good shout and not just for compression.

Yup good one. Probably why they replaced Mark Stoermer 😂 The question was a genuine one, it would be interesting / useful to know which world class bassists have pedal board comps for live use and which don't.

Congrats - yeah saw you'd managed to nab one for a very decent price. Worth checking out this thread and there's another one dedicated to just the HX Stomp also. Helix Floor/LT/HX/Stomp Owners' Club - Tips, Ideas & Patches - Effects - Basschat

But apparently according to the OP the comp in the TC amp is pants 😉 If you feel that Paul McCartney is too "old a name" to be considering using a pedal board compressor for his live performances (and I'm not sure why you would think that, given he was touring right up to pre Covid), by all means share more modern day successful touring musicians of similar calibre who are actually using pedal board compressors for their live performances and which ones are they using? Also good to know which ones don't seem to bother with pedal board compressors who, like Paul M, are happy to leave things to venue sound engineer to sort compression out as part of getting a balanced mix. I'll get the ball rolling. 4.23 Mark Stoermer, like John Paul Jones, doesn't appear to be using any pedals live - certainly no compressor in sight. I'm assuming 2013 isn't too far back in ancient history... I guess I should just make clear I have zero objections to anyone using a pedal board compressor (or a £5k bass for that matter) and apologies if, by taking one side of the debate, it seems I am! Please crack on if it's working for you - that's the most important thing! The point I'm making here is that if top / world class bassists don't consider a pedal board comp worth bothering with, and vice versa, then there's maybe a message in that for the rest of us mere mortals also in terms of "misconceptions".

Here's the advice I'd give to a kid starting out: Get a decent bass, amp and cab / combo, there's plenty out there, but you don't need to spend the Earth: you'll get a very decent rig and bass for under £1k particularly if you buy used. Give any one of us a call and we can point you in the right direction. Don't get too distracted by gear, it's a lot of fun but it's not what it's really all about. Get a cheap multi fx if you fancy exploring pedals. A Zoom B1-4 costing £65 will be just fine, it's even got a easy to use tuner built in. Spend as much time as you can practising and get yourself into a band. Playing live can be great, personally I can't think of too much I'd rather be doing. And remember people don't don't give a fig if you have a £5k bass or a £500 one, or about nuances of bass tone, that's what middle aged bassists on BC, like me, spend endless hours discussing. Audiences come to hear you and your band play and to have a great night out. And above all, have a lot of fun making music. Good luck!

Damn, Paul McCartney's post Beatles pedal board apparently comprised a Pete Cornish multi fx with distortion, chorus and tuner. Can't believe he wasn't using a pedal board comp - what's going on?! 😁 I'll get my coat.

John Paul Jones pretty much didn't use any effects live, went straight to amp. Man, what a loser. 😁

Apparently Jaco didn't use a pedal board compressor live. Left it to the WR sound engineer. I guess he must have sounded shite.

Some folk seem to manage without any pedals other than a tuner and go straight into their amps. I'm a little staggered that anyone goes to listen to them 😁

Hi Rb - that's pretty much exactly it! My post below from a couple of weeks back, ties in exactly with what you're hearing. The 425/424 are a slightly updated version of 415/414 model that you had, with laminated rather than single piece necks. The 1025/1024 then adds more refined pups and bridge and I think the body construction on the 1025/4 is 3 piece construction vs 1 piece (I believe) on the 425/424 and predecessor 415/4. As I mentioned in my post below, I think the bulk of the tonal difference is down to the more refined pups. I didn't find that the 1025 had higher output than my 425 - the pups were pretty hot on that. Dunno if that could be down the relative pup heights of the two basses you've had? But all in all, sounds like you've hit the jackpot with your 1024. What was the issue with the 414 neck you had?

How are you finding the 1024 compared to your previous 414? Is this one more "you"? You and @gobasserk have definitely started a trend for BB's on wood! Does look great!

You're actually contractually obliged to get a B1-4 as a compact version of your B3N, (btw that's exactly what I did and there's one on for a good price in FS right now), as you started up the B1-4 thread! It's the law, right? 😁 Besides it resulted in me getting two of the darned things and the same for @JohnDaBass also. Oh yes and another one due to your Boss SY-1 thread, and worst of all a thread on Ibby SRs meaning I'm now lumbered with three of those! As for that neat Lekato Looper we've both got, was that me or you spotting that? Clearly your threads can be very expensive! More seriously, if you're thinking about trading in your B3N, then worth noting that the B1-4 does have some neat little upgrades over the B3N, as well as being more compact, e.g. global vol and 3 band EQ (can't recall if the B3N has a global vol?); drums being accessible parallel to rather than just within a patch and being able to access the patches in banks of 10. The B3N wins on number of stomp switches and 150 patch storage rather than 50. Speaking of John and his bass, we're trying to work out whether we can easily ToneLib file share by email. If we can, I'd be very happy to make my 35 or so patch efforts available to other BCers on this thread.

I think many Emperors would claim to feel utterly naked without their compressors always on. Oh wait...

I'll let you have a pic of my PB at some point with all the others that have survived many and various pogroms. Tbf on you many, many were not so lucky and are now being used and abused by other BCers, eBayers, fBook and Gumtree afficiandos. But that was pre Covid. The world has changed...

Haha! I'm happy to take a sweepstake on that following your recent "success" with the SY-1 prediction. Oh wait...

A decent dedicated octaver will likely have better tracking in terms of going low, although pretty much all octavers will warble if you sustain the note too long (@Woodinblack helpfully pointed out that this was not "unusual as the primary octave dies faster than the harmonics"). I recently got a Boss OC-5 which I can readily recommend and is reasonably priced (obviously nothing is going to compete with the B1-4 on price though!). They seem to be flying off the shelves though and a lot of places are out of stock.

Now if that were only true for my pedalboards! 😁

But at least I've FINALLY got around to getting one! Must have bought and sold literally 100 pedals in the time it's taken me to decide which DAW to get!! I mean what was going on here? I guess (more seriously) a DAW is not just for Christmas in the way a pedal can be: once you've invested the time getting to grips with it you're kinda committed; it's more of a serious relationship than a holiday romance. Well that's my excuse anyway! 😁