Al Krow

Thanks. To bypass the EQ section entirely the fx loop would need to be in parallel though. I didn't spot any clues in the manual as to whether that was the case and, given I've not previously used fx loops myself, not considered whether series or parallel is the "standard" approach for fx loops on amps.

Is the fx loop in parallel with the preamp or in series on the M900? If it's in series then I presume you're just swapping around the order i.e. putting the dUg after the preamp rather than before it? But either way in the M900 you can clean by-pass the AO circuit in the same way as you can if you had it as a preamp / drive pedal.

Nope - 300W at 8 ohms is my preferred min. The M500 should handle that easily give it's 500W at 4ohms. But I'm not complaining about having 900W at 4 ohms on tap!

Thanks(?? 😁) for sharing that. They do look intriguing. The 2x10 + 15 version of the one above is discussed at [4.22].

One thing I hadn't clocked was that the 500W versions are not just a cut down power amp of the 900W versions, but are also a little more compact (which I'd view as a plus) and have dispensed with a few "nice to haves" present on the 900W versions: the M500 only has a master volume in place of both gain & master on the M900, just one DI out instead of both pre and post DI out options, no midi connectivity or no separate volume control for the headphones. So they are differently spec'd models and I guess the price differential between the two starts to stack up, although tbf I suspect I'd be entirely content with the 500W version in place of my 900W if I had got my hands on that instead. @NancyJohnson are you finding any difference to having the dUG in the fx return to putting it into the amp input?

Completely agree that a slap dominated gear review is often not particularly useful! Not sure I agree about the live ego performance point, though. The very fact that you're prepared to play in front of a live audience requires an element of 'ego'. If you entertain your audience and they enjoy what you're bringing to the party collectively and individually all the better.

+1^^ on all the above. I do love my fEARless F112, it's an outstanding 1x12! But the weight advantage of the BB2 is very welcome for use with my bands and it's obviously another very capable cab.

Tbf that's also entirely valid! If you really don't like something, especially something you're doing for fun, you're pretty unlikely to put in the effort to get good at it. So I guess this becomes very self selecting! A bit like saying that good 5 string bass players will pretty often be individuals who like playing 5 string basses.

Actually that's very astute. Yup, agreed: if you can do something well on bass, particularly if you can do it tastefully and your audiences appreciate it (and there are several BC'ers who fall into that category when it comes to slap bass technique, whom I admire a lot for their skills) you're pretty unlikely to be slagging it off!

Thanks John. Yup, FRFR is often used as short hand for PA speakers (typically powered) on BC and certainly I've fallen into that habit. But you're quite right that it properly stands for a "full-range and flat-response" set up!

Bumping an old thread ( @Dad3353 - grateful if you could do your magic and give some of the old posts a refresh if / when you get a spare moment, please). Been having a brief FRFR chat with a BC mate recently and got me thinking about my BB2 (which I'm very much looking forward to trying out in anger once lockdown ends!) @jrixn1, John - you've separately mentioned a couple of times that you actually found FRFR to be as good / if not better than your BB2. @dave_bass5, Dave - I think you mentioned earlier on this thread about the BB2 being a touch mids-light (or at least I think it was you, you know what my memory can be like, lol!) In both cases I'd be really interested to know what amps you gents were pairing with your BB2s?

The BtW crew, who seem to know the DG team and products pretty well, touch on the comp in the AO 900 at 4.45 in their usual entertaining review, below. @Grav - that's really useful additional info, thanks.

I believe they were the thing we made loud noises at in the days you were (allegedly) still wearing underwear.

Well that's entirely fair, gareth.

Pleasure! What I do want to know, however, is a full list of the brands and models of the several lush basses you've used on your various videos (e.g. was that a Yamaha BB3000A on one of them)? Guess I'm secretly trying to work out whether I've actually fallen for your playing, or I'm just lusting after your basses...😁

That's fine. Some folk don't like jazz or can't stand classical music or opera, or death metal, or... You don't have to like everything and you'd be pretty unusual if you did. There isn't a right or wrong answer to any form of music. At the end of the day if you enjoy playing a particular style of bass and your audience enjoys listening to it, surely that's all that counts?

That's not a bad approach to using the comp. The fact that it has some form of metering, albeit pretty limited, is definitely helpful. But at the end of the day it's a one knob compressor (which @51m0n would regard as being the devil's spawn and has gone on record, saying so) and I personally find that the make-up gain over compensates for the amount of compression resulting in an overall increase in volume as you increase the compression levels, which you then have to "un make-up" elsewhere. The comp is outside the AO circuit and so available for your clean sound, if you want it, which I suspect for most folks will be the more common use. There's a fair bit of compression in most drives anyway but I guess you can always double-up to further increase the sustain if this appeals and probably no need to faff adjusting it down mid-set when you switch from clean to drive given that the drive will, in any case, dominate the more subtle impact of compression. There was some suggestion that DG had included a Hyper Luminal "Lite" as the compression circuit, which does get a lot of positive reviews from users elsewhere. So looking at what we've got included: it's essentially got a Hyper Luminal Lite(?) compressor + AO Ultra preamp + 900W class D power amp + footswitch in a pretty handsome package with DG's reputation for build quality. And if you can pick one up used for a decent price (which I was fortunate to do), you're not going to be doing too badly at all. Unless, of course, you really don't like the AO drive tone, in which case you'd probably be better off spending your hard earned cash elsewhere.

That's good news. A good set of ear plugs will see you right! 😊

It's actually our very own @doc40hz's crew - and must admit he's slapped me into his fan club hook line and sinker...

We've had an enquiry this morning from a significant venue that will be opening up from May 22nd onwards. Fingers crossed that we manage to bag that or one of the following Saturdays - if we don't then no doubt others will be booked in our place. (Guess I'd better get a Glock 3 band preamp ordered for one of my basses then). Any others seeing bookings for end May / June starting to coming through?

Yup, looks like it was off on that particular pic but those are, in any case, my drive settings for when the AO is engaged. Fyi - I'm using the footswitch, which overrides the distortion button on the amp ie will engage / disengage the AO drive unit irrespective of whether the button is pressed on the amp. The led will still come on on both the amp and footswitch though.

Thanks Paul. Here's my settings (at home rather than gig levels!) for comparison. I see we've both gone for pretty similar EQ settings including a bit of bass boost at 80Hz that adds some nice weight to the low end and counters low end suck that most drives seem to suffer from without adding boom-iness at the 40Hz and below range. Key difference seems to be you've cut at 1.5kHz whereas I've boosted, as I'm a fan of the additional "presence" that gives me. Similar amounts of clean blend (about 40%) with our drives - I'm obviously preferring the mid heavy Omega over the Alpha which you've gone for, with bite button engaged for us both.

"What have you got against slap bass?" Absolutely nothing when it's done as well as this!

Clearly been relic'd. Along with the rest of my gear.

I guess you might expect the heavier bridge to have some impact on increased sustain, but corresponding decreased resonance - from transferring less string vibration to the body.