Al Krow

Very impressive! You holding onto your various bits of handiwork or moving them on to make way for the next project?

So MattiZ, dear chap, I have just moved on the BB 735A I bought a few days after you (it sold on eBay within 48 hours of my listing it there). I was recalling this post of yours and thinking just how much I now agree with what you said. Like you, I definitely seem to prefer my purely passive BB (in your case the entry level of the current line up, BB 235, and in my case a BB1025) over the active circuit 735A. That was my second 735A and this one was definitely set up pretty well from the outset. But there was just something not quite as special about the active tone on the bass compared to richness of both the P and J on the passive 1025. I appreciate that I'm very much of the view that the BB1025 is a frankly superb 5er particularly for the money and that it sets a very high bar, but I wonder if this is boiling down to your very insightful observation about the 735A that "the preamp sounds, well, quite generic". I think you've hit the nail on the head.

Try any one of these discussion forums all started in the last 3 weeks... Thomann and deliveries to the UK - General Discussion - Basschat Thomann prices? - General Discussion - Basschat Selling Items to UK now? - General Discussion - Basschat A post brexit question. - General Discussion - Basschat Buying from EU private sellers - 20% VAT from 1 Jan 2021 - General Discussion - Basschat Shipping to Europe - Happy ending - General Discussion - Basschat The answer has gotta be out there somewhere 😂

@stewblack - what an excellent little review, thanks. It's got a built in octave up rather than octave down, right?

Well I'm now a bass down and nothing bought so far, so does that mean I'm currently in the lead? Bit like West Ham being second in the league for 10 mins last season, I suspect 😁

I think that's right. The flip side is that it could be an interesting one to pick up used in 6 to 12 months time.

He knows his onions does our Darren! He's not too shabby at pedals either.

Yeah - another BC mate said it "seems to be an over priced cheap bass" which completely ties in with your comment! And they have not gone to town with the available finishes either. Definitely not enough there to entice me away from (or even add to) my Yammy BB PJ.

@MoJo did we miss your two "new" BBs, or are they still to arrive?

You clearly fall squarely into the Yamaha BB exemption. That's not new gear, just common sense 😁

So what was the cause of the mighty MoJo to fall then?! Anything that is Yamaha BB related should be exempt anyway, because that is just a common sense, life enhancing purchase. I've also fortunately got a couple of wise old birds (with the emphasis on "old" as they would probably resent being called "birds" at least in public) on my shoulder telling me that "I'm just bored" and "that looks like expensive trash" each time I spot something shiny and new! Very effective. I could make them available to the Forum for a small fee...

Check this out!

Fair enough! I guess I mentally associate headless basses with Mark King's Statii. I mean who else is first and foremost famous for playing like a headless chicken, besides him (particularly in the 80s?) 😁 Plenty of other incredible slap bass players of course, but I don't link them with headless basses in the same way.

I take it if you're getting all these headless basses and are also into 80s music then you're very possibly a bit of slap guru too?

Yeah the BB 425 is about as kick-donkey a*ss as they come!! Oh wait, that one you've got was mine (can I have it back please, now you've given up being a bass player? 😁) In my case I've got the BB 1025 pups set up to work perfectly and sound just great for finger style. But obviously slapping adds a further dimension in terms of peaks! So actually a limiter rather than an HPF is what the doctor ordered...and I've got my Becos set up at the end of my pedal board to provide limiter duties to deal with exactly such volume spikes. (Btw that's another item that I need to give credit to Mark at TB for reviewing, as well as your good self of course!)

Well you're not going to get any argument from me on that last point! And exactly is why I went for the SY-1 over both the C4 and FI, too!

I should hope so too if you're forking out that much 😁 I'm paying approx. £1 for each of my lessons with Mark at Talking Bass - the guy is a superb tutor! Ok, so the courses are online and he has absolutely no idea I exist other than my money in his bank account (well apart from the tip he kindly shared about the excellent Minotaur straps I bought a month back, when I emailed him to find out what he was using, as they looked bloody comfortable on his vids!) Being the groupie that I am, I should share that he is currently having a Jan sale of some of his courses (and he has a fair bit of excellent free material too). Free Online Bass Lessons - Talkingbass.net Btw - getting back to Yammys for a moment. If you're slapping a BB, I'm finding that the J pup solo'd is much less likely to result in blowing your speaker than the P pup. Dunno if that is common experience?

It's certainly not been easy to keep motivation going during lock down for a lot of us. I've had a couple of months when I hardly touched my basses. Getting a bit of new year momentum going again though now...

Good stuff! Are you in an 80s band?

Cool! Which one are you getting?

Usual supply and demand I suspect, nothing more sinister. Sometimes just a short term thing. Be interesting to ask your mate whether he would consider a used 734A instead? I'd be interested/surprised if the 1100S was actually the better instrument. But obviously the 734A is a current production model and not a collectible in the same way as the 1100S. Wal for me is interesting one. There's a lot of gutted former owners who sold theirs for a song a couple of decades back...

How are you finding it? Have you discovered the ToneLib software for editing patches yet (I've posted a link to it on B1-4 the ideas thread)? I've put mine at the end of my signal chain, so I can make use of the built-in drum machine (which is not something my higher end Helix Stomp or HX Effects offered). It's then set up nicely for home practice without the drums getting impacted by any downstream pedals on the board.

Do you have the Pigtronix as well? It seemed to get mixed reviews and never really took off in the way the FI, C4 and SY-1 pedals did. If you do end up getting the Subdecay - I'd definitely be very interested in getting your thoughts on it!

^^ Exactly this.