Al Krow

My pleasure and privilege to start a feedback thread for Kelpie. I very recently bought a Yamaha bass off him - really good comms throughout and he kindly delivered it to my door. The bass was in the condition he described and the price agreed was very reasonable. I would be very happy to deal with Keplie again and have no hesitation in recommending him to my fellow BC'ers. Looking forward to getting along to one of your gigs as soon these start happening again! Cheers mate.

Alan replied to my wanted ad for a Zoom pedal. Very smooth transaction and good comms throughout; the pedal was carefully packed and in the condition described - thanks!

Thanks Lozz. I know I'm biased, but I think you could like it a lot! If you scroll a page or so back (to Oct 24th), I posted a tone comparison of the 735A vs a quality Sandberg, plus a YT clip of a 735A in the mix, which will give you good idea of how it sounds. All three YT clips were uploaded by our fellow BC'ers and, by coincidence, feature both my previous and current 735As! My only caveat is that the Yammy PJ 5er has it's own tone and feel, including a very playable neck. I love the Yammy tone and fantastic build quality, but it isn't a clone of a Fender P, which I know you're a big fan of. I personally think the Sire P7 comes closer to a Fender P, both in appearance and sound, and the Sire P7 Mk2, which I had, is also a great-value bass and is comfortably lighter than its predecessor Sire P7 Mk1.

@AndyTravis and @MoJo are your men when it comes to all things BB414!

Awww shame the Zoom didn't get a fair billing, particularly as it was pitched against relatively budget competition other than #5...I think the result of the vote has been stolen 😁

Awww that sounds so much sexier in Italian 😁

The difference between a well played in bass and a new one? Yamaha actually make a thing of this and some of their high-end basses come with "A.R.E." (Acoustic Resonance Enhancement), resulting in "outstanding tonal balance and eliminating the harsh edge common with younger guitars". They've basically given "sonic treatment" to the basses so that they have a "played in" feel.

So in terms of your preferences was there much difference between the 1605 and 2605? And is the EHB1505 your new favourite? All Nordstrand Big Singles and pretty much the same Ibby 3 band EQ with variable mids on each, although the EHB has fully variable mid rather mid selector switch I know.

And once more - over 12 months ago now in fact(!):

Just need @Dad3353 to do his magic "thread refresh" to restore some of the older posts and this thread will be good to go!

@biro - love your two basses. Which exact models are they?

Haha - just once a year, for the past three years. But only because: a) it made sense; and b) because you have caused me more expenditure than any other person on BC! So far: - 5 (!!) Ibby basses, of which I still have 3; - Boss SY-1 and now TWO (including a spare) Zoom B1-4 pedals - both your threads I believe? Maybe with the notable exception of @pedwho persuaded me to fork out on a KS, which took him to the top of my cost chart at a stroke and is now in cahoots with you about removing my resistance to getting a SY-1000 & GK3 pup...

@jjl5590 plenty of love for Ibby SRs, as you can see from this thread! I'm a particular fan of the SR Premiums. Fantastic value used.

Probably worth my mentioning before it gets lost is that the EQ patch, whilst clearly of deep interest to some (hehe!), was actually not the key patch I wanted to share with any B1-4 / B3N owners checking in. That was actually the excellent MXR BEF sim I also uploaded on the same post earlier. Be interested to see what you think of it. Definitely one of the better multifx filter sims I've come across - particularly given it offers both up and down sweep.

Just to finish this off from my side today - here's a Low EQ patch with the HPF setting, rather than Shelf setting, with -12dB/octave cut starting at 80Hz. The most "boomy" of my bits of gear is actually my 4 string Stagg EUB, whose only tone control is a sub-sonic boost, which I've found to be a bit pointless! I have it set at nil. The Shelf EQ patch leaves the EUB sounding a little "hollow" at the low end; whereas the HPF EQ gives a warmer / fuller low end tone certainly on my Stagg. HPFEQ.zb1f

Haha - true. But folk are willing to part with £200+ on pedals that are "just eq'ing" whereas this little box of tricks is providing you quite a lot of sophistication on that score for not a great deal!

My pleasure and privilege to start Jay's feedback thread. I recently sold Jay my Grizzly Bass pedal which he received safely over in Norway. He sorted out prompt international payment and there was good communication throughout, making this another pleasant and hassle-free BC transaction. Jay is a gent and I'm happy to recommend him to my fellow BC'ers. Bas

Sold my Fishman Fission pedal to Jeff a few weeks back. He's fast becoming a regular for some of my PB gear! Another very straightforward and hassle free transaction. Looking forward to clips of you in Royal Blood mode sometime soon! Cheers, Bas

Yeah fair point. Ideally you would want a full parametric EQ with control over Q to give you pin-point control over resonant frequencies but, even so, a semi para EQ will still be a step up from the bass pre-amp or the amp itself where you're stuck with the "factory" bass centre frequency. I guess that's another plus for the B1-4 in that you can adjust the centre frequency (albeit only in 10Hz intervals) that you're cutting i.e. it's giving you a semi-parametric EQ. Zoom B1-4 (or Zoom B3N) as a 4 band semi para EQ If you wanted / needed it you could have 2 Low EQ and 2 High EQ sims in one patch (with a slot still spare!) to give you a 4 band semi para EQ, allowing you to cut or, indeed, boost in the 20Hz to 640Hz range for the Low EQ and 500Hz to 20kHz range for the High EQ. Pretty impressive as "just another thing" from a £60 pedal!

Agreed Sid that adjusting (in this case lowering) pup heights is a sensible thing to be thinking about and in fact was the very first thing I did with the "replacement" 735A I've now got (please see the the Yammy thread for my quick review). Bear in mind, and I point I should have mentioned earlier, that my testing of the "Shelf EQ" patch was done whilst playing a low D below the bottom E, so not a low end issue that most 4 string players will commonly encounter in everyday use unless they are engaging drop D or de-tuning - so this is more geared to 5 string players and the patch itself is focussed at just below the low E fundamental. I'm trying to think whether it was my former (white) Yamaha BB425 of mine you heard a couple of years back - but I don't recall exactly when you are thinking of (I've had a few white Yammys now!). And yes the pups on that were kick-a*s punchy!

Actually Gav - now you've mentioned it the more significant benefit is in passive mode on the 735A. This has the same window rattle capability in passive mode as on active mode set flat - which is what you would expect. However there is not the same ability to cut / boost bass in passive mode (the only EQ is treble which acts as a tone control) and the Shelf EQ comes into its own to cut the low end below 40Hz. You'll be able to do the same on some amps e.g. some of the older Markbass by simply cutting the bass; although the bass EQ is more commonly set at higher than 40Hz (typically 65Hz through to 80Hz) on many amps; so an EQ pedal just allows a little more finesse. And in the case of the B1-4 it obviously comes at no extra cost, being just another part of its Swiss army knife toolkit.

Nah it occurs in active mode with EQ set flat. Besides the NE2 doesn't have a passive mode. Yup cutting the bass EQ on the bass itself will do something similar, no question - although I'm never 100% certain where the bass EQ is centred on basses as the manufacturers seem to think this is vital IP they need to protect! I can be more selective / certain what frequencies I'm cutting with the pedal I guess is one advantage.