Al Krow

I've had a listen to the 3 clips you've posted of 8 string basses and they're all fine - nothing I particularly dislike about any of them! So if your Sub'n'Up clips come close, that works for me. You don't need to do a side by side comparison as such - particularly if you don't have an 8 string! Just record a clip of the Sub'n'Up in octave-up mode in your favourite tweaked setting. Hopefully not too difficult.

I'm just looking forward to hearing your (or any one's!) SnU octave up clips on bass. Load 'em up when you can 😊

Tongue in cheek, my friend. It's what we Brits do! You'll get used to it...well after a few decades, haha! The clue was in the smiley face 😉 But I'm less interested in hearing clips of 8 string basses, that doesn't tell me anything really. Much more interested in hearing the SnU being validated with my own ears. A sound clip is worth a thousand words! Really quick and easy to do if you have a looper pedal? Besides it was your suggestion to share clips in the first place wasn't it, if you scroll back?

Do you have any clips of your fav tweaked SnU octave up? I've shared one for the Digitech Mosaic. If the SnU is comparably good, I'll happily invest in one, but so far Mr @Baloney Balderdash has only come up with dare I say...baloney, with no dash of evidence to back up his claims! 😁

Thing is, a decent 112 that delivers the quality you're after is not necessarily going to be that cheap, and I'm not sure that there is going to be much in it between what a decent 112 puts out and what a 210 can deliver, volume wise. Must admit my steer would be to recommend sticking with the TCRS210C you have, particularly if you like it, as I suspect you may be disappointed with some of the more budget 112s in comparison. If you're looking at fat a*rse lows & crisp sizzling highs in a 112 you're going to be in Barefaced BB2 territory IMO. One in the FS for £600 and, yes, I'd be very happy to recommend it, but we're still not "budget" by any means! Having said that, I'm a massive believer in getting the very best cab you can afford, so I'm not being particularly helpful! The FRFR (aka PA speaker cab) crew may be along shortly with some recommendations which might provide a better combination of quality and price - although FRFR kit is not specifically tuned for bass guitar in the way that bass cabs are, and typically you would want an active FRFR speaker, which is effectively a combo.

But here's the thing - do you actually want more sustain when playing a P pup? Or do you end up with a dog's dinner on your NT table?

BF make excellent cabs, but I'd put them into the "high-end" rather than "budget" category, which is what I think the OP is looking for?

Late to the party and just come across these - but they do look good! 2.3ms latency is a 1/3 of the 8ms latency on my Smoothound and not a big difference in price between them. Any update from users on their experience with these? I saw there is a pedal board version - but not sure why you would bother with that rather than simply plugging in the receiver to your first pedal - just seems to take up unnecessary real estate? Also wondering what the WL-60 does "better" for the extra money and size?

Don't knock Halfords - they make some great gear. And their share price has gone through the roof since the start of lockdown

With NS on this one.

Would all the self confessed SAs on this thread please stand up and be counted? Oh sorry, my bad, you already are...

Yeah the OC5 does look really good! Just waiting for BB to validate his high regard for the SnU (the compact form factor of the mini is very appealing) with some decent clips...

@Baloney Balderdash picking up on your earlier post: "Actually my "fake 8 string bass" setup sounds really close, almost spot on, to the short bit with the demonstration of both pickups in humbucker mode...And I think I am able to approximate that pretty closely with my Sub'N'Up. I'll record some clips when I get myself pulled together to do so, might take a few days though before I get it done." I'm actually quite tempted to get a Sub'n'Up Mini based on your comments. Several BC'ers have, however, described the Sub'n'Up as being quite "tinny" on octave up and my own recollection is that it had a bit of latency when I tried it out on factory settings in the store. But if you've cracked it, then it would definitely be worth another look for me and an incentive to investing time in the TonePrint editor in the knowledge that it can actually deliver, as the ability to provide both oct down and up simultaneously in such a small form factor and at a relatively good price, compared to many other octavers, is very appealing. So, I'm definitely looking forward to your clips! 😊

Understood - but I'm guessing that doesn't come cheaply i.e. it's going to be more than 2p? 😁

Useful thread! From comments I've seen on here and elsewhere, would it be fair to summarise as follows: Short scales - can be easier to play, but lower string tension across the length of the neck means, in general, a more "rubbery" / "dark" / less harmonically rich tone than standard 34" or longer scale basses?

@EJWW excellent review, thanks, with some really useful set up tips (I've highlighted in blue). Maybe the 734A is overkill for you as you're finding it "near perfect" in passive mode? A passive 734A = 434 or a (series 2) 1024 in my books and I can certainly vouch for the 1024/5s being absolutely superb passive PJ basses. Btw "I think I like it" is definitely 5 words 😁

Haha - hardly likely. Besides, you already know what you're getting into after spending some quality time with its Stella sibling, which you were very positive about. This is just going to give all of that and a fair bit more besides in the shape of dual band rather than single band compression.

That seems about right as @Misdee has said. My BBP35, which should be a little heavier than the P34 with the 5 string neck, was 4.6kg.

Congrats! Look forward to your review and pics! I've added you to owners' wall of shame on the OP...😊

In hindsight, it would have been worth the £1,100 Andy B was looking to get for his 4 years back. But £2.3k new feels a little too extravagant, for me anyway!

Yeah - I should probably have gone with that used Berg 4 years back and that would have dealt with the depreciation issue at a stroke. You may remember, I was very close to buying back then, but was persuaded it was likely to be too similar to my TM4. It's not, and much closer tonally to what I would be looking for in a bass. In terms of finish / looks, the Berg relatively easily wins over the 735A for me - it wouldn't if there was one in white, lol. IMO the Yammy goes to toe to toe with it tonally.

Oh and if you want to hear a 735A in action in the mix, this one is currently in the FS. Loved it!

Bass tone shoot-out: Sandberg Panther Special 5 vs Yamaha BB735A Must admit I’m a sucker for a good looking bass in glorious woods and those woods include mahogany and walnut. I came across a Sandberg Panther Special in the FS and felt a twinge of GAS for it and decided to look the 5 string version a little further. Turns out it was ticking a lot of boxes in terms of what I would be looking for: PJ config; 3 band EQ; active / passive; > 20 frets; not sure about the weight but described as being “modest weight” in a Music Radar review. But then I thought, hey I know another bass that also ticks all these boxes: the Yammy BB735A. The Berg sports an ‘effective’ 35.25” scale length for the B string which purportedly results in a meaty low B. The Yammy has body through stringing and a 5 piece laminate neck for extra strength and rigidity. Both are bolt-on rather than neck through, which would have been icing on the cake for me – but that’s just something I personally love design wise, as I think it looks fabulous. Bergs are really well put together basses. The thing that has put me off Bergs, since deciding to part with my TM4 a few years back, in addition to their cost (although tbf used ones are often a fair bit more affordable: they don’t seem to hold their value in the same way that Yammys do - I guess partly down to the much higher starting price?), was the relatively hi-fi nature of the some of their pups; Delanos in particular. So my key bit of further research was to look into how the Panther Special 5 sounded tonally and I managed to dig out a YT clip from our own Andy Boorman (Moonbass), where he gives it a very good tonal work out as part of his sales pitch for his old bass. Amusingly, I very nearly bought this bass off him 4 years ago, which was before the 735A was released, and might have done if I'd seen this video at the time. I think you will agree, it sounds pretty darned good! I then also came across a really good clip of the 735A with Tyler playing my old bass(!) It was really informative hearing them both 'side by side' as it were. I appreciate that signal chain and recording equipment will impact what we’re hearing the other end, particularly on YT clips, but a current Berg owner kindly confirmed that the Andy B’s clip was a pretty good reflection of how his current Sandberg Panther Special sounds. Be interested in what you guys think in terms of the tonal A/B of these basses? The Sandberg is on at £2,263 in PMT. For me, having heard them both side by side - the point we’ve made loads on this thread about Yammy’s holding their own against basses costing several times rings true even more for me having spent a bit of time doing this bit of research and is going to be something I continue keep at the forefront of my future buying decisions. Now if they only finished the 735A in white...

Strong album! Liked it even better on a second full listen though, and what felt initially like a slightly weaker middle to the album turned into classic Springsteen story telling. Not sure many of our heroes are able to turn out such quality, both musically and vocally, into their 70s as Bruce has done with this.