Al Krow

Mate a BF cab is good, but even Alex wouldn't say that they were that good 😁 If it had been a Wal bass we were talking about, now obviously that's an altogether different matter!

Let's cut to chase: Basschat BF owners past and present - 5,164 votes YES Wife - 1 vote NO Outcome? 😁

Ah ok - in which case no arguing with that! ST it is for you then, matey. But you're gonna need scratch your BB2 itch at some point. Just sayin'... Out of interest what was it that didn't cut the mustard with your Bergs?

Noted. I'm sticking with my recommendation! A 2x12 will be great, though. And if so, don't discount the Berg CN212 - seriously your ears will love you. A/B them before pulling the trigger, if you can. I've had both the Berg and the SC and personally I'd go for the Berg ahead of two BF SCs, which is what your ST will be.

Only 'cos if you want to play a bit of slap, she and I are of the view that a BB2 might meet your needs better! 😉 Particularly if you're pairing with a warm MB head.

Si - on both the above, I note that you have recommended -3dB to -6dB GR. Is that a decent "ballpark standard" GR you would look to be targeting, or were you suggesting that amount so that it becomes noticeable? One thing I've observed with my playing style is that even with threshold set pretty low, so that a fair chunk of my signal is being compressed e.g. at 2/14 on the Becos which corresponds to about a -33dB threshold, there's pretty little compression going on (0 to -4dB). So I'd need to drop the threshold a little (but not much) further to get to a -3dB to -6dB GR. For completeness I've got it set up with slow attack and fast release for a punchier overall sound and comp set at 3:1. One thing that was surprising is that using the level control on the tape saturation rather than make up gain seemed to provide a weightier / better sound, even though I'd got the saturation, itself, set to nil! Looking back at your excellent review of the Stella for some idea as to what's going on here and the level control is boosting the dry signal only. I've got the wet / dry mix on 65% wet and if I turn the Sat level up to max I need to cut the make up gain to -6dB to get a similar overall volume to the pedal in bypass. This does fattening up the tone nicely, but cutting the makeup gain in this manner, seems to me to be sidelining the compressor and pretty much enjoying the tone shaping provided by the Sat circuit! A better balance of the two would be having the make up gain at +3dB and Sat level at a little boost at 3/10 also. @Opticaleye be very interested to get your thoughts on the above too.

That's a big hike! This for £650?

My 'P's have not really been "proper" P's at all, but PJs and both have relatively slim line necks (Yamaha and Sire). It kinda feels like giving me the best of both worlds, although it's obviously missing the warmth of a neck J pup which you get on a J bass. But isn't that the thing about a "proper P" - it does one thing, but it does that thing very very well. Anyway it's a good job you and I are not pro-bass players, right, cos...

That's a great price if new. Who's selling for that?

Could it be the difference between playing solo and in a band mix? But it's great to have both in your armoury regardless - I find the differences between my basses stops any one of them going stale / feeling samey; they keep each other fresh!

It's perfect for someone who doesn't do much looping. For me it's primarily just a handy little idea jot pad, plus useful little sample recorder for sharing A/B comparisons. I think it will be nearer £45 (eg if importing via eBay).

Yup, excellent value and compact. Helix / Zoom have 30s to 60s recording time and one loop. The Lekato Pro has: 9 loops, 40 mins recording time in total, upto 10 mins on any single loop. Unlimited overdubs. Micro USB connectivity to PC to both back up and load loops. But I think it only saves in wav and not mp3 format. Really useful LED display showing: which loop, how much recording time you have left, and where in the loop you are on playback - very useful for overdub. Volume control. Oh and it has a tuner thrown in! Some decent reviews on YouTube which are understandably glowing.

@Jonathan Bee Managed to get my little Lekato looper set up and running this week which btw is a massive improvement on the Helix (and Zoom) looper! Here's a few promised clips demoing the Helix octave up, and A/B with the Digitech Mosaic, which I think you'll agree is better still. Octave up - Helix & Mosaic.zip

Yeah but you know about those two already - got them back in March just in time for the start of lockdown and we discussed on the "Gear Abstinence (haha)" thread!

Get those itches scratched Mr T! You in a band?

FWIW it's a good little AB-Y pedal and doesn't require to be powered In addition to those very neat flat patch cables, I'm just gonna leave you with the thought of a HB-50M board. Inexpensive and a really useful size (check my post a couple of pages back which illustrates).

I think that's a Mooer AB-Y pedal rather than a DI. What made you decide to dump the VTDI?

Well the £800 was on the following - quite a lot I'd happily recommend to fellow BC'ers: HB 50M board & Iso5 Pro PSU - board has atypical 17.5cm depth perfect for a Zoom B1X-4 / Zoom B1-4, and the Iso5 is a very neat, noiseless and value for money PSU. Tech 21 VT Bass DI – seems to still be the most loved of the Tech 21 pedals. It’s a great tone shaper. I’ve gushed about this plenty elsewhere! 3Leaf Proton (2020) – really easy to dial in and quality filter pedal. 3Leaf have taken all the best bits of their earlier models and packaged it neatly into this unfortunately very pricey, as with all things 3Leaf, little pedal. Fishman Fission Powerchord – one came up at a very good price and they’re pretty rare. Always been interested to see what these things did. My attempts at doing a powerchord sim on Helix (and certainly on Zoom, which can’t really handle pitch shift at all) were pretty much a mush. More recent attempts on Helix have come a lot closer using the effects in parallel. It’s a bulky pedal and won’t be making it onto a pedal board. Likely to be moved on. Lekato Loopstation Pro – the loopers on the Zoom and Helix are pants! This packs a huge amount of functionality into a tiny 1590A sized box and has taken the place of my old Boss RC-30. Was about £45 new including import costs. Highly recommended. Zoom B1-4 – significantly smaller form factor than my B1X-4, now sitting at the heart of my mini board. Again a complete bargain at £45 used. Holding onto the Zoom B1X-4 though – will be very handy headphone amp / multifx to slip into a bass gig bag. Ciocks DC7 – means I won’t need a separate PSU for my Helix – can power both the HX FX with 2 outputs / 1.3Amps leaving plenty of juice (3.3Amps over 5 outputs) for the rest of the board. Like all Ciocks gear, it comes at price.

That's a tidy haul! How are you liking the Subspace? Doesn't the Spectradrive have a built in tuner? I've just totted up - actually I've not been any more restrained than you! £800 on pedals and £1,100 on a bass and cab - although the latter two were right at the start of lock-down, when none of us knew how long our purdah was about to be and and there was a chance that they would soon be used on gigs. Haha!

Weird thing about delay, chorus, flange, phase is I find that is stuff that current multifx can do pretty well (filter and synth is still tricky stuff, and decent pitch shift a challenge at the more budget multifx end). So for the cost of a B1-4 you could have yourself an excellent delay, a headphone amp, a tuner, a drum machine and a bunch of other fx!

Sounds like I was lucky to manage to snap up my B1-4 from the FS a few weeks' back then! £1k is an impressive sum: what did ya get?!

Haha - not only will you not need another Spector (obviously avoid speaking to @Eldon Tyrelland certainly don't ever discuss these things with @cetera!) you could well find it's really an effective GAS killer when it comes to other brand basses: I've not come across a bass yet in the same price bracket I'd want to trade my Euro 5LX for! Enjoy.

If you really want to be talked out of getting another bass, then spend some time on this thread: However, if you actually don't want to be persuaded to make do and mend, this is the thread for you 😉

Very nifty. How much of your DC7 (I see it's in the FS) did it take to power your Helix and how many outputs were left over? @bassfan - same question for you, buddy. And does it slot in under your board as easily as your DC5? Pics please! PS Walshy - StubbyM and I are just jeal you've got a Noble!

May as well mention the lack of solar panel whilst you're at it?