Al Krow

Brilliant - thanks! I thought I detected a touch of Ampeg / Sansamp + P Bass. @dannybuoy has just got himself a Leeds and is also raving about it, having persuaded me to get a VT Bass DI beforehand - lol! (No regrets btw - the VTDI is an excellent pedal!). You guys mainly do original material? And gig in and around London? If so, be great to come and see you in action post lock down!

Completely agree that an overly polite filter kinda defeats the point! As you note, it does seem to be a completely updated circuit. From the 3Leaf blurb: "The Proton is an optically controlled analog envelope filter. The circuit has been completely redesigned to offer better tone and a more musical response. It has a new detector circuit based on the one in the Chromatron, and the familiar control layout has a greatly expanded range that can get the classic 1970s filter sounds and well beyond. The new range switch allows for much deeper filter sweeps, and the reworked tone knob covers every soundscape from cocked wah to laser beams." Must admit I thought it sounded great on Zach's review.

Interesting - I've had the same issue.

Just picking up on your filter setting query earlier. I suspect we'd all agree that it's often helpful to have a good example of the sound we're after from a dedicated pedal to A/B, when we're trying to come up with an emulation on the Helix or other multifx. I came across this excellent review by Zach Riser on the recently released 3Leaf Proton v3 (2020) envelope filter earlier today (partly 'cos there's one in the FS right now!). Along the way he provides one of the better explanations of how each of the filter dials impact the filter tone. The review also gives a good example of [octave down + fuzz + filter] = synth (at 12.38 in his review), as an alternative to using a purely synth setting on the Helix.

3Leaf Proton (2020 release). Just seen this review by Zach Rizer. Looks good! Has both down up and down sweeps and also a new range switch allows for much deeper filter sweeps (07.35 on Zach's review). There's one in the FS right now for a reasonable price - I reckon they're probably going to be around £300 new in the UK inc. shipping and taxes, which is hefty chunk of change.

Well it's been put together by the bassplayer magazine team. I'm guessing they will have a fair few bassists rather than geetariats on their payroll. And, frankly, I would be very impressed if most of the guitarists I know would be able to come up with a quarter of the bass players on that list!

Er hmmm...I think you must be on the wrong thread? All that being a rock god is clearly resulting in confusion.

Oh to be a rock god like you 😁

Tbf I didn't spot this first time around!

When you get to our stage in life, Woody, we need all the help we can get, right? Somewhat surprised, given these advantages, that you are even considering letting yours go 😁

Be interested to get @GisserD's thoughts on the Helix filter patches and whether this one, in particular, is any good as he's a bit of an expert filter fanboi and has been through a lot of the top filters in his day. Wonder how well this stacks up against his favourite, the MXR BEF or indeed mine - the 3Leaf GR2, I'll see if I can feed back when I've had a chance to audition. Higgie - what setting have you got your on? That would be good starting point!

From bassplayer magazine. Thought this looked really interesting, particularly with the included clip from each - I'm going to be enjoying working through the list during lock down. Here's the link in case of interest to anyone else: https://www.guitarworld.com/features/the-100-best-bass-players-of-all-time Have they missed anyone off the list that you would include?

Jay - great track and very professionally put together.

+1 ^^ @rze99 - great bass tone. What was your full signal chain to deliver - in particular any pedals / preamps?

Cheers, I'll be checking that one out too later!

Was rummaging and came across these pearls of wisdom from over a decade ago which, for me, is still very much on point!

The SR16 /18 are soooo cumbersome to properly bespoke programme though. It takes 20 seconds to do something on the RD-8 that would literally take several mins on my old Alesis SR18. That adds up timewise and becomes a barrier to wanting to get any creative stuff done. So you end up just using the preset rhythms.

Haha - @Woodinblack wagered I would be selling mine in time for him to pick up used, that was back last July. He's got a new one!

My apologies for causing you (and possibly also Mr bassfan) additional expense! But, I have to say, as a pedal the SY-1 is a huge amount of fun and insanely tweakable - fortunately setting both filters on noon is a great starting place...anyway this is definitely moving off topic! ...back to Helix 😉

Look forward to hearing what you guys think about it when you've had a chance to put it through its paces and whether it manages to track at speed without glitching, which for me is the key for live use. I'm catered for on the synth front with my Boss SY-1, so won't need to faff about with Helix for that particular fx. Nice little SY-1 review posted earlier today from a fellow BCer.

And risk him or her nicking our bass lines. No way! But fair point - the most authentic bass synth is still done by a...synth.

+1 ^^ Been a Smoothhound user for 3 years now. Liked them so much I've ended up with two: one for each of my pedal boards. And to my surprise they've actually outlasted just about everything else on those boards! Chris has been fantastic whenever I've needed any assistance.

Congrats Lozz - she's an absolute beaut. Can someone please tell Fender to make a 5 string version of this?

Boss SY-1 for you matey. Dial in a couple of good synth sounds without ever needing to hook up to a PC, set and forget. Tracks without glitching like a deer hunter. Job done. Sadly Helix doesn't have the ability to generate a sine, sawtooth or square wave so it's going to struggle on the synth front. The only multifx in the Helix price range that has proper synth ability is the full fat Mooer GE300. The cut down GE300 Lite, announced at NAMM this year, which is Helix HX Effects in size, has lost both the expression pedal and the synth engine.

Congrats! What a great first 5 string you've landed!