Al Krow

Nope - it's higher end than that. The BBP34 is the slightly downgraded successor version of the BB2024 - both are the premium passive models in their respective ranges. There's other predecessor models that get raved about even more...as hundreds of pages on the Yamaha thread is testimony to! But in a nutshell: The BB1024 is IMO one of the very best passive PJ's around, certainly at its used price point. The P34 is a little more refined but considerably more pricey. I've had the 5 string versions of them both (bought used). The P35 edged it just tonally for me, but was a little too heavy for my liking. So it was outlasted by my 1025. Which in tuirn found itself somewhat side-lined by the arrival of an Elrick Evo5, which is a ridiculously good bass and which I was fortunate to be able to pick up for a good price from a fellow BC'er and pretty quickly fell in love with it.

I was less impressed with the Drop; it didn't really cut the mustard for me - not noticeably better than my Zoom B1-4 which is a cheap-as-chips multifx, but obviously does a lot else besides. YMMV!

Somebody told me - the Killers is a decent workout. I'm currently cheating by playing the intro riff an octave down from the original until I've got it comfortably tight. May need to enlist the assistance of my Digitech Mosaic octave up if that becomes a permanent way of doing it!

+1 ^^ But 5 banks of 10 patches, right?

Yup, that's fair! Worth just checking the manual to give yourself an idea of what the Zoom wah is going to bring to the party. I had the X version briefly but didn't feel the wah pedal did that much extra and I quite like having a separate wah for use with other pedals - the Zoom wah will only be available for the Zoom multi, but maybe that's all you want to use it for? And tbf I'm not sure that the standard B1-4 pedal can be used with a separate wah anyway.

Bear in mind that the B1-4X is not going to save you any space on your pedal board though compared to a B3 😉

You have 5 banks of 10 patches available to you. So you can set them up as you please and in the order you want. You can select a bank via a push switch and then paddle up down through that bank. I've personally not gone down the individual effects within a patch route with the B1-4. I tend to have a preamp setting with added presence as my default, and then have my most commonly used patches - which I've set up and edited myself using the super useful Tonelib (free) software with whatever effects are appropriate (Xotic BB, Z-Synth, Motown, Volume boost etc) in the first bank. I probably end up using no more than two or three at most during a gig.

A good half way house (and including an excellent LED tuner for dark stages), is the Zoom B1-4. It has a significantly bigger feature set than the MS-60B and is amazingly good value for what it does. Recommend checking out.

Sorry my bad! I was indeed meaning @cetera!

I'll have to fess I've not had a Stingray - I guess my Sandberg TM4 was the closest with its J/MM set up. A Spector is definitely an acquired taste and not everyone's cup of tea. Many BC'ers swear by them and @casapete has more than one for every week of the year! I've always loved the sound but found it uncomfortable to wear, at least for my first 4 years of ownership - so much so I had it up for sale at a couple of points but fortunately only received "offers that I could refuse", haha. So glad that was the case, as another £100 and it would have been gone...A change of strap to a wider and slightly shortened Minataur strap and it all fell in place. It's the only bass in my herd that both turns my bandmates heads and gets nods of approval for its tone (maybe the two are subconsciously related, haha). I should probably add that both EMG pups give the option of single / dual coil, so you have 4 pup combinations to mix and match which gives a really good tonal palette range. I'm currently being somewhat partial to full-fat dual coil neck pup dialled back a touch, in combination with a maxed out single coil bridge pup.

Depends on the sound you're after - not sure what you currently have in your head?! Based purely on my own journey/experience when I moved on from my Sanderg TM4 (for the same pup reasons as @TRBboy mentioned, in my case Delanos): If you want more of a growl, then I'd happily recommend an Ibanez SR premium range - light, super fast neck, very decent on board EQ Closer to a Sandberg VM4, then a used Yamaha BB 1024 won't break the bank and is a classy, purely passive, bass. Something spectacularly good but not cheap - Spector Euro LX with EMG pick-ups or more off the beaten track Elrick. YMMV Have fun!

I think your best bet would be to try them both out, not least because the Sandbergs tend to be active/passive whereas the BBs (a few notable exceptions aside) are pretty much all purely passive. They are two bass brands with strong/devoted followings. My first "serious" bass was a Sandberg TM4 which I played and gigged for about 4 years but, like you, it was the Delano pups on the Sandberg that I found a little too tame for my liking and I personally prefer the Yamaha BB series that I've had to it, and the BBP35 was a really excellent bass - really lovely tone. Weight can be an issue with it though, although it does vary and I've seen ones coming in at sub 10 lbs. I am gobsmacked by the list price of the vintage white model though!

Bought a filter pedal off Paddy. In great condition as described, well packaged and fast delivery: very smooth transaction and a pleasure to find out what a great bass player and band he's in!

The Behringer B105D (50W) / B205D (150W) models could be just the ticket? Have had good experience with the B205D with my bands. Decent value for money too.

Maybe Steve Harris didn't request a headphone option that works well as a specific feature? 😅 Sorry - couldn't resist!

A Theramin in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing. Super impressive!

Think I've "lost" my GT 1000 Core...😅 Lent it to a new guitarist who's joining a second line-up of my covers band so he had a decent multi. He's taken to it like a duck to water! Some great tones and he and another guitarist we work with, who has the GT 1000, don't seem to have to fight an inherent harshness of the Helix Stomp / Pod-Go which a couple of other guitarists we work with have had to figure a way around - one gave up and traded in his Pod-Go for a Kemper which he's always wanted, tbf the other one's getting there with his Helix XL.

Agreed! One suggestion: would have been really helpful for live use if the filth button and, especially, the dirt button had been stomp switches, so they could be easily foot stomped on / off when needed for parts of songs. Not sure how tricky that would have been to incorporate@Tech21NYC? If that had been available, I would have been sorely tempted to part with the list price for it!

So literally half (23 so far and I'm as guilty as anyone, haha!) posts on this thread about the non UK PSU. And just two on whether it's actually a decent bit of kit and potentially usable live? 😂 Thanks to @Woodinblackat least for a decent review.

Yes let's not get political. However let's please get the economics right. The current cost of living crisis is primarily down to two things: 1. Covid - governments around the planet printed vast amounts of "free" money (and gave it a fancy name: "quantitative easing") whilst locking down the economy. Inflation is pay back for that. The alternative would have been the mother of all depressions. 2. Putin's invasion of Ukraine and its impact on energy costs, which feeds into all costs of production.

Very true! The one surprise to me came at a recent corporate gig with a younger audience than we're normally in front of (mostly 21 to 23 y/o's). I was concerned how relevant our set list was going to be for them, but they really seemed to love it and I was actually a bit shocked that the song requests from the floor, given their ages, was for more Blondie, ABBA and Queen! And they seemed to know all the words as well as we did! LA Mixtrax (@lamixtrax) • Instagram photos and videos Maybe we, and the great tunes of the 60s to '00s, aren't quite as obsolete as we might be fearing just yet?

Nice review:

Similar experience for me. The Boss is a first rate bit of kit in terms of lack of any distortion/clean sound but the drop outs live were becoming unsustainable and I similarly switched to a 5.8 GHz set up on bass. I went for the Nux which are more expensive than the budget Lekato, as the latter was distorting a little with my active basses. Been very happy with the Nux since in terms of both range and lack of drop outs. But this is using the Nux as a wireless purely for bass rather than IEMs so not sure if relevant to this particular discussion - apologies if it's not.

"It's gonna be free practice for us tonight...super quiet"... Lead Singer Well it was the start of "dry" Jan, but that's maybe going to be the worst prediction of 2024 already in the bag! Was a huge amount of fun!