Al Krow

Exactly what I was thinking too! Ant + Helix HX Effects would be a great combo, and the Ant addresses the lack of DI out on the HX Effects. Hence my cheeky attempt to see if I could twist Ashdown's arms to do a version that incorporated isolated pedal PSU outputs on one side. Appreciate that's likely to be a just a 'wish list' item for the Ant for a while...

Seems those of us who prefer Nords, definitely prefer Nords 😉 Must admit I've been pleasantly surprised by the Barts Mk1 on my GVB36 and goes against all my accumulated Nords bias - did they not cut it for you Woody when you had your GVB36?

Well err no. Doh. Who on earth uses a "traditional comp" with comp setting > 20:1 ratio? Or sets the threshold to a high enough level that it only effects volume spikes?

How do you rate the Geezer Butler PJs as compared to the Yammy PJs in your P34?

@ Mods - maybe worth merging this parallel thread?

The Yammy BB is outstanding for the money, no question, so not surprised you're finding it a hard bass to compete with. The PJ EMG GBs do sound awesome - I'd love to hear what they sound like in action. Any clips of you playing? @burno70 & @Frank Blank - come on boys, let's get some pics up that we can drool over (again!)

A limiter rather than a "traditional" compressor is maybe what you need to tame the pops / protect your speakers. Keeley Bassist or CompIQ Stella are two compressors which can deliver a high (i.e. >20:1) compression ratio and also have a threshold knob to dictate the volume level when the comp kicks; so these can also double up as excellent limiters. They are both quality bits of kit (I had the Keeley and still have the CompIQ) but they don't unfortunately come cheap. What's nice about using a compressor in limiter mode is that your playing dynamics are not impacted at all below the threshold level, and there should be no impact on your tone if the compressor is transparent - which both the Keeley and CompIQ very much are, although it's clearly the case that many BC'ers do prefer the effect on their sound of having a pedal board compressor in their signal chain.

+1^^ Conclusion I came to also when I A/Bd the various limiter pedals. It's not the cheapest option, however, by any means.

A comparison of the effectiveness of several popular models, I did a while back, which may be of interest:

Just connecting the dots...parallel thread dealing with slap and compression.

I'd best stay well clear of this thread otherwise it's only going to end in tears 😂 PS please tell me what the answer is when you have one!

Welcome to the dark side 😁

@Ashdown Engineering - have just given the Ant a little plug on TB over in the US. One of the bassists there came up with the really cool suggestion (again perhaps for a "Deluxe" model): provide isolated power outlets for other pedals. If you're managing to save us cost and space by avoiding the need for a separate PSU (which can easily cost £100+) then the Ant suddenly becomes an even more compelling proposition. Dunno if the engineering involved and space requirements would make providing isolated power outputs for other pedals a non starter for the Ant? If it's a possibility then there are very few multi output PSUs which can deliver the circa 2A required to power a Helix, but this should have oodles of power to spare, and potentially mean just one power lead to power an Ant laden pedal board.

PS the bar on cab weight if you can get there would be a Barefaced SC or SM which are around the 21 / 23 lbs mark. (They're both only available as 8 ohm cabs).

Great stuff! I'm guessing that if the Ant is already in manufacturing, it's way too late to add an aux in at this stage to make it a standalone headphone amp for the silent practice you refer to on your webpage? Maybe something additional for the de-luxe version then? That absolutely would make it a no-brainer for me

Tell me about it! Already imagining the day this can slot into my bass gig bag, with a lightweight 4 ohm cab in one hand! Right...now to find that lightweight 4 ohm cab... ...found one 😁 Eich 112XS-4 : 27 lbs & 300W RMS at 4 ohm If anyone knows of a lighter equally capable 4 ohm cab, please shout.

Perfect - thanks guys! Can I maybe suggest you consider amending your website page to either delete reference to 'max power = 200W' altogether or replace it with a peak power of 265W to avoid confusion on this point? I very much look forward to getting one of these - very well done for cracking the power / size ratio in making a truly usable pedal board bass amp, the very first on the planet that I'm aware of(!), which could also double up as a very useful headphone amp if only it had an aux in - any chance of adding this before release @Ashdown Engineering? Speaking of which, do you have a release date?

Haha - very true! Very probably 😉 Join @bassfan's 2020 gear abstinence challenge and make a start on your journey of zen and the art of playing bass 😁

I'd get both the amp and the cab used and get quality for both! And if the OP buys used and decides it's not for him he hopefully shouldn't make much of a loss if he decides to move it on.

Yup they seem to have updated their website to refer to 'continuous' rather than RMS and have changed the numbers from 140W RMS to 196W continuous at 4 ohms @Ashdown Engineering is your rather tasty new piece of kit delivering 196W RMS at 4 ohms? If it is, colour me interested! If not, what are you meaning by 'continuous'? Also when you refer to 'max' power of 200W is this also at 4 ohms and is 'max' = 'peak' power in standard speak? If the peak power is 200W at 4 ohms, the ratio between RMS (if that is 196W at 4 ohms) and peak seems to be out of kilter.

Yup that makes sense. But in which case their claim to unlimited effects patches is pure hyperbole. I'm already out!

Gotta disagree in terms of spending most of your budget on an amp: IMO a quality cab is at least as important to a great bass sound as the amp head. So don't skimp on the cab if you're going down the separates route! The Fender Rumble 500 and MB AC 121 Lite are two much loved combos, and you won't go too far wrong with either, if you decide to stick to Plan A.

If you're after warm, clean and oodles of power, then you could do far worse than this. Get yourself a padded cover made up (if the seller doesn't have one already) and you'll be good to go! Arguably one of the best combos out there - I had one as my goto gigging combo for 4 years and it never broke into a sweat. I've actually since replaced with separates, as per some of the comments above, but the combined (used) cost of my rig is double this excellent combo's second hand price.

Well they won't be doing that again in a hurry then!