Al Krow

Or whether you're using a compressor or...or...I know, I know! With that comment you're definitely pushing at an open... It's just that on those two particular songs, that bass tone is lush (and I appreciate more likely to be a synth than an actual bass?) But I wouldn't mind being able to nail it on an actual bass with gear available to us. @krispn I'm not averse to taking my HX Effects out on the road if there was particular reason for doing so - my only hesitation is the amount of gear I'm already responsible for, so it literally is about minimising hassle factor for me. I'm entirely sympathetic to the likes of @dave_bass5 who's similarly looking for cutting down load despite having some quality gear back at the ranch. Suspect we're not unique in this - it's a key reason I use a BF SC for rehearsals and gigs rather than take my significantly better Fearless F112 which weighs pretty much double. But back to the plot: dunno if anyone has managed to come close to nailing the Charlie Puth / Dia Lupa bass tones? If so, please shout! ** except it's always not entirely true - P pup on my Yammy 5er entirely failed to cut through the mix on the low notes recently at a rehearsal; whereas the Nord bridge J on my Ibby did so effortlessly at the subsequent gig. Maybe need a change of strings on the Yammy, but the point here is that the band (in particular our drummer) very much noticed the positive difference and thought I'd been using a pedal to achieve it. Nope - it was just a change of bass, pup and pup position.

Any clips of you playing either track?

There's a tonal similarity (to my ears anyway!) of the bass line (048s in on Attention,, 011s in on Don't Start Now) on both these tracks and I particularly like them 'cos the bass is key to both. What fx would folk suggest to nail that bass tone?

Thanks - the 12Ax7 is definitely decent (have one in my Mesa M6 pre). But is a valve pre actually going to do much at 9V?

Decent feature set - like the fact that this provides DI out, MB's classic VPF (mid scoop e.g. for slap) and VLE (treble roll off for vintage Motown) Tube and solid state drive with ability to blend sounds good. Also really like the fact it has aux in and headphone out. Anyone know what tube it's featuring and whether any good? Never really convinced that a tube pre running off a 9V power supply is going to be anything other than a bit of a gimmick. Only (but major) gripe is that the amp, on which this pedal is based, still features the older less-than-stellar centre frequencies e.g. nothing in the important low mids of 250Hz and the high would be much better at around 5 kHz; which they have sorted on their other new amp head ranges. Centre Frequencies: Low: 68 Hz; Low Mid: 400 Hz High Mid: 2200 Hz High: 10 Khz Review would have been improved if she hadn't kept thrusting her Thomann mic in front of the pedal - lol!

I take your point Woody about doing computer editing on a computer screen: that's the approach taken by a significant proportion of Helix users - me included. But that's partly because it's relatively painful for luddites like me to edit 'on pedal' although I know there's a whole bunch of fellow BC'ers who do so happily. I suspect touch screen editing would, nevertheless, still benefit them as well as encouraging a few of us computer editors to make more of editing 'on pedal' The only model that doesn't lend itself easily to a touchscreen upgrade is the 'entry level' model HX Effects which just has scribble strips; so I guess I can stop concerning myself with the possibility for my own model for a while yet. But if I was to make a prediction for the rest of the range for late 2020 early 2021, I'd a give touch screen UI a pretty high likelihood, especially now that Zoom are bringing this in. Just my tuppence worth of crystal ball gazing!

Editing. See the Neural Quad Cortex thread to see what a significantly better UI it provides.

Zoom have just released a touch screen interface (see G11 thread). The new DG / Neural DSP Quad Cortex similarly boasts one. Be interesting to see how long Helix can resist providing something similar on their line up.

+1 for the Legend. I got a used one of the Legend Custom range from off here, which I believe was an older top end Legend with set neck and 3 band EQ. Lasted literally about a month before I had to concede I was liking it rather more than I was expecting to and if that was true for the Legend what was a Euro LX going to be like? Not a helpful question to be asking, particularly when Andertons (their pic below) promptly put a 5LX on sale and knocked a chunk off the new price... sometimes resistance is futile, eh?😁

Very nice! I see that we share a similar taste in basses AND wood flooring 😁

Been giving the whole string spacing a bit more thought. @Wilco agree that perseverance may be the order of the day - kinda feeling a fair bit of this may be "all in the mind" particularly if 16.5 mm is comfortable in the first place. What's done it for me is checking and finding that my Spector is 17.0 mm i.e. also narrow but also comfortable to play as are the 18.0 mm on my Yammys and KS. So I think it's going to just be a case of making a mental adjustment and warming up beforehand to re-familiarise the muscle memory. I guess particularly so should I ever venture down the fan fret route. Looks like my SR 1825 is going to survive in the Krow herd for a while yet.

@White Cloud - that's a very positive review, but I guess I'm not surprised: kinda had a very similar reaction following getting my own first Spector Euro LX (a 5er in my case) and it's a had a somewhat unexpected deflationary effect on my bass GAS! Must get around to turning my Tonepump down, soon, too! Congrats on the new acquisition - pics please!

@Raslee - had a quick listen to the video Woody has posted but couldn't see anything mentioned about the weight? My Ibby SR1825 is 8.6lbs. Lose the headstock and tuners and add in the benefit of the chambered body and I'm guessing this new range will be 7.5lbs or possibly less.

When you say subtle mid range, are you saying lacking mid punch? Meaty mids would be high on my list for any amp head.

Haha - not particularly harder to slap an E string on a 5 string bass than the A string on a normal 4.

Plug for a freebie lesson Mark has recently posted:

Just started working through Mark from Talking Bass's slap course** I must admit to being a big fan of Mark and glad I've found an excuse to sign up to one of his courses rather than just taking advantage of his (excellent) free tuition. We've all gotta put food on the table at the end of the day - don't we? I've found that setting up works well: 1) use the bridge rather than the neck pup The bridge pup is generally going to be better at picking up the overtones and also has the advantage of being further away from where the strings are being slapped so less likely to clip your amp / overload your speakers than when using the neck pup. 2) dial the treble up on either the bass and / or amp Slap bass very much relies on higher frequency zing. Quite a lot of 'advice' seems to also suggest cutting / scooping the mids for a classic slap bass tone. I've not found that necessary to get the slap zing but I guess it provides a different tonal colour and you go with what you like. In my case, I'm holding on to the desire to continue to cut through the mix by not losing the mix but maybe a wrong headed approach? Those of you far more experienced in this arena than me (which will be just about anyone proficient at slap!) - does that tie in with what you guys are doing in terms of setting up? **the sort of pointless stuff you find time for when you join @bassfan's 2020 GAC so that you can no longer spend many productive and happy hours drooling over the latest bit of gear that's going to deliver that tiny nirvana difference to your tone that you're never going to hear wearing ear plugs when playing live and no one in the audience will notice or care about 😉

Jackson have just launched their X Series Spectra Bass SBX range. Pic of the 5'er below. This ticks a LOT of boxes for me: Dual passive medium-output humbucking pickups Two-way toggle switch for pickup coil splitting 3-band active EQ, blend control and volume control with push/pull selector for passive mode 35”scale HiMass™ hardtail bridge Neck through Graphite-reinforcement rods flanking the truss rod provide even more neck stability Expecting it to be around £600 to £650 in the UK. Seems to me that they are going toe to toe with the Yamaha TRBX range and throwing a few additional goodies into the pot. I've been very tempted to get a Yammy TRBX 605, but this looks like it could give the Yammy a very good run for the money.

Only if you're partial to a bit of rum. Oh.... and don't forget your hat.

I mean, fair enough you sign up to give it a go and then you crash and burn (as we will all inevitably do by year end other than the trainee monks amongst us), seems entirely reasonable to show the offending piece of kit that caused you to stumble. But not participating in the thread in the first place and then telling us struggling mortals who have signed up (we had another fallen brother just today, also a 'Dave', I guess there's a certain weakness to being a 'Dave') about your recent amazing bit of new gear, well what sort of kind and caring person does that, eh, eh? 😁

Yeah, just not on this thread please 😂 For the avoidance of doubt this is NOT a NBD thread for folk who have a weird understanding of the word 'abstinence' 😁😁

So have you hit "buy" then or are you still with us for just another day... 😪

Awww mate, half a bottle of rum and the best you could come up with is a mini amp head that you're never going to be able to gig with your full band?! ** Can I recommend you seek solace in the other half and hope you come up with something better? 😁

Be really interesting if this same mod could be done to the OC2's arguably closest pedal clone, the Valeton OC-10. If so, I'd be very tempted to get another one to replace the one I moved on!