Al Krow

Thanks for that @cetera I've got the EMG 40TW (or '40CS-TW') pups on my Euro 5LX which has both a single coil and a ceramic steel (‘CS’) dual-coil humbucker . A push/pull volume pot allows me to change from the clarity of the J pickup sound to the fatness of the CS humbucker, which is a nice set of options, although I tend to default to the single coil settings. Are TWs also considered particularly hot? I've not found them to be overly so (other than small point of the bass tone dial needing to be rolled right back to avoid blowing my windows out!)

This sounds like excellent advice! With my Tonepump on factory setting, I currently have the bass tone dial set to 1/10, although I make almost full use of the treble tone dial to go from vintage to zingy slap. But a couple of Qs if I may: I presume that this advice is geared at the higher output EMG 40s rather than models sporting the lower output EMG Hz pups? Again a bit of newbie Q but if the output from the bass is too high, any reason to not simply adjust the volume dials down? For bassists who are less than proficient at electronics like me, is adjusting the Tonepump down from 100% to 50% a pretty straightforward exercise? Any tips / hints welcome!

I think you're being unduly pessimistic. DG have established themselves as a top name in bass amplification. You don't do that in the space of a few years by being a mickey mouse outfit. Sure they will make mistakes along the way (hey who doesn't - remember that small company Apple nearly going bust? Or Sony not cutting it with Betamax?) and indeed their first gen cabs could be said to fall into that category. But it's ALWAYS great to see innovation and great design coming together, rather than folk sitting on a bye-gone era's laurels (Gibson anyone?). Bravo Doug and DG, I say.

I seem to recall that the Helix Floor came down in new price pretty sharpish within 12 months of launch. There'll no doubt be a fair few QCs coming up used in 12 months' time. Well I'm hoping that'll be the case anyway 😉

The thing that you fell off, never having been on it - also down to those terrible folk from Ashdown, I recall 😁

@dave_bass5 if you want more evidence: I started playing a couple of songs in the wrong key recently too.... won't be long before my bandmates put me out to pasture.

The noise blocker John is referring to is the Joyo ZGB. I ended up getting one but not needing in the end, so mine is lying about spare; if the OP would like it I'd be happy to send it to him (no charge).

Very nearly got me excited and thinking about falling off the GAC 2020 wagon! This is getting pretty close to a pedal board amp that I would snap up. But 140W RMS at 4ohms => 100W at 8 ohms won't quite cut it for me, sadly. [INCORRECT - PLEASE SEE UPDATE BELOW] But, seriously, bravo to Ashdown Engineering! If they can get to 200W (ideally 300W) at 4ohms they will have cracked it IMO i.e. TE ELF power territory, but in a package ant sized. [IT CAN!!] I'm guessing that efficient heat dissipation is the engineering limitation to this nirvana.

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What did you settle on in the end?

You're on. Deferred challenge till Jan 12th 2021 accepted! We could maybe start a 'penitents' list'. 😁

That's gotta be the most spectacular falling off the wagon in 12 days...ever! You really are shi*te at this particular game aren't you, Dave? 😄

@Maude just to confirm, you weren't part of the challenge but failed it anyway? Are you maybe getting the thinking behind this thread confused with a NBD thread? Easily done, I guess. 😁

98% of the first batch of 1,000 already sold within 48 hours of launch! => They can invest with confidence in some really good sim software, which is only going to result in additional sales. Wow - this thing really is going to take off!

The tort, for me, seems to work better with the indigo blue rather then brown burst, but I can't really talk given the complete absence of a PG on either of my Yammys!

I think I prefer it as it currently is, although a variation of that cream could work well too!

Yup, when a multifx nails an OC2 and an FI, the game will have changed.

Helix is a step up from Zoom, though, and processing power IMO plays a big factor in the realism of the sims and how almost indistinguishable from dedicated pedals they become. For me - if this nails synth and octave up with no latency, then we will be getting close to a multifx that does everything. If it doesn't, my much(!) cheaper Helix won't be making way. I do love the UI on this as per bjelkeman's YouTube clip above - that really is a killer feature in making this very usable.

Cool! Let me add @PJ-Bassist, @Wolverinebass and @CamdenRob to BCers in London I can immediately think of (and I'm guessing it's CR's manor anyway :)) Right...best go gig myself!

Hopefully @Osiris will be along shortly... he had a Zoom B3 for many years and was a fan of a number of the comp sims on that pedal. He's also one of the more experienced comp users I've come across on my journeys so, fingers crossed, a good combination!

12 March is a Thursday, right, KT? Well no gigs in the diary for then currently, so would love to pop along to see you guys that night. Free entry or tickets on the door? @dave_bass5, @christhammer666, @Reggaebass, @mangotango, @jrixn1 and any other London / neighbourhood BC'ers who fancy making a night out of it please drop me a line and we can get this organised.

But not everyone uses headphones when playing at home.

@King Tut - disagree, the bass sounds just great through a decent pair of headphones The whole mix is very well balanced - what was the sound recorded through? And frankly you guys are great - would love to see you play live next time you're playing in London and my lot are not!

Please, please don't give me any more excuses not to change my old bass strings 😁 Btw if Jamerson's playing could in any way be associated with a 'dead / lifeless' tone then I suspect we all need to give up right now!

I was guessing earlier in this thread that the step up in processing power from the Stomp to the QC would be equivalent to going from a Zoom MS-60B to a Stomp. That's actually not going to be far off: Doug from DG has confirmed that the QC has "twice the CPU of a Helix Floor/Rack/Fractal AX8/FM3" in a Helix HX sized package. In other words 4x the processing power of the Stomp. Add in touch screen UI, profiling like AxeFx, Kemper and live usability of 10 stomp switches and there's a LOT to like about this! It's going to be one to keep an eye out for as will NAMM 2021 when the competition, whom I suspect will have been a little blindsided by this, will have had time to react. Never been a better time to be into multifx - amazing just how much mulits have developed over just the past 3 years since the launch of the Zoom B3n and Helix was still in development in Line6's labs.