Al Krow

So the Alto 312s simply wouldn't cut it?

That's very interesting and somewhat goes against the FRFR 'orthodoxy' that has been set out over a volume of posts! I'm guessing you've experienced 745As in the flesh and found them lacking in comparison? What subs are you guys using?

Just bought a pedal from Willem. Good comms, well packaged / everything as described and very smooth transaction. Really happy to recommend. Cheers, Bas

My, that's a tasty rig! Congrats! And of course you've now got me delving (aka gassing!) into this particular cab - 😂 Spec looks awesome - does this thing really have usable frequency range that goes down to 25Hz?! If so, I can forget about ever needing a sub-woofer! And there's reference to either 8ohm or 2ohm, are these both available on the same model?

We currently use RCF 310As mainly for vocals and acoustic guitar, but the drummers in a couple of my bands have started to mic their kick drums up and putting through the PA. Been thinking about whether we should be adding a sub for the kick drum and maybe to put the bass through also? The arrival of the new Alto 31Xs series (pic is of the 312s) for under £350 makes this a much more affordable option and at 55 lbs, whilst not featherweight, should be manageable weight wise. What are you guys currently doing? If you're using a sub or finding you're managing without it would be great to hear details of your set up.

Does look neat. Guessing they're aiming this mainly at the 6 string guitar market, but a little bit of bass at 0.38 and 3.40

Ibanez SR 655E 3 band EQ with variable mid selector and even has the reverse P-pups. Active / Passive. Nord pups. I do prefer the Natural to the ABS finish, but ABS seems to be the more common one in stock.

Nope not gigged yet. Yup I've used the Mk 1 B3K with my PJ often. Most recently at the gig posted on the Gig thread. Funny story is that I accidentally kicked the drive on for the first few songs of the second set and it was about 4 songs in before I noticed (ear plugs, rest of the band mix etc.) and, of course, no one else had the least inkling. Made me laugh and didn't help my ongoing prejudice about the fuss we all make about our live bass tone which no one really notices that much (provided it's not crap) vs just needing to better bass players and playing with flair / groove, which they certainly do notice.

And yet they will pay a small fortune for a Wal? 😁

Just lovely. Your first venture into Spector-land or a return to the fold? A bit more detail on model / year please!

My only (and big!) reservation with the versatile and amazing value for money Zoom multifx is that their drive sims seem to suck out the low end, certainly for me.

I've just checked the FS, you're right they've not been coming up that often - just 2 listed this year and went for £75 to £90 posted. Folk are obviously holding on to theirs (and I know one of the two sellers who sold his AS has since replaced it and sold his HX Stomp instead!). If you put an ad up in the "Items Wanted" section you may flush one out.

Haha - I managed to avoid mentioning 5 string! So yup you get to keep your Streamer.

Thing is you tend to put together all the little bits that you think would be just great e.g. for me PJ with reverse P pup Meaty / growly pups 3 band EQ with active / passive pull switch Parametric mid sweep (a la BBNE2) Neck through Great finish A couple of mainstream basses get very close, but not quite found one that ticks all the boxes. In my head all the individual bits makes sense and it will probably look great. But it's a one-off frankensteinette-bass which won't have gone through endless production run refinements and testing. How the heck do you know it's going to sound great? Is there a reason why no-one's making it in the first place? Etc? Etc? I still can't get over the look of disappointment on a fellow BC'ers face when I'd driven 90 mins to try his almost new custom ordered bass. It was actually a mainstream brand made bespoke with options so less chance for things to go wrong. It had all the bells and whistles you'd expect on a £4k bass and it was going for just over half price. But as much as I tried to like it, it was just too hi-fi for me and I walked away empty handed. He did manage to sell it shortly after so all's (kinda) well that ends. However it had been a matter of just a few months after getting it that he'd had that gut-churning realisation that he'e parted with £4k on a bass that wasn't for him and there were then no takers for it at £3.5k...£3.25k...£3k...£2.75k... £2.5k...£2.25k.... And I know it's not all about the money, but that whole experience would surely still have hurt?

TC Mojomojo at the budget end. Or if you want everything under one bonnet from mild OD to full fat fuzz, with great retention of low end, pick up a used SA Aftershock for around £90 Actually both pedals retain low end well and added to in the case of the AS by providing a clean blend. Job done 😉

Yup, that's where I've landed also with synths: allowing them to work on the cleanest input signal possible, i.e. at the start of the chain, seems to be optimal. I've ended up putting drive and bitcrush into my Boss SY-1's loop (our FIs unfortunately don't have that option) and left the Stomp at the end of the chain where it can also double up as the DI (as mentioned above). @Rik (ESA) Lots of decent PSUs to go for. Very much recommend you go for isolated outputs if you can to minimise the risk of pedal hum. I've ended up with an MXR IsoBrick which puts out 2.7Amps through 10 isolated outputs. This powers everything on my main board apart from my Stomp which I'm just using it's own PSU for. I have a Truetone OneSpot CS6 for my smaller board. If you can find something that fits snugly under your board, all the better as this will leave more space for your pedals on top! The OneSpot CS6 and Ciocks DC5 are great for the smaller flat boards; you have more PSU options with the larger angled boards.

Custom builds clearly crop up as one of a bass player's bigger lotteries, without the ability to "try before you buy". Our collective experience seems to range from expensive disappointment to massive delight. No idea what proportions fall into which camp though!

Haha! Clearly I'm a nobody then 😁

That's interesting. So what level is the DI out set at? I assume you still have the ability to upset the sound man / keep a bit of control by using the volume control on the bass or on any of your pedals if you're using the DI pre out and also the Gain on the DG preamp if you're using the DI post out. So it's just literally the Master volume that is completely post DI.

NAD - DG AO900 arrived safely in the post and seems to be working just fine. It's a used one I picked up in the FS for a good price but alas comes without the footswitch! Had a few BC'ers been asking how the new models stack up against the (now discontinued) v1s. I'd say it's a significant evolution rather than a revolution. In particular: The power module delivering 900 very clean watts at 4 ohms and 2 ohms is still the same. The Series 2 models both sport the same clean lines of design and general form factor / size. Key difference between the AO, and the M900 Mk2 and Mk1 AO drive vs B3K and VMT (on both the M900 Mk2 and Mk1) The AO drive follows the feature set available on the Alpha Omicron, including 'bite' and 'growl' switches and the ability to blend the Alpha and Omega drives. The B3K and VMT are independent with no possibility of blending. A consequential impact is that the AO900 can manage just fine with the 'intelligent' footswitch and doesn't need the 'super intelligent' footswitch to fully unlock the amp's features when using a footswitch. So whether the AO is the right one for you should very much be driven (excuse the pun!) by which drive engine you prefer. If you're not into DG drives at all but you just want the excellent 900W clean and flexible EQ that's available from the power module then maybe it might make more sense to pick up a used Mk1. However, this key difference aside, the AO900 and the M900 Mk2 have a lot of the new features in common. The following are all available on the both the AO900 and the M900 Mk2, and are the 'evolution' over the Mk1: Improvements that are 'nice to haves' 6 band EQ vs 4 band, but the 4 band on the Mk1 comes with semi para for both low and high mids. Tied in with 2, sliders rather than dials provides a neater layout, allowing space for the additional two EQ bands. Sliders should also be less prone to being knocked off desired settings accidentally. Aux in and headphone out. The latter has its own vol control which is a nice touch and a choice of 3 cab sims. Built in compressor (apparently based on the Hyperluminal circuit but tbc). Other new features (will likely be less relevant to me in the short term, but maybe the opposite for others) Two cab outputs so no need to daisy chain cabs Both pre and post DI outputs available simultaneously IRs can be loaded USB and midi connectivity I'll shortly be putting my Mk1 up for sale, but in the meantime I've got them set up to A/B and I'll be particularly focusing on the difference between the AO drive vs the B3K/VMT and the 6 band EQ vs 4 band with para mids. Will report back when I've done so.

Really about time you got yourself one of these then 😁