Al Krow

Wait, so you got a bass with 3 knobs and one pup and he got a bass with 2 pups, 5 knobs AND some cash whilst leaving you thinking he's a bloody great bloke? 😁

I do completely rate him, if I'm being honest. He's one of my all time hero bass players. Clearly could have done with a decent accountant, though from what you've just said! How the hell do you go bust with all the royalties of being an ex WHO band member?!

Well at least his bank details are now a matter of public record if you fancy scamming him.

Haha, Paul, did you just manage to: a) choose three items that are your sole favourite? b) not post pics of any?! Come on buddy, you know which bass of mine didn't make it to the top of the tree; so go on push yourself, if you had to save one of them from a fire (if only to preserve status with your fellow bassists) which one you gonna keep? Actually tbf that "fire test" is not a very good one as, come to think of it, I would defo keep the other bass simply 'cos it's worth a lot more 😂 A decent HPF used well, gotta agree that's a great choice. And serious respect for not buying anything bad at all - you're a more discerning bassist than me by a mile!

Happy to get the ball rolling... My best purchase for the second year running has been a bass. I'm actually only one bass (net) up this year but there's been quite a churn in the Krow 'bassment' with 7 in and 6 out during the course of this year. A bit of close run thing between two basses for me, but I'm not going to go with the one that cost the most despite it being a wonderful piece of craftsmanship with a crystal clear tone, but the one that I can't put down and just love the look and feel of despite it having a 35" scale when I am much more used to 34", a 2-band EQ, when I much prefer 3-band and a lovely quilted maple top when I've never until now been into such a finish! I guess it's turned a number of preconceptions about basses on their head for me. And, ohhh, that punchy growl... My worst didn't hang around too long before it got moved on. I was told, in no uncertain terms, by a bunch of previous owners whose voices I really should have listened to that this particular pedal was pants. But I wanted to try it out for myself, ah the folly of age: my fellow BC'ers were not wrong in the meh-ness of this little wonder, which promises a lot but delivers so many of them so very disappointingly!

Following on from the same topic a year back which seemed to garner quite a lot of interest from fellow BC'ers, thought it would be good to run this again this year. Posting a little earlier, to give folk more time to participate - appreciate that there are still six weeks to go before the end of the year with Black Friday and Xmas goodies still ahead, but nothing to stop folk changing their minds between now and then. As with last year the only "house rules" are that it's bass gear and something you bought (or at least arrived) in 2019. Oh and pics of the treasured or offending item are very welcome!

Only was a lot 'cos you had to pay VAT and Customs (like the rest of us) 😁 Slander. I'll have you know that me and dB have held onto some of our pedals for a good fortnite, some even a few days longer. Very generous as ever Andy. I suspect it will be that rather gorgeous Alembic rather than any Tech21 kit that proves the pull for me!

I love how clear that Ric tone comes through at 0.11 in. Amazing fun playing in front of such a large / appreciative audience!

Haha. I personally would stick an HPF on every effects patch for Helix, Zoom or other multi, as standard.

Forget pedals, wait till you see the basses he's not sold!

Great thanks Phil. It seems to me that the mechanical points you cover are additionally beneficial / bound in with the sound tightening and speaker efficiency impact of an HPF. Maybe worth going as far as to say that with a well tailored HPF, in terms of choosing an appropriate initial cut off frequency, there are plenty of upside benefits and there is actually very little in the way of downside.

There's a much broader point there Luke. Guitarists and pedals are like bread and butter. Bassists and pedals are more often just toast.

I don't entirely follow that stoo. The HPF will be cutting the amount of low f waves being produced by the cab. The lower resultant speaker cone displacement gives rise to less kinetic energy and friction ie less heat. But I could be missing something fundamental / basic here. @Phil Starr any thoughts?

Just came across these guys: JPF Amplification is a guitar, bass amp and effects pedal repair company based in Denmark Street, London. 11 Denmark St, London WC2H 8LS Tel: 07706 712 029 Email: [email protected] Hours: Monday-Saturday 11.00 am – 7.00 pm I spoke to a chap called Frank just now; gonna try them to see if they can get my poorly Tech 21 Red Ripper back to health. They will charge £24 plus parts if they can repair and nothing if they can't.

I think -12dB / octave (but I could be wrong on that). If you set at 41Hz you would only be attenuating below 41 Hz and will have cut by 12dB anything at 20Hz ie an octave below. A 41Hz cut should not be touching 50Hz. If you want a decent cut at 50 Hz, maybe set the HPF to cut at 80Hz, certainly no lower than 60 Hz.

Disagree on this one, Dave. You can literally feel the difference standing next to your cab from the difference of the pressure of the air flow on your legs with an HPF engaged or not. The impact depends on the steepness of the cut, most variable HPFs only deliver - 12dB / octave. A steeper -24dB / octave will be more effective and I think the Thumpinator delivers that or close (although Max at SFX has decided it's a trade secret!).

Yup, the Thumpinator is an "always on" pedal focused on delivering just (ii). HPFs with adjustable 'engage' frequencies can do (i) and (ii).

PS in terms of terminology, in case anyone's confused: low cut (i.e. cutting the low frequencies) is delivered by a HPF (i.e. a high pass filter which allows the high frequencies to pass) high cut = LPF

An HPF does two key things: i) tightens up the low end. General view seems to be that anything below around 50Hz adds more to boominess than to a meaty low end, and that the focus should be on the first harmonics and above (for low B that is 62Hz+, for the low E string that's 82Hz+); although IMO there's an argument for leaving in the fundamental frequencies of the low B string (31Hz) and your very own low E string (41Hz) avatar! ii) used to entirely cut the subsonic crud (<20 Hz) so that your speakers are not wasting energy on very low frequency but high energy waves that no one can actually hear; and can work more efficiently to deliver the frequencies you can hear. i) impacts the bass sound; ii) should not. Here's the SFX Thumpinator in action, which is set to cut everything below 28Hz i.e. delivering ii) and showing how much less cab displacement there is with an HPF engaged. Virtually zero difference in tone.

+1 ^^ Markbass head plus any of BF / VK / Berg cabs would all be great IMO. I personally would go for one of the more recent MB heads as they have fixed the EQ gaps present on their previous LM2 and 3 ranges.

Yup, it sounds awesome. But is it really as good as it sounds on paper?! Just wondering how full a low end it's capable of delivering?

Exactly! And actually likely to be considerably less of a difference than even that, if its only a "bit of bass" going through the PA which is what has been recommended. And IMO quite different to a bass cab alone delivering the bass, which was the starting point for me on this thread.

Understand. I recently received a bass from Germany from a retailer, which was significantly less well packaged than I would do with the basses I've sold, but it still arrived in A-1 condition, so I'm feeling a bit more confident about European shipments. I would of course get everything insured, just in case!

You seen Paul's white BB1100S in the FS? Dunno if that would fit the bill of what you're looking for? If it had an extra thumb rest string I've have bitten his hand off...I do like a white Yammy

In case anyone has a 734A going spare...I'm guessing that @thisisswanbon is not going to be letting his go any time soon!