Al Krow

15 hours ago, HeadlessBassist said:

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly of '25, eh?

 

The Good - Ecstatic over buying one of the last 5 Status Stealths, my Fender Elite Jazz, my 95 Stingray and most of all, my 1998 GB Spitfire. Mostly all solid keepers. An honorable mention has to go to my Cort Artisan Space 5 (the third one I've owned), which continuously amazes me for it's sheer value for money, playability and great sound. Also, hopefully arriving before the end of '25 is my Walnut/Graphite 66 Modern/Classic Jazz, with a single piece body by @Silky999 and one of @Kiwi's AUROK™️ Graphite Necks.

 

 

The Bad - There weren't really any bad instruments per se, mainly some that went out of the door as I traded up to other things. If there were any disappointments, it was the sheer weight of my KingBass Mk-II (now up for commission sale at Andy Baxter's), whose mass could easily generate it's own gravity, and my beautiful Stingray 5 Special, which was left in the dust by my old Aguilar equipped '95 Stingray. But that was entirely predictable.

 

The Ugly - Only one £150 no name Precision that I bought on a whim from Gumtree, which was recently donated to a school I teach at.

So in the spirit of the thread, if you had to save one of your 2025 purchases from the proverbial fire ie your "best", which would it be and why?

1 hour ago, Lozz196 said:

It certainly did fall into place in that clip Daryl, sounded really good.

+1^^ @Bluewine - really great to hear your band in action. As Lozz said - a really good sound, and some nice footage too!

16 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

With the caveat that hundreds of bass players have owned and loved this pedal…

 

Tracking was the wrong word! I meant latentcy - I couldn’t live with the slight latentcy and thr attack of the thing - I don’t know how to describe it but it was a me thing, and I could hear it listening to a video so it can’t just be latentcy …

Ah latency and tracking are very much intertwined, so all good! Are there particular timestamps on the video you could helpfully point to for us, so we can get a better idea of what you are referring to?

2 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

 

I had no idea if he's a member on here or anything so kept my thoughts to myself - but would agree - it's painful watching! 
@Kev - skip through and miss bits! 

 

My take, reinforces what I thought - Enzo X probably not deigned for bass... 
C4, the thing that annoyed me with the tracking you could hear on the video (bought and sold one twice)
FI4 - sounds best to me and can do a lot
MXR - pretty much on par and can do less with a simpler interface. 
 

Thanks Luke! What's the issue with the C4 tracking, for those of us who have never owned one?

6 minutes ago, GisserD said:

nearly 2 hours of video, but no conclusions.....

He says at the end he wants community to come to their conclusions in the comments below. jeesus. 

You've got a very good ear, Darren, did you come to a conclusion?

18 minutes ago, Kev said:

 

Nice, i'll dive into that later.  Did you get any verdict from it?

 

Slightly OT, but did I see someone somewhere express concern about how visible the FI VIP's text is under stage lights?  Looking at this video compared to all the other pedals, it does seem pretty bad!  Shame really, as its a nice design otherwise.

That would have been me earlier on this thread and I did get ticked-off for pointing that out, haha!

However in a live context I won't be messing around with patch settings / trying to create a new patch from scratch mid-set, so as long as the display is visible and telling me which of the 99 available preset patch nos. I'm on, I would have thought that would be fine. And probably a lot easier to read than remembering which dot accounts for which of the 8 presets on the MXR for me.

This ain't bad at all! 

Currently easy enough to spot AI on YouTube (and not least 'cos this ones being honest about it!) given the static cover. Obviously we don't have the same cues on Spotify.

The internet is not going away! Enjoy using it or don't. 

Spotify has been a massive blessing to music listeners all over the world. It would be great if it paid bands better, for sure!

It seems to me that streaming is to music, what libraries are to books. Don't think anyone is arguing that libraries are evil, and everyone should buy all their own books?

It's certainly not either/or: I love listening to music on YT and Spotify. I also love regularly gigging and being by paid decently by venues who know the worth of live music as part of what they offer their customers. 

3 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

I'm a regular gig goer, merch buyer and physical record buyer as well. Streaming is where I often discover bands who I then support through gigs and purchases. Streaming isn't necessarily bad but it also isn't good. It's just a part of modern reality so why not try to use it in s positive way?

This ^^

4 hours ago, SumOne said:

Playing an instrument or playing with a band is a different matter though. AI isn't going to replace that achievement, fun, camaraderie or live event. It's partly why I've mostly moved from electronic music production into playing Bass with a pub band, and when I do produce my own music (spending a lot of time with an MPC Key 37 at the moment) I'm doing it because it's fun to do - not because I'm aiming to make any ground breaking music that I'll make £ from.

And this too! ^^

Streamed music has already dealt a blow to most bands' hopes of making decent money from their original creations. AI assisted / generated music music is just the next nail in that coffin.

Live music is where it's at for most bands and solo artists looking to make a living from their art. Yes there's one hologram providing superb entertainment, at vast cost and albeit with some incredible session musicians actually playing the music, but an average punter going down a busy pub doing live music at the weekend ain't going to be fobbed off with anything but a live band or solo act.

What we all should be campaigning against is the ridiculous infringement of copyright laws that our Govt seems to be wanting to wave through for AI companies to train their large-language models on, and which is theft pure and simple.

52 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Good clips, if nothing else, it does tell you to avoid the 3 octave up mode!

Not sure I'd ever find a use for anything above +1 oct anyway with our material!

Two excellent YT clip reviews

Amazing - thanks!

7. I couldn't pick out the younger Mick Jagger from the pic and the drummer looked unfamiliar to me, but makes sense!

9 hours ago, neepheid said:

Honourable mention go to the Boss XS-1 Poly Shifter - hands down the best pitch shifting pedal I have ever heard in terms of preservation of tone and tracking.

Ditto ^^

My only "regret" is that I'm liking it so much, I'm already tempted to move it on...to get its bigger sibling the XS-100

Been asked by daughter (who's a music teacher!) to help research the above slide which she wants to include in a lesson.

Going round clockwise - pics not hugely clear, but where I've got to is:

1.  ?? Elvis lookalike

2. Chuck Berry

3. Beatles

4. Freddie Mercury 

5. Beach Boys

6. Black Sabbath (obvs, haha!)

7. ?? Band with Ronnie Wood in? 

8. ?? C&W star

9 ?? BB King

If you recognise any of 1, 7, 8 or 9 please share your thoughts!

33 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Well, there is one on eBay but not sure how much I trust that advert!

Cheers - I'd best check back in at 11am on Tuesday to see where it's got to!

5 minutes ago, Acebassmusic said:

Hearing you on some of your videos helped me decide to give it a chance and I bought it untried. Thanks.

Is it living up to expectations? I know you've had same fantastic basses over the years!

I've had a lot band related purchases and very little purely bass focussed, this year. 

Tops for me goes to the RCF 932A PA speakers which were an upgrade from our previous RCF 912A and 732A sets of speakers (which me and one of singers respectively had). The 912As - excellent on bass, 732As - excellent mids for guitar and vox. The 932As provide the best of both worlds.

Managed to pick them as B-stock for less than the cost of my bass backline and we put the whole band through them, none of us using backline, without needing a sub-woofer even for the smaller outdoor gigs we were doing earlier in the year.

Worst - none so far, fingers crossed. (I did buy a Fuzzrocious Lil Fella which I've not really used due to finding some great drive and fuzz tones on my Boss Multifx, and which I'll probably put up for sale at some point but not because it's been a disappointment). 

@Acebassmusic - my Elrick Expat in action (through the 932A). Lovely bass! 

58 minutes ago, Acebassmusic said:

Usual "in's" and "out's" at the "Acebass Musical Equipment Temporary Storage & Refuge Facility" 🤣 Like others, I've not had any "bad" purchases but have 3 that really stand out and work for me: my Elrick Evolution Gold V, Anagram multi-fx and MVave Chocolate Plus midi foot switch. I'm a happy bunny that doesnt see me wanting to change any of my gear until at least a week on Tuesday! 😮🤣🤣

 

 

OMG I love that Elrick! I've had mine (the "cheaper" Expat Czech made one) for 4 years and totally love - fabulous bass and my mainstay for gigs.

10 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

Best purchases were the Fender Precision to Jazz conversion neck, EB cobalt flatwounds, Hipshot lollipop tuners, ultra heavy knurled callaghan knobs, and EMG GZR P Pickup I used to transform my long-neglected unlined fretless bitza Precision into my favourite long scale bass to play. Worst buy was probably the HX FX pedal I bought several months ago, which I'm sure is an excellent piece of kit, but I've realised I don't really need it and haven't got around to actually trying to use it.

 

That's a lot of "best" 😅 You got one from that list that you would opt for above the rest if you only had one?

54 minutes ago, kiat said:

Yes @Al Krow a couple of bass pros I follow use synth bass and it would be handy for ultra-funky lines (eg Stevie Wonder, Soulive) for the attack and very short notes. I'm right handed and would use my right, so a short KB would be fine and would be fun.

 

As others have mentioned already the extra gear is off-putting and  definitely not necessary for the dep gigs I do, which the MXR Bass Synth pedal should be more than enough for. As it is my compact pedal board will need reorganising which I didn't plan on doing, but want to get two signal chains combined (synth & non synth) so will have to get a new board anyway.

Need to adapt my playing to get the best out of the pedal, which will be a challenge, but hopefully won't take long.

Agreed. Also I've not really figured how you play synth keys and a bass at the same time! And, more importantly, whether as a bass-player, there's actually much demand or expectation for any of us to be a keys player with a different skillset?

Maybe surprised at hearing this from me, but once the next software update goes through on the FI v4 VIP (not sure when that's planned - waiting to hear from @Quatschmacher re. timing), I've got a feeling from the comments @LukeFRC has made in his recent excellent review that the FI could actually be the better pedal with better display, many more presets, and midi connectivity. So, if you're getting frustrated waiting for a MXR that's maybe another option and only £20 more new.

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Although it is a bit of a pain, £25 doesn't seem too much considering that you be getting less money second hand anyway

No massive rush -  the plan is to see if I can pick up the XS-100 used too, when one becomes available. And then upgrade for an all in cost of maybe £90, rather than £130 via Andertons and get a bit more use out of my XS-1 which is barely a month old and already much loved! I've got a midi pedal to get to grips with in the meantime  and I'm a complete novice when it comes to midi!

1 hour ago, kiat said:

Like others, have considered a bass synth keyboard but my regular bands don't think we need one yet.

Do you think you might end up going down the synth keys route at some point then? What were the pros & cons that made you all decide to stick with a bass pedal instead?

Well it's somehow already the start of November and following on from the same topic we've successfully run since 2017 - a chance for some useful hints and tips with Xmas goodies still ahead, and, of course, nothing to stop us changing our minds between now and year end! 

As with previous years, the only "house rules" are that it's bass gear and something you bought (or at least arrived) in 2025. 

Here's the last thread in the series from 2024 as a reminder of some of the goodies we bought then.

Obligatory GAS inducing pics please!

35 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Thought you were going to send it back? that would be a better deal

Nah, Andertons slap on a £25 "courier charge" for the privelege of doing an exchange.