Al Krow

16 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

You can judge for yourself here:

 

Sound test of the new Boss XS-1 pitchshifter, testing octave down and octave up respectively blended with dry signal, on my 28.5" scale tenor bass, tuned in A standard tuning, seeking to emulate a somewhat 8 string octave course bass -esque effect.

 

Octave Down: 0:00 - 2:30
Octave Up: 2:30 - 4:21

 

Significant improvement over your Sub'n'up?

4 hours ago, synthaside said:

Now who would go and do that ay ...

Cough ....  this is exactly what i was looking for as i want to avoid Rack gear and  it looks simply enough conceptually would you look at that its fallen off ebay ... 

Now ... I guess i have to decide what  at frequency im crossing .... perhaps because its running to a dedicated  bass amp rather than a sub it should shoot a little higher to 100 /120 rather than 80 ?

Nice one! 

Well given that one of the reasons for having a sub is to take load off the tops, be interested if there's any reason not to cross over at say 150Hz, and you can get some bass as well as your kick handled by the combo?

Wished I'd used this crossover set up when I had a MB Alain Caron, which has excellent speaker excursion for a bass combo, with my RCF 310A tops. And ideally combined with the IEMs my crew are using today to avoid needing monitors. 

Tbf probably would have beem no better than the pair of RCF 932As which we're using currently and overall a comparable outlay.

1 hour ago, dave_bass5 said:

Just be aware the drum machine is in the app, not the pedal as far as i can see. it’s nowhere near as versatile as the Zoom IMO, but i feel the amps and cabs sound more convincing. 

That's helpful thanks. I've got a preamp tone I'm super happy with on my GT1000 Core, so I may as well stick to the drums and looper on the B1-4, and sacrifice a bit of pedal board real estate.

On 05/10/2025 at 19:15, Happy Jack said:

 

Pretty sure that's 21Kg.

G4M have got back to me and said it's 28.5kg / 63 lbs unfortunately which is going to put it out of my target range. 

Still that does leave the Behringer as a £240 budget option

The dB Tech 612 and Alto TS 12S come in at the £400 to £450 mark

And then a jump to RCF 702 AS Mk3 at north of £700

...and from there onwards and upwards into @Dan Dare territory!

Ooof it's very tempting at that price!! And has come down from £80 on release six months back.

I thought the EQ looked a bit limited in choice, but it has a 6 band EQ and two bass specific option. As well as fx, as others have mentioned, the ability to midi control. It has a drum machine which is currently one of the few reasons I'm holding onto my old and much loved B1-4s (but no looper unlike the B1-4?)

Q for those of you guys who have taken the plunge: seems to have quite a lot of drum styles. Does it do different time sigs other than 4/4?

Useful side by side comparison of XS-1 vs Drop.

Comments enlightening:

- little in it on latency

- Boss have focussed on the attack and response as the processing catches and retunes your instrument => the feel is better preserved and the sound of that initial attack sounds right.

Thanks Phil and I was getting somewhere similar with my thinking this afternoon:

positives

- combos can be light!

- ability to use existing kit (and great that @synthaside is getting benefit from his set up - something has gotta be better than nothing, right?)

neutral

- cost of combo comparable to subs

negatives

- limited speaker excursion on bass combos vs dedicated subs

- only really interested in the sub delivering 30Hz to 110Hz and the combo is not designed to excel in volume at these frequencies (see chart above for illustrative representation)

On 07/10/2025 at 09:29, synthaside said:

In a flash of either brilliance or stupidity , I'm actually using a my old markbass cmd121p combo amp as our sub .. with the Tweetr disconnected inside, it seems to really supercharge the limited low end from our  singers  previously vocal only Yamaha stage pass 500. The combo has t been working a treat ...  ... Has XLR in and It's light powerful and expandable  with the second cab on the left side. 

 

I'm sure we loosing lots of sub 40hz  frequency from it not being a real sub but they are compact loud and super portable and don't have pole sockets but other than that I'm struggling to see any downside.

 

Our setup with this also has janky old two 80s  peavy active 15 wedges  'which also sounds great .. but look ancient ..  so much so the guitarist went out and bought a second one to match when we found the first as a giveaway on Facebook marketplace 

Such a neat idea! And obviously the combo can double up as a bass amp, if needed on separate occassions / home use. Super compact and portable too!

It turns on its head the approach of the PA providing support to backline, working the other way around. Sub 40 Hz is pretty flubby anyway. Kick drum at 50 Hz is the big target here I would have thought?

I guess a refinement might be to set cross over frequencies on the desk, directing the lower frequencies to the combo eg up to 100 Hz and everything above that to the PA tops?

I've not seen this approach suggested elsewhere, but conceptually I love it.

Be very interested to hear from a couple of our resident experts such as @Bill Fitzmaurice and @Phil Starr on why this is bad idea, before seeing if I can bag a used CMD121P (always wanted an excuse to get one, haha!)

Just picked up a pair of KZ ZARs for a bandmate for £31.79 inc P&P from Ali XP. That's 40% less than I paid for mine 18 months back, and I thought they were good value back then!

Just arrived!

Great excuse to uprate my little mini gigging pedal board, which has been unchanged for 5 months (must be a record) with something bigger and can provide a home to a few more noise boxes currently sitting on my pedal shelf...

PS I'll put a note on file that you want first dibs @Woodinblack if it ever gets upgraded - can give you a status update in a couple of years maybe?

@pantherairsoft - suspect this will be right up your street in relation to our recent chat about the XS-1 vs XS-100, from one of the TB'ers:

FUN FACTS about attaching a dual switch to the XS-1 !!
I connected a Boss FS-6 dual switch and tested the feature of storing settings on each of the two external switches, plus the built-in switch.
The XS-1 can store BALANCE amount, SHIFT interval/mode, and the TOGGLE/MOMENT option for the built-in footswitch, and each of the dual switches giving you instantaneous access to each (one at a time, though).
With instantaneous access to 3 different intervals, you could, for example, have a minor 3rd, major 3rd, and perfect 4th, for various harmonizing tasks. Similarly, m6, M6, and P5. You can have up to 4 different keys (counting bypass).
I tested this running a full mix through the pedal, the transitions are instantaneous but without any clicks or pops at the moment of change.

5 minutes ago, neepheid said:

I am weakening towards the XS-1.  After finally hearing some bass usage, I think it does a better job of tone preservation than my Brainwaves.

Yeah - that Lasse Vuorsola did a great job with his first video, which was all the confirmation I needed given that from my OC5 and SY 200 experience I knew that Boss seemed to have nailed tracking algorithms better than most. Loved the fact he then asked for and dealt with specific queries with a second video. Hero.

5 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Excellent - can I have first dibs when you move it on?

Nah, get your own!

You didn't wait for me to move my recently purchased cheap-as-chips Ali XP floor floor light on, before getting one, did you? And what about those excellent KZ-ZARs eh, which you jumped on post Krow purchase and recommendation? You're definitely at risk of becoming a West Country Krow gear groupie...

But where were you when I eventually upgraded my Boss SY-1 for a Boss SY-200? Boss SY-1 - Effects - Basschat

49 minutes ago, pantherairsoft said:

I’ll dig a little deeper into the side by side specs. I have more expression pedals and expression splitters than I know what to do with, with I’ve always use pitching on its own pedal and typically, I’ve found great use for the built in extra of stuff like this.

 

I do think the presets will

be a game changer, but maybe I can live without them. Either way, I’m fairly certain one of them is getting added to the collection.

Yeah I think it's the same side by side spec for the XS-1 and XS-100; I think the key difference being the presets (very useful) and the built in expression pedal on the XS-100

43 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

 

Pretty sure that's 21Kg.

Thanks - doesn't seem to be any info online? But, if that's the case, that could make it a serious contender with 2 speakers each delivering 600W RMS.

Scrap that, apparently the power module delivers 600W RMS so that will be split between the two speakers, and its claim of 2,400W peak is pretty far-fetched.

Appreciate that @Happy Jack was already sorted before I happened on his thread, however also an ongoing topic of interest for me! I've come across 3 subs which could also tick the box, which may be of wider interest:

Behringer B1200D Pro - 500 W RMS 19.5kg / 43 lbs £239

Subzero 2 x 10 - 600W RMS (I've asked G4M for the weight) - normally £500, currently on sale at £380

dB Tech 612 - 600W 19.8kg / 44 lbs £395

No idea how decent any of these are, so if anyone has had experience of any of these, I'd be very interested to know?

14 minutes ago, pantherairsoft said:

This is epic helpful.

 

I’m away at an event in London for the next few days, but if stuff this excited about it when I get back, I’m ordering an XS-100! 

I was very tempted by the XS-100 - having presets to scroll through would make it super useful live. But as I already have an expression pedal and wanting to go for something compact I've ended up with the XS-1, hopefully arriving in a couple of days. Our Alto singer is very excited about this opening up more of our set list to her and I'm equally excited about not having to learn songs in different keys! 

Follow up YT post by Lasse Vuorsola dealing with several queries about the pedal he received from TB'ers:

May be a while off, we're still at F1-4 VIP methinks? 😅

1 hour ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Here's a sample of the Boss XS-1 used for obtaining an effect somewhat similar to that of an 8 string octave course bass, using my 28.6" scale Ibanez GSRM25 Mikto Bass, tuned to E standard tuning (E to C).

 

Just random noodling through my "amp-less" setup, directly into my Zoom H4n handheld recorder, with nothing additionally done post recording, other than clipping/cutting some parts out:

 

 

Thanks for sharing that! Would you say it performs better at 8 string emulation with high rather than low notes?

Or, if you're desperate for one but haven't been able to get your hands on one yet, start at 4 and work backwards?

1 hour ago, Quatschmacher said:

Why? Are you looking for another excuse to not buy it?😂

I'll take that as a "yes" then? 😅

I think I'm maybe excused from needing excuses, having bought (and subsequently moved on) 5 of these FIs over several years (starting way back in 2018)?  You know, a bit like getting lifelong immunity from having had a course of vaccines? Risk is that HMRC will come after me for trading in FIs...

Sounds good! Is that what the new VIP model looks like with a light shone on it?

I've caved. I'm in a band where certain songs can be done in up to 3 different keys, a few semis apart, to suit the vocal register of whichever of our singers is taking lead on a particular night, so this could potentially be a game changer and has rightly pushed itself to the front of the queue, ahead of a couple of more exciting/fun pedals on my wish-list - but which would have been more icing and less cake. Should be arriving next week, fingers crossed.

18 hours ago, Paddy777 said:

 

I’m back in the club again - got this BBP35 with Nordstrand pups last week, plays beautifully and has a great PBass sound on the front pup. I can see what all the fuss is about with these now I’ve got it in my hands, an amazingly comfy neck and the quality is ridiculously good all the way through. My main bass is still an active J but this is a fantastic alternative when the P Bass is needed, gonna stick some TI flats on it once I’ve got a spare £80 😖

Looks great!