Al Krow

Thanks Martin. We've got a first covers band gig with a side project of mine in a month's time as a 3 piece and no drummer and the guitarist is busy using midi to download the actual tracks to songs in our sets. So I was very interested in your experience, but looks like we'll be diving in at the deep end first, haha! Totally agree on the impact of increasing tempo can have of the energy of a song. Can absolutely work both ways though - when drummers play too fast it can stop a song from breathing particularly on funkier stuff.

Are you using your BB for live use or just rehearsals?

Apparently saying the MS100BT has now been discontinued by Zoom?

Mono auxes for wireless IEMS - these can give us tailored monitoring e.g. I have bass boosted on mine and singer focuses on vox, her keys and guitar. Headphone and group outs for wired IEMs All of them have separate volume controls on the desk: Soundcraft Signature 12 (MTK)

Just recently come across these: Kenable Metal 3.5mm Stereo Socket to 6.35mm Mono Jack Plug Adapter We don't particularly pan our instruments, so mono rather than stereo output works fine. This little adaptor allows us to plug in a 3.5mm TRS headphone jack into the desk and get output to both cans, rather than just the left side. Also means that we now have 5 IEM outputs from a relatively modest analogue desk - 4 mono and one stereo comprising: 2 aux, 2 group and the headphone, which is plenty for my covers bands.

You should give yourself a round of applause for spotting the HC-2 😁

If you want something cheap, worth also checking out the Zoom B1-4 multifx which has a decent selection of pre-programmed drum patterns and is getting used on a live set for a few numbers on Friday, as part of a 3 piece outing for my band where we don't have a drummer. I've also a Beat Buddy and an Akai MPC One, but it's the simplicity of live use of the Zoom that has won me over. I previously had an Alesis SR18 - a complete PITA to program! And a Roland TR707 in the long distant past before these became "vintage" collector's items.

Belated happy birthday Daryl! You're an inspiration and an encouragement to many of us.

100% understand where you're coming from. I just totalled up what my gigging pedal board comes to (5 pedals, board and PSU) including a multifx and it comes in just under £600. I'm not going to 'fess up to how much the cost of my remaining pedal related kit (some of which are going to end up on a larger PB build) comes to though, haha!

If you're on a budget then something like the D Debra 8 Channel could be a decent place to start - they're around £130 new. Not had one myself, but got a thumbs up from one of our in-house PA experts in terms of spec. That would leave £620 for the rest of the PA.

Actually that's a good point about built in FX. Singers invariably request and benefit from a little ("room"/ "hall") reverb added to their vox, but also essential you can apply the FX to your chosen channels only. A decent desk with fx will allow you to do this.

Have to say it's great to have the approach I've been pushing with our band this past couple of years validated by someone as knowledgeable as you! I would say, though, that some higher-end bass cabs (e.g. Barefaced) deliver excellent dispersion, but with a budget of £750 you're looking at not far off the same price for the bass cab (even second hand these days) as the rest of the PA. @thebrig there's a separate thread on compact mixing desks in this sub forum, but the Soundcraft Signature 12 series is decent value both new and used and has HPF at 100Hz available which Bill mentioned. We use the HPF for all instruments and vox, apart from the kick itself.

Except I think someone said they are $499 in the US? £50 probs ok if we include the £12 customs handling fee. In which case working through your numbers gets us: $499 is currently £395 at today's exchange rate (which was Andy's calc) £395 + £50 shipping = £445 £445 + 25% (VAT and import duties)= £556 delivered to a UK address. => £43 for UK distributor and retailer But is the $499 figure wrong because that's the US retail price, rather than US export price for Tech 21?

Haha - maybe! Although you've clearly more experience on travelling first class than me 😅 Either way, like you I won't be forking out £600 for a fancy EQ pedal with some drive...

Add VAT @ 20%, customs duties and shipping and £395 Stateside is not gonna be too far off £599 over here?

Oooh the MS-60B was my first bass pedal over a decade ago, and I'm now a dedicated B1-4 fanboi. Excited to find out what upgrades they've got going here! Agree about the one-way patch cycling being a limitation on the original MS-60B and if this also has a decent tuner it could be a neat alternative to the B1-4, although the LED tuner on that is great for live use on darkened stages. Just checked the spec - it does have a tuner + 100 patches (vs 26 on the MS-60B) + 6 effects in the chain (up from 4)

I'm sure people were saying the exact same thing when folk first started playing the electric bass!

Jonny popped over to buy a filter pedal from me. Great chap and very talented bass player! I know that my Proton Mk4 is going to be put to very good use - enjoy!

@SumOne How about combining the Boss LS2, which you've got, with a Zoom B2-4? Same processing power as the B6, I believe, but the combo of those two should be more compact than the B6 and have all the fx that the B6 offers? Make for a neat little PB - just a thought!

Nope - it's higher end than that. The BBP34 is the slightly downgraded successor version of the BB2024 - both are the premium passive models in their respective ranges. There's other predecessor models that get raved about even more...as hundreds of pages on the Yamaha thread is testimony to! But in a nutshell: The BB1024 is IMO one of the very best passive PJ's around, certainly at its used price point. The P34 is a little more refined but considerably more pricey. I've had the 5 string versions of them both (bought used). The P35 edged it just tonally for me, but was a little too heavy for my liking. So it was outlasted by my 1025. Which in tuirn found itself somewhat side-lined by the arrival of an Elrick Evo5, which is a ridiculously good bass and which I was fortunate to be able to pick up for a good price from a fellow BC'er and pretty quickly fell in love with it.

I was less impressed with the Drop; it didn't really cut the mustard for me - not noticeably better than my Zoom B1-4 which is a cheap-as-chips multifx, but obviously does a lot else besides. YMMV!

Somebody told me - the Killers is a decent workout. I'm currently cheating by playing the intro riff an octave down from the original until I've got it comfortably tight. May need to enlist the assistance of my Digitech Mosaic octave up if that becomes a permanent way of doing it!

+1 ^^ But 5 banks of 10 patches, right?

Yup, that's fair! Worth just checking the manual to give yourself an idea of what the Zoom wah is going to bring to the party. I had the X version briefly but didn't feel the wah pedal did that much extra and I quite like having a separate wah for use with other pedals - the Zoom wah will only be available for the Zoom multi, but maybe that's all you want to use it for? And tbf I'm not sure that the standard B1-4 pedal can be used with a separate wah anyway.

Bear in mind that the B1-4X is not going to save you any space on your pedal board though compared to a B3 😉