Al Krow

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. 

On 09/02/2024 at 09:49, PaulThePlug said:

Do these count?.. Got one of each

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

9 hours ago, RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE said:

Also , do you need more than one ? 
I have an old boss dr 202 . I have one on my zoom B3 if that counts, plus one on my Roland bass cube which is gathering dust. 
 

Agood friend of mine is repairing the boss . I have been using the various drums on GarageBand , and some great sounds on there.

Having said that , I do think about getting a cheap desktop drum machine . . Something simple to use that sounds decent . Possibly with midi socket .  Possibly behringher ? 

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.

On 03/02/2024 at 22:01, Bluewine said:

I'll start.

 

I'm really ok with a month off. I'm not worried . Our summer schedule is starting to fill up with some good gigs.

 

The reason we don't have any gigs this month is, we've slowed down by choice. We use to play around 70 gigs annually.  We've cut back to about 50.

 

Here's the main reason, we no longer play late night bar gigs. I'm not sure why. However, I turned 70 today and I've really played enough bar gigs for my lifetime.  Give me theatres, festivals and special events.

 

Daryl

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

3 hours ago, Wolverinebass said:

I don't care how it's worked out 600 quid for a pedal is robbery.

 

Now, bear in mind, the Darkglass ADAM, Photon and X versions are midi compatible so you can store presets. Most of the functions of the XB can't be accessed even with a pedal push as they're buttons. No presets. No ability to flip from dual rig to crossover on the fly. No dual outputs or inputs. See where I'm going with this?

 

Also, just for comparison, an HX Stomp is what, 500 quid? No, I'm not digging on this at all.

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.

15 minutes ago, Pirellithecat said:

Yep - simple and inexpensive ("used") mixer eg Soundcraft Signature (or Behringer??) is probably all you need.  Some have built in FX's which is really handy, and you might want to think about  how many monitor mixes (Aux outs) you need.  (sounds daft, but with In Ear Monitors you soon find you need more than you think!).  However, if you buy a second hand unit you won't really lose anything if you in future decide you need more Aux outs.  
We started out a couple of years back in your situation and have evolved since then.    My biggest "win" was adding a single Sub.  Even in small venues this makes a surprisingly big difference to the sound.   And even in small pubs, as the PA speaker Top sits above it it has minimal effect on space requirements - indeed it helps to stop the PA getting knocked over when things get "lively"!!  I thought 10 inch tops would be ideal in terms of size in small pubs and transport, but if I started again, I'd go straight to 12inch main speakers, as they cope with bigger gigs too. 
Good luck!!

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.

2 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

Rookie mistake, though you see plenty of old timers dong it too. Everything should go into the PA. It's not about volume, it's about dispersion of the mids and highs. Every amp, including yours, has limited midrange and high frequency dispersion. Highpass all the instrument channels at 100 to 125Hz. This means buying a mixer with at least twelve channels. If you try to save money with a six or eight channel mixer you'll either lose money by having to replace it early on or lose functionality by not having enough channels.

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.

2 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

 

Well...

 

if we could order directly from a USA shop then the usual approach is applying 25% to the item cost and shipping to be safe to cover the VAT and import.

 

Let's say £50 shipping.

 

$395 is currently £312 at today's exchange rate.

 

£312 + £50 shipping = £362 

 

£362 + 25% = £452 delivered to a UK address.

 

As they are listed in the UK at £599 that basically means if it went via the distributor and a UK shop they are getting £147 between them. I suspect it's probably £100 to the distributor and £47 to the retailer.

 

This is of course ignoring the bulk savings available to businesses etc. They certainly won't be paying £50 per item for shipping by air. It will be something like half a ship container every year full of T21 products. Probably work out to a couple of quid per item. It's probably closer to £200 split between retailer and distributor, massively in favour of the distributor.

 

UK distributors really are taking the piss on so many products.

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?

1 hour ago, Wolverinebass said:

Yes. Obviously they're shipping the pedals singularly in 1st class Virgin Atlantic and serving them caviar.

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!

1 hour ago, Pirellithecat said:

I guess the BBP34 is the successor of the BB 1024 .... any thoughts on the difference between the 2? 

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.

On 16/01/2024 at 23:02, moley6knipe said:

I’m also intrigued by the Drop. One band is standard, the other is dropped half a tone. I have two basses. If I’d have been told (or asked, to be fair) earlier than “two days before the audition” I’d have learnt the songs down a fret coz I play 5 string 😂

 

So does it really track well enough to drop EVERYTHING you play to the set amount and still sound like your bass?

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! 

20 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said:

B1on/x and B1 Four/x.. Stomp mode is a pain and not something i'd consider for live...

10 Banks of 10 patches to scroll thru is where it's at

+1 ^^

But 5 banks of 10 patches, right?

1 hour ago, TRBboy said:

No, but it means I could get rid of the wah, so I'll save that space 😊👌

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.

9 minutes ago, TRBboy said:

@Al Krow ah I see you can, there is a 'stomp mode'. The only downside is that you have to cycle through the effects in the patch to turn different ones on and off....

 

Looking at the B1X-four also now, as I could use the wah on that...  👌

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

You have 5 banks of 10 patches available to you. So you can set them up as you please and in the order you want. You can select a bank via a push switch and then paddle up down through that bank. I've personally not gone down the individual effects within a patch route with the B1-4.

I tend to have a preamp setting with added presence as my default, and then have my most commonly used patches - which I've set up and edited myself using the super useful Tonelib (free) software with whatever effects are appropriate (Xotic BB, Z-Synth, Motown, Volume boost etc) in the first bank. I probably end up using no more than two or three at most during a gig.

A good half way house (and including an excellent LED tuner for dark stages), is the Zoom B1-4. It has a significantly bigger feature set than the MS-60B and is amazingly good value for what it does. Recommend checking out.

7 hours ago, casapete said:

Not me Al, never had one! 
Maybe getting me confused with @cetera ?!! 

Sorry my bad! I was indeed meaning @cetera!

1 hour ago, Pirellithecat said:

Thanks Al ....
Had a High end SR - as you say fantastically fast neck etc, loved it in terms of playability etc, but needed a bit more of a Rock/Blues machine so traded it for a Fender Professional P.   Sounded great but I just didn't love the thing.  Tempted by the Yamaha's not really tried any of the higher end ones though - so I'll pop it on my list!! 
I had the Spector down as a modern-sounding device  - I'll see if I can find one to try. 

So thanks for the input 

No love for Stingrays?  Tried one very briefly recently and the "punch" was impressive!  

I'll have to fess I've not had a Stingray - I guess my Sandberg TM4 was the closest with its J/MM set up. A Spector is definitely an acquired taste and not everyone's cup of tea. Many BC'ers swear by them and @casapete has more than one for every week of the year!

I've always loved the sound but found it uncomfortable to wear, at least for my first 4 years of ownership - so much so I had it up for sale at a couple of points but fortunately only received "offers that I could refuse", haha. So glad that was the case, as another £100 and it would have been gone...A change of strap to a wider and slightly shortened Minataur strap and it all fell in place. It's the only bass in my herd that both turns my bandmates heads and gets nods of approval for its tone (maybe the two are subconsciously related, haha). 

I should probably add that both EMG pups give the option of single / dual coil, so you have 4 pup combinations to mix and match which gives a really good tonal palette range. I'm currently being somewhat partial to full-fat dual coil neck pup dialled back a touch, in combination with a maxed out single coil bridge pup.