Al Krow

More refined in the sense that a complex red wine is considered more "refined" than plonk. But more complex harmonically vs flatter better captures the difference for me. And more complex harmonics will generally cut through more.

Interesting you're finding that - if I remember correctly, you posted a little while back about a getting a 1024 as a possible alternative? The 1024 pups are harmonically richer / more complex than the flatter 424 pups - it's the key difference between the two basses for me. Makes me wonder whether a 1024 might be just the ticket for you rather than a 424.

What I'm particularly looking for is: to go from PC (Spotify / YT track) --> [Pitch Shift] --> powered speaker to change the pitch of particular songs, without faffing with MP3 conversion etc. This will be particularly helpful where we're not doing them in the original key, rather than for changing the pitch on my bass, and I can practice in the key we're playing them in. My old Song Surgeon software is currently on its last legs and the newer version doesn't have the same functionality of downloading and pitch shifting YT tracks. Having done a bit of research on this I came across this and have just downloaded - seems to do the trick! (And it's free ) Transpose: pitch shifter browser extension

So did Ravi Shankar...😁

How you finding it? They do look good. Am I correct in thinking it allows you to drop your pitch by 7 semitones (plus the octave down), so if you wanted to pitch shift +2 semi tones it wouldn't work for that?

One week to go, and the excellent suggestions in so far are (in no particular order of merit!): 1. bassfan: OC5 > Proton > VT DI > FI > Zoom B1-4 2. sumone: OC5 > Proton > Octava > VTDI > Zoom B1-4 3. gisserD: SY1 > OC5 > Proton > Zoom B1-4 > VTDI 4. lee650: OC5 > SY1 > YYZ > Proton > Zoom B1-4 ...there's definitely a bit of a consensus building up here

I popped into Wunjos yesterday and they recommended Kevin too, who is located just above them. Thanks everyone for all the other helpful suggestions. Hoddesdon doesn't look too far out of the way for me for as an alternative route for a return trip from Brum which I make fairly regularly, which is also really good to know.

It is indeed - that was actually the first thing I checked when I got it, as it was also a key issue for me, and some of the other HB basses have a rep for being quite heavy.

Now this is a Yamaha bass collection!

It's a great combination. My preference is to roll the treble right off for Motown numbers but dialled back up for the rest. You're in between - which just goes to show the versatility that you can get from this bass! For me, the 'flattened' underside of the neck is super comfortable to play. It took me quite a while to appreciate the solo J bridge pup setting, but I find it's great for cutting through the mix if you've got something that is using a lot of the low B string (e.g. Uptown Funk).

I'm sure that's something we can sort out for you eg I'd be happy to post it on if GAK won't post to IoW. I presume Royal Mail don't charge any extra to post to IoW vs mainland?

Very nice! Must admit my bass 'studio' is the one place I really don't mind having heavier gear.

Ouch!! Really sorry to hear that. Hopefully you managed to sort something out without breaking the flow too much? One of the mods recently shared a tale of woe about his Stomp, too: "Re the Stomp, what a journey …. Power supply issues, freezing up, tone suck. Maybe just coincidence, but I do not trust it anymore. Several crappy moments during gigs." It's obviously a fantastic box of tricks and maybe suffers more wear and tear than other pedals as it gets so much use as an 'always on' pedal and by so many BC'ers. Maybe stories of breakdown are therefore statistically no worse than any other piece of kit. But equally I guess worth having a back up / plan B if you're using a Stomp for live work.

Congrats! Having had several Yammy basses, the BB1025 (same model as yours but without the scratchplate and chrome knobs) is the one I've held on to; as you say, completely holds its own against many more expensive basses, so I'm not surprised at all you're loving it!

Now you're just fishing for compliments! 😁

Haha, yes I know what you mean! Which is partly why I've only been taking just a Zoom B1-4 as a standalone micro board to gigs recently.

I guess the latter is for night time only then? 😁

You're absolutely right (about the number of pedals at least 😁) - I was reading 'Tech 21' and 'YYZ' as being two separate pedals (as I've got a VTDI which is also a T21). I think it was the great bassplayer @bassfanwho said "Al Krow can't count". Probably exactly why I should be hanging up my work shoes and focussing on something more creative? I've just spent a few hours rewiring the larger board tonight as it felt a bit like a bomb-site after I'd filched key pedals off it to put onto the gigging board. Re-doing pedal boards is a strangely satisfying activity, lol! Weird thing is I'm now feeling very much happier with both boards than I was with either before this little rejig. Maybe 'cos they both have a clear purpose in my head now.

Although I make that one pedal too many in your list for my little gigging board, at least you didn't drop your mic 😁 (And nice post btw!)

“Always I have lived with two sounds, one political, one musical” Mikis Theodorakis, freedom fighter, composer. R.I.P.

Well it's been two whole days (plus 1 hour and 30 mins) since a new piece of gear turned up at Krow dungeons. I'm already waaaaaaay ahead of you, buddy! 😂

Maybe I've been fortunate: zero amp failures in 7 years of pretty active use, although I've very been recently persuaded by fellow BC'ers to take a spare amp to function gigs, together with a jack to DI lead to go straight into our PA as a couple of back up options "just in case". Tbf the longest I've had any one particular gigging amp has been 4 years, before wanting to try something else. Older models are generally going to be more prone than newer kit, in terms of wear and tear, and valve (power) amps seem to feature quite a lot in tales of breakdown woes. All my gigging amps have been D-class and were either been bought new or no more than a couple of years old used, which probably explains not having any breakdown issues with any of them so far, touch wood!

Just came across this on eBay and the angled heads are going to provide a useful space saving on my pedal board: DC BLACK CABLE LV POWER SPLITTER 2.5MM - 1 x FEMALE IN/2 x RIGHT ANGLE MALE OUT | eBay Oh and if you want more than one, do it via the "Send me" rather than the "Quantity" and they can then pass on the postage saving to you.

Well paid function gig in Brixton on Sat 9th Oct. Couple of rehearsals in Bethnal Green E2, beforehand. Female lead vox to share lead vocals with our male lead singer.

I totally get where you're coming from and maybe it's just the way my brain works, but I do like to also try to understand why certain things work they do - either from the manual and/or the insights and clarity provided by fellow BC'ers or, in this case, the useful additional snippets provided by Tech21 themselves. Must admit the fact that their cab sim is core to their sound and should be regarded as 'always on' was a really helpful tip and not one I would have gleaned from the manual. @dannybuoygot to the same result by trusting his ears, which is your recommended approach. But I'll be bearing that in mind when using Tech 21 pedals in future. And all part of the fun and pleasure that 10% to 20% that our gear brings to party. The 80% to 90%, of course, being in our fingers and time spent on the fretboard rather than the keyboard (which I have spent far too much time on these past 5 years)! Now back to the task of trawling through StarNow to see if I can find another female dep to cover for the dep who has pulled out of a well paying function gig in early Oct...ugh! Any suggestions welcome - please PM me!