Osiris

The TC Electronic Mojo Mojo is a great little drive pedal that doesn't cost a fortune, I found it great for a mild drive sound at lower gain settings. It's got bass and treble controls to help fine tune the tone although I found the pedal generally a little dark sounding but in a good way. As for the Boss ODB-3, I found it fizzy and nasty!

I'm not sure if you're being serious or just trolling, either way this should help; https://theproaudiofiles.com/video/compressor-threshold-explained/

So, err, exactly like a compressor then

I don't slap myself but I do like to have a compressor of sorts on when I'm playing. I know you said that you don't want anything on the floor but a very good, cheap and cheerful way to start your compression journey would be the Boss LMB-3. Assuming you use a regular amp head you could have the pedal on top on the amp to keep it off the floor? Funnily enough it's not my first recommendation for the Boss today! On another thread here I'd written earlier; You can't go wrong with the Boss LMB-3, they're cheap as chips and pretty much indestructible. I've had 2 or 3 over the years and whenever I've sold one I've ended up buying another down the line! It's actually an excellent compressor too and has an infinity to 1 setting on the ratio control for limiting duties. The enhance feature is a bit noisy but usable at lower settings if you want that ultra high end thing. The pedal itself imparts a slightly scooped mid range when engaged so it's not really transparent but it's quite a pleasing sound in its own right. With the inherent mid scoop and the enhancer control to add some ultra highs to the sound it looks like the Boss was designed with slappers in mind. Might be worth a look, there's usually a few used ones on eBay for not much money.

You can't go wrong with the Boss LMB-3, they're cheap as chips and pretty much indestructible. I've had 2 or 3 over the years and whenever I've sold one I've ended up buying another down the line! It's actually an excellent compressor too and has an infinity to 1 setting on the ratio control for limiting duties. The enhance feature is a bit noisy but usable at lower settings if you want that ultra high end thing. The pedal itself imparts a slightly scooped mid range when engaged so it's not really transparent but it's quite a pleasing sound in its own right.

For sale is my Zoom B3 multi FX, it also features a DI and recording interface. It's in fantastic condition having never been gigged. It comes with the original box and Sequel LE software CD. It also comes with a Zoom power supply but it's a European one that comes with a UK adapter. That's how it arrived when I bought it new, I'm the only owner. Looking for £80 posted within the UK please, or £75 collected from sunny Wellingborough.

This just popped up on my phone, thought it might be of interest to some of you. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/guitar-maker-fined-4-5m-for-illegally-preventing-price-discounts

Just to confuse things I went the opposite direction to Lozz! I played regular scale basses for more than 30 years before moving over to short scales - including a Mustang. Being a bit of a short ar5e I find short scales basses so much more comfortable to the point that I now wonder how I managed to struggle with standard scale basses for so long, whenever I pick one up now after playing short scales exclusively for a couple of years, they just feel big and cumbersome. But there's no right or wrong answer, whatever works for you. A short scale is probably easier to learn on but you may find that by the time you're playing with others and gigging you may prefer a standard scale.

That's a real stunner, Frank.

Hope this helps.

One of the most versatile and HEFTY sounding class D amps on the planet, the drive channel is sublime for a smooth, creamy, warm, low gain drive sound. I love mine so much that I also bought the baby 350 watt version too. And @Skinnyman is a wonderful human being too. What more could you ask for?

Don't. Just don't ever mention the C word to @Al Krow. It always ends in tears. 😃

One of my favourite basses ever is my Ibanez Talman short scale, they're only £150 new, cheaper than a set of boutique pickups! Admittedly it's had some minor hardware upgrades - new pots, £10 eBay special high mass bridge, Wilkinson machine heads and I swapped out the pickups for a set from my old Peavey Zodiac. But the upgrades cost no more £50 in total. It's been shielded and I've rolled the fretboard edges. It's comfortable to play with its distinctly un-Ibanez chunky neck, but it sounds great, resonates as good as anything ten times the cost and it just looks cool, a bit like a Jaguar but with a daft shaped head stock. The only gripe is that it's a bit heavy but it's my go to bass. I prefer it over a number of basses that I've owned that cost many times as much but the Talman just feels right in my hands.

As @dave_bass5 says the TC Spark Booster (the big one, not the mini) probably isn't the best choice as a pre-amp, although it might well do what you want. But it does do a nice, smooth low gain drive though if that's your thing, especially with the mid boost on. Another contender in the same price range as the Ampeg and MXR is the Fender Downtown express. It's a pre-amp, drive, DI and usable compressor all in one box for well under £150. Having used the usual DarkGlass and Tech 21 suspects in the past I personally prefer the voicing of the Fender, it doesn't have that massively compressed sound of some of the Tech 21 stuff and it doesn't have the mid range canyon of some of the DG pedals. But it does have a very flexible 3 band EQ, unfortunately not semi parametric like the MXR, a drive section voiced to be more mid range focused so about as different to an Ampeg/BDDI or B3K as you're going to get (but that works perfectly for me) that does a decent low gain warmth through to balls out distortion. Then there's the (what sounds like an optical) compressor too, which smooths things out nicely. I like it a lot. Might be worth a look, perhaps?

Looks like there's 3 different variants of the Gnome including a (theoretically) giggable 300 watt version. Any ideas what the USB interface is for, plugging directly into a DAW for recording?