Osiris

My name is mud - Primus

Drag it down - New model army

Time - Pink Floyd

Misery - Therapy? I'll follow the rules this time 😀

In the heat of the night - Diamond Head

Cheers @Teebs, that's one I've got my eye on too, so let me know what you think, please 😃

I have a little MS-60B which is a great little unit, I might take a look at the newer models (can't remember the mode number off the top of my baldy head) to see if they offer a bit more control . Yes, it's a bit of luck to try to find something that works with the inherent short scale voicing. The Fender Downtown actually gets very close, if the mids were semi parametric it's pretty much be there for me as the drive is the sound that I like and the compressor is nothing special, but it's functional. Ah well, it's fun looking round the toy shop if nothing else

That's interesting, where did you obtain that information? The one I had easily balanced between clean and drive sounds with no volume spikes.

I am the law - Anthrax

@Jus Lukin Yes, some sort of parametric EQ would do the job, of course. But I'm lazy and I like to keep things simple so ideally I'd like everything in one box so as not to have to faff about with a pedal board and all the extra odds and sods they require. Maybe another multi fx is the answer? @dannybuoy I'd ruled out the Tone Hammer after not being overly blown away by the amp which I thought was good but not great. But it does have a semi parametric mid so it's worth another look. You don't think the AO does the low gain thing well? There's a couple of folk online saying it does, but I guess that the only way to decide if it works for me is to try it.

I did look at the Nux but wasn't sure about the EQ center points on paper, for example, the treble is centred at 8KHz, whereas I pretty much cut most frequencies above 4KHz so I wasn't sure how effective it would be especially on something vintage sounding like the JMJ. But based on your recommendation I'll do some more homework 😊

The VT bass lasted one gig, actually not even one song! And it's reasonable to assume that the VT Bass DI is the same sound and circuit board but with a few bells and whistles attached but it doesn't work for me. I dialled in a great tone with it, but when I switched it on mid gig the bass simply vanished from the mix! I don't do mid scoops, indeed, the tone on the pedal was pretty mid forward but once engaged my bass became inaudible. The pedal volume was correctly set so it wasn't a volume issue either. All weight to the sound was lost, so much so that a couple of guys in the band looked over to see what was happening. It was as though someone had swapped out my rig - which you have heard in action and you know is very capable - had been swapped out for a cheap transistor radio. I switched the VT off again and the bass was back. I double checked settings and the volume and tried again but it was the same story. It sounded great on its own but was incapable of cutting through the mix of guitar and keys playing rock and pop stuff. Maybe it was a duff one but it sounded just like the YouTube clips I'd seen. The DP3X on the other hand worked brilliantly in the mix. As for the short scale darkness, it's something to do with physics, apparently.

@Al Krow you have a DarkGlass AO amp, don't you? How do you find the graphic for tone shaping? How do the various cab sims sound, which is your favourite? Does it do a smooth, amp like low gain sound? If so, what settings are you using to get that? How does the AO work in the mix, both clean and driven? Does the clean section have an inherent voice of its own or add anything to the core bass sound? The thoughts and experiences of an AO user will be very useful in helping me decide if it's the one to go for.

The Stomp is amazing and gives me everything I need and way more. I don't find it lacking in anyway, but having had one die on me I want a backup DI/tone shaper. My current Fender Downtown is actually very close to what I want, it just needs a bit more mid control to be perfect.

It's probably useful to list the pre's that I've tried over the years but didn't get on with for one reason or another, in no particular order; EHX Battalion, Tech 21 BDDI, VT Bass & DP3X, Trace Elliot Transit, 2 Notes Le Bass, DarkGlass B7K & Vintage. There's probably a few more but these are all I can remember for now. From these, the Tech 21 DP3X was very good, certainly my favourite Tech 21 offering, but the EQ section was a bit limited in getting the best out of a short scale, IME. The Trace Transit was a mixed bag, a great EQ section and superb dual band compression, but a weird sounding drive and the pre-shape added so much sub bass that it was actually funny. But for the wrong reasons.