Osiris

A few months ago I got together with a mate and tried his Ampeg PF 500 against my Genzler Magellan. The Ampeg, to my ear, had that Ampeg sound - a boost in the deep lows with a cut in the low mids and you could dial in plenty of clank if you want it. It's a great sounding amp and was distinctly Ampeg. The Genzler on the other hand was cleaner and the tone with everything flat and the filter off was much more even across the board, not at all bland though, just different to the Ampeg. Now I don't play fretless but I wouldn't have thought the low mid shy Ampeg tone wouldn't be the ideal amp choice - although you're obviously getting a great tone from it so what do I know 😀 - but my guess is that the Genzler would give you want you want, for example if you back off the bass EQ a bit, push the low mids a touch with the semi parametric, adjust treble to taste and I reckon you won't be too far off. There's also the 2 one-knob filters, filter B is a pleasing adjustable mid bump that increasingly rolls off the lows and highs that may also work really well on fretless. So my vote is definitely the Genzler Magellan. And don't rule out the 350 as being underpowered, it's more than loud enough to keep enough with shed building drummers.

Definitely give the CS-3 a miss, it's very squashed even at minimum settings, it's more for adding shed loads of sustain than a proper compressor as such. If you want compression as an obvious effect then it's a good choice but if you want something more subtle and controlled then avoid it. But as has already been mentioned the Boss LMB-3 is a great, inexpensive, simple to use and great sounding pedal. The TC Spectracomp also rightly gets a lot of love and can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. Even if you narrow things down to a choice between these 2 you'll end up with something great.

Good work, private. I just took the thumb rest off mine all together!

Did I apply the tolex for you?

Same here although I was surprised as to how resistant they can be to a fresh Stanley knife blade. I've even go so far as this...

Same here, I've only ever known them as a plectrum, which also seems to be the preferred term by those in my area and who I've played with over the years. I hadn't heard them referred to as a pick until joining BC. Same as scratch plate which now seems to have become pick guard - to other people at least. This is just an observation, it's not meant to be an inflammatory remark but should anyone feel the need to get all irate about it, knock yourself out. I personally couldn't care less what you call it as long as I know what you're talking about. And for the record, my first 20-25 years or so of playing was exclusively with a plectrum, then moved exclusively to fingers for a while, now doing a bit of both but having moved exclusively to short scale basses in recent years I find that a plectrum sounds more distinct with much more clarity than fingers. My preferred gauge is 2.0mm as I find thinner plectra are more difficult to keep a grip on and lack the tone of a thicker one. Anything under 1.5mm sounds thinner and brighter to me whereas 2.0mm has a weight of tone a more even response across the frequency range to my ears. I'm currently using a batch of the purple Dunlop Tortex ones the same as @christhammer666 has pictured above but as they are smooth and shiny I find they can get a bit slippery especially as I'm a bit of a sweaty biffa, so I'm currently on the lookout for another 2.0mm variety that are more grippy. The Ernie Ball Everlast has caught my eye although some online reviews suggest that the name is a misnomer as they don't tend to last that long at all whereas I can get 2 or 3 years from one of the Tortex ones and I'm not one for tickling the strings either. I might just take a punt on some of the EB Everlast's and report back in due course.

Tie your mother down - Queen

I have a PJ Mustang and rate it very highly. The pickups, on mine at least, are very good, IMO. Possibly a little shy in the low mids but on a short scale that actually helps keep the tone from getting too muddy. A little push of the EQ around 350-400Hz will fill the gap should you wish to will bring back those frequencies but we're talking a nudge rather than anything extreme. Mine has had a couple of cheap mods, one of which was to swap the 3 way switch for a blend pot as this opens the tonal options right up. Both pickups blended 60:40 neck/bridge tends to be my preferred setting for most things. It's also had new quality volume and tone pots which seemed to really open the pickups response too. The bridge pickup on mine isn't weak and pairs well with the P. I also have a JMJ Mustang and it's a very different beast to the PJ. As has been mentioned above, the neck on the PJ is slimmer and more jazz like. It's tone is clean and clear but doesn't lack character - I played it side by side with @Adee's American Performer Mustang and in direct comparison the PJ had those classic Fender tones whereas the more expensive Performer was much more polite, it was more even across the frequency range but just sounded a little bland compared to its cheaper sibling. The JMJ on the other hand is a very big, warm and vintage sounding bass. But what a sound! And forget what everyone else says, rip the flats off and put some rounds on it, it just sings with rounds whereas it sounded a little choked with flats to me. The neck is also totally different to the PJ, it's much more chunky and the headstock is noticeably thicker too. But still very easy to play. Oh, and it sounds immense! Despite both being Mustangs they are 2 completely different basses in terms of tone and feel. But both great in their own right, IMO.

I like that track a lot, the pugilist sounds great on the bass and has kept the weight of the clean low end. The bass tone is a bit more clanky than I prefer but no doubt that could be dialled back with the tone control to suit should I get the urge to pick one up

Planet caravan - also Black Sabbath

Fender also make a bass specific sister pedal to this which shares a few of the same features, the Trapper bass distortion. The lovely @krispn very graciously let me borrow his for a few days and I was highly impressed with it. It's more voiced towards traditional bass OD rather than scooped, clanky sounds but the adjustable crossover makes it highly versatile. https://www.fender.com/en-US/effects-pedals/bass/trapper-bass-distortion/0234564000.html

Gallows pole - Led Zeppelin

I really like that

Sorry to hear about the power supply failing although it is a daft design, I get why they designed it for universal use but I do think it could have been implemented better. Anyway, that's by the by. But the good news is that there are reasonably priced alternative options. I picked up a Warwick Rockboard wall wart PSU that puts out - I think - 1700 mA at 9 volts, centre negative. It's a standard pedal sized barrel connector (2.1 mm ?) so needs an adapter to fit the Stomp which - again I think, it's early and I'm going from memory with a slight hangover - is something like 2.5 mm. I bought the Warwick Rockboard PSU from a guy on here so unfortunately I didn't know where it came from originally but no doubt Google will find somewhere. It's not as substantial as the Line 6 PSU but it does the job and takes up far less room. As for the 2.1 to 2.5 mm adapter, I picked up a pack of 3 (fnarr) from somewhere like Amazon or eBay for not much more than a couple of quid. I appreciate that this is all a little vague but I can try and dig out the details over the weekend. Plus there's also the One Spot wall wart, I've recently picked one up and while it's physically bigger and more substantial feeling than the Rockboard unit (the cable on the one spot is nice and chunky whereas the RB feels a little more flimsy) it's still around half the size of the Line 6 jobbie. As with the Rockboard you'll need an adapter, if you use the official One Spot adapters you actually need two different ones - their own Line 6 adapter (the one with a green tip) reverses the polarity (apparently designed for older L6 pedals that required this) plus their polarity inverter (the one with a red tip) to reverse the polarity back again. Or you could just use the One Spot with a 2.1 to 2.5 mm adapter. I have both of the above and have successfully powered the Stomp for a couple of hours at a time without any issues at in house levels. The One Spot is the slightly more expensive of the 2, I think, but feels a little more reassuring. That's not to say that the Rockboard is a poor choice, it isn't, if space is an issue then it's a solid option.

Shut the door - Fugazi

Won't get fooled again - The Who

Dunno then, that's me out

My old Boss TU-2 Tuner has started playing up, when tuning up there's an audible subby thud when each LED lights up. It's not particularly loud but then again this is through my little practice combo at in house levels. I've had the pedal since new, maybe 20 years or so now and in every other regard it still works fine, it still tunes and still mutes the output. But this noise is bugging me. Is it anything to worry about? Is the pedal on its way out? Is it anything that can easily be fixed? Any thoughts?

I'm guessing you're going straight into the desk from one of the pedals? If so, have you got lots of boost on any or all of the effects? On the Zoom, assuming it's like some of their other units, you can set the level of each effect. Ideally they should be at unity (same volume when switched on and off) but if you're boosting the volume on each one then that has a cumulative affect on the output level. Same with the Nova Dynamics. If that's the case, try dropping everything back to unity gain and see if that helps.

Another kind of blues - UK Subs

I just can't be happy today - The Damned

The P/P config looks better, IMO but I suspect that the P/51 would work better in practice for tonal consistency that close to the bridge.

It's probably not what you want to hear but I did have a Stomp fail on me a couple of years ago. The volume on mine was intermittent for a couple of hours before it finally crapped out, it also got really hot too. At the time it was only a few months old and still under warranty and Line 6 did replace it for a brand new one, although it took a couple of weeks. The replacement has been faultless ever since. If you're still covered by the warranty then obviously push for a replacement (apparently you do not have to accept a repair, legally). If not...

If a factory reset hasn't solved it, have you got a backup file saved (full system settings plus all your patches) that you can use to restore the unit to how it was at the time you created the backup? If you have inadvertently changed any of the global settings reloading the backup should hopefully resolve the issue.