dave_bass5

Yep, same here. about 10 years ago i had to do a big gig without a bass rig. I brought a Behringer BDI21 for this one gig. I used it and then didnt bother with it for ages. a year or so later i got it out to sell it, it and tried it again, still left me cold but i persevered with it for a few gigs, as loads of players were raving out Sans amp's. Then one night, it all just seemed to fall in to place and i immediately went and got a BDDI the next day. After this i just cant play without some sort of pre amp. I felt it was all in the Blend knob. Before, i was using it full up, and while that works at home, it was over powering through a rig, once i turned it down things started to sound great. ive tried to get away form using it over the years, tried a Para driver, been to Darkglass, EBS etc, but always gone back to a BDDI. I dont use it for drive much, but i like the tone it produces. Just recently ive also discovered real distortion/OD, and how useful it can be even when i need a clean tone. Ive been amazed at how something i could never contemplate using, is now getting the tone ive had in my head, which i never realised included dirt.

Met up with Bas yesterday to hand over my Cali76. Had a nice chat and everything went 100%. Great person to deal with and a top bloke all round.

My guitarist owned a rehearsal studio years ago, and one day when i walked in i saw an old Fairlight sitting against the counter. Turned out it used to be owned by Jeff Wayne. We tried to get it working and although the lights came on it wasn't usable. Shame as there were a load of disk's with it as well and i bet they had some interesting samples on them.

Just sold Chris my VMT and things couldn't have gone smoother. Very fast payment and good comms. Would happily sell him something else in a heat beat lol.

Mine wasnt rubbish though.

Ive got one of those (different make though). I also keep a Speakon to Jack adaptor handy as well. Both have saved the day when our PA went down at a gig and we had to improvise with the monitors.

Yeah, well that's what happens when i try typing on an ipad when ive just downed half a bottle of rum. Thanks for reading all the way through the thread just to point that out though.

Hopefully not for long Ive really been enjoying the Spectracomp this weekend. I’m glad I didn’t sell it now. The Cali is nice but its never really made an impact like the Spectracomp has, twice.

Sort of. I was just saying that i think the Cali would work better in a non live setting FOR ME, due to one being set and forget, and the other easily adjustable for when it really matters, and only if I owned both.

Well i do agree with you, i think, I’m not sure what the opening sentence is actualy saying. My point was more that the Cali seems quieter than the Spectracomp, and its easier to sit and tweak the knobs in a studio or at home. With the Spectracomp its quite fiddly to adjust IMO, but it also means its not being played with all the time. The Cali can be tweaked to work with a recorded track a lot easier. I’d always expect a studio to prefer to use their own comps, which will be more adjustable than any box i could take in, but given the choice of my two it would be the Cali.

Well that’s your opinion and you are of course more than a entitled to it. Just don’t expect me to agree with it if i feel differently, especially when you make a blanket statement that’s obliviously just your opinon Ive worked with singerss who dont give a toss about the rest of the band, it’s the singer people have come to see and we are just there in the background. .

Just realised why I wasn’t able to beam new tone prints to my TC pedals. The iPhone 8 Plus uses the top speaker, the one you normally put to your ear. It hadn’t dawned on me to try that one until today.

Ive already commented on my change from Cali to Spectracomp, but today we had a rehearsal and i took both. Now, i know the Cali has more knobs, and has some sort of ‘magic’ in it, (apparently), but the Spectracomp blew it away, at least for my tone. Just using the TC tone print Rockwall brought everything to life. I know the Cali is a more than capable comp, and it was the fact that it has more knobs that made it appealing, but ive really struggled to get it to work to a point where i need it. Maybe the Spectracomp having so many parameters does make more of a difference. The fact tha tit has one knob was the thing that sent me looking for something that was more tweakable in a live situation, but its also the feature that means in not always playing with it. i can see the Cali working better for me in a recording situation, it does sound warm and less aggressive, but as i dont plan on doing any of that then its off the board.

Maybe try lowering the pick ups as well. Now the strings are closer to them the tone will change. Its worth noting that the lower you go with the strings, the more chance you get of fret buzz/clank. These can also effect the tone. As John said, you might need a slightly softer touch now as well. I suppose it deepens on how low you went. Did you take any measurements?

Very true.......i should know

Agreed (and im not one of the many you mention lol). Ive seen loads of bass players that dont use compression on bass, unless for effect. I get that in a large PA rig most things will have it, and i understand why, but thats not really what we are talking about here. To get a good tight bass tone you need many things, but if some people can do it without using compression then that shows compression isnt always needed. If it sounds good to your ears, no harm in using it of course, but its not esential to sounding good and tight.

There are those who feel a compressor is essential to get a good, tight sound, and there are those that have a good tight sound without using a comp. Surely both cant be right lol.

Exactly. It should be set and forget, and with my other pedals I tend to leave them as they are. With the Cali, it’s like I don’t really need it but I’ve spent all that money on it and I need to get it to do something wonderful. Dont get me wrong, it does make a difference, and does what it’s supposed to, but it also distracting (especially the light). I got the Spectracomp when I started using my Jazz bass again. I wanted to beef up the notes on the D and G strings, so thought a comp would help with that. Either even the output from all the strings, or at least tame the lower notes. It did work to an extent, and the Spectracomp was just left on all the time. When I read about the Cali’s side chain and HFP this seemed to do exactly what I was looking for, with dedicated knobs. Having just the one knob means I can tweak it slightly, but I tend to just leave it alone, as without the Tone Print software I can’t adjust much. This is actually a good thing, and why I’m going to go back to it. I thought having the Cali I could at least fine tune things on the fly, but I’ve found having just one knob that changes a few things at once is easer than having 6 knobs. I had a rehearsal last night, and didn’t take any comp. I was going through the studio rig and did feel I should have taken a comp. No one else noticed but I felt the upper notes were a bit too loud, louder than normal (with my P bass). This showed I can make use of a compressor, and I can see what its been doing, so I will keep using compression, just not an expensive one.

Thats why i have a Cali 76 that i dont use lol.

Like flats, i love playing 5 string basses, but always go back to 4's (and rounds). Dunno, you tell us how it went :-)

I have to agree. I used to download all my music for about 10 years, but these days im all above board and pay for Spotify. You cant go basing the current trend on what was the norm decades ago. times change. Back then musicians were paid a fortune, now they aren't. Thats just the way things are.