ben4343

Sure thing. It's obvious from the videos that they have spent an age developing this, and I'm sure they have calculated what return they need for their time investment. It's just that, for me, it turns out 500 is something of an arbitrary tipping point between justifiable and unjustifiable expense. And that makes me a sad panda...

I love love love the Knobs demos on Youtube - well worth checking out. I also enjoy irritating my girlfriend with weird noises from effects pedals, so was super psyched when Knobs announced they were designing their own noise maker, the Blooper. I have watched all of their update videos, and was waiting patiently to hear something about a release to support the channel and their efforts, and I have just found out it is on Kickstarter. For 500 bucks. Plus tax. Is this right?? I mean, I have basically stopped buying pedals so I can justify my very occasional Red Panda habit, but 600 dollarydoos for a pedal is unbelievable. I don't really know what I expect to achieve from posting, I'm just feeling a bit crushed (hurr hurr) and needed to vent, haha!

Very cool. And, a left handed bass, strung like a right hander...?

I enjoyed it well enough, but it wasn't anything special. I'm slightly disappointed, but remain hopeful for the rest of the album - I definitely preferred one tracks they have been playing live.

EQD have just released the Plumes OD; apparently tubescreamer-esque with a few clipping options. Sounded pretty good on bass (kept low end well) on the Pedals And Effects show, and is relatively affordable at the £100 mark. I have wanted to try a Westwood for ages (a different beast I know, but I have a penchant for low gain), but this might be a low enough price to buy un-tested. Anyone got one on pre-order?

I wonder if it could well be a bit like this - the two new tracks at Download were absolute bangers but were definitely not sing-along anthems. I surprised myself as I tend to prefer Tool's 'songs' rather than their instrumentals, but I thought these were excellent, particularly the interplay within the rhythm section. Can't wait for the albums to come on to streaming though, this is great news.

Yep, I have the HB version and rate it as a low gain, always on overdrive. There have been a few threads saying similar things if you do a search for American Sound - all generally positive, especially considering the price. This guy rates it too - https://johnkvintageguitars.homestead.com/JoyoJF14.html

A Mike Kerr signature Jag. I'm amazed Fender haven't released one, I'm convinced it would sell.

To be perfectly honest I don't love it, but that isn't the fault of the pedal - I just don't think bitcrushers are for me. I bought it in a period of completely self-indulgent GAS where I was on a Red Panda bender, and wanted a bitcrusher for one song. I also really like the work RP do in general, and was lucky enough to be able to afford to support them. I mess around with it from time to time, and can say that I tend to favour Crush over Mod mode, but I don't find it as inspiring as some of their other pedals (the Raster is probably my favourite pedal of all time) - again because I think I am not a bitcrusher guy. I also haven't really experimented with the EXP, but I think I lack the right kind of imagination to get anything special out of it. I think as bitcrushers go though it was pretty cool and has a high ceiling, but I also found it easy to dial in a suitably quirky sound on the LoFi Machine... Horses for courses.

Some discussion about Barefaced cabs from the man himself. I have never even heard a BF cab, but I enjoyed this.

I was at Download Friday Saturday Sunday, had an awesome time, but wasn't camping. We stayed in town, and shuttle bussed in and out each day. I have been to a few festivals in the past with camping, but this one was by far the largest (90,000) and arguably the most enjoyable. The mud situation was fine for me - I was never so out of it that I was falling over. My wellies were filthy below the shin, but I stayed completely clean otherwise. The rain was a bit crap when it came (I think the worst was during Slash) but a cheap poncho over my rain jacket and I stayed totally dry. The vibe was relatively healthy in my opinion - I didn't see any aggro of any description from crowd or staff, olds and kids were always allowed through, and it wasn't too claustrophobic (we were only about 30 m back from the stage). Some drugs floating around so I can understand that putting people off, but I found them easily ignorable. The crush to leave was bearable - from being close to the stage to queuing for the bus was about an hour, but it would have taken at least 20 minutes even if you had a free run at it. No one pushed or shoved or complained - it was more of a stoic smiley shuffle. The shuttle buses were regular, and staff were buoyant - we were three and the ticket was £14 return for the whole group! On site prices were slightly inflated, but a fiver for a pint isn't the end of the world, and acts as a bit of a buffer against getting too wrecked. Never took more than 10 or 15 mins to get served either, apart from maybe once on the Friday. Free fresh water stations all over the place too. The toilets were pretty gross, but I can't see how that can be avoided. All in all, and speaking as someone who typically feels pretty uncomfortable in crowds, I was impressed by how user friendly the whole thing was. I had a blast and would go again. I think the not camping was the trick... The only negative point was the sound - so kick heavy, followed by horrible snare bonk, and then everything else sitting somewhere underneath. I suppose it was better the further back you were, but we hoped by being close to the sound desk tower we might stand a chance... Nope. Tool still blew my mind though 🤘

I have been a lurking abstainer, and had been doing really well (having completely resisted Red Panda GAS for what feels like a year) until earlier this week when a near-mint in-box 1st ed DOD Milkbox turned up locally for a great price. Having never ever used compression, this was an irresistible way to start, and in turn, fail... That said, if I can maintain this purchase rate for the rest of the year it will feel like a personal victory! Although maybe I'm allowed that Tensor now...

There was a short lived thread on this pedal 18 months ago, and I didn't get any bites when I asked last year how people were finding them. I like the concept of it, and would like to give it a try as part of the never ending quest for the perfect OD. Glad it's working out for you!

Speaking of Joyo stuff, the Ultimate Drive might be worth a punt (I thought it was ok rather than knockout). I think the American Sound is really good for the price - quite a good range of breakup without getting fizzy, and a usable EQ. The Behringer BDI also sounds absolutely fine - it's these latter two that I would recommend.

I went through exactly the same thought process, and ended up with a Vox Delaylab. I have only messed around with it for about an hour, but that is because I'm lazy rather than me not liking it - it seems to do pretty much what I thought I wanted it to, and has the capacity for a bunch of fudged effects in addition. It's a shame I haven't got to grips with it, because it was relatively cheap second hand, and seems like a well designed unit. It probably won't survive the impending gear cull, but that is no fault of its own. Ditto X4 does a bunch of time warping reverse looping stuff too.

I saw Enter Shikari last night, it was a belter on all fronts. Pretty good levels too, so thank you Soundperson... To keep it bass related, the bassist regularly switched between a HH 4 string Stingray, and a HJ 5 string Stingray (both non-roasted maple necks and boards). From what I could see in between the fresh dance moves, he had the selector switch at bridge the whole time, so I don't know why it wasn't a standard Ray setup; overall flexibility/future proofing I suppose. No pedal board (just a Boss tuner), I think it was all digital (the guitarist at least was Kemper). Well worth it!

I have had a deco one of these, ostensibly to defret. Despite weighing a ton, it had one of the best necks I have ever played, so I couldn't bear to wreck it. I already had a fretted jazz 4 that got more play time, so sadly this got passed on. Fingers crossed yours is as good.

I had a HB jazz bass that retails for 100 and something, it was easily worth twice that. I reckon these super-versions probably have £100 of extra kit on them? I think they will sell ok. As mentioned previously, Sire is probably the nearest alternative, but the natural super-P 5 stringer is £100 more again... Good to know! I have a Fender Pawnshop, and maybe they made my Matt Freeman ones too.

I'm liking this more and more. Body through strings, easy adjust truss rod at the body end, decent looking bridge, zero fret, Sandberg style string tee... A shame they don't come with the Wilkinson pickups anymore as these Roswells are an unknown quantity to me... Still 398 euros for me?

I was considering this on my commute to work this morning actually... Do you think bands typically know that they are making liberal use of a particular mode and target/write towards it specifically, or do they simply create/iterate towards/have an inherent sense of what will sound good and musical theorists are able to work out why it sounds good/appropriate, after the fact? My own case is definitely the latter, although I freely admit how good it sounds is up for debate. That Anthony Wellington video blew my mode-ignorant mind by the way...

My thoughts too! This looks awesome, any word on if there is a 5 string? There is!! Same natural, or Lake Placid or Creme, both with ebony fretboards. €398. This is tempting, because I am becoming increasingly loathe to fit a humbucker to my Matt Freeman, and almost all of the HBentons I have played are great...

I also have the aforementioned Adagios (45-100 I believe) on a P bass; they felt shiny out of the packet and have stayed so, very slinky and polished. Relatively high tension. Enough tone with the knob well up, and super subby with it all off. I am tempted to whack them on my J bass to check that out; I suspect they will be less versatile than my slightly dulled rounds (and I know I won't be chuffed to fiddle with any intonation...) but could be fun to get thumpy for a while. I have some D'Addario Chromes (also 45-100) on a short scale; they have stayed very matte, and are mid tension (but I don't know how they would feel on a full scale). I seem to remember them being quite expensive and were actually bought in error (I didn't see that they were SS); they are almost as expensive as the (admittedly cheap) bass! They sound very rich though, and with a full tone knob have a good character which is slightly brighter than the Adagios probably... That could be down to the pickups though, hard to say.

On paper the BBBOD should be my favourite pedal, but I didn't fall enough in love with it to justify the new pricetag. I'm still trying out the Fuzz Dog version; I find the nature knob a bit binary, but like it overall. Alternatives I want to try eventually are the KHKD Abyss, the Solid Gold FX Beta, the Xotic Bass BB preamp, and perhaps the Hookers Green Bassmachine, because I have heard these retain bottom end well and can do warm and grindy rather than what I hear as fizzy.

I have one of these incoming too, actually as a cheap trial to give an octave-up a bit more character before it hits a guitar amp. However, I have heard excellent things about it as an all-round drive pedal for bass; a bit of googling re-found this review page (https://johnkvintageguitars.homestead.com/JoyoJF14.html) which is where I first heard about it I think. I'm looking forward to giving mine a whirl. Do you find it plays nicely with other pedals i.e. doesn't get all noisy and annoying?

I find that price quite interesting. Not a "Maybe I buy it" interesting of course, but rather that a Les Paul of the same vintage goes for 10 times the price, and is possibly a not unreasonable guitar version of a Fender Jazz...? If my bass budget existed in the 10s of thousands, rather than the single hundreds, I would buy and play that in a heartbeat, but then I guess so would most of us 😄