adamg67

First I should probably confess that my CM-2 will be popping up in "effects for sale" soon, but honestly that's not why I'm posting, I was really impressed with it. It took me a few days testing it back to back against a Hooker's Green Bassmachine to decide that I was keeping th HGB, and the CM-2 had a wider range if sounds, all of them good IMO. If I didn't have a Vintage Microtubes on the way I would hang on to the CM-2 anyway to give me a choice of overdriven sounds. Definitely worth checking out.

Alex bought a COG Knightfall, all done quickly and easily, couldn't have been any better. Thanks Alex!

I've started buying and selling a few pedals so I can try things out, and might even have a bass or two to sell, so I thought I'd better start a feedback thread.

[quote name='julietgreen' timestamp='1436097781' post='2814875'] This happened to me again at my gig on Friday night - in the same number. I think I had taken every precaution and piece of advice offered - so thanks for all of those. However, I suspect what is going on is actually [url="http://dystonia.org.uk/index.php/about-dystonia/types-of-dystonia/focal-hand-dystonia"]focal dystonia[/url]. It describes the symptoms pretty well. The fingers 'lock' and won't do what I want them to do, but there's no real pain associated with it. It's to do with the mapping of the fingers in the brain. It's a bit of a bummer, if it is, because it may well put paid to my playing. [/quote] Obviously you need to get it checked out properly, but if it is focal dystonia, you might want to check this out: [url="http://www.scottsbasslessons.com/odds-and-sods/the-gloves"]http://www.scottsbas...sods/the-gloves[/url] - if Scott can play like he does with focal dystonia, there might be no need to panic. I can't speak for the man himself but if you got in touch with Scott he might have some advice on working out what it is.

I love the MarkBass Traveler cabs, I've got the 1x15 and the 2x10, but before anyone comments about mixed speakers, I'm using a sansamp + stereo power amp, so they are not really "mixed" - there's an amp per speaker essentially, which to me sounds very good, you get the "wider" tone from the 2 speakers but neither speaker even knows the other one is there. That wouldn't be how you would be running them I think though. The 2x10 will do a small gig on it's own, and they are both just amazing for the weight. I'm sorted for speakers for a long time now. Having just the 2x10 though... well, I'm not sure it would be enough for me. How about 2 x 2x10s if the amp does 4ohm, then you can just use one if it's a small gig, both for bigger gigs. You can carry one in each hand as easily as carrying a 4x10, and they're easier to load and store.

I think a compressor can be really useful if you have different sounds for different songs. I have about 4 or 5 slightly different sounds - picking or fingerstyle, effects on or off - and the compressor really does seem to do it's job and keep things even. I use a dbx 160A rackmount one as it hardly change the sound at all, just compresses it (which seems about right to me!). That comes at the cost of losing a bit of the dynamics, but then I tend to want those preserved more on the quieter stuff anyway, so I try and have it so the compressor does nothing on the quiet stuff and gradually kicks in as things get more aggressive.

It was very tempting, too tempting for me to resist. I am now the owner of that very Hooker's Green Bassmachine, being a little bit of a geek I had to look up where the name comes from: [url="http://orbisplanis.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/why-is-it-called-hookers-green.html"]http://orbisplanis.b...kers-green.html[/url] - well, at least now I know when people ask why the f it's called that. It is a really nice little pedal, definitely an overdrive, on low drive it just adds a nice bit of crunch, which sounds good to me - I have a bit of an old fashioned bassy tone, so the slightly dark tone on this pedal fits that really nicely. With the drive up it gets a bit more like those demo videos, but it's a proper *bass* overdrive, the low end does not go missing at all. The instructions were in Japanese, but it's not hard to work out, the hidden extra is the "low" trim pot that you can tweak through a small hole in the side, it's a subtle thing but it seems to control how much low end gets preserved, so I set that to "all of it please". The best bit came when I tried it through the 3leaf Proton envelope filter I got recently, what a combination! I don't know what it is, but those two pedals love each other, with the bassmachine on low to mid drive the the proton tracks and sweeps really well and the overall sound is just gorgeous, not over the top at all, really usable - I've got really high hopes for that in a band setting, which is when you really find out what works obviously. I'll try and get something recorded with it at some point, at least just a quick demo of how I'm using it, won't be in the next week though. Now to see how well it stands up against the COG Knightfall that's in the post, and the wildcard Digitech CM-2 - it seemed silly not to try one given the second hand prices and what people say about them.

I use an EHX POG-2 to thicken my sound up, it sounds a lot like what you're after but very flexible. Takes a bit of playing to work out how to get the tone you want but when you get it sussed you can get everything from subtle sweetening to mad organ sounds.

I've had a weekend playing with the 3 pedals now, and I think I've got them all fairly well sussed. Here's my totally subjective view, bearing in mind that I'm after quiet a subtle effect which leaves most of my tone intact (as much as filter can): [b]EHX Enigma Q Balls[/b]: These are a lot of fun, for me the "signature sound" is with the distortion on, and I suppose that's the point in combining the 2. I'm not even sure the blend is that useful, it just seems to sound more convincing with blend up, distortion on and plenty of filter. But that's not what I'm looking for, so the EHX is the first pedal back up for sale. [b]Source Audio Soundblox BEF[/b]: This seems like a really good pedal to me, it does a pretty good job of taming all the options you end up with on an envelope filter. Nice range of preset sounds from the main dial, and then tweaking them is easy as well. The main thing missing is a blend, I probably want a little bit less effect. I could buy (or make if I had the time) a blend pedal, or maybe spring for the BEF pro which has blend, EQ and presets. [b]3Leaf Proton[/b]: This is the best sounding of the 3 for what I'm looking for, it's pretty close to spot on now I've got it tweaked for my sound. Very nice, very musical, just what I was after. The only down side (which seems to be true of lots of BEFs) is that it's quite sensitive, so the settings when I'm playing with a pick don't work quite right for fingerstyle. So what I really need is 2 of these That's just a start, I need to watch out for other things to try, but I'm starting to think a Soundblox BEF pro would be the best bet because I really do need at least 2 slightly different setups, maybe 3, so the 6 presets would be perfect. If I could try the basic BEF with blend I would know... Hmm, I could do that through my DAW if I had a splitter... I could grab a 2nd hand ABY box, they do come in handy. I've been looking at the Moogerfooger and the Xerograph as well but both sound too synthy for me, so I probably won't even try those.

I've bought the Proton from here as well, so when everything arrives my first 3 way shoot out will be Enigma Q Balls vs original Soundblox BEF vs original Proton. I'm getting somewhere with the Enigma now, the distorted sound could be a plus but it's the same old thing, will I really ever use it on one of our songs? We're fairly rocky but with some blues and funk leanings. I'll let everyone know which of them is best for metal, obviously.

[quote name='tonyxtiger' timestamp='1435079777' post='2805274'] I'm too far away for you to try mine but I'd be confident you'll like it. Unless you really like the presence on the RBI the advantage of the parametric mids on the RPM is you can lose the mid cut. Or cut/boost whatever you want. You can even replicate the presence on the RBI. It's a great unit. I ran two VTRMs but now I have one RPM in there as you can do more with it. The gain on the RPM I prefer also. In the meantime have you tried backing off the blend to halfway or less? I don't think many people go beyond that because of the scoop from the "tube emulation" [/quote] Yeah, that's very much what I was thinking, much more flexibility from the RPM. I do use blend to tame the presence, I seem to be able to get a similar sound in one of two ways, either taking blend down and drive up, or leaving the blend up and using mid boost + treble cut on the bass. Both get me to about the same place, bit it's like there's only one sound I like from the RBI and I suspect there are more from the RPM. I think I'll look out for an RPM for sale, or maybe even buy a new one, and then try them back to back and keep the one I like most.

Interesting, sounds like it's worth trying some different 3leaf ones. This is going to keep the postie busy I can tell!

Just picked up the old model Soundblox BEF (ie not the pro) on ebay as well, so we'll see how that stacks up against the EHX. From the demo vids, it sounds a bit more subtle and musical which is what I'm after. I still might have to try a 3Leaf, I'm thinking maybe look out for a second hand Wonderlove but I don't think they've been out long? Expect to see a crop of filters on ebay as I select between them

I just watched the video of the Soundblox Pro BEF, and I wish I hadn't... why do I want one?? I would use about 1% of what it can do! I think it's the idea that in there somewhere is the perfect sound...

[quote name='Bo0tsy' timestamp='1435004641' post='2804680'] Envelope Filters are so subjective :0) [/quote] Yeah, I'm already resigned to buying a few second hand as I find them and then keeping whatever I like best. I've just been listening to a demo of the 3Leaf Wonderlove and that sounds really nice. So far, the EHX Enigma is sounding a bit too synthy to me. I think maybe I'm really after more of an auto-wah effect than a Mu-Tron sound. That's why I wonder if the Proton is just trying to do the same thing (Mu-Tron) as the Enigma, so I might be better looking out for other things to compare to the Enigma.

I'm hunting around for an envelope filter at the moment, I'm expecting to maybe have to try a few, I've picked up an EHX Enigma second hand so I'm trying that now, and I noticed a 3 leaf proton (older model with a switch instead of a delay knob) for sale on here. From what I can see / hear from demos, it looks like it will pretty much do a smaller subset of what the Enigma will do, and sound pretty similar, but I can't see any back to back comparisons so far. Has anyone tried both, and is it worth me trying a proton if I've already got the Enigma to play with? I can sell on whichever I don't like but you always lose a few quid (and some precious time).