totorbass

23 hours ago, dannybuoy said:

I keep the gain fairly low on the Blower Box too, it sounds shite otherwise!

I like the Vintage, but not as much as the B3K/B7K circuit for my current sound. I'm using a BB1025X with both pickups on, which results in a scooped sound like a Jazz bass. Something about that bass combined with the B3K/B7K makes it slot right into the mix like a glove with barely any EQ adjustments. I find I have to tweak the EQ quite a bit if I flip the amp over to Vintage mode.

Both Darkglass drives though have a similar characteristic where they let the low end through clean and uncompressed, just distorting the mids. Kind of like a solid state clean bass amp mixed in parallel with a distorted guitar amp. This works great for aggressive or dynamic playing styles, but sometimes you want the full range of the signal to be compressed and driven, making a sound like an old cranked amp pushing a speaker to its limits. That's what pedals like the Tonehammer and Bearfoot Blueberry do so well, it works great for more mellow slower numbers. The M900 amp can't really do that tone alone, but you can flip the Microtubes engine off and you have a clean transparent amp that you can then dirty up with one of the aforementioned units.

Also have to give a shout to the Pike Vulcan - it's like a less scooped B3K and brighter more agressive Vintage crammed into a single box, with a blend knob between both sounds. In short it can approximate both the main Darkglass sounds and costs less than either one of them!

I agree, about the Blower Box.

Your description of the Darkglass core sound does make sense. I find the Pike pretty close from what  I hear on YT. (but a vulcan needs very good ears )

Yes the blowerbox is very useful. I mostly use it to add grit /graininess with gain at 10-11 o'clock, but It can  get much more distorted.

BTW don't you like the vintage microtubes, Danny? -it seems quite intermediate beetween the ones you mention.

1 hour ago, dannybuoy said:

Of the ones I've tried, I like the Cali 76 Compact Bass for general purpose transparent compression, and the Effectrode PC-2A for more of a warm tube preamp style of compressor that works absolute wonders with my acoustic fretless.

Ones that didn't make the grade:

 

- EBS Multicomp - the input kept clipping with my bass and playing style. Perhaps the newer Studio Edition has improved things here?

- Diamond - lack of a ratio control and some unexplained buzzing when used with my Cioks DC5 power supply meant I had to move this on.

- Keeley Bassist - seemed a bit dry and clinical and the attack time was set pretty fast for me - I like the peak to come through a little more before it clamps down. Would make a great limiter though especially as the ratio control goes up to infinity.

- RMI Basswitch Dual Band - changed the tone pretty drastically compared to other comps, and the internal 9v-18v puts out a high pitched hum on the power line that gets picked up by other pedals if you don't use isolated power.

 

The Spectracomp looks great if you mainly use one bass and want to set it and forget it. CRAZY amounts of tweakable controls in the editor app, and plenty of Toneprints to get you going, looks like a fun pedal for tweakers. I like to flick between different basses though and prefer something with basic metering and a threshold control for setting on the fly.

I like the Keeley a lot for it's clarity and ease of use, plus versatility as It can compress softly or brick-wall limit. I didn't experience these problems with the EBS but it was not transparent. The MXR I had wasn't working well and that seems to happen quite often.  

Much easier to carry than your toilets, and sounds quite the same.

Oh my, it is gorgeous.

4 hours ago, Al Krow said:

I am not sure the 'Cilla' analogy translates so well into French...:) 

 

No, I don't get it. Is that Something like this: ? 

@cuzzie: about the Parvati, your description sounds nice but I did not find a bass demo on the web.

edit ah yes I see it on their site, under another pedal's name.

I don't think I can "teach" anything in this matter   It's just that  I saw the world " muff"  in the Parvati's description and according to my experience with the supercollider am not after a big muff, which I find too fuzzy, despite the mids control of the SC. 

I have a DIY 1590 mosquite-style blender which is useful with the AGRO for example, but I'll prefer not having many units and patch cables. About the LS2 be careful about the fact it does not have a phase switch, and dirt units are sometimes polarity reversed .

Yes I don't feel like  I'm finding how to bow bananas saying that

PS I see the Parvati is a Muff-type: I had a supercollider in the past (two in fact, an earthbound and an acid age) and it's not really for me.

Thanks  Al Krow. I will take a look at the Demon Parvati. By the way I'm not bothered with the loss of top end with the B3K (thanks to the blend ) but the HF -that cuts marvelously -has Something unnatural to my ears that is not a problem when used as a grinding distortion, but is when as a smootherOD ( In fact it is not smooth), and when I need something more fuzzy or thick (as can be the runoffgroove pushed which seems very similar to the Beta),  to feed an AF for example, it is too cutting too.

edit, I wanted to add, btw: the OD can make it across the Spectrum but have Something unpleasing to your ears in it's own voice.

Thanks, maybe I'll give it a try, or the Beta, I don't know, to put beside the b3k.  Maybe the Hooker is more redundant? sounds like a good all-purpose OD which can go a little in the distorsion territory.

Does the one control Hooker eats some bass as I read somewhere?

Each time this topic is bumped my heart jumps and I connect to Paypal

I can't see the pics.

That said it is probably a better bridge than the badass, although the badass looks less "alien" on a fender.

Hipshot " A" type.

20 minutes ago, Jack said:

I quite like it from the nut down. The headstock is odd though. Not that it's overly bad, it's just that the angular head doesn't match the curvy body. Actually, I met someone like that once....

Do you prefer something like that: 

?

There is one for sale on french Forum Onlybass, with a repaired headstock, fretbuzz on G 17 and E 16 and the switch has to be fixed,  but you can have it for approx a thousand euros less.

https://onlybass.com/topic/96614-gibson-eb2-1967/

32 minutes ago, FinnDave said:

Hard to believe so many people are that bothered by what a bass looks like. They play well and sound good, what's not to like? I play my Fender Precisions far more than the EB4, but it's still a good bass.

I guess you are right, but I still care.

So far I haven't found the solution.

-I liked the EBS valvedrive very much, but cumbersome and boring to feed at 12v AC

I tried the runoffgroove Ginger, very good mild OD but one trick pony .

then Scientist Elements, lacked bass compared to the valvedrive IMO, otherwise very good and obviously very versatile.

The mxr bass OD was a bit muddy for my taste and lacked personnality

I went to an Agro, I sold for a B3K, I sold for an Agro, and bought a new B3k. The aggie is very good, versatile and pleasant before an EF but gets a bit lost in the mix IMO (a bit noisy too, and the heavy steel box bothers me. I wish it came with a blend and aluminium standard box).  The B3k is very good at what it does, but not very transparent and by no means creamy (too harsh to use before an EF )

I also have an idiotbox blowerbox clone which is cool in a rat-esque way. Useful but gain past noon I don't like the sound

all in all the B3k and Agro comes first, maybe the agro is better yet because it is very versatile, can be aggressive but has enough body to sound sweet and natural.

Maybe I'll try the chase bliss next.

1 hour ago, discreet said:

That looks like about a thousand similar basses. Why??

The body looks like a Carvin, the headstock like uninspired Gibson. Neither vitagish nor modern. Uinspired IMO.I liked the other much better. 

But in fact, I'm afraid this is a discontinued model (except the fiver) according to the Gibson website. This topic gave me the false hope it was  reissued . The latest model looks much uglier to me.

"No one falling on his head baby will ever be the same. " was the pitch.

19 minutes ago, discreet said:

Thetes no need to be rude. I was dropped as a baby.

Haha I realize I should have said "headstock", sorry.

&Good bridge, not bulky... Just lacks chrome PU's covers and cloverleaf tuners (maybe no guard too, IMHO)

Maybe a..... flat head too