41Hz

I’ve not been handling fibreglass. I did get a shard of glass in my thumb a few years ago about 5-6mm long that was totally invisible. I had to go and have a surgeon remove it.

Yes, found this too..., suggests more common in bass players over 40

Strings are D’addario EXL170BT nickel wound. I’m not sure tape will work as it seems to be any pressure on the skin that causes the issue. Just tried dipping my finger in PVA glue and peeling it off but that didn’t work. Now icing it and taking ibuprofen. Had another look with a magnifying glass but can’t see anything.

Just now, Bassfinger said:

Never come across that before.  Is there anything visible?

Not that I can see, probably need to find a magnifying glass

I was practicing last night and got a sudden sharp pain in my fingertip. It feels exactly like I have a splinter and is still sore this morning when I touch the end of the finger.

I fitted new strings a few days ago and when it happened I was doing a string bend. I’m wondering if it dislodged a metal shard from the string. I’ve done a bit of googling and found something referred to as phantom splinters for players of stringed instruments where the finger callous pinches a nerve. As it happened so quickly and I have new strings I’m thinking it is more likely a real splinter.

Anyone else had this? It’s so sensitive I’m going to have to cancel band practice tonight.

1 hour ago, dave_bass5 said:

You could do it with Snapshots. At least I can on my Stomp. Pretty sure you can as well.

You can set the on/off function for any block to any foot switch, but Im not sure how you would do 3 setting.

For example, I have a BDDI set to on, with little drive, and another block with the same BDDI but a much higher drive (and slightly lower level). I have both set to one foot switch. The patch is saved with the low drive on and the high drive off. Using just one foot switch alternates between the two. Pretty cool feature. 

Thanks! I’ve not played with snapshots yet, will have a try later to see if I can get it to work

Wondered if this is possible......

I would like to assign a single footswitch for pitch shift, I need to drop either a semi tone or a whole tone (Eb or D) for some songs. Ideally I’d like to cycle through 3 options on a single switch, ie OFF, -1, -2, OFF etc.

I can do it with two switches, either two separate pitch shift blocks on separate switches with the interval set to -1 and -2, or a single pitch shift on one then assign a different foot switch to toggle the interval with max/min values of -1,-2.

Is this possible using just one switch? Thought I’d read you can toggle multiple effects on a single switch, but so far I can’t see how.

10 hours ago, dave_bass5 said:

Nice one, thanks. I'll measure my Stomp in the morning. I have a feeling/hoping its a bit narrower. 

How are you getting on with your FX?

Yeah, the more I play with it the better it gets. I’m finding the  pitch shift is really handy for songs that need Eb or D tuning, it can warble slightly on low long sustained notes, but not noticeable in the band.

11 hours ago, dave_bass5 said:

Can anyone tell me if the foot switches on the Helix Effects are the same distance apart as the Stomp? My large feet keep hitting two at once on my Stomp, just wonder if the Effects will be the same, as im considering getting that to replace the Stomp.

I just measured the spacing between two adjacent switches on my HXFX at 6.8cm or 13.6cm across 3 switches (measured centre to centre)

25 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

It won't work on an iPad 

I’ve not tried it but I think you can use an iRig straight into a PC as an interface. Would I need to use helix native with something like audacity or will it work standalone?

38 minutes ago, stoo said:

It doesn't sound that similar (to my ears, with my bass and playing style at least) to any of the default settings for any of the SVT models.... I'd be fairly sure that with some tweaking of drive/master/eq parameters you could make the SVT models sound like the sansamp model..... but I'm not sure that's really helping any?

Have you considered downloading the Helix Native free trial? That way you could test any of the amp sim models available and see if there's anything that you prefer in those which you can't replicate with the sansamp model.....

I’ll look into that, I have an irig I use with my iPad for recording, need to see if that would work with it

I'm still a bit on the fence whether to stick with the HXFX or go for a stomp.

I just looked up the the sansamp v1 manual and got the setting for an SVT sound, tried it on HXFX, it did sound fairly similar to what I remember when I tried the SVT model in the shop, but if any stomp owners want to try it and see how it compares to the built in SVT model, I'd be very interested.

They just gave knob positions in the sansamp manual, which I roughly translated to...

Drive = 5.0

Bass = 6.0

Treble = 4.5

Presence = 7.5

Blend = 10

level = 5.0

Interested how close this is to the SVT model.

Cheers!

6 minutes ago, stoo said:

You can reassign FS3 (or FS4 / FS5 if you're using an external switch as well) to a few different functions, and All Bypass is one of the options....

Ah ok thanks, I guess its a pity you couldn't press say FS1 and FS2 together to do the bypass, as if you use FS3 then you are down to only 2 foot switches for changing presets which would be pretty tough. Sounds like the external foot switches are pretty essential if you want to gig with it

I tried the stomp today in the shop (I have an HX effects on a 14 day trial, which is about to expire, so wanted to see if I should swap)

It was a bit more fiddly to use vs the HXFX but on the flip side I did quite like the SVT amp sims.

The thing I was struggling with, is bypassing the unit when I don’t want any effects/amp sims. On the HXFX you just press the tuner+mode Footswitches together and it is completely bypassed. As far as I can tell you can’t bypass the stomp with the Footswitches. Is that correct? Not so practical in a gig to bend down and start pressing buttons to bypass it.

I think that might be the deal breaker for me unless anyone can advise a way to do it?

7 minutes ago, 2elliot said:

What effects do you actually need? I had a HX FX and it was overkill.  I only ever used distortion, chorus and compression. 

It's a great box but I ended up selling it and using my individual pedals. 

Pretty much as above, plus the pitch shift, octaver and the tuner, that’s still 6 pedals so the hxfx should still be a smaller cheaper solution than pedals.

I think it could be possible with the routing options to use it in the same way as the stomp with stereo aux in from your iPad mixed with the mono signal from the bass. But I’m not fully up to speed with the routing options

Just tried it and it worked a treat, obviously only worked in one ear, but wouldn't be difficult to modify the cable so the mono signal was in both ears. For the ipad aux in, I guess you could just use the return sockets - though might not end up true stereo when it goes back to the headphones

7 hours ago, dave_bass5 said:

If the Effects had headphone out I’d be swapping over  to it today, now I realise I could make more use of the extra foot switches. I use my Stomp almost everyday at home for headphone practice, and I can’t give that up. It’s overkill for that use, but combined with the live use it’s almost perfect. 

I think you can set the output level on the HXFX to line out, if you did this and had a suitable cable to convert from the mono line out to stereo headphone socket, I think that could work, you'd have to make sure you had the level low enough in the global settings - will look into it.

So I did pick up an HX effects at a pretty good price and the shop was happy for me to take it on a 14 day trial.

I am wondering however if I’m missing out not having the amp modelling in the stomp?

The HXFX is £50 cheaper, has 8 vs 3 Footswitches and 9 vs 6 blocks. Currently I’m using my GK MB212 onstage, but if I went amp less in the future couldn’t I just use the HXFX preamp sims, Darkglass, Sansamp etc., to go into the mixer, possibly with cabinet IRs if needed?

...or do the stomp amp sims really outshine the preamp effects I already have on the HXFX?

I’m not really a pedal nut, but I’ve joined a band where I’ll need a few effects.

I was looking at the HX effects vs the Stomp and think the FX would be better for me on the basis that......

+ The FX has a decent number of foot switches, the stomp would be tricky to use live

+ I’ll be going straight into my amp rather than PA and am happy with the sound, so I don’t think I need the amp/cab models?

Just wanted to check these assumptions are correct? I’m wondering if the amp sims are useful to get some of the overdrive sounds, or if I can manage with the FX?

Also I have a zoom b1on that was great fun to play around with at home, but went it came down to it the best sound I got out of it when it was in tuner (bypass) mode.

Is the helix a significant step up in sound quality over the zoom, if it isn’t would I be better getting a few standalone pedals?

Thanks,

Ah, sorry. I think I just sussed out how to do it using unread content, but then editing to include read content

On most online forums you are able to look at all the latest topics in chronological order from all the sub forums.

As far as I can tell this isn’t possible on basschat unless I’m missing something.

The latest activity feed even in condensed view is cluttered up with the replies too.

The only option is to manually browse the sub forums but this is a pain, so I usually just end up looking in general discussion.

Is there a way around this I have missed?

Len, Stub and others that have PM’d thanks for your comments! It’s not too bad at the moment, just hoping it won’t progress to the stage where it stops me playing.

Hi all,

I’ve been having pain/stiffness in my fretting hand in the mornings for several months which seems to be getting worse. I eventually went to the GP a few weeks ago who was pretty unhelpful so thinking of asking for a referral to a consultant as I have private health cover.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a hand specialist that is used to dealing with musicians/ problems associated with playing an instrument? Ideally in the south, but will travel for the right person.

This is well worth a watch if you haven’t already seen it.