prowla

It was nice meeting everybody and I found the guitar makers presentations fascinating. Well worth the drive!

I think the -1 octave is alright, though; it's more stable than my Aguilar.

Well, I spent a bit of quality time with it last night and I think I'm starting to get to grips with it. I got a near Tom Sawyer growl and also a phat synth sound (with the oscillators at 0, +12, and -12); I'll try and record them and do screenshots of the settings and an upload of the sounds. One thing I am disappointed with is the +1 octave sound - it's just dull and lifeless. The -2 octave is of questionable use on a bass, as you can hear the individual pulses of the sound if you go below A, but that's more about physics than an issue with the unit itself! It's too bad that the unit is limited to 9 saved synth sounds, but you can have a PC connected via USB to load one on the fly; that's of questionable use in a gig situation, but I suppose you could always buy a 2nd unit to double up!

Hmmm - it's a 2-hour drive for me, but I might make a call on the day as to whether to go. It'd be good to see the Shafty again; sadly my Hondo II faker isn't yet operational, but I might bring along a couple of other P & J builds and maybe my '78 Ric restoration. I'm always on the lookout for parts if anybody has surplus. So I'm a maybe...

I think so! I've got a Precision one waiting for me to fit machines (needs the holes enlarging for them), to put onto my Frankenstein body.

That's beer money.

Seems like a good price to me - I'd buy it if it was nearby.

You do need to trick it out with a drop-D tuner, though! :-)

I've been a novice who plays for fun for the past 30-40 years!

You read my mind!

Nice. I was thinking looks-wise too, something furniture-like.

Nice - I've been debating making a living-room friendly cab.

If it's going through the PA, then the amp is just for monitoring. Would angling the cab do the trick?

A Markbass amp & 1x12 cab.

One of the variants is tweaked by Yamaha.

You might have a point there...

I think that's one of those urban myth things, just like with Rics. :-) Mine's 12 years old and I've had more trouble with other cars (Ford, Vauxhall, BMW, Seat); I think the Toyota engine was a smart move. (The L is for "Loads", BTW. :-) )

Precision = Transit van.

Rickenbacker and a Lotus - quirky, a few rough edges, don't follow the pack, huge grin on face. (Mind you, I might be buying a Land Rover soon too!)

Hi! Whereabouts are you? I've been wanting a keyboard practice amp and a small cab, so they could be ideal just as they are!

Yep - I tried that (that's how I found out that all of the controls there wouldn't do anything). Here's a screenshot from a youtube video https://uk.video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?p=markbass+super+synth+editor&fr=yhs-invalid#id=1&vid=1c0a01228ca2683d5d4a39230839112a&action=view It's the tab under the cursor arrow there. In the video, the person clicks on it and it shows the oscillator controls. But when I do it they're greyed. Aha! - the video explains it at 2:30! The large Tone control has to be fully clockwise and showing "User" - then they are enabled.

I think it's a darned good pedal! I've also got a Boss SYB-5, which I never really bonded with and an EH Synth-9 which rather good too. But the programmability of the MB one is a big feature.

I was playing my bass through it and changing settings interactively. (The panel I'm talking about is the 2nd tab at the right half of the window.) I'll check out that site - thanks! (Ah - I'd been there and downloaded those patches, though I haven't tried them.)

A compressor before the octave pedal helps. I also toyed with putting a passive tone control in front of it, so roll off the harmonics which might confuse it. I've just got a Markbass Super Synth, whose octave function seems OK; it offers +1. -2, and -2 octaves and tracks pretty well. Not cheap if you just want an octave, though! My other octave pedal is an Aguilar Octamizer and, as folks have mentioned, it's happy going to the C (or maybe B) on the A string; I also found that the sound breaks up if you hold a note and let it fade. I put a CP-1X compressor in front and that made a distinct improvement on stability and I seemed to be able to do an A too. The reason I chose the Aguilar over others I tried (MXR, Boss) was that it kept the character of the notes played, rather than producing a dull mush; however, needing to compress and/or turn down the tone kindof defeats that. I think that doing octave below on the lower registers on a bass may be hitting the laws of physics. Some years ago, I made an octave up pedal (I think based on something in Elektor magazine) and it was interesting; essentially half-wave rectifying the signal doubles the frequency and adds a distortion. Another thing I've considered is trying a sub generator rack unit - I don't recall the brand though (dbx?). And finally, as an adjunct, I've got a Minitaur, which can do some interesting stuff; however, I'm not very good at standing on one leg, so playing it is a bit of a struggle for me!