Hooch

Agreed, demos are questionable. Someone on TB spotted a somehow extra compression layer effect on Ian Allisson's demo iirc, which might not rely on the DCX itself - though one could argue saturation does compress signal. To be honest, these release vids, and the nature of the mid-gain drive, which is not 100% what i'm looking for, made me stay away from this pedal for a while. 

But reviews of forum users and a sweeter priced 2nd-hand DCX in my neighbourhood helped me taking the plunge. Glad i did.

4 minutes ago, lee650 said:

I actually plan to use it after an FEA Optifet, so it'll have a nice compressed boost with some added warmth too. I put I in the EBS loop as I primarily use that as an A/B with DI, but of late I've only been using the one channel so I could move it to the end of the chain

Nice ! Dig how it's sounding after an optical comp as well (Broughton Monocomp). Makes tone even fatter ha ! Use a tube pedal between them (Broughton Quicksilver) set at the edge of breakup. Dig what i'm hearing !

1 hour ago, lee650 said:

I'm very interested in the last two posts as ive a theatre gig in November and have to use IEM's, and the DCX would go into my EBS Microbass II loop. I've been thinking of selling my JPTR Jive and Sadowsky BP2 pedals as thinking the DCX may cover what these are doing (hopefully better) I want subtle saturation but one that will work with active basses as well as a decent EQ for my passive basses. I'm not too bothered about OD, but at that sort of cash I'd hope it was decent in that application.

 

Any current owners thoughts would be very welcome 😁

I'd perfectly see the DCX replacing both your Jive and Sadowsky pre. Got tons of deep lows on tap, might not reach Sadowsky sizzling highs but any change is noticeable on this side as well, and yeah, Drive knob at noon or so will provide nice hints of saturation as well, depending on the signal sent to the DCX. 

Tested and tried it with passive basses only, but the DCX sees a buffered signal in my signal-chain. So my guess is it'd be equally at home with an active bass. It's a superb tone enhancer imo, reason why i'm using it after pedals already imparting some 'colour' and texture. Kinda sums up and improves the whole thing.

Oh, and it likes to be pushed with a gently compressed and boosted signal as well, result being a nice and quite easy to set smooth saturation in EQ mode.

Not sure if it'd provide all its goodness in an effect loop, just before the EBS might be a sweeter spot, but worth test & trying for sure.

Must reckon i'm not much into the DCX's mid-gain drive tone. There are better options in the market imo for bass overdriven tones. Now push its EQ section with any (bass) overdrive pedal and it's much better sounding than without. Any knobs setting change is more noticeable, breakup is more detailed, and you got some super effective bass-taillored voicing and EQ as a bonus. Getting hefty and full lows from an od, even one with a blend, is not always easy, the DCX provides tons of them while retaining the breakup.

And when the overdrive pedal is off, you get a great 'clean' tone enhancer, with tasty hints of saturation if it's your thing as an second bonus. Awesome pedal !

* Halcyon->DCX Bass might a winner

If you aim at using a separate power-amp, mains preamps are the way to go imo. A preamp pedal won't be juicy enough in most case, whatever power-amp it sees. Totally relies on power-amp input sensitivity of course, but even with what i *think* are good ones in this field (Acoustic Image Focus SA), had thinner and much noisier results than with mains preamps - with the noticeable exception of the Grace Alix, whose output is on par with preamp pedals.

Sold

Up for sale is my Free The Tone Black Vehicle, in excellent working and cosmetic condition. It's an awesome bass overdrive with some neat features, such as Bass & Treble knobs applied on OD side only, pre-post switchable boost.

£215 / 255€ shipped to your door in Europe.

Price drop : 135€ shipped to your door. Bargain at that price if you ask me.

Thank you, bass just sold locally

Up for sale is this nice Vanzandt JBV-R2, hand-made in Japan. It's a stunning jazz bass, which is the closest i found tone-wise to 60s vintage Fenders - got a 1965 jazz to compare. It's a full-nitro relic model made for a shop in Shibuya. Had a bunch of nice replicas (Bravewood, Navigator, Moon, Vanzandt...), this one stayed and blew out of the water two other JBV-R2. There's really something special with this bass, livelier mids i'd say. 

It plays superbly with dead-straight neck, and low action (2mm above 12th fret), trussrod is almost untouched, loads of room left. Madagascar rosewood fingerboard is gorgeous, medium-jumbo frets in near-new condition. Perfect balance (4,2kg). Original Vanzandt pickups and Cornell-Dubilier repro cap, CTS pots. 

Comes with a Vanzandt branded Contego gig-bag. €1350/£1150 shipped to your door in Europe.
 

Up for sale is this lovely medium drive to full-on high-gain pedal. Its designer moved from Providence to FreeTheTone, explaining why the layout is quite reminiscent of FreeTheTone Bass Blaster. It really is a great distorsion pedal, i'm not much into high-gain tones atm, hence the sale. Needs being run with AC current / adapter. Works flawlessly, excellent condition.

£125 / 150€ shipped in Europe.

Just sold a ME Super 300 to Markus, super nice guy to deal with. Thank you Markus !

Couldn't be happier with my purchase. Quick comms and fast shipping, the pedal is exactly as described and works flawlessly. Thank you Darren !

Sold

Sold

There's not a bunch of them in the wild, Micah builds them on order, and for a few months now. They're custom specc'd, went for a 66 B-15 octal pre, Arkham's featured - hi/lo resonance, fixed mid bump and hpf switches, and this awesome range knob which sets the baxandall EQ center frequency, line out, power amp in... This one is a split rail version, with a (super tasty) touch-sensitive breakup, as opposed to Ultra Linear alla Sunn version). A pair of KT90 feeds a huge output transformer up to 75W clean power of tonal nirvana.

It's a mind-blowing amp, covers such a lot of ground. The nice part of it is it makes any of my basses singing, even the 'counter-intuitive' ones considering its 60s roots. My Warwick SS2 never sounded that good ! Micah's pre & cratmanship is awesome.

It's my dream amp, and it's at home !

As for colour, aging and sourcing fine repro parts, John is still the best, by a mile ! Stunning bass.

Studio Boost is sold, there are still 2 great comps up for sale. 

Monocomp is an optical comp with blend and tilt-EQ features. Its ability to be run up to 24V helps defining how clean is the comp side. Loads of neat tones, on the warm but also the tight side in these 4 knobs. ON HOLD

Apex won't be built again, due their THAT chip not being produced anymore. And it's a shame, they're your typical set and forget device. -20dB or so, depending on the signal, threshold, 4-5:1 ratio, 5dB make-up gain and sidechain hpf in the 200Hz region, and there you go. Provides this transparent and pretty effective  VCA compression, articulate mids for days.

Up for sale are these Broughton Audio pedals. Excellent to mint condition.

Broughton Apex (VCA comp with a neat sidechain feature) : £190/225€ 

Broughton Monocomp (optical comp, blend and tilt EQ featured)  : ON HOLD 

Broughton Studio Boost (Neve console gain stage emulation, up to 24VDC like original ones): SOLD

Please add 15€ for shipping anywhere in Europe.

Up for sale is my ME Super 300, which is a great SVT pre (and cab sim) emulation. It's their latest version (compact size, soft relay switches), mint condition.

200€ / £170, with an extra 15€ shipping fees anywhere in Europe.

Sold

Yeah it was quite the journey to go from France to UK, six weeks or so to cross the boarder and be delivered. Not a comfortable situation for both of us for sure, but we did what could be done and patience finally was a virtue.

And this Precision rocks ! GLWYS Mark

Absolutely, releases are most often pretty late / early for those living in West Coast, batches being sold out from one minute or so to 10-15 min. Archetypes went pretty fast, like the Sunray a few years ago. Tried to snag one, pulled the trigger during the 10 first second they were available, made a typo on my PP password, 2nd attempt was ok, as payment authorization, they were sold out in the meantime. 

Broughton pedals and mains pre's never disappoint. Had 20+ of them during the last 4 years, including the P-15, SSDI and incoming Archetype. Pretty psyched about this one, think it will help drastically simplifying my pedal-board's 'dirt tone' part. Can't wait !

SV-Pre is a great take on SVT's tone. It got heft, massive lows, and although reproducing the weird scooped and bumped nature of SVTs mids, it doesn't disappear in a band setting. Think you'll dig it, congrats !