BillyBass

Hi all,

Apologies, I know the subject of headphone amps has come up a fair bit but I would like some input regarding my need for a practice set up at home.  I need an Aux-in and a headphone out, I don't need it to be portable, it will be mainly used in one room.  

I don't need all the effects on the Zoom B1Four (but might use them if they are there) I just want the practice amp facility.  it is very cheap, this is its attraction. 

Likewise with the Spectradrive, I have a compressor and dirt pedal already but the Preamp could come in handy and I'm sure I would use this into the FX return of my MarkBass sometimes.  It would also fit on my board, just.  Not as cheap as the Zoom but not outrageous.

A concern I have about buying something for the headphone out, that isn't an actual headphone amp, is that the sound quality will be poor.  What are BCers experiences of using either of these devices for the headphone-out and aux-in?  Would there be a big leap up in sound quality with the Ashdown Tonepocket or PJB Bighead?

25 minutes ago, wildebassman said:

Enjoy! Didn't work out for me but your combination of amp and cab is different.

I read your posts above.  You must have had a dud.  I get no hiss but there is minor fan noise, I say minor as it is much quieter than my Trace Elliot Elf fan noise.

7 hours ago, fretmeister said:

At the moment I seem to be using my P with roto flats a lot. Just sounds perfect to me.

I have roto flats on my P bass too; it did sound good out of the Little Marcus and one10 yesterday, really smooth.

52 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

SNAP!

 

I love it. All my basses sound different with it, as they should, and it takes pedals really well too.

Ordinarily I wouldn't buy blind, but its lockdown.  I was umming and arring between the Genzler Magellan 350, the Darkglass 500 and the Markbass.  I thought I might end up wanting a bit more headroom than the Genzler would provide.  The Darkglass does have built in dirt, but I would rather have that in pedal form, and the Darkglass Footswitch costs another £89, which makes it £260 more than the Markbass, not bad value if you want the Darkglass pedals, but I wasn't sure I did.  Then there is the outstanding EQ section in the Markbass.

I did read your previous posts about your rig, as you seem to be the only other bassist out there with the one10 and Little Marcus, so thanks for posting your opinions.

My first impressions are good.  I am only playing it at quiet volumes at home but I have had to dial the 65Hz and 180Hz knobs down a bit; the room is concrete floored with painted walls and not much in the way of soft furnishings.  In a couple of days I'll take it out to my shed and turn the volume up a bit.

And yes, my basses sound different with it, more so than with my Elf (I have mim Fenders; a P and a J ).

I just got one today: 

Its the 500 w version.  My Elf has a fault and I have an appointment at GuitarGuitar in Camden Town on Tuesday to take it in to be repaired (such is lockdown!).  So, not wanting to be headless for, I'm guessing three months, I bought The Little Marcus 500 watt ltd ed.  

The Eq points looked really sensible and generous, and Andertons had it on a deal.  So why not!

I got one today, see the post below (I mucked upon the photo download hence the edit & repeat)

I think I now have a very similar rig to @fretmeister

19 hours ago, garyt said:

 It's tight as a gnats chuff, and it doesn't need a cut of the pay. 

So your Beat Buddy will have already paid for itself by now then!

6 hours ago, garyt said:

For live gigs,. I've just changed all the intros to a click, hi-hat or kick drum, or a 1/2 bar intro.  It mixes things up so it doesn't sound too repetitive, but still ensures the band have a reference.  Then if it starts with a solo instrument, I either keep the tempo going with a hi-hat or similar, or just go for a stop/start with the footswitch.  

Like @grandad above, you are not helping my GAS here.  

I've just received a TC Electronic Ditto X2 Jam looper.  It seems to work well with the Beat Buddy.  I have only just started to tinker with it but if you loop a chord sequence and then play the loop with the Beat Buddy on, it will alter its timing to fit in with the Beat Buddy.  This could be a great pairing.

3 hours ago, mcnach said:

Hmmm, Elf + One10, that sounds like a great combination (I gig with Two10 cabs usually). 

It works very well.  Judging by Internet forums, it seems to be a common pairing; perfect for home but also small venues, coffee houses etc.  A few people pair it with a second one10, I can see myself buying a Barefaced Two10 to stick underneath, when I need to fill a larger space with sound; I like the idea of a modular rig.

7 hours ago, Ögon89 said:

I have no experience with playing through a 1x10 speaker, only played through a 1x12 and 1x15. How is the bass/low end response with the Trace Elliot and the 1x10? Can it fill a stage or is it just okay for hearing yourself?

Do you use a Precision? I use a Precision too... Would love to hear sound examples with a P..

@mcnach answered this so I won't repeat what he said.  But yes, I have a P bass with flats and if I wasn't such a dinosaur I would post some recordings for you.  I am hopeless with this sort of thing.

1 hour ago, garyt said:

I use a Beat Buddy for rehearsals when our drummer doesn't come, and also for smaller gigs where there isn't enough stage for a full kit.  I'd go as far as to say, that was the best £250 I ever spent.  Awesome idea, and it gets better the more you get used to using it.  

Have you got the standard one or the mini?

24 minutes ago, mcnach said:

 

Maybe 'dirty' is too strong a word, I'm going by the video that @stewblack posted somewhere on the second page of this thread, where there's a bit of mild overdrive kicking in with the input gain lower than half-way, but I suppose it will depend on the bass too with higher output basses getting into that territory earlier? It's a good sound! Despite my preference for clean amplifiers, I loved how it warmed up the sound, and from what you say it seems that clean(ish) headroom should not be an issue. Soundwise, I'd prefer the Elf to my BAM200, but I decided to go with the cheaper option (half price!) simply because it's an amplifier that will barely see any action.

Does the Elf get quite warm? I was just using the BAM200 with my guitar earlier, not very loud at all and maybe an hour or so, not more, and it was really warm to the touch. 

Re: One In Ten... you made me wonder "do I know you?" because it's a very new project and we've only played live once!  Then I realised that there was a link on my signature to the FB page and there's a clip or two there from that gig. Thank you for your kind words, although my recollection of that gig was that it was not very good! We barely had 10-12 songs ready at that stage (we only started in November and keyboard player joined in mid december... we got a great percussionist now but after a single rehearsal the lockdown happened, I hope we can go back and get up to speed soon, although we probably won't be gigging in a while. It's a shame, we had a very busy calendar from May onwards through to September. But I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that, we're all on the same boat there!

My experience with the Elf is as part of a practice rig on top of a Barefaced one10, not gigging.  Most of the time I keep the gain at about 2 o'clock and it is clean.  I rarely play anything but passive Fenders through it so perhaps makes a difference.  I'll experiment a bit with it tomorrow.  

I don't often push the Elf but when I have done it has got quite warm.  Not much in the way of heat sinks of course.  The fan noise is a constant, even when using headphones or a tuner.

And yes, I did check the links at the bottom of your page🙂.  It's a great song and the bass just holds it all together.

37 minutes ago, mcnach said:

The TE ELF does get dirty as you turn the input gain up (there's a video up here in this thread illustrating that, it sounds pretty good), but unless that's the sound you want most (all?) of the time, I'd rather have an amplifier that gives me clean bass at any output level, and I can add dirt if I want to (Joyo American Sound, a little £35 pedal, is one of my favourites... and it makes my guitars sound great through the bass amplifier too).

The Elf only gets dirty with the gain almost full on.  You can leave the gain slightly off this level and whack up the volume, you will have clean and very loud.

P.S. nice bass playing on one in ten.

Wifey got me a beat buddy mini 2 for Christmas and I use it quite a lot for practice.  The drum sets used are real and there is a bit of swing in them, not like a full on paralytic drummer but a lot more natural than a standard drum machine.

If you are good with all that Midi computer stuff you might appreciate the more expensive model, which you can download different drum sets to, like 'John Bonham' for instance.  I just wanted a drum machine in a pedal form and I have no idea what 'Midi syncing' is.

I have just ordered the TC Electronic Ditto X2 jam looper.  According to one long thread on the Singular Sound forum, this works with the Beat Buddy, without being Midi synced.  Andertons will deliver this on Friday and I'll let you know how I get on.  Apparently you can loop your bass or guitar in time with a Beat Buddy drum track without having to step on the pedal exactly at the right moment, the X2 jam looper can keep in time by itself, or with a little assistance from you.

On 03/06/2020 at 09:27, sifi2112 said:

No not custom, just new version I believe ....

XLR out with separate vol/gain / ground lift 

TRS/TS out with separate vol/gain / ground lift

Phase reverse switch in case of phasing issue with two power amp 

and parallel thru OUT

and newer Thumpinator 

and input impedance selector switch

and can work off a 9v battery @200mA (nice as a backup) also 9v parallel out 
 

That must be a custom order or a new product that Max hasn't put on his website yet (there is a 'D2' but no 'D3' on the site).

Just received a Thumpinator this morning and it is as I expected, no pre amp or XLR out

5 hours ago, javi_bassist said:

The best thing is that you have an overdrive level, so you can get clean and overdrive tone without a jump in volume. I will try to record some overdrive sounds

Would be keen to hear that, thanks.

On 05/05/2020 at 20:03, javi_bassist said:

A little update in mine: The Aguilar Tone Hammer goes... The Ashdown Original preamp comes

 

How do you find the Ashdown pre amp?  There isn't much in the way of reviews online.  I'm intrigued to hear how the valve drive sounds.

Welcome Manny,

I also live in Barnet (born in Tottenham, went to school in Cheshunt)

I got my first bass at the Soundgarden, just up from the tube station.

I called Ashdown and asked them about the pedals, this is what I was told:

The compression in Macchiato is non adjustable, whether you are playing slap, fingers or with a pick, the compression is what it is.  The three EQ controls do not adjust the compression.  The sub sonic filter on it is a high pass filter, which is very useful and should be always on.  High pass filters remove low frequencies that we can't hear but will cause speakers to flap about and possibly be damaged.  It also stops the amp wasting good headroom on ultra low frequencies and gives you a bit more headroom to play with.  The only reason the Macchiato has a high pass filter is because there was room in the unit for the circuitry.

The Velvet compressor's control adjusts the threshold and ratio etc all in one control.  The idea is you set the input according to the lights, then dial in the amount of compression you need and then adjust the output so it is the same as it would be without the pedal.

The studio compressor allows you to tweak a lot more, like when you are in a studio!  

I'll wait until after lockdown before buying a compressor but I will say I was impressed by @Ashdown Engineering and their customer support

14 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Good question. My action is relatively low and my first thought was exactly as you suggested to raise the string height and that certainly helped, but I wouldn't want it too much higher. Interestingly I found that Marc was also getting some fret buzz on his Ibby SR (which happens to be the bass I am using), which was at least reassuring!

Are you also a double thumb user / fan?

I ask because I had a similar issue when I started learning slap, quite recently.

I'm not a big fan of slap bass music.  RHCP I like, and one or two others come to mind but most of the music I listen to is finger or pick stuff.  I just thought I should learn slap, as I'm learning the bass.  I have three basses: a P, a J and an Ibby SDGR 500.  The action on the Ibby is quite low, I generally set the action to be as low as possible without fret buzz happening (finger style), and this bass had a lot of fret buzz when being slapped, not so much the J which had a higher action.

I wasn't sure whether the action just has to be higher if you are slapping rather than just using fingers or a pick?

18 hours ago, Al Krow said:

The one key downside I've noticed is the additional fret buzz (certainly at the lower frets) caused by the direction of the downward strike and resultant string vibration direction

Is the action on your bass quite low anyway?  Is this something a minor tweak with an Allen key at the bridge would fix or would getting rid of the fret buzz bring the action too high?

9 hours ago, cord.scott said:

I like Scott's Bass Lessons. I have a lifetime membership. But for me his technique accelerator course on teachable was a game changer. 

I don't think I've really had any bad experience with online content. Something to be learned everywhere.

I'm a member too; joined the day I bought my first bass.  I did a bit of online research first and noted that there were some that didn't like his teaching style and the American teenager speak he uses: "Hey Groovehacker..." but I liked his free stuff on YouTube.

I watched one free video from Talkingbass and the young American bloke with the cringeworthy sense of humour but thought I'd go with SBL and I'm glad I did.  

I did the technique accelerator course and it was a game changer for me too.  I am now doing the Practice accelerator course, as well as the stuff the members get.  I found the 'harmonic Layering' course absolutely fantastic, that was another game changer for me.

4 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

 it boosts whichever you select of the dark medium or light

Do you mean that the three controls are a bit like eq knobs in that they compress and also add a few db to that frequency range?  So if you turn up the 'light' knob but don't want a few db boost to the treble, do you have to turn down the treble eq on your amp?  Or have I misunderstood this?

1 hour ago, Reggaebass said:

I’m not an experienced compressor user but I’ve got the Ashdown  macchiato , it works very well for me, and having the dark, medium and light controls allows the bass ,middle and treble to be compressed individually.     when activated it also gives a bit of a boost to the volume 🙂

Does it add any of its own colour to the sound?  if so, is it warm or bright or what?

4 hours ago, javi_bassist said:

I'm curious too. Besides the All about the bass video on YouTube, I have seen nothing. I'm really curious about the Studio and the Velvet

I'm guessing the price, size and thirsty voltage needs my have put a lot of people off, but I would have expected at least one Ashdown fan to have bought one and reviewed it for us...anyone?

I mean the three they released last year; that is the 'Velvet Compressor' the 'Studio Compressor' and the 'Macchiato'. or the Guy Pratt signature compressor.

They are large, 18v, 3 band compressors, built in England and, up until recently, were very expensive, £270 or £280 each.  They are being sold now though by a few outlets with a considerable discount.

Has anyone tried them?  I can see very little by way of opinion on them on the internet.  I'd like to know if anyone feels they have anything to offer over other compressors at their price point, which now is about £180 to £200.

3 minutes ago, AJ567 said:

You are ok. A pedal will only draw as much current as it needs. You can't damage a pedal by plugging into an outlet that supplies "too much" current.

NB a strymon power supply might be overkill for your needs. Compressors and tuners will generally be fine on a daisy chain, I'm not sure about the beat buddy though. You may want to try it and see if you have any noise issues 

The beat buddy is the issue.  It needs a 500mA supply and I've read lots of reports of noise issues, particularly with power supplies lacking isolation. 

I might try the True Tone Pro CS6, as, anecdotally, it seems a good fit but I may end up sticking an extension lead on the pedal board and using the power supply the beat buddy comes with.