NicoMcJ

I hadn’t considered Ashdown but that’s a great shout - thank you!

Hi all! My main FOH sound is from a Helix, but last night I sent the jack output to a little 100W Peavey Max just so there was some sound on stage. The guitarist said he loved it, and much preferred it to having to rely on his floor monitor. We definitely felt a bit tighter than usual, so there may be something in this. The problem is it was just a tiny bit underpowered. Any suggestions for something that has a small footprint and a bit more power? I’m after something that sounds nice too if I’m going down this path. The amp model I use on the Helix is an Ampeg SVT if that helps. I don’t want to spend thousands but I could rustle up £700 or so.

To be fair, I reckon a £25 Alnico Wilkinson or Warman pickup would have breathed some serious life into it. I kind of regret my decision now…

I had the satin P-bass for about 3 days. It looked great but the pickup is awful. The slightly more expensive ones with the Alnico pickups are probably better. Not an issue if you budget a Tonerider or Wilkinson though I guess.

New pedalboard day. Pretty damning awesome.

Yeah, this one is a real Sadowsky - kinda. The Chinese ones are a different animal altogether, really disappointing.

So my experience of one of the very early Chinese Metro Expresses nearly put me off forever. However, I was able to secure the last NOS Japanese 5 string version in the U.K. for a decent price and it is superb. Flawlessly made and the sound is everything I hoped for.

-Line 6 G50 -Polytune 3 Mini (buffered output option) -Sadowsky preamp (used to make my passive Jazz sound more like my Sadowsky 5) -Digitech Drop -Line 6 HX Effects -EHX Big Muff Nano in loop of HX set to 65% wet -Tech 21 VT Bass DI -Two Notes CAB-M -Pedal Power Mondo power supply On the very rare occasion I want to use an amp I use the parallel out on the Tech 21, otherwise it’s straight into the PA.

I see you’ve already bought the Trace so I won’t say the correct answer is the VT Bass DI

Can’t you use the editor app to find out the EXACT settings on your spectracomp and then copy those exact settings to the spectra drive?

Shame they don’t make them anymore 😩😩😩 what’s the balance like?

Whoa, that’s badass!!

Ooh I like that

No headstock could work indeed. I agree that this probably isn’t “the one” though.

Aw that’s a shame about the headstock

The Big Al does look cool

Yeah the strap button positions are positioned nicely. I see they did a PJ version for Rex Brown too. Worth a look I reckon!

I’d rock that if it fits the briefing!!!

Even 6-string guitar explorers have horrid neck dive so I can’t imagine a bass would be any better. Are these instruments you’ve owned and had good experience of?

I do like my pointy and funny shaped 6-string guitars. Sadly I’ve always struggle to find a suitable bass version. I did have a Sandberg 48 that balanced nicely but it weighed as much as a large dog or small pony. So, my question is, does a well balanced AND lightweight pointy exist in the bass world? NB - bonus points for 5 strings. NNBB - please don’t mention wide straps or anything like that, I’m looking for something that fundamentally works well without needing hot fixes or workarounds. NNNBBB - please don’t just list pointy basses, I’m looking for real world experiences here 😊

Does anybody know how much this weighs? To the nearest metric tonne?

Oops

You silly goose 😂

I’m very lazy and CBF to take a fretless bass to a gig for 2 songs. Has anyone managed to get anything even slightly close to a fretless sound from a Helix/HX?

It ended up being £120 less, or roughly 68.8% of the price! Bargain!