SumOne

I usually see that phrase when someone is selling a multi fx and partly read it as doublespeak for: 'the unit is too complex/inconvenient for me to use 90% of it' .... or '90% of what it does is unnecessary (and more costly than individual pedals) for a bass player'.

I've found multi-fx to be great at setting presets to get things sounding just how I want them at home, and can get really creative and do stuff that isn't possible without having a massive amount of individual pedals and complex loop switchers. My issue tends to be when I'm playing with a band and seemingly simple spur-of-the-moment changes become a bit of a faff. It's fine if things all work out with presets, but feels a bit boxed in. One other thing is that a drum cymbal stand fell on my pedalboard of Boss Compact pedals the other day, I didn't even bother to check they were alright as I just knew they would be. I'm not sure I'd be that blasé with a multi-fx unit with things like touch screen, none seem quite as bombproof as tough individual pedals. ....but I am contradicting myself here! I do feel that Analogue individual pedals vs Digital multi-fx is already pretty much something akin to DJs using Vinyl vs Digital. I reckon a few interface improvements will seal the deal and Analogue pedals will be the preserve of collectors and enthusiasts.

Nice! I keep owning B1-Four's and then foolishly selling them. They're better than many expensive multi-fx or individual pedals for home practice (more portable, drum loops, aux in) and there are a few Band practice sessions where it would have been really useful (especially when I've had to lug about a pedalboard on public transport, and when the drummer is late!), and even if I just add it to my live board for HPF it's cheaper than most HPF pedals, and it'd do as a backup. I'm going to get one again, probably for about the 4th time!

I suppose there is quite a distinction between Individual Digital pedals and Multi-FX. Only a minority of purists still use analogue Tuners. And certian things like the Boss CEB-3 have gone from Analogue to Digital while keeping the same interface and very few people can tell/care about the difference. And some things like long delays with a pedal pretty much have to be Digital. One issue for me is when individual Digital pedals add a lot of functionality just because they can, but the interface isn't really improved so it over-complicates for live use e.g. 'long hold' a small button to access a second parameter on a knob, meaning that the user isn't sure where either parameter is set. And similar for Multi-FX, they feel to me like they could be amazing but the main issue is the interface and foolproof live usability when you want to do any more than just click between presets. For me, I want a really clear footproof way of 'what you see is what you get' in stomp mode, perhaps just for a few basic things (Compressor, EQ, Drive) but I'm yet to find a digital multi-fx that does that as well as just looking down at those few individual pedals. I like the style of the cheap Zoom B3n for making it quite obvious what each footswitch will do when you stomp on it and what the parameters are set to - and being able to quickly turn a dial to make a specific change, give that sort of simple view format a Helix makeover with assignable coloured footswitches and a small TC Plethora type screen for each effect block and it'd be a winner for me in terms of interface: Hopefully improved usability/interface is the next big thing for digital multi-fx as I think they are pretty much there with most of the sounds (they need to catch up with Source Audio's digital filters/octave/synth though and put them into a multi-fx).

EBS Flat Patch have done me well for a few years. It depends on what they're replacing, but they poke out probably a bit less less than 1cm whereas I have some heavy duty Fender ones that poke out by about 2cm. The Fender ones do feel more robust though. My worry with squeezing mini pedals as tightly together as possible is it becomes a bit of a delicate move to stomp them on/off without hitting neighbouring ones, those soft touch TC footswitches are easily pressed (and my size 12 DMs quickly stomping on small pedals on the floor in a dark pub is not usually a delicate manouver!). The flat Harley Benton flat cables have not done me so well - the outer sleeve has started to come away on a couple of them to expose bare wire.

Yeah, someone that already makes wireless transmitters would seem the most obvious candidates to basically put their wireless receiver into some bluetooth headphones, that seems basically what Boss did using the WL-20.

Ah nice one, good to give Boss a bit of healthy competition. They are available to buy now, £299: https://www.yamahamusiclondon.com/product.php?product_id=GYHWL500&source=froogle&srsltid=AfmBOoqV6dfJLXNE8BBcWrl1YkyJaqrwvSjzx5_Drhb7cmMJzUmqyTuQZ6A they don't make it obvious, but I assume that bulky base/charging unit is also the transmitter and needs to be plugged into the Bass via a cable - so you only get rid of the need for a headphone cable. In fact, I think Yamaha are being a bit cheeky on how they are presenting this: It gives the impression of a fully wirelss setup like the Boss, but what it's actually showing is: Bass > Line 6 Relay transmitter > Line 6 Relay receiver (not shown) > Amp > YH-WL500 transmitter > headphones. So that £300 pair of headphones actually needs at least another £200 spent to ditch the cables in a similar way to the Boss. Clearly the selling point is getting rid of all cables like the Boss though so hopefully that's something that'll be in development.

I'm a bit gutted these haven't gone down in price yet, in fact - they've gone up (but I guess everything has). I paid £333 at the end of 2021 and sold them after a while to save some money and use the NUX Mighty Plug (£59), now the cheapest I can find the Waza Bass are £364 (again via Scan). It's quite hard to justify spending £300 extra just to do away with the headphone cable, but the Boss certainly are better and I'm keen to get them again as a luxury that I'll use a lot. There is no competition for this fully wireless system to help bring the price down or encourage more innovation, but it must be relatively easy to use a latency-free wireless system and put the receiver directly into headphones, the heavy-lifting technology is already there, it's just a case of re-purposing it. Isn't it about time NUX made a headphone system 'inspired by' Boss, they already have the NUX Mighty Plug and the NUX Wireless receiver technology, put it in some headphones and Bob's your uncle....then again, perhaps that actually gets up to the Boss sort of cost. I'll be keeping my eyes open for Black Friday deals. 🧐

I decided to return it. It is an alright bit of kit but if I can't easily see what effects the stomp footswitches engage I might as well use a smaller unit to change between presets (like the 200 LT or JR), and if I don't trust it for live use I'll only end up using it for home practice - which it's good for, but the Nux mighty plug already does me well for that. I'm sure it'd be good unit for some people, just doesn't fit what I need.

This is an intersting one: Valeton GP-200: In some ways it is great:. Solid Hardware: Metal, loads of ins/outs for things like FX loop, aux in, (and including L& R XLR, which is more than you get from things like the Helix Stomp XL or Boss GT 1000 Core) a good amount of physical controls - including a light up button for each effect type on/off and access. Tuner, low-gain Drives, Amp/Cab sims and some of the modulations are good. EQ is good: Global adjustable HPF/LPF and 4 band fully parametric EQ. And 10 Band Graphic EQ. Drum loops & looper which can sync with the drum loops, and a 'freeze' effect (like the EHX pedal) all make it very useful for home practice. Very user adjustable footswitches, e.g. assign for tap, long press, different combinations of two together (next to each other and row below and above), and can also assign some of the dials. Turns on in a couple of seconds (much faster than Boss, or Helix). Decent sized colour screen (easier to edit and see what's going on with the effects chain than a lot of other multi fx) . Some things are not so great though: Compressor seems to always audibly squish - even on low settings and with clean blend, high-gain drives are noisy, the noise gate is not great, some of the modulations and delays are just okay with not much parameter control. Envelope filter and octaver/pitch shift are not good, no synth. That all sounds very negative but most sounds are passable and would be fine played in a band - and the important core sounds for Bass players (EQ, Drive, Amp/Cab sims) are pretty good. Can only have one of each of the 11 block types in the signal chain (e.g. there is one reverb block - you can't have two in your chain). The biggest downsides though are things that seem could be sorted out with a software fix: Footswitches don't engage when pressed - they engage when released, it's a small thing but a bit odd. Cannot change the footswitch lights to match an effect in stomp mode (and confusingly, yellow = off ,and red = on?!) so it is quite difficult to tell what you'll stomp on/off. That's quite a big deal for me - it's no good to play live in stomp mode if I need to remember/guess what a footswitch turns on/off. If I'm not using it in stomp mode then I might as well have a smaller multi-fx and just use it for presets. Some things are not intuative e.g. how to get out of Looper mode, how to change from 'patch' to 'stomp' mode via footswitches without using the dials to go through menus, how to assign the dial controls. It has just stopped any audio output a few times when I've been making more in-depth adjustments (even after I've installed the latest firmware) I've needed to do the 'turn it off and on again'. It has always been fine with normal playing/adjusting though - it's when I do things like change the Amp sim while the Looper is going, perhaps there are just specific things like that it doesn't like. The negatives are a bit of a shame as it has potential to be a really good unit - regardless of the cheap price, it does a few things that units much more expensive don't do (e.g. XLR L&R and Line L&R and can choose where the Cab sim is applied, colour screen, a lot of hardware controls, drum loops that the looper syncs with, aux in). It seems most of the negatives could be addressed with software updates. TL/DR: Great value, good hardware, some sounds are just okay but many of the core sounds for Bass players are very good, signal chain is limited but fine for most stuff. It's annoying that it isn't very clear what the footswitches will be turning on/off in stomp mode. I'm not convinced about live use, a great budget unit for home use though.

If you can live with the look, the Ibanez EHB 1000 S is one of the most erganomic Basses available (I think it's what the 'E' stands for). Someone I know had to stop playing his P bass due to arthritis in the hand and he was pretty much giving up on Bass playing but he can play one of these fine. 30" scale with a slim neck should make reaching frets easy, added bonus being it's about as lightweight as Basses get (I've got the 5 string multi scale and it's 3.3kg, so I guess 4 string short scale is less than 3kg), and headless means it's well balanced while being that light.

I've come to that conclusion for almost evey material thing.....but perhaps I need to try harder to fight the capitalist/materialistic system!

I play in a band where we sometimes swop bass players but keep everything else the same and people have commented it sounds more reggae when I play, more rock with the other player. So I guess my sound is partly down to how I play rather than the equipment.

Yeah I've never had a digital drive that sounds quite as good as analogue thing it's emulating, have had some good different sounds from them though. The ones in the new Boss multi fx are good, adding other fx blocks and played through an Amp/Cab I could definitely live with them. I find modulation and delays and EQ to be things digital does really well so would happily ditch alanalogue pedals of them. And some digital compressors like the Atlas compare really well with analogue counterparts. Digital Envelope Filters still tend to sound bad though - unless it's Source Audio who show that it is possible to do well. I think the main downside to digital is the interface, I expect (hope) that'll be the next big focus for manufacturers.

I hate to admit it, but I think digital multi fx pedals are at the point of making seperate analogue pedals feel similar to vinyl records vs digital. Analogue will always have a cool factor, some will say it sounds/feels better, and collectors like it, but it'll become obsolete technology for working musicians (only a tiny % of DJs still use vinyl, but sales are still strong for the collectors). All I need is: Tuner/mute, line selector to switch between Basses, Drive, EQ, Compressor (and pedalboard and power brick). So I thought - surely I don't need my multi fx for that, I'll sell it and go back to individual pedals with footswitch for each, no menus, can see everything that's going on, simple, and a bit more 'soul' and potentially better sound to them. .....But even with these minimal needs I think it is costing me more, adding bulk, more potential for error via things like loose cables or dials accidentally moved. And that's before trying to do simple extra things like go from a punky part of a song into a Reggae middle 8 which needs an instant change in EQ and Drive, so pushing two pedals at once - a loop switcher would be useful, and ideally needs a second EQ pedal. It's at this point I'm eying up multi fx again! What do you reckon? Are Analogue pedals becoming the impractical costly preserve of Internet forum collectors to show off to each other?!

I'm tempted with the sine effects micro para instead (I had the mega para and it's a decent bit of kit). -15 dB (or adjustable up to +15dB boost) from 25Hz up to 6KHz, and can adjust the Q and shelf type. £114, makes it similar price and size to the HPF pedals while also being much more adjustable....and if you're in a situation where you need to cut or boost some specific other frequency then it can do that instead. In fact, I'm tempted to get two as having them in different parts of the signal chain would be useful. Of course, digital fx pedals are more cost effective. But EQ is something I value having physical controls and 'what you see is what you get' as it is something quite dependent on the room and bandmates - sometimes needing adjusting mid gig, which is something I'd prefer if I can avoid doing with multi fx menu diving.

Nice. DHA tube overdrive sounds great. The controls are simpler than it looks: IP = Input (like changing the volume on your Bass, it is before the tube gain, and level is after) HP = Headphone volume Q = The mids are semi parametelric - this control adjusts their centre frequency (which is potentially a bit confusing as Q usually refers to the width of the EQ band rather than the centre frequency)

Andy bought a pedal from me and all was good!

This is the first time I've used https://www.fxpedalplanet.co.uk/ and it has been great service - next day delivery, well packaged....and I might need to test out their returns policy! JPTR FX Tesla Wolf v2 arrived today: It looks great (and comes with all the 'boutique' pedal trappings - plectrums, stickers, decent box (and a PCB as a company card). On paper it should be great too: Volume, Gain, Tone, Clean blend, internal switches for different gain types and internal adjustable bass boost, analogue, well built, relatively small and with top mounted jacks. I'm not sure in reality though: Volume: Does nothing from 8am-2pm, and then probably too much from 2pm-4pm with a massive boost. On the minimum setting there is sometimes still a volume boost - depending on how you have the tone and gain set. Gain: Does very little until about 2pm-4pm (max), so in a similar way to the volume you only have a small turn of the dial for a sudden big range. Blend: Doesn't quite go to 100% clean, so need to turn down the gain if you want to use it as a clean boost. Internal clipping switches: They alter the distortion with Muff and Rat type sounds, it is good to have these options but opening the pedal up and clicking those small switches isn't an easy way to adjust things. Tough external switches would be ideal. ...........that all sounds negative but it does produce some good mild overdrive all the way through to muff and rat type distortions and it is responsive to playing and plays well with other pedals. I think it was partly designed to push a tube amp (I have a solid state one though so I'm perhaps missing out on a big part of what it does). The shop (FX Pedal Planet) encourages people to take their time before returning products, so I'll do just that as it has good points and perhaps I can put the negative things down to character/mojo?! Will try it out at proper volume at band practice tonight.

Queen 'It's a Kind Of Magic' turned up loud is brightening a dull day. Great bassline, overly technical noodling basslines don't do it for me - a simple solid funky loop is where it's at!

Okay, I'll bite! Nice video and review thanks. I'm not completely sold on Totality, seems at higher distortion levels it needs that clean blend to keep the Bass/definition but then it sounds like a Bass and a Bass with distortion being played in parallel rather than one unified sound? I'm probably not the target audience though as I've never been much of an Animato fan, I prefer smoother more natural sounding distortions. Some of my favorite ways of distorting: Mild overdrive: Fairfield Barbershop Tube: DHA VT1 Tubescreamer: Way Huge Green Rhino V5 SVT: Broughton SV Pre Rat: Idiotbox Landphil Tonebender: MXR Brown Acid Muff: EHX Green Russian And I'm quite excited to have both of these on order: Overdrive/Fuzz: JPTR FX Tesla Wolf V2. Brassmaster: Latent Lemon.

I bought a couple of Pedals from JP and all was good - good communication, quickly posted, well packaged, condition and working as expected. Thanks!

Once you get that I'd recommend a loop switcher that can do reverse, something like this: https://brightonion.co.uk/products/dual-reverse-looper Then at the click of a button you can hear what the compressor is like before/after drive. And can put whole groups of Pedals in each loop so it opens up a lot of possibilities.