SumOne

Seems cheeky if the hardware is the same. Although the guitar version has been around for a while now so I guess prices reduce over time and the same will eventually happen with the Bass version. The guitar one is actually £90 cheaper at Thomman (£309 incluing post and tax), and they have a B Stock one for £285 that I'm tempted with if the only difference is software related for what amps and cabs it has. Plus the info for the guitar one states '5 Amplifier types derived from the Katana stage amplifier series, including a full-range mode for bass or acoustic / electric guitar'

Other than these Bass ones being new and having Bass specific effects/amps etc are they doing anything additional to the guitar version? If not, the guitar ones now go for £311 on Amazon so I guess after a year these might go down to that price (I already know I'm not patient enough to wait that long though!).

The more I look into this the more it seems like it's not as over-priced as it initially seems - there's nothing else on the market doing what it does. I have the Vox headphone amp but it's not very good and is being held together with tape so I had been looking at portable headphone amp alternatives like the EHX (£40 but no aux in or built in drums etc, needs wired headphones), Phil Jones Bighead (£180 for v1 £280 for v2, good sounds but needs wired headphones and wired aux in). The £52 Nux seems decent and I am tempted but it needs wired headphones and doesn't have the Waza-Air 3D sound things or the same amps and effects (and you don't get what are probably £150+ equivilant pair of bluetooth headphones with it). Another contendor is getting a wireless system like the XVive (£100) that obviously has the benefit of also working for live use but could also be used in conjunction with wireless headphone transmitter (£200) and monitor headphones (£150) for wireless home use. That adds up to more than the Waza-Air and seems like a lot of separate components to go wrong, I imagine it could be quite a palaver getting set up just to have a quick practice session in a different room. And it still needs wired headphones and doesn't have any of the Waza-Air phone controls or 3D sound things. I think it's between the Waza-Air and the Nux, I can't figure out if the extra cost of the Waza-Air is worth it but I'm definitely considering it.

For those that use wireless systems to practice around the house have you been able to go fully wireless i.e. using bluetooth headphones? If you have then I assume you're going Bass > wireless transmitter > wireless receiver > pedals/amp etc > bluetooth transmitter > headphones. If that's the case then I've heard that bluetooth sometimes causes too much latency - is that true?

Nice one. Although I had just got to the point of deciding that I'm done buying Bass stuff (after spending an afternoon at Bass Direct last week and realising my Bass is just as good as anything in my price range, and getting a Stomp XL and realising that it can replace my other pedals).....this is making it look like I'll go back on that short-lived resolution!

I would like a pair of these but they do seem about double the cost I'd like to pay....if anyone wants to sell me a 2nd hand pair let me know! Can they also be used as normal Bluetooth headphones?

Mono Neon is entertaining. Grounded in the Funk but throws in jazzy off-kilter noodling.

Cool, yeah good isn't it - he knows his stuff and interviewed top people and it gives good context to the whole cultural/political background. Not a short read but it's the sort of thing that's easy to dip in and out of, I'm still only half way through.

Another benefit of the Stomp XL is not wanting/needing to use the expression pedal connection for a dual footswitch - freeing it up for an actual expression pedal. I've never gone in for expression pedals before but I'm thinking one could work really well with it as it has a lot more control than a normal one: can be set to control different parameters according to Presets/snapshots (e.g. Volume, delay length, Phaser speed, wah) and it has things like being able to merge between effects from heel/toe and the 'auto engage' threshold. Anyone here usung one they would recommend? The Line 6 EX1 seems a reasonable price.

The XL seems like a winner. All the usual good stuff of the Stomp but the added footswitches feel like that's what it was always designed for rather than being add-ons: - Stomp mode is like a traditional pedalboard that can have 6x effects each assigned to individual colour coded footswitches and still have the tuner/tap tempo and menu footswitches free (the same as the Helix Effects). (Whereas adding that many non-colour coded external footswitches to the Stomp would require quite a big midi footswitch and could be confusing without the colours). - Preset mode means you can have 4x presets as individual switches (e.g Preset #1 a b c d could be used for a single song are all there with a specific footswitch for each change). - 4x snapshots per Preset (it's 3x with the Stomp) that are easily accessed - each can have their own footswitch in snapshot mode or can be on the up/down scroll when in Preset mode, it makes using them useful and always quickly/clearly accessible so potentially one song could just use say Preset #1a and you have 4x snapshots for different parts of the song. - Edit mode means you can edit all block parameters via footswitches. - The extra footswitches means the tap/tuner button can be used for just that rather than being re-assigned (a lot of stomp users re-assign it to get a footswitch and so need to keep a separate tuner pedal). - Looper now works well with 6 buttons (rather than the tricky way it's done on the Stomp). - It's bigger than the Stomp, but no cables on the sides so it doesn't take up lots more pedalboard space (especially if it means getting rid of separate tuner and additional footswitch add-ons). The only thing I'd like to see (literally!) is a bigger screen - there's quite a lot going on in a small screen sometimes, especially in parameter editing mode or reading 4x Preset names. Overall it seems great, I'm going to try and just use it and nothing else so I'll have quite a few pedals for sale (and perhaps even my power brick if I go all in). I think it'll save a lot of money in the long run, and the main push for me to get it was it's much easier/simpler to transport on the tube to practice sessions.

Thanks, yeah I spent a while with an unmarked fretless 4 string that almost felt like a new type of instrument - was good but I figured it'd be a few of years practice to play well. The MTG AG5 had an excellent neck and string spacing, the tones I was getting from it weren't quite what I'm after though (and there seemed to be some issue with the preamp picking up electrical interference type noises and humming), and it's a bit heavier and more cumbersome than my TM5 and would've cost me a few hundred £ extra so I wasn't sold on it. Nothing else seemed much of an upgrade either - the Rickenbacker's strings felt a bit close and clanky, old P and J's felt heavy and un-balanced (and usually lacking a 5th string!), Thunderbird types look cool and play okay but don't balance well sat down, Dingwall don't have pickup blend, the music man Basses all seemed good and were the closest I got to a trade. I did stay clear of the £3k Mike Lull and Sadowsky and Dingwall custom type Basses though, I'm sure they would've been an upgrade but I knew I couldn't afford them.

There isn't a stoner thread though but doom is close enough!

I went to Bass Direct today and must have tried about 20 different basses. I went in knowing I had a good part exchange offer for my Sandberg TM5 SL so I fully expected to leave with a different Bass.....but I'm going home with the same Sandberg! Turns out that 35", 19mm spacing, mid eq and 24 frets are all things nice to have (which I still kind of wish the TM5 had) but they don't make much difference and the TM5 SL wins on comfort/weight and tones so is staying.

My new pedalboard: ..... although I haven't fully committed just yet - still have quite a few pedals/pedalboard just out of shot. If I wanted to add one other pedal (M82 envelope filter) would it be fine to just add a daisy-chain connector to the Helix power supply? The supply is 9v 3A but the Stomp uses less than 1A (I guess the XL just slightly more) so it would still get plenty, and as I understand it excessive current shouldn't harm the M82 because only as much current as is needed gets drawn. Is that correct?

Nice, the Mike Lull PJ5 looks like a great Bass. I mooch about the Bass classifieds so will keep my eye out but generally with Basses I've gone to shops as I like to try out lots side-by-side for a few hours rather than travelling around the UK for private sales of individual basses that I can't directly compare. Added bonus with bass direct is that they give decent part-exchange prices so it does away with any faff of selling my only Bass privately beforehand to raise the cash (or getting desperate to sell quickly to pay off the credit card after getting a new one).

Yeah, I really don't 'need' a new Bass and am actually quite happy with my current one and I'd be fine keeping it - it's just I've found that there are these small things that I think would make a Bass perfect for me. I'll certainly stay a while at Bass direct and try a lot out, it's good there that I've never experienced anything resembling a sales pitch- just get handed the Basses I ask for and get left to it. I've generally bought second hand or ex demo and always sold/exchanged my previous Bass so it's never been a huge financial hit (but they have gradually got more expensive as I get more spoilt). The way I sell it to myself is that good Basses don't really get worse with age, they hold their value so it's basically an investment on something I'm going to play for possibly 1000's of hours over years so I might as well try to get as close to perfect as I can afford - if I go off it or get skint it can probably be sold for similar.

Bass Direct have given a fair estimate for the Sandberg TM5 SL part-exchange so perhaps by the end of the weekend I'll be the owner of a Bass that has 1mm wider strings, 1" longer scale, two more frets, and a mid EQ.....marginal gains!

I don't think I'd be leaving Bass direct with the same Bass I went in with: https://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/MTD_AG5.html That's a beaut and also fits the wishlist of 5 string, 19mm spacing, 35", 24 fret, 3 band EQ (not sure about weight though), and is £1 under maximum budget!

I'd never considered semi-hollow basses before but from reading up and listening to a few clips I think it'll do nicely for the sort of warm and fat tones I'm after (one slight domestic issue is that I do often practice at home in the front room with headphones on - I'm not sure if my wife will be happy to hear my noodling always being semi-acoustically amplified!)

Ah yeah, I've just been zooming in and was sure it looked like frets.

Nice. I now realise they are fretless though (although there are fretted versions)....I'm sure semi-hollow fretless sounds great but I'm not sure I've got the skills to cross that bridge yet!