SumOne

Thanks @AxelF, unfortunately still no luck though. I've now also tried a different USB cable, un-instilling my existing ASIO driver and re-installing just the nux one. Also things like shutting down Chrome before plugging in, un-plugging the nux power before doing the both footswitch held down thing, launch firmware before and after the pedal turning on. And trying these things on Mac (albeit an old one) and Windows 10. There probably is a solution like re-mapping ASIO drivers/what the Laptops recognises for the USB input or just some switching on order combination that I've missed, but my patience is wearing thin and the slightly cheaper (2nd hand) ParaDriver in the classifieds is looking quite tempting!

I just spent quite a long time trying to get the editor to work to try out the different amps and IRs but no success. I read a lot of the Talkbass thread (which is page after page of people having similar issues) and it seems a solution is to update the firmware first - so I try to do that and pedal isn't recognised by the firmware updater. Also updated the Nux asio driver and mucked about with the drivers. Did all of this on windows 10 then tried on a mac.... Still nothing. It's for these sort of reasons rather than any digital vs analog sound purism that I fall out with digital pedals! It's got about 1hr of my time left before I get tired of faffing and return it for a refund for wasting my free time (although it is actually pretty decent just the way it is out of the box but it feels like being able to change amps and IRs etc is something it should be doing without hassle).

I like the sound of synth Bass but there's something with synth pedals that never quite gels with me (C4, FI, SY-5) I used to muck about a lot with keyboard synths and DAWs which seem better as far as synthesis, on-hand controls and accuracy/sustain etc. but I'm not giving up on Bass synth pedals as I prefer actually playing the Bass to playing keyboards or mucking about on a computer so could see myself getting the SY-200....and then selling it shortly later!

Another video (copied below) seems to say it's basically the SY-1 with saveable presets and some more control on things like pitch via midi controls but no more in-depth synth control. I guess the pedals to beat are the C4 and FI, it looks like the SY-200 beats them for interface and if you don't want to plug in to a computer, but not sure about it being able to do the variety of Bass synth tones or things like envelope filters and octavers that they can do, seems a bit more guitar focussed. The video says $300 which is £217 if the UK price is a direct conversion, other Boss 200 pedals are all about £200, that'd make the SY-200 tempting. Edit...boooooo https://www.musicradar.com/news/boss-ir200-sy200-pedals says that it'll be £307 which is less tempting as that's C4 + controller, or FI sort of price.

I guess the Fender range is now something like this: Squier £350) Player (£700) Vintera (£900) Player Plus (£1,000) American Performer (£1,200) American Professional (£1,700) American Original (£1,800) American Ultra (£1,900) Custom Shop (>£3,000) ....that's confusing enough but as they seem to change it each year and there are discontinued names like the Elite and American Deluxe, add to that the made in Japan/Mexico/USA versions and about 60 years of Jazz and P Basses with certain years being good/bad and different necks/pickups etc. what initially seems a fairly simple choice of Jazz or P Bass from Fender becomes really confusing.

There are certainly albums/gigs that have led me to go to more gigs and listen to more music like that and DJ/play music like that and spend a lot of my life being involved with that music- possibly that wouldn't have happened without that first spark of interest and I could have gone a slightly different route and got interested in something different. And who knows, butterfly effect might mean that my life would be completely different .....then again, butterfly effect could also mean that eating a sandwich completely changed my life.

Tonika:

Resurrecting this thread just to say I just got one and think it's decent, good value for money. I wrote a bit of a review that's copied below from another thread. This is a good video showing how it sounds: EQ: 3 band with sweepable mids is good. Has it's own footswitch (for preamp: Vol and EQ), clicked 'off' isn't mute - it's the preamp section bypassed. Drive: It sounds best to me on subtle low setting and using the clean blend, as good as any low-gain 'always on' type mild overdrive I've used. It has it's own footswitch and can be turned on while the preamp switch is turned off if you want to run overdrive with no EQ (or volume) changes. Noise reduction: with adjustable decay/threshold. IRs: It's a shame that it needs to be hooked up to a computer (or someone on Talkbass has made an app) to change IR. The IR is on even with both footswitches set to 'off', there are toggle switches to turn the IR off to each of the outputs though. Preamp tones: I guess that it's not exactly doing the 'Preamp' thing in terms of emulating something like a SVT or B-15 tone for me at the moment but I'm hoping the right Amp downloads will do that fairly well - It looks like you download Amps that can be controlled by the preamp controls and then use IRs mostly for the Cab sims, but I think as it takes 3rd party IRs you could potentially put whatever you want there (I haven't touched the firmware or made any changes yet - considering the points raised on Talkbass noted below I'll wait a while). DI/Connections: Connections are very useful - particularly that the 'XLR' (with pre/post preamp and ground lift switches) and 'Output' can each individually be set for IR on/IR off and there's a 'Through' too, and can record to a Laptop via USB (and do things like re-amping). Also Aux in and headphone out, not with their own volume controls though. Quality: Decent sound quality and no hissing or crackling, feels solidly built. Value: Considering it costs £120 vs alternatives it seems very good value. Talkbass has a big thread (24 pages so far) https://www.talkbass.com/threads/new-bass-preamp-pedal-from-nux.1442434/page-24#post-25662209 ...beware of updating the firmware if you don't want to change the EQ curves and Drive settings.

Nice one, I've checked that thread and it also seems that updating the firmware might not be the best move for everyone as it can't be taken back and adds more gain to the drive and changes the eq curves.

My early impressions of the NUX MLD are that it's good. EQ: 3 band with sweepable mids is good. Has it's own footswitch (for preamp - vol and EQ), clicked 'off' isn't mute - it's the preamp section bypassed. Drive: Perhaps the drive at high gain could sound better (personal taste though), it sounds good to me on subtle low setting and using the clean blend though, as good as any low-gain 'always on' type mild overdrive I've used. It has it's own footswitch and can be turned on while the preamp switch is turned off if you want to run overdrive with no EQ (or volume) changes. Aux in and headphone out: Not with their own volume controls though. Quality: Decent sound quality and no hissing or crackling, feels solidly built. Noise reduction: Built in adjustable noise reduction decay/threshold. IRs: This is the main thing that lets it down a bit - it's a shame that it needs to be hooked up to a computer to change IR (a small toggle switch to go between 3 would be plenty for me and would make it a great pedal). If I have the current IR turned on and run a Fuzz pedal into it beforehand the highs get muffled (as with running a fuzz into a BDDI with sansamp preamp/drive engaged, or any other time I've used fuzz into a preamp with anything other than mild preamp settings so it's not unique to this pedal) so it'd be handy to be able to turn off the IR via footswitch but the IR is on even with both footswitches set to 'off' (I'm hoping there is some way via the software to set it so that the preamp 'off' switch also turns the IR off, but I don't think it can), there are toggle switches to turn the IR off to the different outputs though. DI: Connections are very useful. Preamp tones: I guess that it's not exactly doing the 'Preamp' thing in terms of emulating something like a SVT or B-15 tone at the moment but I'm hoping the right IRs will do that fairly well. Value: Considering it costs £120 vs alternatives it's very good value. It seems like pedals that tick similar boxes as DI/Overdrive/Preamp/IR loader are things like the Strymon Iridium (£380) Darkglass Ultra pedals (>£360) which possibly are better but I'm not sure they are 3x better. If fact, they seem to be missing one potentially very useful feature of the NUX which is the fact IRs can be separately switched on/off for 'XLR' (which also has pre/post preamp switch) and 'Output' and there's also clean 'Through' output. So potentially the 'Through' can be used to send a clean signal to your Amp/Cab while 'Output' can send an IR affected signal (or not) to a mixer or FRFR speaker, and the XLR can send yet another signal (pre/post preamp and IR/no IR) to FOH mixer/audio interface etc. Can also record directly to a Laptop via USB with different settings (clean/affected/reamping) ....and if you really wanted to go for it could also use the headphone output so it's pushing out 5x outputs at the same time! I mostly just wanted a simple pedal for end-of pedal chain volume control and EQing that could be used as a DI if needed, it works great as that. The main competitor seems to be the MXR M81 - but that costs more at > £150 (but it does have a smaller footprint and perhaps a bit tougher build quality) so even if the NUX only did the DI/EQ things it'd be a tough call between that and the MXR, the fact it also does all the other things too I think make it very good value.

No offence to Jazz Bass' (I have a Jazz Bass type thing and think they're great) but as their look hasn't changed much in 60 years aren't they willfully dated/traditional now? ...in which case I think the sunburst is what I picture as the traditional Jazz bass colours and is probably what I'd go for whereas if I was getting something modern like a Dingwall Combustion I'd go for some completely different more modern look like these (which I don't think would really work with a Jazz Bass).

🐐

Big fan of P.U.T.S. This one (and the whole album) is pretty much compulsory at a BBQ

He seems to do alright for himself- any pedal released sells out almost instantly, I am keen to try one at some point as he must be doing somethign right! I suppose its good that he doesn't do the usual thing of either put up his prices or scale-up production, doesn't make getting the pedals easy though.

"and who goes in on a Friday?"

Nice one, am just giving that a listen now- good stuff.