SumOne

Nice. I was torn between the Stomp and Effects. I have a cab sim pedal so I went for the Effects which arrived yesterday. I'm impressed and will be keeping it- it's bumped a few pedals off the board which I think the Helix covers quite well, I'll probably keep others that it doesn't seem to do so well....but they might go too if I can tweak the Helix to sound as good good as them:

Helix Effects arrived today (very fast free post service from GAK - ordered Saturday, arrived Sunday). First impressions are that it's great, I expect I'll keep it and there will be a few of my pedals up for sale to pay for it.

I'll soon find out (HX Effects arrives Monday), but I assume amp and cab sims in the Stomp are basically things that can be done (in theory) with the HX Effects via eq, comp, distortion and fx, or by importing an IR with them set? I have a Bass Simplifier (preamp/cab sim/DI) and moving the mic is pretty much a sweepable tone knob, and 'resonance' seems to be a bass boost + slight reverb, a 1x15 cab is basically eq'd for more bass and less highs etc. Perhaps there's more to it though.

Have gone for the HX Effects. I make full use of returns policies lately so it's easy enough to just try out - if I like it I'll have a few pedals for sale in the next week or so to pay off the credit card!

Nice one. I'm gonna go for it. Just got to decide between the HX Stomp vs HX Effects.

Nice one, yeah since posting that I read backwards and have seen the same sort of things asked. It looks like the Stomp can mostly do what my Preamp/DI , Freeze, Tuner, Chorus, and Compressor do, and selling them would fund it (I wouldn't be selling overdrive, fuzz, envelope filter, octaver as it doesn't seem to do them so well). I reckon I'll go for it.

I'm trying to not be in the market for new pedals but I'm thinking if I sold my tuner, compressor, Freeze, Chorus, preamp/DI then I can minimise my setup and raise enough ££ for an HX Effects or the Stomp (which at only £30 more with amp and cab sims seems better in theory, but I think I'd prefer the interface of the HX so I can't decide between the two). Do they sound as good as those individual pedals though? I know it does lots of additional things too so that's a bonus, but they're the main things I'd want it for. e.g. Does it's Chorus work as well as a dedicated CEB-3 with the low-filter? Is the compressor as good as decent compressor pedals adjusting attack/release/ratio?

@TheGreek it's tricky as it would be a shame to stick with a Bass that doesn't sound/play/fit quite right when there is potentially one out there that does, but there is possibly also a certain amount of 'grass is always greener'; always chasing after something slightly unobtainable, a collector mentality, and the fun of getting new things (I'm speaking about myself here - I've bought/sold 4 Basses in the last year). I also bought/sold about 10 fuzz pedals last year before finding the best one for me, but once I got it I was actually a bit disappointed with myself for spending so much time and effort on something so trivial. I found in the end that the £20 Behringer super fuzz doesn't sound all that different or less enjoyable to use than fuzz pedals 10x the cost. Personally, I'm now trying to focus any dis-satisfaction I have with my sound and playing experience on needing more practice and band playing time rather than getting new gear. I'm sure I could get a Bass that makes a better P style thump, and another that has a better B string, and another that's easier to slap, or a better compressor, but probably the best use of my time is to practice more with what I've already got.

109 Overall. I'd expected to do better at beat alignment as I've spent about 20 years DJing beatmatching with vinyl, seems it's easier to do that with a banging 4/4 than with a beatless orchestral waltz though!

I got annual membership for Scott's Bass Lessons when the first lockdown started last March and found the combination of that and working from home with it easy to pick up the Bass for quick breaks has meant a lot of short bits of practice time when I wouldn't usually have been able to. The 'payers path' part of those lessons has been quite addictive working up through the levels. Having paid for 12 months membership has been incentive to make use of it, and to try and get through as much of it as possible in the time.

I recently got my first Sandberg - a california tm5 sl. The build quality on all the important things is good and it's my favorite Bass I've owned. Great playability and sound. I'd recommended it. However, to be honest there are a few minor things that aren't quite up to the quality of my previous more expensive Dingwall or cheaper Ibanez. Battery compartment pokes out a bit and has the sort of opening you get on a £10 toy, slight gap where the neck meets the body on one side, pickguard raises up at one part, pots don't all have the same resistance, needs tuning a bit more often.....all minor things though.

Thanks for the SBL Functional Theory and Sight reading lessons, I keep going back to them when I feel I should be focussing my practice and knowledge rather aimlessly playing riffs and noodling!

I just got a Sandberg California TM5 SL and it's my favourite Bass I've ever owned. I'm loving the thump of the MM pickup, and the warm tones that can be got from the Jazz pickup, and blending between them, good slap tones too, and nice muted sounds in passive with the tone down, and big dubby bass that can be added with the active EQ. Good neck and fretboard (although I've never understood the need for position markers down the middle of the fretboard- can't see them when playing), good ergonomics, comfortable and nice to play. And 3.3kg?!? I never had much of an issue with Basses being too heavy but it's so much nicer to practice for hours with a lighter Bass. I worried low weight would mean neck dive but I don't notice it doing that, not any more than any other Bass I've owned. My only gripe is a bit of a gap (only about half a mm) between the neck and body where it joins on one side - it doesn't seem to cause any issues though, and the pickguard raised up in one part, and generally the hardware doesn't feel quite as high-end as the Dingwall Combustion I traded it for (or even my previous Ibanez which was half the price). And in an ideal world I'd like a mid EQ with 3 way mid frequency switch - that's one of the best features of the Ibanez SRMS805 and I think it's an option on the Lakland 55-02 via an internal switch. I say 'favourite' rather than 'best' Bass I've owned because the Dingwall Combustion is objectively a better engineered Bass, but it didn't have the variety of tones I was after and was more effort to play; it was 4.5kg, had a slightly uncomfortable reach down to B & E string 1st frets, and it ideally needed plucking in line with the offset direction of the pickups rather than vertically down the strings for consistent tone (if you plucked vertically down from the B to the G you'd go from being in front of the pickup on the B to behind it by the time you get to the G) . But if you were after a high quality well engineered Bass for something like session recording or technical stuff that prioritises note clarity and hi-fi tones, and great sustain, fast playing with lower action, and more consistent string tension and timbre then the Dingwall is the winner. What it comes down to for me though is what's comfortable and fun to play and gets the sounds you want, and for that the Sandberg is my favourite. Some Basses feel like an piece of engineering, others feel like they have character and should be named- this is one that needs a name....Maroon 5 if someone hadn't got their first, or perhaps Sandburgundy.

Nice one, yeah looks like 19mm is just about be do-able. I had a 16.5 Ibanez that was too close, and now have 19mm Dingwall that is good spacing for me - considering getting a TM5 but the string spacing is my only hesitation....that and the fact I'm also considering a Lakland DJ5 or 55-02, anyone here have experience with each of them that would recommend one over the others?

With the TM5 it seems string spacing can be from 18mm-19.5.mm. But does anyone here know if you could have the 19mm+ spacing between all strings? It seems like the obvious answer is yes, but I've been caught out with this before on an ibanez - individually strings could be moved the maximum distance apart, but having all five of them that far apart meant the B and G were were easily slipping off the edge of the frets.

I went from a 4 string Fender Jazz to an Ibanez SRMS805 which is a great Bass and was quite an easy transition (fanned frets were no issue), only issue for me was the small (16.5mm) string spacing, but some people prefer that. They are about £900 new but you'd probably get 2nd hand for about £500 and it'd hold that value if you didn't get on with it and sold it.

I'm after a 70s passive Jazz Bass tone (playing stuff like Reggae , Funk, Blues) but in a 5 string (probably 35"+) with wide string spacing, about £1400 budget. I generally hear that Fender aren't necessarily the best for 5 strings and this review for the Lakland 55-02 got me thinking it's the next Bass for me: "Tonewise, this bass is a chameleon. It can mimic the P, PJ, J, Jaco and StingRay sounds to a certain degree. Lakland fairly admits that the bass was designed to mimic those classic models in the first place. The overall design of the bass and the advanced coil split capabilities of the humbucker offers a tonal versatility second to none. The humbucker isn’t on the StingRay sweet spot. Instead, it covers the 60’s and 70’s Jazz Bass bridge pickup positions. Therefore; the authenticity of it’s 60/70 JB is better than the authenticity of it’s StingRay sound. The neck single coil has a split coil design, but is still a single coil pickup. Therefore; it leans towards the Jazz Bass neck sound rather than an old mean P-Bass. Combining those factors, you are getting a 60’s + 70’s Jazz Bass in a single instrument, which can also get into the P & MM ballpark." https://www.lakland.com/testimonials/review-of-lakland-skyline-series-55-02/ Do you agree with that? Or the DJ 5 is the other one I'm considering. I know trying one out for myself is the only real answer but I'm trying to narrow down the field though seeing as I can't try out Basses in shops and I'm a bit impatient with Lockdown practice time on my hands.

Nice one, so you reckon the BT2 has enough mids and highs to be a decent PA? that's good to know....there's a BT2 for sale on here for £600 and I guess it should have at least a 600W amp (2nd hand for about £400) so I could have a decent Bass rig for about £1k that could also double up as a Reggae DJ rig (perhaps combining with my current PA amp and speakers for the DJ stuff, but ideally it could replace them to partly fund it....and as I think my wife might kill me if I fill the house with many more speakers!).

I reckon this is complete. I really like all of these pedals and there's no room for any more unless I level up my Tetris skills.

To confuse things ideally I would like to be able to use the Amp and Cabs not just to play Reggae via the Bass, but to also use with my Decks and DJ mixer (and perhaps combined with my current PA Poweramp and speakers) when I DJ Reggae. The DJ mixer has separate main output and monitor outputs so could possibly run the PA Poweramp and speakers via one output and the Bass Amp and Cabs via the other. Or possibly something like the Barefaced Big Baby covers the whole spectrum better and it could replace the PA gear, but them I assume a Bass specific Amp isn't going to be ideal for that.

No sign of a Dubster 2, but there is a Barefaced Big One which I've just enquired about - looks good. Almost anything would be an improvement on my current setup of PA Poweramp and speakers (saved slightly as it's fed via tube DI and a Cab sim pedals).