SumOne

Yeah, I don't expect they will ever be within my means...and even if they were I'm not sure I could justify spending that.

Or if you have £1k burning a hole in your pocket there's the Noble or REDDI. I think I'd expect more from them than a DI/Preamp could ever do if I spent that amount though.

Thanks, I'll open it up and to try to see if there's any clues about what the existing ones are. Oddly enough, I must have an American doppelganger as I just found that someone else was considering this about 9 years ago and didn't seem to get resolved but then someone resurrected the thread it a few weeks ago to see if it has been done (it doesn't seem to have been and Tech21 gave a warning to not try it yourself!) https://www.talkbass.com/threads/changing-led-colors-on-vt-bass-deluxe.893889/ ....still though, I'm keen!

I like preamp pedals (probably as I don't have a good amp!), they all seem to be quite different from each other as far as features/tones so there's potentially a lot to get through. I've had Sansamp BBDI v2, EBS Microbass 2, DHA VT1 EQ, Bass Simplifier, (and the smaller overdrive/preamp pedals like the Crimson Red and the Solid Gold FX Beta) and all were really good but quite different. The issue I had with all of them if using at the end of the signal chain as a preamp was how they played with other pedals e.g. you can get a great tube type overdrive tone with the BBDI but if you have something like a Fuzz or Envelope filter ahead of it lots of their tone gets muffled so you need to turn down the blend when using them and then turn it back when you want the sansamp overdrive. You can get around that knob twiddling a bit with the Bass Simplifier having 2x FX loops and the Microbass A/B (or A+B) channels and FX loop but there were certain issues with doing those things and I found myself still having to either adjust the preamp pedals depending on what other pedals were being used with them or leave them in quite neutral settings to not keep needing to fiddle about. I've just got a Sansamp VT Bass Deluxe that solves that issue for me: 6x presets all easily accessible on footswitches without menu diving, and a foot-switchable FX loop. So can do things like run an envelope filter ahead of the VT and then have a VT setting to reduce the highs and add a bit of overdrive to it, or can put Fuzz in the FX loop and have a setting so the VT feeds it more mids, or settings where the VT is running a dubby EQ or an Overdrive (it has good overdrive tones). ....probably after a few months something else will catch my eye though!

My 00Funk clone build has stalled for the time being, something's not working and I think it's where I burnt the pcb trying to remove a diode, or the other mistake I made was accidentally resting the side soldering iron on a component while I was soldering the pots on to the other side....or it could be any number of things! I'm thinking it might be best to just buy the pcb and on-board components again but will step back from it for a bit. I'm not letting that hold me back though! It has given me a taste for this hopefully simple mod: I've got a VT Deluxe and one slight issue with it is that all of the LEDs are red, I would like them to be different colours to make it more obvious what is on - particularly the A/B inputs. Given that different colour LEDs = different voltage drop I'm guessing this isn't just a case of being like changing a lightbulb though, but with Red being 1.63-2.03 volt drop and Green being within that range at 1.9-4 .00 (or Orange being close at 2.03-2.10) would it be possible to just make that swop without having to also change other things like the resistors?

Just putting this seed of an unfounded prediction out there seeing as I have a v3 and am fickle with buying/selling pedals all the time: The v1/v3 will be sought after classics and anything after them won't be as good for some reason (cost savings or availability of a certain chip or something). The v1/v3 will be like the DOD Meatbox, or original Mu-Tron III, or MF-101....prices are only going up!

If there is a pedal that says 'let's groove' on it and makes that sound I'd want it too....unfortunately I don't think there is one. You could get a second hand one of the cheaper synth pedals for a roughly similar sound (EHX Bass Micro Synth 'sub' setting, or the Boss SYB-5). But cheap bass synth pedals are pretty annoying for poor tracking and latency. Or an an octaver like the OC-2 sounds similar enough. The C4 and Future Impact are going to probably be the best for getting the sound and having good tracking and low latency, they're expensive though.

Nice one. Now I'm tempted again!

Helix Stomp and Dual Switch up for sale on here, not for any particularly good reason other than I'm fickle and must want something to do with my time! I think I just like trying out new pedals too much. (And I need to fund my new Bike & Ice Cream hobby).

That all sounds good other than me needing to find something new to do with my time other than obsessing over pedals!.... I guess that time could be spent eating ice cream and riding a bike though.

Yeah sounds reasonable. I guess the caveat is that not all pedals are created equal, supply and demand and all that, a DOD meatbox reissue had a £155 RRP about 5 years ago but their going rate now looks to be about £250.

Well that's confusing! Perhaps the next version should be v2 to keep people on their toes 😀

Yeah seems to me that the going rate for a v3 is about £190. Much more than that and I'd consider buying new at £255 to get in mint condition with warranty/returns etc. Although the v1 & 2 are technically same inside I think people would pay a bit less for them because they are obviously order and likely to have been used more (with the risk of cosmetic damage and worn footswitches etc).

Yeah, that's all true. I've never fully committed to downsizing my pedalboard so I've ended up using the Stomp to replace a few pedals rather than getting used to using it to it's full potential. I have 90% used it to replace EQ, Amp/Cab sim/DI, Chorus, Phaser, Tuner, and think it's a worthwhile investment just for that even before I use it's full potential. ....but am starting to get pedal curious again! The Stomp would sell for about £300 which could be spent on: Behringer EQ £15, NUX Melvin Lee Preamp/OD/DI/IR loader £120, Zoom MS60B £70 (for Tuner and occasional fx I don't really use like delay and reverb and additional OD), second-hand Chorus £50 & Phaser £50. = £305. That would lose a lot of the extra fx and routing options of the Stomp (but I do already have an EHX Switchblade Pro which partly covers the loop switcher stuff and mixing and order switching) and would take up a lot more board space, but it gains the footswitches and hands-on controls and modular style of replacing pedals as and when (which if I'm honest- is something I'm quite in to!).

I need to try and get out of the separate stompbox 'what you see is what you get, one footswitch per effect' attitude because I still like separate footswitches for each effect and being able to look down and instantly see where settings for each of them, and the sort of good accidents you get when mucking about stomping a big chain of fx on and hands-on tweaking - but I know the Helix Stomp can make the same sounds for less money and less boardspace....plus it opens up a lot of new opportunities with routing options etc. Say I want Octave>Fuzz>Chorus, with separate pedals that's immediate by just clicking on those three stompboxes and instantly tweak the controls, with the Stomp that's easily done (and can do much more) but you do need to have saved it as a preset and remember where that preset is or spend a minute or so selecting the blocks/FS assignment and clicking on them individually to change parameters....it's just that very slight inconvenience in workflow that I'm not so keen on but I think I need to spend more time building up presets and getting over the stompbox attitude.

I like the octaver, thought it tracks better than analogue octavers I've had (mxr BOD, and Aguilar Octamizer), I guess it loses a bit of their character but I don't use it at 100% and usually have some other fx or overdrive after it. I also prefer the Helix dual pitch over the TC Sub n Up for octave up stuff. The big winners to me are modulation, reverb/echo, eq, and the amp/cab sims, just buying them as individual pedals would cost the same as a Stomp. Losers are synth and envelope filter. If I were to get rid of the Helix it wouldn't be because of the quality of any sounds, it would be because I prefer more idiot proof individual pedals rather than programming presets.

You've just proved why it's also always worth checking Basschat knowledge! (as well as trying before buying)

Squire Jazz: Shoddy 2nd hand starter Bass - the bridge pickup didn't work and action was really high, but I didn't really know any better and it was good enough to get me into playing. Fender Jazz MIM: 2nd hand that hadn't been treated that well before (had rusty strings/frets and a few knocks), I liked it but wanted to move on to active 5 strings. Ibanez SRMS 805: Great Bass, good 3 band eq with 3x centre frequency switch for the mids, only thing I didn't like so much was it felt a bit small to me - particularly the string spacing. Dingwall Combustion: Technically excellent but felt a bit big and heavy and I didn't like that there wasn't ability to mix between pickups (it's one or other or both), also more of a modern tone than I was after. Sandberg TM5 SL: Excellent Bass, my favourite that I've owned, fun to play - comfortable and light and has a variety of good tones. I suppose the Dingwall did feel a bit more sturdy and 'high-end' in little details and was more even across the strings and the Ibanez had more tone control so I'm not quite sold on it being 'the one'! With the exception of the Dingwall being more expensive than the Sandberg these have all got increasingly expensive and increasingly good and not really lost much value when I traded to the next one so I am eying up my next move and telling myself it's probably worth spending the ££ which is a bit of a gamble as would need to sell the Sandberg to pay for it. Better to regret something you did do than something you didn't though?! And seeing the length of most of the lists on this thread helps me justify it!

No worries, I'm sort of relieved, it does look good - but I really don't need a new Bass!

Couldn't tell as it was covered