risingson

As others have said, service lift at the back - access a bit tricky with a van but you should be able to unload there with ease and then park it across the road in one of the side alleys. Free after 6pm. House amps, they used to have a hefty Orange bass rig in there with so you wouldn’t struggle with level on stage. Wedges at the front around the stage in the back room. Front room more cramped and a bit more challenging sound wise from monitoring pov. It’s not the original venue but I used to play there most weeks and it’s still got some magic about it. Pretty touristy and mixed crowd, a lot of international visitors and always used to have a good feel of a weekend. Have fun.

I’ve owned a 74 Jazz in the past which sounded great but on the heavy side. Any later I’ve found the quality to be inconsistent and seemingly from the late 70s onwards very much so. I think the AVRIs are really good and especially the ones they made in the early 2010s. I’d also consider a custom shop second hand for your budget. I know this might prove controversial but my experience is that if you want an older feeling instrument they do walk a pretty good line on replicating it.

I’ve also not had a huge amount of joy with the B side. The A side is great, extremely well voiced / versatile but the B side to me is pretty underwhelming as a drive or for tube saturation type tones. The rest of the pedal I could not fault. I’ve had quite a bit of luck using my Origin Black Panel into the Capo and cranking the gain and mids on the Bassman setting. Expensive solution to having a drive on my board but very satisfying as it does the squashy valve thing a lot better than the Capo.

I had one of these, years ago now. Very thin neck profile. Not active, mine was vol pan tone tone. A totally honest appraisal were the pickups felt weak and the tone a little thin, as others have said they don’t sound a thing like the German built ones. I do remember getting it as a 14 year old though thinking it was the greatest thing ever.

I agree, and it’ll be the reason I keep my Bass Rig on the board to keep the valve warmth it gives. The B side feels a little underwhelming in any scenario, which is a shame because everything else about the pedal is a remarkable achievement and so cleverly designed.

Got mine last week. It fills in the gaps of the Origin Black Panel with some of its features, including the post pre loop which I wish the Origin had. Both sound great but in different ways, the Black Panel is tube-like and has a pillowy compression to it which is undeniably great for vintage tones, and the Capo is more direct, faster transients and the added gain stage on the B side is really useful. The ability to sculpt the mid frequencies is something the Black Panel lacks somewhat with it being more a Fender tone stack, again just very different tonally. It’s probably a bit mad to have both but I’d struggle to choose between them. Everything runs into the Capo on the board apart from the Cali which is last and goes into the post effects loop. I played a Noble a few weeks back, great piece of kit but really there wouldn’t be much I couldn’t get out of this combo now and not widely dissimilar tones.

Ha funny, I take mine into a Radial JDI. The Jensen transformer pairing, as you say similarly, sounds incredible. I played a gig through a Noble the other night (not mine sadly) and much preferred the 64 paired with my DI, although I’d be interested to have spent more time in comparing. Just wish Origin had figured the cab sim thing at R&D.

The ‘64 Black Panel is amazing, I really do love the tone but I do wish the cab sim was defeatable. As it stands I only use it as a preamp and take the 1/4” into another DI, which sort of defeats the point of using it as a standalone unit. There is the smallest amount of noise when I use the pedal this way, not enough to be an issue live but when recording it would either need gating or dealing with the noise which isn’t ideal for an engineer. I’ve just bought the Jad Freer Capo. I don’t expect it will replace my Black Panel entirely as I really love the sound, and it does that tube-like compression so well. But the Capo would seem to do more things and with a lot more functionality. Maybe not best or fair to compare them in this sense as they’re not apples and apples but the Capo I think will get me more places.

That’s great info thanks! I love the Origin, it does an incredible job of emulating tube saturation and that compression and lag that I love but it’s missing the sheer functionality of the Capo which has made me want to bite the bullet. Love the idea of the additional drive capability as well, Will be an interesting comparison!