dirgefornovember

Been very content with my Squier 40th anniversary P and Warwick Corvette for quite a long time but had a sudden hankering for a Stingray that I just couldn't shake. Never tried one before and just loved that sound. This Ray34 came up at a good price on Reverb, just a shade over £500 after some negotiation, and had to pull the trigger. The colour is unbelievable. I love that blue sparkle, and the roasted maple neck is really smooth. Not totally au fait with active basses but put it through my pedalboard with a Solidgold Beta V preamp and a Jam Pedals Rat and I'll need to do some serious tweaking, sounds wildly different to the setting I use for my P bass. Now the conundrum of trying to justify having 3 basses around the house...

My band is called Wooed and we opened for Ma.Da.Sa, also a new-ish band but a bit of a 'supergroup' from other Southampton bands. Good local crowd.

Final show of the year (and indeed our second ever show!) was at Heartbreakers in Southampton, opening the show. We had some technical issues with our previous gig (venue's bass head and cab didn't work 5 mins before we were due to start...) and, while it was overall really enjoyable, I wasn't too happy with the sound on-stage. This show was miles ahead sound-wise, and that's because we managed to have a proper 30-40 minute soundcheck before doors. Big shout out to the sound guy Izaak - we're a loud band, so it really helped to have an outside ear to keep us all sounding even and ensure we had enough coming through the monitors so we could hear ourselves properly. The sound guy took the DI from my Darkglass Element to the PA, and I used the venue's (or maybe the other bands? didn't check!) 210 Ashdown combo for stage monitoring. Sounded great and most importantly I could really hear myself, which felt like a world away from the other show. It's made me think I should invest in some kind of lightweight head/cab/combo for stage monitoring in the future. Done a few hours research and I have complete option paralysis, but that's maybe for another thread... I genuinely thought we'd be playing to about 3 people as this was a paid event very close to Xmas, so was pleasantly surprised to see a good 25-ish people there. A great local show by Psych Ltd and v well-organised, I'd play again in a heartbeat.

This is a new fairly new board for me, graduating from a Orange Bass Butler > Way Huge Swollen Pickle > DOD Rubberneck > Element to what you see above. Chain is Tuner > Beta > Jam Rattler > Demhe > SY300 > EQD Afterneath clone > Element. Only had one rehearsal with it so far (context: I play in a loud rock/psych/post-hardcore band) but pleasantly surprised by the Beta V, which has not made me miss the Bass Butler that much. I'm still to learn the full capability of the LPF - in fact our drummer said having the switch to 1 sounded like I was playing in the other room - so still trying to find my way with that one. Keeping it neutral on 0 felt like the best place so far. The pedal I thought would be a slam dunk but has left me a touch disappointed is the Rattler. Done a fair bit of knob-twiddling with the blend but still getting a bit lost in the mix. However I love the secondary switch to go full-gain for those heavier parts, so will be staying in the board for now. Quite easy to accidentally engage that switch, mind.. Enjoying the Demhe, it's a bit more velcro-y than the Swollen Pickle, which I did really like but there is only really one setting for that and it is big booming bassy fuzz. So needed something a little more versatile. Boss SY300 is brand new so haven't had the chance to get it in the rehearsal room yet. But mainly looking to use it as a multi-fx and an all-round ambience creator than a straight synth. Sounds good so far, and have been able to make just simple chorus / flanger / phaser patches (after some YouTube tutorials). Afterneath clone is great (bought from a DIY pedal maker on The Fretboard). Had the real thing before and this sounds just as good. For me, Afterneath is the best reverb on bass. Element is the Element, had it for ages now and don't see myself ever getting rid of it. Cab sim, headphone out, DI out for live performance, and plug it into the laptop to record straight into a DAW. Brilliant tool.

I guess I'm just used to the Darkglass pedals (and the Source Audio C4) coming with all the necessary guff so I can use their editors on desktop straight away.

Just got mine today. The pedal itself is a bit smaller than I expected, which is nice as it'll fit on my pedalboard. Has come with a European power supply - fine, it's being powered by my Truetone power supply so that's not too much of an issue. But no USB cable to I can connect to the BOSS software? This is meant to be a £400+ pedal. I'm sure there's some people who would be fine with that, but I don't think I've got a USB type-B cable lying around, so I can't actually use the dedicated BOSS software that I'm being told to use. Unbelievably annoying.

Just checking! I've bought one. Thanks for the heads up.

Delivery is from Sweden to the UK....so are we getting stung with customs charges on this?