WinterMute

Yes, sits at 800hz normally and switches to 1.4Khz when you pull the pot up, if memory serves. Yes, it's a Bart branded pre. it has the stacked HF and LF pot and a passive active push/pull on the volume.

I'm going to be seeking a finders fee for owning the pig that started all this, just saying...

I've got the Bartolini Musicman replacement in my fretless with the 3 band Bart pre-amp that has the switchable mid, and I don't think it's weak at all, it's a very useful and musical pre that voices really well on the fretless.

It has advantages over the lego, that's for sure.

Jesus, can't a man buy a plushy pig....?

Yep, very capable unit, I looked at it before I bought a second hand XT Pro, but I needed a bit more power and went with a sweaty great Crown amp into the Big Twin.

I've tried the Helix and the Pod XT Pro against the Kemper rack and the Multi-amp, what I observed was that the units designed specifically for bass were more flexible and therefore more useful than the "general" units that had some bass models in them, that said, I thought the models in the Helix were perfectly useable but needed more attention, and the Kemper was fine as long as you didn't stray too far from the original modelled sound. The MB was a cracking unit, but I didn't think it sounded any better than the Kemper or the Line6 units, it sounded different. Studio use of course.

Is your OS up to date? Focusrite Control is on a new version I think.

boot the machine into Single User mode by starting it up and holding down CMD+S at the chime till you see a black screen with a bunch of white text. Wait for that to finish loading and then type fsck -f (the space is deliberate) this will force the machine to do a full check of the disc architecture and run fixes. Wait for the process to finish, it'll either say "Mac HD look OK" or Mac HD was repaired" or something like that if it says OK, type sync;sync;sync;reboot and press return. The machine will reboot and hopefully work. If it say repaired, run the fsck -f command again until it says OK.

Yes, which is why I used the Barefaced Big Twin T when I was gigging, as it's effectively a bass PA... In the days of Ampeg 8X10's I wouldn't have been so picky I suspect. What I would definitely be able to tell is that the tone is how I designed it to be, and when I played through other rigs, it didn't sound right.

Cheek! That's a limited edition Pink Floyd plushy pig from the V&A exhibition last year...!

Best way to deal with multi-fx, one stage at a time and keep an eye on the levels.

My studio: In the box digital all running through a class A summing mixer and a Rupert Neve designed Amek comp/lim. All the flexibility and power of digital and some lush analogue width and depth.

I'm mixing an album currently with UAD2 plugins emulating some of the best analogue gear on the market, with a little patience the result I'm getting is perfectly acceptable, given that I'm not able to afford a Rupert Neve Designs 5088 60v console and a rack of vintage eq's and compressors... Still, I like the result, but then I know what I'm doing and have the experience to back it up. I used to use the PodXT pro, and a lot of guys commented that they didn't like it's sound until they heard what I was getting out of it, fact is that multi-fx units like the Helix need a deal of understanding, not least about gain staging and signal chain construction, and the standard patches aren't always very good... Easy to use, good sounding comps are always going to be popular because a lot of people don't actually know what a compressor is doing to their signal, I'd love a Shelford for my bass, but it's overkill, the limiter in my Phil Jone flight-case works just fine with one knob.

This has been around for a while, a year or so at least, if I buy or sell a bass or kit now, it has to be separately insured for the journey.... This is why pick-up is so much easier.