GarethFlatlands

Well it arrived today, I asked for 1st class post upgrade which was a bargain at £1.

If you've seen the M9 or M13 you'll be familiar with the setup and layout of the controls here, although the 2 footswitches are different in function. The left switch turns the effect on and off, although unlike the M9/13, the display still shows the selected effect and settings instead of simply showing that it's bypassed. Makes sense, the lights above the switches don't change colour to show you which category of effect you're in so there's no need to turn the effect on to see whether you're about to kick on a beatiful reverb for that nice quiet section or a maxed out fuzz. A nice touch which shows Line 6 have put some thought into this instead of simply taking a saw to their surplus stock of M9's.

The right switch provides the incredibly useful 'tap' function for time based effects and activates the tuner when held down. Both switches together brings up the presets menu. There are 24 slots, all of which come pre-loaded with a selection of effects and all of which are overwritable. The left and right switches then turn into up and down selectors and another click of both activates the highlighted effect which is both named and numbered. No matter which preset you're in, if you play around and find a sound you like and want to save, simply hold down the model select switch and you're given the option of which number slot you want to save it to, as well as the ability to rename it to something more useful. No point having a tube screamer saved under a slot called '63 Spring'. Re-naming is a bit of a pain as there's a lot of characters which aren't really useful and one knob to scroll through them all so be prepared for a lot of twiddling until you're set up with the selection of effects in the order you need them. I also couldn't find a way of moving, say effect slot 18 to slot 6 without selecting slot 18 then re-saving it in slot 6 and having to rename that slot, so think about grouping your most used effects together from the word go.

As for the sounds themselves, the 4 switch Line 6 pedals (and Verbzilla) have been around for long enough for most people to have a good idea about what this pedal can provide. I was expecting to pretty much ignore the distortions and filters as I already have a nice distortion (a modded Rat) and am not a fan of filters but was able to find some useful settings in both in the form of octave fuzzes, some surprisingly useful compressors, wahs and pitch glide. It has to be said, there was quite a lot of garbage in both those categories and some effects in the others where I wondered what the difference would be between that effect and the one next to it in a real world situation, but it's nice to have the choice available.

As for gripes, the knobs don't seem hugely sturdy, though they're protected by a bar which should stop them being accidentally trodden on by all but the clumsiest of musician. Odd, as the rest of the unit seems very well built and like it would last a long time if treated well. The pedal also sits on 4 rubber feet which prevents easy velcro mounting to a pedalboard which is what I was intending to do. I can understand the larger units needing this as they're almost designed to replace your whole board and can be thrown straight on the floor and used but for something like the M5, whose role I always saw as a unit to complement your existing pedals on your board, it seems like an un-neccesary hassle to modify either pedal or board or carry the M5 around separately to avoid it rattling around loose and risking damaging it. An large oversight in my opinion, especially as I assume removing the feet and therefore screws to the backplate would invalidate your warranty.

Other brief points of mention:-
Stereo in/out
1 expression pedal input
No looper (something I could care less about)
True bypass option
Takes standard 9v barrel connection, centre negative, like all your other pedals so no need for an extra power connector, although it does come with one

I knew basic chord shapes for years but didn't know why one was major and one was minor. I started singing lessons and my teacher was slightly bemused by my lack of theory knowledge after 12 or so years of playing and taught me the basics, major/minor keys, chord structure and that kind of thing and it's helped me immensely. It's good to know the rules so you can bend them to make something that sounds interesting, even if 99% of the people hearing it won't appreciate the technical reasons why.

It still surprises me how many guitarists I come across know even less than I do, although they've all known which basic chord they were playing and where all the notes were.

Ordered mine mere seconds ago after speaking to the very nice lady on the phone at fxpedal.co.uk. Will post my thoughts when it arrives and I've put it through its paces.

Sold pending payment and safe delivery.

Edit:- Paid for very promptly and posted.

P-bass, pick and a bit of grit would do you well I reckon. From the clips I've heard, the sansamp VT would do the job nicely.

Pictures as promised. I hope they show the condition of the pedal, which isn't too bad. The worst marks are a series of chips on the top left of the pedal and a larger chip on the bottom left. The right hand side is pretty knock free.

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The side you'll see the most.

[attachment=77440:IMGP0258.JPG]
The less sexy but still very important green label.

[attachment=77438:IMGP0254.JPG]
Some paint chips.

[attachment=77439:IMGP0255.JPG]
Less but bigger paint chips.

Same questions from me! I'd be interested if it could be bowed. Based in Sheffield.

[quote name='Finbar' post='1191247' date='Apr 6 2011, 11:15 PM']

There's a possibility I'll be letting go of an ISP Decimator G-string and an Ernie Ball Vp-Jr too, just as a heads up.[/quote]

Is it the expression pedal Ernie Ball or the volume pedal you might be selling?

And those are my wire cutters! Do you know where they are now?

To make room on the pedal board and raise some funds for a Line 6 M5 (my road tax cost me the exact amount that the deal from fxpedal would have got me one for) I'm selling a bunch of stuff on e-bay. As this is a recent decision, I thought I'd offer my Boss BF-2 on here to you lovely people before it hits e-bay.

It's the green label (1984-1990) version with black knobs. As you probably know, this is the last version made in Japan before they shipped the production to Taiwan and the Japanese models are considered to sound better. Not sure myself having never A/Bd the 2 but it is a really great sounding pedal and I'm still conflicted about whether to sell it or not.

They seem to have BIN prices on e-bay of anything from £60 to £90, I thought I'd offer it to you lovely people for £50 ONO including 1st class recorded postage. Buy and pay for it promptly and I'll post promptly as I'm off work all week. It's going on e-bay Monday.

Pics when I go to the practice room and pry it off the pedalboard with a solitary tear in my eye.

Edit - removed the promise of next day postage as band practice has been cancelled for tonight so I can't guarantee when I'll have it to post.

[quote name='cocco' post='1194290' date='Apr 10 2011, 08:41 AM']I had a streamer stage 1 5er that was defiantly the least useable/useful to me bass I've ever had. It just didn't cut though at all and the output was quite low. It put me off Warwicks and fivers for a good while. Looking back now I defiantly bought the wrong bass, a bolt on thumb would have been way more up my street (on paper anyway). I was just young and impetuous and into limp bizkit. Only recently have warwicks started drawing my attention again and for me the 2 I would own are the Corvette $$ and the Thumb BO[/quote]

I've heard similar things from another guy who owned a Streamer Stage 1. Must be a duff model generally, he now owns 2 Warwicks including another Streamer. The Thumb BO seems to be a classic and the Corvette $$ is one I'd love to try out, along with the Infinity.

And don't worry, I'm sure we all owned at least one Limp Bizkit album.

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='1194127' date='Apr 9 2011, 10:48 PM']Hehe. The last time I took my Thumb to see a luthier he offered to buy it off me. For £500 more than I paid for it. I turned him down.[/quote]

The guy nearly fell off his chair when I told him I paid £400 for it. Stu only paid £600 for his '94 Thumb. It seems to be a good time to buy Warwicks now, the trend seems to be for more retro basses so the prices are very low for the quality instrument you get.

Back to the OP, try a few different models and configurations as suggested below as both are versatile in slightly different ways. Then go for the one you think is the best deal. I wax mine once a month or so but you might want to do it more if you sweat a lot onto the wood.

[quote name='ritch' post='1193761' date='Apr 9 2011, 01:29 PM']Quick question. Does the footswitch on the TS9B switch when your foot presses ON the pedal when you pull your foot away?

I know it's picky, but I think I used an Ibanez or Maxon once which worked that way, and didn't like it. My green big muff does it too, and it just feels wrong to stomp on a pedal like that.

rich[/quote]

I've never used an Ibanez pedal so I'm not sure. I ordered an '83 flanger off e-bay from the US which never turned up and it's put me off their pedals for life. It's a little odd but I just see and £80 shaped hole whenever I see pictures of them.....


[quote name='EskimoBassist' post='1193925' date='Apr 9 2011, 05:40 PM']Well I must confess to not having used the PS5 or BF-2, but had no problems with any of the folling: TU-2, DD-6, DD-3, DD-20, BF-3, OC-3, ODB-3, CEB-3, RV-3, RV-5. The list goes on![/quote]

Like I say, my experience with Boss pedals is suprisingly limited for someone who's been playing for nearly 15 years so maybe I've just picked the bad few but I definately noticed the problem I mentioned and a roll-off of the high end with the BF-2. Good to know the RV-5 is alright though as I've had a hankering for one of those for a while.

A friend of mine has a BO Thumb and I use a Streamer Pro M. I love the grunt and the low end the Thumb has but the Streamer has a more versatile sound while still retaining some of the Warwick growl.

Our recording engineer today was lusting after my Streamer which was a nice complement considering the strings haven't been changed in at least a year.

I've never tried one but maybe an Aphex bass xciter or a BBE Sonic Stomp to enhance your current tone? If that doesn't appeal, maybe a DI to blend in with your amps tone to beef it up a little.

I use a Peavey TKO 115 and wasn't a fan for ages but I'm running a Sansamp bass DI into the front end and it's a lot more usable now.

Same here, picked up bass after 3 years of playing guitar but started off playing bass in bands for 3-4 years before guitar. I now play both in 2 different bands and like switching between the 2. There's more freedom and less pressure with bass but I write most of the material with the band I play guitar in so there's more control and say in the direction but more pressure.

Yeah, let us know about the switching between effects, how many you can save and how quick you can go between them. I've got some stuff on e-bay to make room on the pedal board and am pretty sure I'm going to pull the trigger on one of these at the weekend.

Shame, that looks like really sweet bass. Money is stupidly tight at the moment though

Yeah but where to keep it? Maybe at the practice room if I could be sure Sam wouldn't 'tidy' it away somewhere.

[quote name='chriswilliams666' post='1187423' date='Apr 4 2011, 09:31 AM']To think what i'd get for my "Fender Copy" against the parts cost i would probably cry.[/quote]

Exactly why I decided against doing up my tele knock-off. Maybe I should dismantle it for parts and sell it off?

Item location Edinburgh, collection only from Chester. Woot?

I have a crappy home built tele (not built by me) that I was thinking of doing up. Decided against it in the end, although I've now got a replacement neck to shift!

My lack of woodworking skills puts me off, even the thought of drilling 4 holes into the neck to fix it to the body scares me silly so I've decided to leave it to the professionals and have been debating buying a new one for a few weeks now.

Where does everyone get their enclosures drilled? I've had some incoming since September but sadly the guy doing it is really busy with uni work. I've got a shoebox full of components ready for soldering!

[quote name='EskimoBassist' post='1183066' date='Mar 31 2011, 10:31 AM']I've found with the majority of Boss pedals to suffer little if no tone loss at all.[/quote]

I must have been unlucky, I've owned a DD3, TU2, PS5 and a BF2. The first 2 were great but the last 2 were really bad for altering tone. You could hear the PS5 changing the sound when it was switched off and you turned the mode control. Shame, as it was a really good sounding pedal and would have been great in a loop. Fortunately the BF2 isn't as bad and I really love the sound so it's had a decent run on my board.

Dr Parts Fender Telecaster replacement neck

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120707192888"]Tele![/url]

Having a clearout due to GAS for various things. First on the e-block is a Visual Sound Double Trouble:-

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Visual-Sound-Double-Trouble-guitar-overdrive-pedal-/120707166700?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&hash=item1c1ab531ec"]Visual Sound Double Trouble[/url]

More stuff to follow.