Leaderboard

Hi all, I've read and enjoyed every comment on this thread. Although I'm not an organiser of the UKGC/LBGS as such, obviously my magazine is associated with it and I do take part in recruiting the celeb bassists, as well as being on stage a fair bit with them over the weekend -- so I'm keen for it to do well. We have a postmortem meeting this week and I'll raise the following points: 1 Noise/no-noise periods have to be monitored firmly. 2 More exhibitors, both big and small companies, are needed. 3 Bigger names would be welcomed. I get that a lot of people haven't heard of John Patitucci (although he does have four Grammy awards :-)) so yep, a John Taylor/Paul Turner/Robert Trujiillo or two should be considered, £££ permitting. 4 The Tone Zone didn't work out there on the floor as it wasn't really audible. 5 Upstairs rooms could be used for various purposes. 6 Audio bleed from one room to the next should be controlled. Thanks for coming along, and commenting too! Cheers Joel McIver Editor, Bass Guitar/Bass Player

One careful owner. May benefit from new strings and a setup

need to get the jazz on that 3rd return step, but i’ll do that when Maggie (three year old she devil) isn’t clattering about...

So @Al Krow offered me a lend of his Becos Stella Compressor to try out and see if it "lived up to the hype" (some of which was mine based upon the feature set alone). So huge thanks to him for that! TLDR: This is flat out the most transparent and full featured pedal format compressor I have ever tried. Which may or may not be what you need I had it for a couple of weeks, used it with my band and mainly in the den listening to it in mixes trying to see how much I could get out of it. I don't normally do gear reviews, because they are time consuming and what might seem great to my ear could be utter crap to yours anyway. Compressors being a particularly ephemeral topic in light of how hard they can be to hear if you don't know what you're listening for exactly I realise I am on a hiding to nothing. So whatever ends up written here please take with a pinch of salt. First points to note, this is a VCA compressor built around a THAT Corporation Analogue Engine chip (which retails for about $2.40 for an order of 2000 chips). So a relatively low cost chip at the heart of this thing. But still a good clean VCA compressor chip in a well designed circuit can still be a phenomenal tool in the right hands. As for how I tested this, I plugged it in between my Roscoe Century Std 5 and my EA iAmp Classic driving a Barefaced Big Baby, whilst playing some of my band's mixes back through my little monitors without the bass channel up to see what the result was in a mix. I also used headphones to really try and focus on the absolute leading edge of the note (the transient) when playing with the attack/release controls. The Lab First Impressions Lots, and lots of controls! All the important contenders are there, and better yet properly named. Ratio, threshold, (make up) gain, attack and release all present and correct. Some of them are frickin' tiny!! I truthfully couldn't really tell where the little arrows were pointing on the wet/dry and saturation controls without my glasses, and the light being 'just right' I would need to fill those in with some white paint to be able to use them easily. Bummer! On the plus side I don't think the micro-pots are in any danger from foot stomps on the big switch, the clearance seems more than adequate. Also, why the dashed lines all the way around the main controls? So I know it goes from 1:1 to infinity:1 ratio but I have no idea where 4:1 or 2:1 or 10:1 is on that pot. What a massive error. Now I know I can calibrate this with a DAW and some time, but for crying out loud why not figure that out for me? Yes I would use my ears to get what I want out of it, but actually I really like being able to get into the ballpark without guessing. That is a real shame on an otherwise great device IMO. The enclosure seems really nice, very solid, yet pretty light. I like it! First Thoughts In Operation No noise at anything approaching a reasonable set up: if you want to dime the output gain or the ratio and threshold its going to accentuate the noise, but that is simply not a realistic set up and even then its what I would call studio clean. I've played with a lot of pedal compressors and they are almost all let down by internal noise. Not this one. Its clean. Like an operating theatre. This is really really transparent. So what does that mean? Its a VCA compressor, it is designed to change the amplitude of the output in such a way that when set up correctly it is very very hard to tell that it is doing anything. In that first picture I was getting between 4 and 12 dB of gain reduction and couldn't hear it out off a mix (yeah I'll come on to that wet/dry setting in a bit). The LEDs are superb, the gain reduction feedback from them is absolutely excellent. Good enough to properly tweek attack/release times to help get the kind of bite point and release point to let you choose how overt you want this to sound. Just superb. SCF That little toggle switch between the Threshold and Attack controls is the Side Chain Filter selector. This is super useful for bassists, because we dont necessarily want the low end of our notes to trigger the compressor, instead letting the mid range and top end be what the compressor is listening to can produce better results. I preferred this control at the L setting where it lets through a lot of the lows and triggers mainly on the top end of the response. This is where the massive tweakability starts though, you can find settings in this pedal that work better with this switch in other settings. There is no right or wrong here, its just what works for you. Knee Switchable between a Hard or Soft knee, again tweakability is what this tool is about. I liked both setting for different ways of approaching compressing. In the above picture I had it on a hard knee, but because of other parameters settings I would still call that a super super transparent gain riding type of setting. Its going to pull up the lower end of the note envelope and quieter notes in general, giving them a lift, but absolutely not adversely affect dynamics and feel because of the other super cool control... Wet/Dry Oh yeah baby! This is the secret super sauce for compressor nerds. Especially coupled with the SCF it means you can set up very overt compression that is smashing everything, then use that purely to pull level up rather than to crack down on it. This is New York or Parallel compression. It totally changes the sound of the compressor and the feel too. Set up like it is in the above photo with the threshold super low and the ratio very serious, with a slooow attack a hard knee and the wet/dry dialling the effect right back compared to the dry signal you will be hard pressed to hear this compressing or feel it, until you put the result in a mix and start playing with a lot of dynamics. Your tone will change as your dynamics do, but your playing will just 'sit' in the mix because as your dry signal drops off the wet signal takes over, being compressed. Dialling that wet/dry over toward wet makes the compressor take over earlier, but even on fully wet this is still very transparent, and grabbing between 4 and 8dB of GR. I always try and dial in an 'always on' kind of setting into a compressor first, because it is the hardest to get right IME. You want to improve the way the bass sits in the mix of every song in a set, without getting in the way of the dynamics, regardless of technique. Sounds impossible, but this kind of compressor gives you all the tools you need to do exactly that. It is simply superb in this role. Lush even. Timing Simply a way to turn on automatic attack/release set to either fast or slow speeds or set it to manual to take advantage of the attack and release controls on the device. Me, I am all about the manual controls on compressors so I didn't even switch this thing out of Manual, but the miniature version of this pedal has great reviews and no manual control at all. Personally these two manual timing controls are why I would want this pedal over the little brother, so this switch is irrelevant to me... Overt Effecty Compression There is another role for compressors though, where you might only want to use them for a single track or section to really grab your tone and make something happen to it that can be heard. Some transparent compressors aren't so good at this sort of thing, personally I dig really good optical compressors on this role, but they ahve to be quiet when pushed to extremes (because thats where you are going to go with them to get them to do this really overtly). VCAs can do this too, they are the toolbox of compressors after all. Basically you want to take all the settings and just accentuate everything, so fully wet (at least to begin with), a higher ratio and a lower threshold for a start. But the real nuance of this type of compression is all about the attack and release. Normally you would be looking for a hard knee for an overt compressor, but I found with the Becos that the soft knee, when coupled with real extremes of threshold and a fast attack time started to get a bit like an optical compressor, the slower curve on the attack time did something really nice to the front of the note as the attack was shortened. Then its a case of dialing in the release so that that compressor gets a chance to reset between notes and yet is long enough to be heard. This is a case of a lot of trial and error. I ended up with something like this, where I backed the wet/dry off a bit so that fingerstyle and slap both seemed to work equally well and got really really fat and super punchy, loved this tone:- Tilt-EQ The Becos has a tilt eq, counter clockwise is more bass, clockwise more treble. Dead simple. Works a treat for the effecty side of things too, if you intend your compression to be for a particular playing style or song or whatever you can really dial in a tone to fit the rest of what you do and convey what you need.This is applied after the compression as far as i can tell and works really nicely. The EQ Pivot point control is just a selector for the mid frequency of the eq. Sat Ok, this is an odd one. They have added a saturation effect that is applied to the Dry side of the Wet/Dry only. I am all for kitchen sink stuff in a pedal, this is apparently a germaium style drive circuit. They claim it sounds like tape saturation, which it really doesn't to my ear, it distorts rather too much and rather too quickly for that I think. And to be honest I found it not particularly useful. Unless you are after a particular 'effecty' use for a particular point in a set. YMMV. Limiting This compressor has a ratio up to infinity and a minimum attack speed of 1.2ms so it could well stand in as a peak limiter. However it measures level over time so it wont be as good at limiting as a dedicated device that is really truly reading for peaks and would have fastest attack times measured in microseconds. Conclusion This is one of, if not the best pedal format compressor I have ever used. Being a VCA circuit its not a one trick pony, lends itself particularly well to transparent compression anyway, but coupled with the advanced features here its capable of incredibly transparent leveling to help 'glue' your bass into the mix better. Or fast enough attack speeds and extreme enough ratios and thresholds to make compression a fun in your face effect or super fat core tones completely achievable. If you want a tool to help on the gig, or to get a 'signature' compressed tone or a device in your hands to help you really get an understanding of what compression can do for you then this has to be really high up on your list. It certainly deserves to be there. Thanks again to @Al Krow for the lend of this. Hope the review helps anyone sat on the fence over this little beauty!

I've developed a whinge-proof outer layer at this point. Twenty years as an editor and author will do that to you 😝

You want me to add a ‘none of the above’ option to a poll asking which is your favourite out of these three albums?

I actually have 3 rehersal spaces ( this sounds like it should be on the "Meeting new people" - bullsh!t Bob threa) I have an amp and a couple of basses in my office, which is just a tiny room. I use this mainly to learn songs or grab a bass for a quick noodle when I'm working. Then there's my band practice room, which is a decent sized space where the whole band can practice. Then there's my BAR-N where we can have parties and play gigs. Sadly all now irrelevant as I no longer have a band to play with.

That's all hardware drilled and fitted now...I'm leaving the thumb rest off for now until I get it playable and I'll look to fit in a comfortable position then. I decided though, I know it's supposed to be a self-build, but I neither have the tools, knowledge, nor confidence to tackle both the alignment and fitting of the neck and the electrics without making a complete balls-up of it, so I'm taking it into Strung Out Guitars in Glasgow this week to get that done professionally...oh, a new bone nut fitted too. I just figured, I've investeda lot of time and money getting to this point, it really would be pretty foolish to try something myself I'm not entirely comfortable with and take a high risk I'd totally pink torpedo it up...!!

Can’t get a good photo of this blue - it’s absolutely insane. Photos don’t seem to capture the depth nor colour correctly. This is close.

The body has been sanded and Danish oiled, I’ve reshaped the headstock to a more traditional shape Now I’ve just got to source and fit the electrics I’m going to string it with some black tapewounds I'm really happy with the way it looks.............😀

No contest as far as I can see. Nevermind defined a new music genre and in its way changed the direction of contemporary music.

Status S2 Classic, absolutely love it!

The body varnishing passed the three day rule: after three days the varnish will have dried sufficiently to reveal if there are any nasties that would mean a sand down and a few more coats So we are now definitely on the home run. Today was completing the sanding and shaping of the neck and starting to apply the finish: The extension blocks on the heel are the same walnut as on the rosette, headstock plate and tailstock and so should provide some visual links. The heel and back/top of the headstock will be gloss, with the playing area of the neck slurried-to-satin with Danish Oil. Bone saddle is on order, tomorrow I will make a truss-rod cover and then, once the finish on the neck is complete, if will be ready to assemble and string up.

I've been listening to Johnny Cash playlist on Spotify recently. Man, can't belive I never gave his music a fair chance to get into it, now I'm addicted. Love the storytelling elemnt of the songs and damn those root & 5th bass lines are so groovy. Less is more (unless you're Yngwie LOL).

Not quite as impressive as some but this was last year's project - refresh a tired conservatory with new windows and a solid roof. Really pleased with it and there's just about enough room for the guitars

Totally agree. I wouldn't use the "W" word above, but the problem is, considerable amounts of passion/energy, hard work (I was also working all the previous weekend, building our stand elements, in addition to doing 2 gigs... and I have a day job) and vast amounts of money go into attending this show for exhibitors (logistics, travel, hotels, graphics/artwork, wages, depreciation on demo stock, the time it all takes to plan out of regular business activities, etc, etc before you even start to consider the cost of the floor space). Exhibitors are not all massive corporates - most of them are definitely not, and it really isn't at all helpful for people to constantly post negativity without any of Joel's balance, and certainly not from people who weren't even there. As said I don't work for, but work alongside MSL, and I'm proud of my involvement with the Markbass presence at the show (you guys don't get to see/experience what happens at 4.30pm on Sunday once the show closes. It is bedlam and exhausting, and thats before my 3 hour drive home. I was physically broken on Monday!). Big respect to all the others who, I know, put in the same effort to try and make the show work for us all. ...and the show will only work if the organisers get it right, the exhibitors continue to feel it is a worthwhile sales/marketing exercise, and it is helped to grow through positive feedback. And, for heavens sake, bass shows are noisy and some people do slap......

Thanks Joel. Nice to see a positive and constructive response rather than accusations of a 'whingefest'.

Doesn't look like the guy who did Graceland.....😉

Most of them are in one room, there are even more spread around my house.

Dunno, I wait til Christmas and the wife buys them. It's an annual surprise.

Why play that when you can play the original Betsy as I did (briefly😀) at the Mansons Guitar Show some years back whilst hanging out with Guy.

Well. Since 1999 I’ve wanted one. And after a lot of back and forth (think we’ve joked about me having this bass off Paul for about 3 years...) This is coming to me this week. And I didn’t have to sell the white jazz. The only other bass I desire is a Wal Mk1and that ain’t happening 😂

I just joined a couple days ago. Been unprofessionally in music for 30+ years. Vocals and harmonica at first, then 6 strings off and on for a while. I’m just seriously taking up the bass in the last year, progressing well. Favorite bass is hard to pick, maybe my 2006 Gibson Sg. Although I am learning I like a Pbass quite a lot, and am not fond of the Jazz. I have a fretless Pbass in the works, the neck should arrive in a couple weeks. We are moving this week and weekend into a new house, and I snapped a poorly lit picture before I unloaded the boot tonight, just a hair over half done.

Right so when are you selling it on that’s the big question we all want to know. 😀

I've managed to coax a phaser out of the FI!

What - you mean like the other one did.... ?

You could throw that at any era and collection of albums though. I wasn’t even vaguely influenced by anything the Velvet Underground, Bowie, Stevie Wonder or Guns n Roses ever did, to pick a few artists at random, but evidently many people were. At the time, the 3 albums mentioned were very big. I don’t think anyone is arguing that they influenced everyone, because that would be ludicrous.

The Glam Rock Mustangs of doom!

Really excellent review Si and my pleasure to make this pedal available to someone who deeply understands the subject of compression and is undoubtedly one of BC's foremost experts on the subject.

It's all very well monitoring them. What needs to happen is that they are enforced. Why is this brought up as a problem every year, yet nothing over than lip-service appears to be done about it?

The load will be different. You'll get a bit more highs and a bit more output, but sometimes it's hardly audible.

It's quite different, the YYZ has less sizzle and a lot more midrange, and doesn't have the same low end punch as the DP-3X due to the lack of compression. IMHO the DP-3X is the way to go if you want the bass to help make the entire mix sound bigger and better. YYZ if you want the bass to be more of a lead instrument rather than a supporting one.

I went with Nevermind. I'm probably a bit unusual for a bass playing Chilies fan in that, although it grew on on me, I wasn't particularly keen on Blood Sugar Sex Magik at first. I preferred their earlier stuff. I've always thought they peaked with 'Mother's Milk'.

Impressive! Looks like you did a fantastic job there.

Live and Let Dye? - or Hair There and Everywhere.

Careful what you wish for! 😁😁

Wig can work it out ,or even Eleanor Wigby ?

I know what you mean, but I believe he's singing in key. Those are our locak Midwest boys that did well for themselves. I use to go see them when they were playing bars in Milwaukee in the early 70s. I also got to hang with Rick at a Jeff Brck show in Milwaukee a few years back. Ricks father owned a music store. Rick would take Gibson and Fender guitars over to the UK and sell yhem to some of your stars.. He sold a few guitars to Jeff. Sorry for going off topic.. Blue

Exactly this. Only downside for me was that I think the cinema I saw it in had a lot of dust in the air, because towards the end my eyes kept watering. It must've been in the air because my wife's eyes were also watering a lot.

Well, finally sorted the Attitude bridge on the orange bass...took much longer than planned as I wanted a luthier to do it for me but got all sorts of “nah shove a badass on it” or “it’ll be £140 to do that”. Some patience and a half hour later...

Recently acquired MIJ in aged Candy Apple Red with competition stripe. Wearing La Bella Mustang flats

Many albums have made a big impact on me musically of the years... but the first album that really changed the way I thought about bass was 'Eat Em & Smile' by David Lee Roth...

78 baby

None of them strictly ‘bass albums' but certainly the most influential in a bass sense for me...