mcnach

The Helix may be a little old, but it's still better sounding than most other things out there. It's just that the cheaper units are getting better and better, so it requires a bit more of a chat with yourself to decide whether the difference in quality is worth the cost. I was ready to buy a Helix, just could not decide on the LT or the Floor version... then the GP-200 came along and I thought "this will do". The basic guitar sounds are very good, and the FX are on the whole decent enough, with a few very good ones. I can live with it, and in fact I love it... but it's not without some limitations, which should not be surprising considering the price. What I don't get is why they didn't put something like their OC-10 in there! Zoom... I like the B6, but I can't help feeling that they didn't quite get it right. With some extra processing power it would become even more flexible. Add parallel routing (and probably a couple hundred £ more ) and the next unit could be really special.

I'd say pitch-shifting in general is not a strength on the GP-200. Better on guitar than bass, but octave and synth effects are prime candidates for an external unit in the FX loop of the GP-200. I haven't used a Zoom B1-4, I can only speak about the B6. I find the B6 much much better in that respect. The Helix/HX range is better sounding in general. I like the GP-200, mostly for guitar, because the amp/cab modelling and drives etc work really well and I would not pay >2x to get better FX, the GP-200 is good enough for my purposes, but in general it doesn't have the best effects, certainly not compared to a Helix. Just dipping in and out now, I'll see if I have time this weekend and record a few of examples. I actually want to spend time with the octave FX on the B6 to see how close I can get to that "OC-2 synth type sound", which is one of the sounds I'd like to use in the UB40 tribute band, so I can plug in the GP-200 as well and record a few clips. But I'd say if pitch shifting FX are very important to you, look elsewhere unless you are happy with adding an external pedal to it. The octave is very usable on guitar, and it can be ok on bass, it'll do teh job live... but this is something I feel a bit picky about and I don't love them. Delays, reverb, chorus, phaser, flangers... I can always find some good stuff. Overdrives, some very tasty ones! But the octaver seems almost like an afterthought, bundled among the 'preamp' models, which is weird as the Valeton OC-10 was very decent (I have one too). One thing I love on the GP-200 is teh dedicated switches for each FX block. One of my hates with multiFX is the navigation, menus, submenus... The GP-200 is extremely easy to use even for someone with my phobias Everything I want to access is very easily accessible. The Boss units, for example, sound great and can do so much, but they're definitely a RTFM type of thing.

I'm pretty sure the Xvive U4 accepts at least up to 4 receivers per transmitter. Might work? https://xvive.com/audio/product/u4-in-ear-monitor-wireless-system/

That's crazy and very timely, thank you! Just ordered one.

A £400 Fender is not going to be a lot better made than that Harley Benton just because of the logo they lsapped on the headstock. If you were talking a higher end Fender, sure, but not this.

If you have the files yourself (i.e: not streaming) you could use the free RiffStation. It allows you to alter speed, loop sections, change key, and save the result if you want to. And a lot more. https://riffstation.software.informer.com/

I don't think there's any synth, it's one of the prime candidates to add into the FX loop, that and an octave. For guitar I find the two octave FX are just ok, and I don't like them on bass. The 11 blocks is cool, but then they bundled up together into the "pre" block all kinds of preamps... and the octave/pitch-shifting, ring modulator, autowah, acoustic simulation and tape saturation emulation. So that can limit things a bit, but 'fortunately' the best is to get an external octave pedal The tape saturation thingy is quite nice 'though. I haven't yet explored a lot with the various wahs (separate section, pedal controlled), but the impressions on guitar are good enough. A couple of the presets for bass use an envelope filter and it was pretty decent. You do need to make sure the sensitivity control is set right for your bass, it makes a big difference. The bass amp/cab models are quite nice sounding. You don't get a lot of choice on the GP-200 for bass, but what you get sounds good. I bought this for guitar primarily, but I think it's going to be on guitar and bass duty for my little home recordings, and the Zoom B6 for live (I don't gig on guitar these days). The drum machine is basic as you could expect, but it sounds ok (much better than the one on the Zoom B6) and there's tons of rhythms, which makes capturing an idea really easy. It does have a few limitations compared to the more expensive competition, but when you start looking at the POD Go, GX-100, HX LT etc, it seems it's a matter of finding which functions you must have and which ones you don't care so much about: one unit offers you A and B but not C, another gives you B and C... etc. In my case, apart from liking what I heard online, having dedicated physical knobs for the amplifier model was that feature that I wanted and could compromise in other places. What I like teh best about it is the basic amp/cab modelling. My Telecaster hasn't sounded so good in ages! I may not get the sweet clean-on-the-verge-of-breakup that I loved from my old VibroChamp, but I'm getting something really tasty along the same lines from the "Tweedy" simulation, and the overdrives... there's quite a lot of them and most are great. The whole amp/OD/guitar volume interaction feels extremely realistic to me, I'm quite happy with it. The presets are very RAWK, with huge reverb and delays... but build something from scratch as you would with physical gear and it works really well. Navigation is very easy, which is usually one of my bugs with multiFX over the years. The display is not tactile, but they've used the physical controls cleverly. I haven't yet tried to record via USB. I think it offers 4-outs and you could record the effected and the dry signal simultaneously, so you can 're-amp/FX' later too.

I've recently got a GP-200. I already had a Zoom B6 but of course, now I'm getting more into guitar again and my ancient Behringer V-Amp is pretty dated (although it has some decent sounds, that thing). I was looking into Boss GT-1000 and the Line6 Helix Floor/LT... but the Valeton GP-200 was getting some great reviews, and although not covering nearly as much ground as the other units, this was under £300... so I figured I'd give it a try, and if no good I'd return it and get a better unit. No need. Yes, it's limited compared to the others in routing capabilities and a few other things, but quite honestly, I quite like it. The amp/cab modelling sounds very good! The FX are decent enough in general, and with a user-positioned FX loop I can easily add a couple additional pedals to supplement the built-in FX if I decide I need something extra. One reason that made me want to try the GP-200 was the dedicated amplifier controls on the face of the unit. The interface seems really well thought out: everything is easily accessible without having to get lost in menus and submenus. I use it on my desktop mostly, playing through monitors, using it to record demos and share stuff with the band. Really impressed by this little thing.

Not sure you lost the coupling with the floor, you'd need to raise the speaker quite a bit more than what the stand does... but if now you have the more directional mids aimed at your head, it'll probably feel more middy but I'm pretty sure it's just due to the change in relative position between your ears and the speaker.

If that doesn't, I have used one of these both with a MarkBass CMD121P combo and various stand alone cabs (not at the same time!). It folds flattish and it's light but sturdy. Around £20-25. https://www.gak.co.uk/en/stagg-gas-4-2-amp-stand/36029

If I didn't have a pair of Barefaced Two10 already, I'd be getting those. I may still end up getting one at some point in the future, as they work really nicely with a guitar modeller unit (Valeton GP-200 here). If you also play guitar, it's an added bonus as you could use it for both bass and guitar and sound very good with both. I'll write about my experience with that LFSys Monaco cab in some detail sometime over the next few days, if you want to hear more (or feel free to PM me)

I've used Karaoke Version quite a bit, but recently I'm finding this Moises app quite useful. It does a good job at separating tracks from just about any source. I tried it using a rehearsal recording made on a little Zoom H2 (stereo ambient mics) to mute my bass and play alternative basslines, for example. It's a subscription thing, but you can export the separate tracks as audio tracks which you can then use with any DAW, so you could technically subscribe for one month and get a whole lot done in that period for less than what a pint costs. It allows you to change key, but when exporting tracks it seems to only export the original key, which is a bit of a bummer, but I use Riffstation (free) to change keys and save audio so that gets around the issue. https://moises.ai/products/moises-webapp/

You got a few good suggestions already. I have to add another to the mix. I've recently had the pleasure of trying an LFSys cab (Monaco model) from our very own @stevie and I was very impressed with it. It's light, it's loud, I really liked the shape and handle type/position which makes carrying it really easy... I'm using a pair of Barefaced Two10 with a Mesa D800+, and currently I'm mostly playing reggae/ska. The Monaco sounded really good! https://www.lfsys.co.uk/bassguitarproducts

It is a lot of fun It also has the kind of 'bass solo' that I actually like. It's pretty rhythmic, just small variations on the main theme but being just drums and bass makes it sound really cool (I think!). I don't particularly like bass solo type of things, but I had to play a few when I was in a RHCP tribute, things like Aeroplane, Naked in the Rain and a few others have that. I much prefer the one in Nite Klub. What I don't get is those bass-less verses, they feel so weak and far too long. I'll probably shorten the gap, or not drop at all.

We've put back the old ska band together. We do mostly originals but we add a few covers too. We've just decided to do this one... so much fun!!!

In one of the modes (I forget which, but there's only 4 I think?) you'll see icons for each pedal on the screen, with a little grey footswitch on top. You can use that to change the assignment of individual FX to the 4 footswitches.

Yeah, I thought of that... but this time it worked out okay and the pedal was delivered earlier today.

Yours too, eh? So it looks more like a design 'feature' than a fault. Good to know! It's only mildly annoying, as this is something I just use at home, so I might not bother trying to fix it... my list of 'projects' grows faster than my discipline to finish them

Not quite, no. I had Labella white nylon tapes on my Jazz for ages but not standard flats. For the modified Matt Freeman I have a set of TI Jazz flats, but finishing this bass is not a priority right now... if only this thing called 'work' stopped getting in the way of my free time...

Well... Initially it had two black Nordstrand Jazz style pickups (forgot which model) in the right spot for a Jazz bass. But I didn't love those pickups. So I tried the cream covered DiMarzio Area J, which I have on my Jazz and really like. Then I got tired of teh Jazz configuration, and moved the neck pickup to its current location. I have the black pickguard now and... a pair of black covered Model Js! I just need to find the time to change them over. I got a loom already wired with a Tonestyler knock-off type of control and series/parallel switch, which I hope will work well on this bass with the Model Js. The Area J are great Jazz-like pickups, they have that single coil character even if they're humbuckers, but I want soemthing fatter with thicker lower mids.

+1 I've owned a few fretless basses, mostly with 2-pickups, usually JJ or JP, but it turns out I preferred Precisions. I only have one standard electric fretless bass now (and two 'ukes'): Precision, D'Addario black nylon tapes, Model P pickup. Passive. It is remarkably versatile!