mcnach

The American Sound makes my Stratocaster sound pretty good through a MarkBass amp into TKS S112 cabs... Not 'acceptable' but pretty good. A pedal that sounds great for guitar or for bass, and makes the one-rig-for-all not a crazy notion. It's not quite as nice as plugging into a Fender DeLuxe amp, but it's better than many dedicated guitar amps I've tried. Can't wait for the British Sound to arrive. If it's as good as this, I think for home use I'm going to do without dedicated guitar amps (no gigs on guitar these days), and have a little board for recording/practice containing those Joyo units.

It depends entirely on the type of pubs... and how much you enjoy playing in pubs, because there's always some degree of 'hassle' so the question is whether the amount of fun/cash offsets the hassles. Back in 2017 I joined a band that was travelling around the UK playing all kinds of gigs. We were doing supporting slots in decent music venues one day, a festival the next, and a small pub another... Pubs were my least favourite, because in those places we used our own PA and we set up everything ourselves, and often it required waiting around for people finishing their dinner before you could set up... you don't always get enough room to dump your stuff so soemtimes we had to wait to even load in... But I enjoyed playing that music, I enjoyed being with my band mates, and the gigs themselves were great fun (ska/reggae band playing a mix of originals/classics). So, for me, it was ok. BUt everyone have different preferences. I would not turn it down just because the gigs are mostly pubs. Not all pubs are equal. Some are consistently bad, and some are consistently enjoyable... I am sure you can learn which ones to repeat and which ones to avoid as you go along. Of course, all this is thinking of a pre-Covid19 world... the future may be a little different, depending on how much pubs suffer. I can see a decrease of live music available, so in that case perhaps I may even be grateful for not-so-nice pub gigs... edit: while I've seen some bad situations... the vast majority of my pub gigs have seen nothing but a reasonable crowd. Fights, drunk punters falling on you/equipment is not the norm. Or maybe I am choosier, but I certainly don't associate those with pub gigs. One thing that I always try is to make some kind of physical barrier to deter drunks. Space is often limited, but it's not difficult to put some small stands or beer crates between monitors. A bit of plastic tape joining them create a 'stage area' that seems to psychologically stop all but the most persistent.

Thank you. That would be a no-no for me too then, because I really like the feel of the DRs too. Both Sunbeams and Fat Beams for me too, although I've developed a love for Pure Blues too.

SG with P90s... oh yes... (drooling)

Cool, I just programmed my TV box. Hopefully my grand-grandkids will enjoy it.

... and I ordered a British Sound too, mostly for my guitar. It's dangerous to be in front of my computer so many hours...

Bass is cut only??? That will explain why I max it. I thought it was based on the Xotic BB preamp. I used to have one and the EQ worked as you'd expect (boost and cut) so I assumed this one was the same. I seem to remember I cut the treble a fair amount too. It makes sense now, thank you.

I had mine (SC-02) for a while and never tried that, it certainly helps, thank you!

One thing I noticed was that the class D ones ran cooler than the AB ones, which is not a bad thing.

I have a Spark Booster too I start to think I may have a problem I like it a lot and, like in your case, it was destined to replace the Orange Burst (are we related??? ; )) but I was using the board with two different bands at the time and while I only really liked the Spark Booster for low gain, while the Orange Burst was a bit more versatile, so I put up with the slight low end loss (after boosting its bass control!) just so that I could have some grittier sounds too from a single pedal. I need to get all those overdrive/distortion pedals out one day and choose a handful to keep and sell the rest!

Ha! Indeed. I have a couple of Rat derivatives but they've never seen live action on bass for that reason. I used to have a couple of LS-2 back when I really needed a lot of effects, and one was there simply to provide a clean blend/volume to a couple of pedals. I can't remember what it was, but I had a beautiful distortion pedal whose output was not in phase with the clean signal, and there was no way to blend it with the LS-2. I then found there are other pedals that allow you to switch phase too, but it started getting silly. The LS-2 is such a versatile pedal. It would indeed 'fix' the Orange Burst for bass if it bothered me enough. It's one of those pedals that seem not to do much (I mean, it doesn't give you any funky sounds or anything) but it's a great tool to have.

This.

No, it's confusing because of their nomenclature. By the time the came with the combo they were doing the Little Mark II, and they labelled the identical head on the combo "Combo Head", without the II. When they released the LMIII, the head on the combo became "Combo Head II", but it's a LMIII, they didn't make separate heads. The only difference is the labelling and that the combo head lacks the top metal cover (which is not needed since it's inserted in the cabinet. I always wished the had made the head extractable... but I guess the model works for them since I ended up with a head AND a combo. They switched to class D on those amps back in 2012 or so I think, so heads/combos bought around 2012/13 could be anything, but anything newer would definitely be class D. I've owned both class AB and D versions and I can't say I noticed any significant difference, but I never had them at the same time to test them side by side. When I had the combo and the head they were both class D. My current LMIII is a class AB unit from 2009 :shrug: I like it as much as all the others, and this time I'm not selling it If it says LMII or Combo Head, it'll be class AB. It it says LMIII or Combo Head II, it can be AB (early ones) or D. By the time they moved production to Asia they were all class D, but there are Italian ones of both types.

My Aftershock has been seen home use only, which is a crime as it's such a great pedal... but I seem to end up gravitating to simpler pedals for live use, even if the Aftershock can do the job of some of them better. Anyway, we're talking smallish nuances that won't come across live. However I don't see myself selling it soon (but then I don't have a Helix). Low end on the American Sound seems good, but it's early days and I am reluctant to pronounce myself 100% about it until I get a chance to try it at proper volume with a band etc. Having said that, I've had many pedals where the loss of low end was very noticeable at home, and I don't have that impression here. That suggests that if there's some loss, perhaps a tiny bump of the EQ on the pedal would compensate for it. I've been using a Caline Orange Burst on my "RATM board" for the lower gain sounds. It is a very nice sounding overdrive but with a marked low end loss. I bump the bass control on the pedal almost to max on that one just to retain the 'oomph'. I love it on guitar, but for bass it's not ideal. The American Sound would be a great substitute where the bass control could be used to adjust the sound to taste, not so much to compensate for its deficiency, if you see what I mean.

Yeah, at that price I don't think anyone can complain much. It seems pretty solid, as long as the switch holds, I can't see much going wrong with it, and if it fails I could probably just buy another. For versatility, the SA Aftershock is amazing, but I get easily bored when I have too many options, menus, etc. This one is so good, that if I don't change my mind in a month or so I might just buy another just to have two 'presets' on my board. Although who knows when I'll be needing it... I can't see myself gigging anytime soon

I've got a Scarlett Solo, so that's good to know.

After 2-3 years hearing good things about it, last week I was alone in front of my computer and I caved in. I ordered one, and it arrived today. It's not good. It's REALLY good. Nice range of overdrives, from round and fat to aggressive and gritty, just by turning the "voice" control. No low end loss to speak of, and it's got a 3-band EQ so you can easily adjust the basic sound should you need it. I first used it with my Stratocaster... and I liked it a lot, nothing extraordinary but I got easily some really cool sounds. I've owned a couple of old Fender valve amps and I could recognise some of teh sounds in here, with low gain. So far so good. BUt on bass? Fantastic. I especially liked this lowish gain, fat, creamy compressed type of sound... hmmm. Hard to describe, I should record some clips. Anyway, I just wanted to say that if you're looking for a nice overdrive that works well on bass and is versatile... you should consider this one. If you also want it to be cheap, then you DEFINITELY should consider this one.

Mine arrived today, an "American sound". I only used it for about an hour, alternating between bass and guitar. What a great pedal that is!!! I didn't get to enjoy the discount but thank you for indirectly pushing me to finally buy one: it's far better than I had hoped for.

come on, we wont tell!

Not that much difference with the 800W amp, if my experience between the LMIII and the LMT800 is anything similar. That's if you used the heads with a suitably large cab. Through the built-in speaker in the combo? None whatsoever, it'll only be louder (and probably less than you think) once you add an external cab. I'd leave it as it is. The CMD121P is a pretty nice little combo. Use an external cab for extra volume.

If you want an OC-2 in small form, the Valeton OC-10 mentioned above is probably the best call.

I've been considering getting one for a while... so this pushed me over the edge and went to order one. However, there was nowhere to enter the discount code... I still ordered it

Please report back when you get them. I'm a fan of DR roundcore strings, and it sounds like Newtone might be a good alternative.

When you want to play an open G, all you need to do is not fret the G string, but you can (should?) still hold the neck, and probably mute the other strings too. It sounds like your bass does not have a good balance (other people have mentioned that, and ways to deal with it, if it bothers you)... but there really isn't a reason to not hold the neck at all just to play an open string.

a strain is not defined by uniqueness on those proteins that are being targetted to make a vaccine from, most (all?) will share that protein with complete identity. That information is what we need before stating that it's a problem to create a vaccine. These half-truths create fear unnecessarily