mcnach

Valve pedals tend to have much higher requirements than usual 9V Boss type analog pedals. I'm not sure you can damage it but it's likely it will not be very good. I have had several valve pedals that I tried at different voltages. With some, I lost headroom. With others, they just didn't work, giving me faint noises. Also, it's not just the voltage, the current rating is important, probably more so than voltage alone. If your pedal required at least 120mA, and you're daisy chaining several... chances are it will not work very well. You could fit a 2-way into your pedalboard so you can power the valve pedal separately, but still using a single plug off the board.

A couple of Barefaced Two10, vertically. Really full sound.

Last night I played a gig using one of those heads and an Orange 410 cab at a local music bar. I've played there many times using an Orange Terror head they used to have, but it seems it broke down and got this one instead. It's old, I guess 90s. It's ugly. It's big. It's only 100W. But I liked it. I enjoyed it more than the Orange Terror Bass, it was easier to get a nice sound, it felt powerful, it just worked beautifully and it certainly was no lacking in volume either... unless all the power is achieved within the first third of the master knob. Does anybody know anything about these heads? It looks like when they show up for sale, they don't go for more than £100-140, which is a great deal for an amplifier like this. I've been a fan of Laney for a long time. I used to have a VC50 in my guitar days... Heavy beast, but it sounded great and it was one of the loudest amplifiers I've ever tried (aside from a Fender Twin) whilst sounding good. It's big and silly, the PL-100 Bass, but I'd buy one as backup in a heartbeat.

Hey! Stay away, those are mine!!! (almost)

I only used it at home so far... and I keep switching between fat and mid mode. I think fat is the one for me... but often, mixed with the band, I find that I need a bit more on the mids than I think I need at home... so I don't know what it'll be like 'in real life'. Unfortunately my 'rocky' band won't meet for a while now

What bass do you have? The 2EQ preamp post-EB may have changed slightly a couple of times, but not enough to make the bass sound substantially different. Pickup? Same thing. If you have a 2EQ Stingray, you already have the tools. If you have a 3EQ, it's different but you can still get that kind of sound. If you have any of the multiple 'copies' of the Stingray, some get you much closer than others, but you can always get in the ballpark of THAT sound with the right combination of strings/technique/settings. Even the old OLP basses I used to have could get that vibe even if they weren't exactly the same sound. On those, sometimes a new pickup helps. The Nordstrand MM4.2 is probably the closest I've tried to an original Stingray pickup. The Seymour Duncan SMB4A is a favourite of mine, but it has a different kind of sound, a bit more... 'airy' and powerful. I love it, but it's not exactly the 'classic' sound. There are lots of Stingray 2EQ preamp clones out there that even if they don't work exactly the same, they'll allow you to tweak the basic sound well enough. A Stingray with the preamp bypassed already has an unmistakeable Stingray sound. The preamp is just the cherry on top to give you access easily to other "Stingray sounds". What bass are you using right now?

I didn't like the Mojo Mojo, I had one for about 2 weeks. But I was after dirtier sounds at the time.

Exactly. My Precision just generally doesn't give me the sound I want, with overdrive... except when I turn the tone control all the way down for that very thick type of overdriven bass, and I need to tame the lowest frequencies to get it right or it gets a bit overpowering. Commenting on that in the same sentence as talking about the Spark Booster was a bit unfair, as it's not an issue with the pedal. The pedal is super transparent, as far as I can tell, so it won't 'fix' a slightly boomy bass sound like some other overdrives do that remove low frequencies to some degree and compress the rest.

But you know how it is, NO pedal is the promised land, ever. :) In case I was misunderstood: I like the Spark Booster, a lot. It does what it does very well, which is keep the existing tone and add some grit/thickness. It reminds me of the sounds I was getting out of a DHA VT-2 tube preamp thingy I used to have, but I think I like this better. Some distortion pedals just seem to make your bass sound the same, more or less, regardless which bass you use. The Spark Booster does not. I would not call it a distortion/overdrive pedal either, but you know what I mean... I hope. If you are interested in that kind of low gain fat a-bit-tubey-like kind of sound, really, do give the Spark Booster a try. It's nicer/smoother than a Xotic BB for that kind of thing, if that comparison helps. On my'rock' board I generally have 3 dirt pedals: a low gain one, a mid one (currently EBS multidrive), and a crazy one (currently Ibanez PD7 Phat-Hed or SA Aftershock). I've used a bunch of different pedals for the low gain one and the Spark Booster is the one that I think will work best of them. My current one is the Caline Orange Burst, which loses a bit of low end but gets closest to what I have in mind. The Spark Booster is more versatile and the bottom end is very adjustable so you can get it just right. Of course, the real test will come at a gig/rehearsals... but there's so much scope either way that I can't imagine it'll be lacking or difficult to set there.

I've walked out for less. :( Technical difficulties, I deal with. Attitudes... you'd better be paying me handsomely or keep it at home. I admire your restraint.

Of course it's subjective and I only owned the pedal for like a day... so I can't say it was an exhaustive test (even if it lasted a good 3 hours or so playing various basses on their own and along to backing tracks from my band stuff to try to simulate a bit how it mixes in etc). My Precision and my JJ (J at the bridge, and additional J about an inch from that, towards the neck) were a little muddy and could not get it to give me the defined sound I wanted. It was not bad, but I wouldn't have kept the pedal based on that alone. I have to admit that especially the Precision seems to be a bit picky as to which overdrive pedals it prefers. Or rather, I am picky, I guess. The ones that sounded great were the Stingray/SUB and the Schecter P/J (active, EMG). It could be that those basses are closer to my 'ideal' sound, so it's only natural that the pedal sounds better with those, since it's pretty transparent and I'm not using it to change the sound drastically, just to add a little... something.

I think I prefer the fat setting too. On clean, I had the drive knob very high all the time, whilst on fat I have a much more useable range. I like how you can use the treble EQ knob to emphasise the distorted sound or tame it. I had a Mojo Mojo (which I found ok but just that), a Xotic BB (which was nicer for my taste), but I definitely prefer the Spark Booster for low gain sounds.

Talking about warm tubey sounds... if you want it relatively low gain, the TC Electronic Spark Booster would not be the worst pedal you could get, and at £40 it's worth a look. I've just got one and I'm liking it a lot so far, but certain basses sound a lot better than others. I'm sure it's a matter of adjusting things differently, but there it is. Oh, and don't use batteries. It sounds better plugged in.

Based on your comments I checked a couple of videos and ordered one. Thank you! Really nice for those very low gain sounds, as you say. It has crazy amounts of boost too, if you wanted it. I noticed it sounds a lot better plugged in than on batteries (although my battery may have been a little old).

Minimal soundcheck. In fact, just a line check. For about 5 songs, I struggled to get enough clear bass from my amplifier onstage, which was my monitor really. It was not my own amplifier, but an Ampeg PF-something and a 410... which should have been ok. Then, something tripped the mains where I was plugged in. My pedalboard went dark and so did my amplifier. It was the end of a song, so it finished without bass. Soundguy came to see what was wrong. Sorted it. Then I realised... I had been playing with my amplifier muted. No wonder any tweaks I made to the controls made no difference! I was just hearing whatever bass bounced back from the FOH! :D Good job I knew the songs well and could play them without hearing myself much... :D

It's never to late to learn. Seriously, I do not get the Fear Of The Truss Rod... Don't apply brute force when things don't turn and you'll be ok. There's a few videos online that will show you the right way to adjust a neck. Lose the fear, and enjoy your bass even more

Especially at the feet... Hmmm...

I have no idea what his reasons are... but with a lot of amazon-hating comments everywhere lately, perhaps someone is compelled to explain their different views. I personally have mixed feelings. I don't like what Amazon (and other big ones) get away with... but the baddies in this film are those who set the rules and allow those behaviours to be legal. Having heard first hand what life working in an Amazon warehouse is (and you could add courier drivers too, which we hear and complain about in this forum often), I feel angry that in 2019 a supposedly civilised country's government allows that kind of employment situation.

Can't he just like the ability to receive things quickly?

I'm getting that feeling too. The kind of thing that is simple enough to look easy to anyone who deals with this kind of thing routinely, but offputting enough for someone like me who just want to make noise with the thing... Warming up the existing glue looks like a must, if it works the same way as the new glue.

It doesn't look all that promising to me, then... (sigh)

Do you really want me to reply? Yawn.

I did that a few weeks ago

That's a handy tip, using masking tape like that. So obvious now that you mentioned it, but I would not have thought of it... Like I said, not very DIY minded, myself Thank you! I don't think I'll need it this time, but it's bound to come handy in the future for something.

I'm getting a repair sample from him.