mcnach

Indeed. My old DHA VT-1 (I think it was the VT-1) ran ok at 9V provided the mA rating was taken into account. It was slightly (very slightly) noisier and the overdrive didn't seem as full as it was at 12V, but it was very useable and worked well.

It's small indeed. And John is super helpful once you get his attention. Very nice guy. I'm sure he'll help you get your bass up and running.

Hi Hugh, The video is informative and it's a good start, although it contains a few innacuracies that I hear being perpetuated, and a couple of points that I personally disagree about (but that's just my own view, of course), so I would have loved a slightly different take which covered those points... But of course, it's your video The first thing I would change is the active = higher output equation. You hear that everywhere and it's simply not true. Some active basses are high output, most are not, some are quieter than most passive basses. It depends on the preamp design and sometimes there's even a trim pot internally to adjust the output. Of course, if the active bass also has active EQ, and you boost it, you'll end up with one loud bass, which may explain this view of active=high output, but I think it's important to realise that it's not true. For the same reason, I hate seeing active/passive labels on amplifier inputs. In most cases, the passive input (non attenuated) works best for any given bass, but a guy with a Stingray would just plug into the active input without thinking... and on some amplifiers the attenuation circuit is pretty crude and not great sounding. The main thing with active basses is the low impedance output, as @itu pointed out. This allows you to be somewhat resistant (no pun intended ) to losses experienced when using long cables and passive instruments. However, your signal may become low impedance pretty early after leaving the bass if you use any number of pedals that would convert the signal. So it's not necessary to have an active bass to benefit from that, in principle. Some people talk about passive basses as being 'pure' but then the signal goes through pedals, often, through preamps and amplifying circuits... (shrug) I also see the equation active/passive as related to tone controls. It's true that most active basses have active EQ, but they're two different things. An active bass simply produces low impedance output. This can be achieved with or without active EQ. You may have EMG pickups (active) and passive tone controls (or no tone controls), or passive pickups and active EQ (most active basses), or an active preamp with separate tone controls, which could be passive, like on a G&L L2000. I think this is an important distinction to make. There's also the issue with passive = noisy. I just don't think that's correct. Most active basses are essentially passive basses with an additional active preamp with EQ capabilities. If anything, the chances of noise are higher on those because often the preamp designs are not terribly good, and they're limited to working with the voltage provided by one or two 9V batteries. A good preamp is very quiet, 'though. With regards to the use of batteries, the expense and chances of them dying mid-gig... I think that while not untrue, these factors are exaggerated. Expense: batteries are not that expensive, even if you buy singles at Sainsbury's, and they last a LONG time. I'd imagine most people spend far more on strings than on batteries. Just cut back one pint every few months and you'll be ok Dying mid-gig? Yes, it's a possibility... and it's happened to me. Once. On my Stingray. And boy, was I happy that I had a bypass switch installed on that bass (Stingrays don't have the active/passive option stock), as within a few seconds I was able to switch the bypass on, and carried on -albeit with a different tone- until we had a break and then changed the battery. However, it's very easy to avoid. Not fool-proof, as illustrated above (I'm a pretty good fool 😛 ) but it's simple: replace the battery at regular intervals,don't wait until it dies. Some preamps continue working fine until the battery reaches a threshold and just dies rapidly... others give you plenty of time with the signal degrading progressively. The best course is just to replace the battery before it happens. Most preamps would last a year if not a lot longer on a single Duracell battery (don't cheap out, cheap batteries almost invariable end up not being cheap at all). It depends on usage. My main bass, a Stingray, gets a lot of use and lasts well over a year. I replace it once a year (choose a date, stick to it, so you remember it easily). If I think I've been very busy and it was my only bass, I might change it twice a year. Other basses may last longer/shorter... whatever, choose a frequency whoch will be several months at the very least, and you will have no trouble. Of course, you may forget one time, like I did, and be on a specially busy period, like it was for me, and that battery died onstage after nearly 2 years. So having a bypass switch is never a bad idea. Another thing I'd add, which is related to the battery life, is to point out that the preamp is switched on by the act of inserting a cable into the socket. Some people leave basses plugged in constantly: that's using up the battery even if you don't play it. Switching it to 'passive' doesn't stop that, the preamp is still on. So always unplug. In fact, I'd say always unplug even on passive basses: saves someone tripping on a cable and pulling your bass down with it... But that's just me.

This. It's essentially a one man operation, so if in a hurry the phone is your best friend.

Good saving... but I never understood the love for that pedal. I had one for a while and it was ok, but I find there are several reasonable alternatives for a lot less. Even at £130 it seems far too expensive.

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?