Quatschmacher

If you liked the Black Panel, I highly recommend the Shift Line Olympic (its (multiple and swappable) cab sims are defeatable). @tayste_2000 has a brand new one for sale.

Here's a rough comparison clip. GS then BR, first alone then through the B15 IR of the Cabzone. (So GS, BR, GS with sim, BR with sim.) Apologies for any artefacts in the recording; I think my computer is on the blink. B15 clips.mp3

There are various wired-fret basses (Industrial Radio Midibass (was one for sale on here and didn’t sell I think), ROR guitars Expressiv Midibass, Frettrax that can be used with any MIDI device. (Would not recommend ordering new from Industrial Radio though as after almost 4 years I still had no bass, lots of excuses, terrible communication, and had to put a lot of effort into getting my money refunded.) There are a few other MIDI guitar things like jamstick (or however it is named) and a few similar things.

The other observation I forgot to mention (and this applies to all the BassRigs compared to tube-based pedal recreations of those amps): there’s something different in the way the overdrive decays. On the tube pedals I have used (Shift Line Olympic (roughly like the ‘64 Black Panel), Shift Line Flex (supposedly B15 but uses 12AX7 and sounded closer to the Super Vintage) and the Grand Slampegg), the drive has a softer attack and noticeably longer decay time compared with the BassRigs. On the BassRigs it reacts with more of a quick spike. The drive character when digging in to cause breakup is also “smoother” on the tube-based pedals compared to the BassRigs, though some of that may be to do with my having used the 1/4” output on the latter.

OK, had a bit over an hour on it so far. These are my first impressions. Obviously take them with a pinch of salt and do try one for yourselves rather than trusting one person’s opinions. The other big caveat is that I’ve never played a real B15, so best that in mind. Mostly just played my Fender American Pro II Precision with rosewood board and 4-year-old Labella 760-FS strings. I’ve so far only played it out of the 1/4” output (so no cab sim) into the Shift Line Cabzone Bass and using its headphone output. I’ve run it as-is and with the Shift Line B15 cab sim (the same one that is the stock one in the Ampeg SGT-DI incidentally). I do like it. It’s not going to replace my Grand Slampegg (though I never expected it to; I was thinking this would be more a case of something close but without the reliability risk of tubes). Going from memory, the Fifteen has more bounciness in the string feel compared to the Broughton Fliptop; on the latter, the D and G strings always felt a bit “stiff” above the 7th fret. Would be interesting to be able to compare them directly as I played that pedal as my only preamp for a good couple of years. As the Grand Slampegg doesn’t have a gain control, I had to dial in a fairly clean sound on the BassRig (drive knob around 10 o’clock) to match. Bass knobs at 3-4 o’clock, treble knobs around 10 o’clock. The GS definitely has more “squishiness” to the feel, if that’s the right word (it’s hard to describe); sort of like it makes the strings feel like they’re made out of a different material compared to the dry sound, more rubbery or elastic. (The way I have mine set, I actually find the ‘64 Black Panel seems to feel a bit squishier to me compared to the Fifteen, though I have the former dialled in with drive set to the point where anything played above a medium level breaks up a fair bit. The Fifteen feels a bit more like the Super Vintage under the fingers to me.) Compared to the BassRig, the GS also has a noticeably fuller/warmer bottom end and the attack of the notes have a kind of slight softness or bloom to them that isn’t present in the BassRig. The BassRig does seem to have a certain midrange note that pokes out more than on the GS. Out of the three BassRigs, the Fifteen (at least when set to match the GS) sounds good with both my P basses (the second being the same type of bass but with a maple board and (I think) the stock Fender nickel roundwounds; the way I have the other two BassRigs set at the moment (64 set as above, SV very clean with boosts to bass, mid (@ 220 Hz) and treble) they sound great with the flats but not so much with the rounds. (Maybe I just don’t like the maple/rounds combo much; need to experiment with different strings and using rounds/rosewood and flats/maple to compare.) And just to emphasise why you should take my findings with a pinch of salt, could anyone recommend what XLR cable I need to hook between the BassRig and a Scarlett 2i4 interface? It has combo inputs which take standard 1/4” and some other kind of connector I’m unfamiliar with. Also if using XLR-to-1/4” from the BassRig, could I plug that into the 1/4” input of the Cabzone so I could use the BassRig’s cab sim and monitor on headphones (instead of having to hook up to the computer interface)?

The Noble is a different beast. Not a 6SL7 tube like the B15 and won’t overdrive without something else pushing the front end. A closer comparison would be the SushiBox Grand Slampegg which uses the same tube and tone stack as the B15 (but again won’t overdrive by itself).

@dodge_bass might be up your street.

An interesting pedal. Not something I’d use but nevertheless…

Indeed. You’re welcome to pop over and try it.

@GrandafatherGroove, this could be what you’ve been looking for.

Yep. I apologised in the comments. I really hadn’t intended for them to get swamped. Guess I didn’t think about them being a small company and so probably not having one person whose sole job is customer communication.