stewblack

Just been saying elsewhere Ashdown into Barefaced is a marriage made in heaven. Congrats, that looks (and I imagine sounds) great.

^^^ the other

From what I'd heard and read about these pedals I was expecting the poor man's Sansamp. OK sounding but flimsy and cheap. So what did I actually find? As to the Sansamp comment, I suppose it is valid inasmuch as I won't pay the price of one of their pre-amp pedals, so this is, if not exactly a poor man's, then definitely a tight fisted one's alternative. I have never played the respected Tech 21 pedals so can't compare the two, suffice it to say I've read enough from Basschatters who really love them to know they must be pretty good. As to flimsy and cheap, well, it feels extremely solid to me, and the word cheap has two meanings; either inexpensive, or of poor quality. This is firmly in the inexpensive category, and not the poor quality. It is very clean, my previous favourite the American Sound hisses like an angry kettle in comparison. As I type this I have the pedal on, presence and treble and level all up full, amp at gig volume and there is the faintest sussuration. Even taking the drive up to 75% there is very little to hear, knock it back a fraction and silence reigns. Impressive. There's a blend control, which no self respecting drive pedal should leave home without, three tone knobs labelled bass, treble and presence but treat them as your basic B,M,T and you won't go far wrong. One complaint, the controls are black and notched at the ends but otherwise unmarked. Even here on my desk I can't tell if they're set to 5 to or 25 past. With everything flat the BDI 21seems to warm and very, very slightly cut the sound. I found myself immediately easing up the level and the presence. If you like a really bright clanky sound you might find yourself reaching for the tone controls on your amp. However, where this little beauty really excels is in the drive sounds. It starts incredible subtly, just scuffing up and fattening the sound in a way which would work as an always on for when your amp and cabs are just too nice. From this starting point you can start adding all of those valve sound adjectives in ever increasing quantities. Fat, warm, grinding, dirty, rich, thick, filthy - yep it does them all. I climbed through the gain settings with the blend at 50/50 , tone flat. At about 10 past you're in John Paul Jones territory, 1/4 past it all starts going a bit Jack Bruce, beyond that things start going totally Lemmy. Go back to midday with the drive, turn up the blend and you get much the same sort of sounds but at an earlier point in the travel of the drive knob. Oh and with much farther to go. Totally max both blend and drive and the sound becomes this tube train of noise. Utterly compressed, nothing leaking from around the edges, a viscous serpentine fluidity, and really quite, quite lovely. A worthy addition to my ever growing pile of drive preamp pedals, I suspect they'd sell more if they doubled the price.

Bought a pedal from Keir. Excellent Basschatter, great comms, pedal well packaged, arrived exactly as described and posted the day I bought it. Highly recommended.

YES!

Oh man, I'm so sorry to read this. Not about the Elf - I never doubted that - but having just lost my main working band for health reasons I know how tough it is to see a positive outcome.

Trust me.

Yeah. Makes you realise that all the parenting advice is just so much hooey. I have three kids, one of each. All brought up the same all entirely different people now.

Beautiful collage, Andy, realy lovely. My daughter was an absolute angel, remained one throughout her teens and still is today at 25, and expecting her first child. No reason your lovely girl shouldn't remain utterly perfect throughout her teens. I love my other duaghter too, however ...

He has spoken 👆

Ah, but are they original? If so they must stay!

Darn it! Would/could have been perfect. Watch this space...

This is brilliant, thank you. @DaytonaRik - how does @Len_derby 's offer work for you?

Wow - Trevor Rabin! I saw him supporting Steve Hillage at the Coleslaw in Bristle. About a hundred years ago. I had no idea he was doing this.

Great shape and what a nice bit of timber.

I saw one YouTuber made a spray booth out of one of those plastic thingies lidl sell for putting your tomatoes in. So I can't claim lack of space. Another guy clamped a piece of wood in a bicycle repair stand attached to the body so he could have it just the right height and flat to apply stain. Some clever folk out there.

I 'invented' this once. Or similar. Cycled to a rehearsal room with a travel bass. This thing was virtually weightless in the body, neck dive to vertical. So I filled my water bottle and hung it from the end of the strap.

Bump age, the relay is underway (well the plan is) We can get to Nottingham/East Midlands...

Spoilsport 😞

Really? Come on, you know we're only interested in nosing at the decor and background nicknacks from each others houses.

Oh dear. Trolling and derailling? Sadly while you were losing the plot and getting cross because of a couple of lighthearted comments I was watching and loving the interview. Not everyone will get what you want them to out of life. You might learn a lot by listening to what he says in the interview.