sikpete

Interesting indeed, im pretty sure id miss the feel of my bass but the points about smaller or no stage ring true for us. Very few local bands seem to have dropped their cabs and gone silent stage so im yet to experience the improvement in front of house sound. If i was to of moved around much last 2 shows id of taken out other members and the drum kit. Maybe picking up a second hand wireless kit could be an option to try it and see how I feel about it. Again, all new to me.

Guitarists having this exact issue. What sounds good through the stage cabs sounds way to bright when sent as a signal straight to the desk so have been micing cabs up which seems arse about face to me. (We are all new to this cover band, produce all your own sound setup so everything is an experiment.) Our tops and subs and both second hand RCF models and we are very impressed with the quality of sound us untrained muppets can get out of them

Haha so eloquently put. I too may go the modern w*nker route in the future as the allen and heath desk we just picked up seems to have some awesome monitoring options. Do you miss the "feel" of the cab moving air behind you?

@matybigfro Now that was an interesting read and the sort of internal considerations Ive been having with myself. Buying a selection of stomps seems the easy option but assumed modern multi effects units would of come far enough to replace these, taking up less pedal board real estate, a one price point solution with downloadable options over time. Surmising your insights I may not find this is to be the case but i think its the next test im going to have a go at. I nearly purchased a core on Saturday but then watched some videos on the gx10 which tickled my fancy, in the end opting to buy neither but that may change today. The limited bass amp choices on the core that you mention was actually the reason I didnt pull the trigger. Guessed it would be luck of the draw if I fell for any of their tones. I do like the voicing of my six10, pretty over kill for the venues Im now playing but ill never be left wanting. Im happy with my current setup but want more effects to play with, maybe a capture of the genzler could be the start point for a QC base sound? Oh and 1+ for crown amp appreciation here, Ive got a little home cinema setup and use XLS1502 to power my front towers (B&W 685s2) and it absolutely brought them to life in a way the denon avr never could.

I meant as getting powered signal to a cab or are you direct to PA/ inears setup. Interestingly the 2 guitarists use 2 different after market options to power on their QC, the modded pedal route being my preferred of the 2.

Sorry for delay on up date but I finally got to try out the quad cortex yesterday evening and while not perfect I was very impressed. We attempted to cover Kasabian "club foot", A/B'ing the original track to see how close we could get to the sound. On the fly we download a SVT CL heritage and big muff capture. I always ran my CL with the volume on full and used the gain as the volume control, this didnt return the sound I expected but the guitarists then gave a 10 minute ted talk on how the captures work..... bit of fiddling and I found a sound I was happy with. At first applying the big muff capture to the chain returned a pretty weak sound but playing with the eq we managed to produce a thunderously full rumble that had a clarity to it that Im not sure I would of achieved with physical units. Running this through the power section of the genzler got the barefaced six10 moving a ridiculous amount of air, loved it. Cons: When running the cortex through the power section I lost the heads eq which made dialing in a sound more fiddly, I think if I go this route Ill sell my genzler and replace it with a power amp (they use the seymour duncan powerstage 170 and its eq is very useful, the 170watt is much lower than im used to but seemed to produce plenty of volume) @Kev how do you power yours?. I wasnt madly impressed with the selection of bass head captures at first glance but we didnt spend too long looking and seems plenty of pay options. Then there is the price, even if getting lucky second hand I can see this route costing £1500+ by the time Ive included power section, new board and potentially plugins. Im thinking of purchasing a boss gt-1000, running it like a pre amp in my chain and seeing what results it returns, then try it through the power section as I now have the cortex experience as a point of reference.

@warwickhunt This could well be where i end up. Im currently very happy with my head and cab sound so any digital solution will have to at least equal the quality of tone. Adding a zoom or equivalent to the my chain could be the final outcome. Ive enjoyed reading the different experiences you guys have had on similar journeys.

Think im very much leaning towards route 2. With users like @Gank Bass and yourself solving my problem picking the helix path, seems I have to pick a flavor and go with it. Ill have a play with the cortex this Saturday and go from there. Ill also keep an eye on the second hand market and see what comes up. Vibe seems to be I wont actually know what I need until I have it and not limiting myself will be key. Also cant go wrong with brand, its just finding a Ui Im comfortable with.

Mate, what a great offer. Im over Grimsby way so miles away unfortunately, ill have to decline

Yeah im from a fairly blank start, Id have a rothwell love squeeze and boss tuner to shift, guess I could replace the genzler with a power amp. Hoping to try the QC Saturday with the boys so ill report back how I find it

This is how I imagined i would do it also.

Very useful thank you. I think im trying to get to the end of your shopping list by gathering opinions without having to own the bits in the middle So im going to tap the guitarist up to allow me to experiment with the QC, set this as "the BAR" and most likely try something from the Boss family first to see how close it gets me to the QC experience. Again cheers to everyone for the help. Finally do you guys run these pedals straight into the PA or as part of your chain into a head and cab setup

@Kev This is the absolute correct answer to my question and both guitarists totally agree with you. Ill get them download some sounds and see what what i think. My issue is I wont use 90% of it capabilities, it costs a packet and will prob lead to additional purchases(power amp, pedal board cases and mods. I do get it, Im hoping to find a solution the same quality solution for less?

Thanks both. Seems plenty of love for the Boss digital pedals and have to admit they are are the pedals ive spent the least time looking at. Ill take a look for some decent boss bass demos on you tube. @Si600 no tap dancing has been added to the set so far but imagine its just a matter of time Had a zoom pedal late 90s that I wasnt a fan of but I know the gears come a very long way so I wont discount it.

Thanks Skybone. Budget isnt really an issue, although I dont want to dive into the QC eco system as Im hoping I can meet my needs for more much less. Currently thinking digital is the way to go, I was hoping to hear from a few players in cover bands using or moved away from some of the HX / boss / headrush solutions. Rather than adding preamps its being able to have a fuzz, distortion, over driven pre set at my feet.