Bigwan

Posted this on the Ashdown Pedals thread but thought I'd put it here too... The pedal talk is ridiculous

...even less convinced than I was before after this load of drivel...

Was this yours @6feet7?

Not heard ANYTHING about the Tech21 YYZ other than the release announcement, which was kind of screwed by Prymaxe's premature pre-order page. Surprised there hasn't been more of a noise about it... Correction:

Did you actually read the original post?

That's one bad fall away from looking even odder than it already does...

You know what I know I'm afraid!

Buy a mixer and quit crying!

This looks interesting!

...checks to see he's actually on Basschat with all this filthy synth chat...

Yes and, having experimented with it myself, it's relatively easy to do even for a total microcontroller newbie like me. I gave up the project in the end as 1). I'd proved I could do it, and 2). I don't like the DG sound enough to build a completed pedal based on it...

Yeah maybe a comparison with Apple's tech strategy is a step too far... I think my point is more that, paraphrasing Amos Williams of Tesseract, Darkglass are now seen as ubiquitous... I've no problem with a pedal being that size if it needs to be, but I suspect people will question why a pedal has to be that size if it has a single control knob, a toggle switch and a stomp switch. Especially (crucial point) if it sounds as "Meh" as some of their previous offerings. My one MAJOR bugbear about my favourite drive pedal (Ashdown James Lomenzo Hyperdrive) is its size. The pedal could be made to fit into an MXR or Boss sized enclosure. But NO...

Ha! I was trying not to mention DG! A lot of people regard Darkglass as the Apple of the pedal world and I'd tend to agree. No, people don't mind Doug taking the eye out of their head and coming back for the socket, and I don't think it's because he's invented something new, at least not in the early days (B3K design shows more than a passing resemblance to other well known and well established stomp boxes), there's certainly been a lot of strides lately, but they had the customer base by the short and curlies by then! DG's marketing is spot on. Something Ashdown don't do that well. They didn't jump into the market at current prices, they gradually built up to it. Something Ashdown are doing donkey backwards by the looks of it. Ashdown will say they're not trying to be Darkglass, but they have to play in the same game, and to be successful they need a USP better than "spot the VU" (what's VU is that? Why the one that made the first line of pedals entirely too big!)

Yes, they're one of the biggest names in bass amps. Rightly so. That should give them a competitive advantage over quite a few of their competitors (distribution, etc). BUT they've tried to break into pedals a couple of times, both times they've left common sense out of the designs! They could and should be producing better. I'll reserve final judgement until I hear they're latest offerings, but from initial look they're lacking in features, oversized and WAY overpriced. Time will tell how they're received, but jumping straight in at the pricey end doesn't seem a smart move to me.

Does Bergantino have distribution in the UK yet?

I did, NOS off ebay for SIGNIFICANTLY less than half the rrp. While it's fine as a fancy bluetooth speaker (with an unimpressive range!), it farts at any volume with a bass. There have been a few suggestions on mods to try and fix that but not got around to it yet. Scared what I'll find when I do... It pains me to say it but I tend to agree on all points... 3 of the best bits of bass gear I've ever owned have come from the Ashdown fold (ABM 1x10 combo, LB30, J-Lo Hyperdrive)... but with a disproportionately high number of new releases there seems to be some proper whacky decision making going on, quite often with pricing as seen here...

I really fancy an Attitude...

ACG. You can thank me later.

Keep the gain low and they are!

Clean(ish), warm, bit of grit - Orange!

Putting the Positive Grid amp aside for a minute, how many sounds do you need? A quick google search says these are £650 - £700. That's 2 used Orange Terror Bass heads, which would be my choice in your position. Need a different sound? Buy a suitable preamp/pedal. Just my tuppence worth (and I'm a PG fan - have the ipad fully stocked with PG plugins and expansions).

I used to, and have another kit waiting to be built (which I'll probably sell on now I have a Helix). It's good, but not good enough for me to pay Darkglass prices. I prefer the Hartke to any Darkglass pedal I've owned.

Series and parallel. These cabs can be 4 or 8 ohm loads each. Run each cab at 4 ohms, a pair in series then parallel with the other pair in series. 4 ohm load total.

Are you allowed to cheat and modify the neck? My initial thought would be to glue more meat around the bass side of the butt end of the neck to get you closer to the bolt on arrangement of your first picture. Don't know what that would do to your truss rod operation though.... Although looking at the ACG pic above you could get to that and make your job easier in the long run...