JPJ

So this arrived today. Only had 30 mins to muck around with it but so far I’m very impressed. Obviously a lot of the default preloaded boards are aimed at our guitar brethren but I was able to get a pedal board setup ready for tweaking in no time at all. Looking forward to spending a bit more time with this tonight 😎

Law of diminishing returns. It’s a question of how steeply the bottom end rolls off in a cab. You can be 6db down at 40hz compared to 80hz so if I’ve got my maths right the 40 hz will be 1/4 as loud as the 80hz but I’m sure someone cleverer than me will be along to correct me 😂

You would think that wouldn’t you. Except, and I’m certainly no expert, what we actually ‘hear’ when we play a low E or B is the 1st harmonic (82hz for E and 62hz for B). So as the human ear can’t discern much below 50hz except with very good headphones, everything below 50hz is waste in a live music situation just eating up amplifier power and loudspeaker cone excursion for no audible gain.

I’ve been running a micro thumpinator for about five years (maybe more). It’s difficult to describe exactly what it does other than to say the results are ‘cleaner’ and I’ve had a lot of compliments from pro sound guys & girls for using one. Most FOH engineers will engage a high pass filter on your signal anyway, normally around the 50hz mark just to clean and tighten the overall sound.

Thanks for this. As I had some money lying in PayPal from recent gear sales and it’s my birthday this week I’ve gone for it. Will report back once she gets here.

Quick question for the X5 users - is the Spectracomp available on the X5? Reason for asking, I was just about to pull the trigger on a Sub’n’Up and Corona Chorus pedals when I stumbled across the TC Plethora X3. If the Spectracomp is available on the X5/X3 then the X3 will cover everything I need and my pedal board would be considerably tidier. Sansamp into X3 into Thumpinator = job done in my book.

It definitely matters to me. I’ve been lucky enough to play some big stages with good monitors but always relied on a good amp with a minimum of a 4x10 cab. At rehearsals last night I had the pleasure of playing through a 6x10 (it made me think why did I sell mine 🤷‍♂️) and even though we were at relatively low volume, the authority of the tone was just mesmerising.

Whats the consensus these days for the best chorus and octave pedals? Are the Boss CEB & OC still the market leaders or has something else usurped them? Also any good options in the small form factor?

So we have closure of sorts. After a further three unanswered emails I have finally received a reply stating that the unit is irreparable and no longer supported by PJB so that’s the end of the road for my little Bass Buddy. In truth I have been without it for so long now that I’ve moved on and its not going to be a huge miss. For the record, Selectron have had this unit in for repair since April 2021 and have only come to the conclusion that it is irreparable today. The complete lack of commas from their side is the most annoying and frustrating part.

Guy has a personal page on Facebook and also a TrickyAudio page here

^ THIS 😍

You would think so wouldn’t you, and I must admit I haven’t tried this myself but they seem popular so I assume they have some positive affect?

Blue'bursts always look cool to me. Nice and dark (almost black) around the edges fading to the current original colour in the centre 🥰

From my experience on this, there are a lot of factors to get growl and or mwah. I currently have two fretless basses and they are both very different beasts. My old faithful Ibanez Roadstar from the early '80s has an unlined maple board and my newer early 00's Overwater has an ebony board. Both basses are active (two band on the Ibanez, 3 band on the Overwater) and are strung with flat wound strings. Both basses exhibit mwah, although the Overwater is certainly darker and softer sounding. That said, a nice bump up in the mids and she growls like a tiger. The Ibanez mwah is much more 'in your face' and can actually become over powering and you do not need much vibrato to make it sound very chorus like but its harder to make her growl, you have to really dig in and it becomes tiring after even a short while. So I guess my conclusion is its horses for courses and you need to try both fingerboard materials to decide which one suits your style of playing.

This is why you occasionally see bassists using a 'Fatfinger' or similar clamp like device that adds mass to the headstock. Great for dead notes, not so great for neck dive.

Agreed on the BG208 combo which on reflection I actually think sounded better with the EUB than it does with the electric bass

Can you not do something with a switcher pedal like the Radial Big Shot or similar? I used to have mine wired so that my effects chain went into one input and my EUB into the other. Sort of electric bass > wireless > compressor > sansamp > big shot > micro thumpinator > amp with my EUB going into the second input on the Big Shot which then went via the micro thumpinator to the amp. Just a thought, and don't want to extinguish your combo GAS 😎