Wolverinebass

Well, clearly you don't and that's fair enough. However. Imagine you're in multiple bands using different basses (never mind effects) for each. This is the flexible front end. Yeah, some folk will get this. Others won't. Some will be put off by price or not. I hasten to say, I've got an HX Stomp. It's Rocky Road taking the price up if they are. Tech21 have went on here previously to state they have little control over final territory pricing. So, at least they're not distributed by Westside a la Mesa Boogie where the price gouging markup is so much that your eyeballs have been pushed out through your ears.

I can't say I liked the source audio stuff much. Especially distortions. Everyone is different in terms of what they want. I want to press one button and my whole rig changes via midi. Apart from DI out and possibly headphones, I wouldn't need or care about clean blend, aux in or IR loader. I found the programmable Bass driver didn't recall stuff quite correctly. It's what you want personally that matters. It's a great bit of kit as I have the Rack PSA 1.1. At £450 (Andertons) it's not cheap, but nothing great is. Whether or not you think it's worth it is a personal choice.

128 presets dude. People pay £375 for a Darkglass pedal that does dirty or clean. Let that sink in. A 128 channel preamp. It's not new technology, but it makes other things that claim to be "versatile" look like they should have a sign showing where the coal goes.

Trust me. If you want to sound like late 90s Entwistle you'll need a lot more gear than this. A Digitech 2120 would be a start for the quad chorusing. By 2000 he'd moved to using an Ashdown RPM-1 and didn't use the PSA again. All of this is before you even get to using a Status Graphite Buzzard. Personally, I think the PSA kills as you can get virtually anything out of it regardless of your tonal preference.

i got mine new in 2010 for £500. Pretty much after that they weren't really available in the UK.

I'm very sorry to hear this Lozz. I hope you can find something that has a bit less of a hectic schedule for you. Take care of yourself.

I quite liked it though I did feel there were less exhibitors which was a pity. The venue is less travel for me so I'm fine with that. The main source of unamusement was that the guy who entered his kid to win the stingray is trying to flip it on eBay right now for £1600. That's a bit irritating. Like its went to a guitar player who won't even appreciate it.

Wouldn't have done much good. Entwistle was broke post 1999. He's the reason I got mine actually.

Also, as I'm a reasonable man, if anyone is close to south east London, you can pop over to my studio and try the rack version. The offer is open to basschatters.

I've got no problem with this. If Darkglass can charge almost £400 for an on/off distortion, think what you're getting with this. A 128 channel pre-amp.

Don't worry squire. I was! 😜

Please feel free to. I'm a man of my word.

Because I won't be selling mine.

Now for the main question. As we did this with the Dug pedal. Who is up for doing a buyer's club for this so we can maybe get the price down? @tonyxtiger is this possible?

Yeah. Buzz, drive and low eq are all interactive so yeah, you can do what you say. The buzz, punch and crunch aren't eq per se as they are distortion points. I tend to have punch quite low for example and have crunch rather high. It's all to taste really.

Basically, buzz distorts the lows, punch the Mids and crunch the highs. Drive is like poweramp distortion of a valve head. Quite creamy. It's not a crossover thing, but you can still distort bits of the signal or all of it if you ramp up the preamp gain.

I use the rack PSA 1.1. This is basically the same in a mini flyrig format. For those of you who don't get it and are happy with your "on/off" distortions, this is a 128 channel pedal due to the midi. If this doesn't sell well it's because people are morons or think midi is the work of Satan. I stand this up as the best preamp ever. For flexibility alone it wins. Multiband distortion. Midi presets. The lot. It's voiced superbly, works with guitar and bass. I've used it as outboard in my studio on occasion to crunch up some drum loops. @Tech21NYC have scored a blinder with this. Frankly, I wished they put the midi presets on some of their other products. If the Dug pedal had them you could properly toggle between clean and dirty settings. Oh well, living the dream.

Here's the thing, how many people get a Helix for octave up and down functions?! Really?!! That's absurd. Anyone with serious use of that stuff will have dedicated pedals as you say. As I've moved away from synth type playing I don't really need it, but I'd that's what you've bought a helix for.... Well, unlucky.

Nobody will buy this at £399. The price will come down to something more sane like £299 by launch day and I'm sure Andertons and GAK will drop it.

The ones I've tried weren't heavy and the necks are fine unless you like Jazz basses. Certainly not Gibson Les Paul bass neck baseball bat. Yeah, okay, One of the tuners is under the neck and the scratchplate is a bit odd, but they're not rubbish instruments. I hasten to say, I don't own one and do own a Rick. Both different, both with different tricks and sounds. I'd happily have one in double humbucker variant.

It does sound good, doesn't it?!! Tech21 have now hit their formula. Flyrigs. Or smaller pedals in cut down chassis. They are going to crank the handle for some time on this. Might be a great thing, might not. Depends if the quality of products keep up. These models are certainly addressing the need for portability and ludicrous tones. In many ways, they're inspired. I just wished they'd put the tone controls left to right rather than right to left.

My mates fake Bongo has a hum issue as well so clearly you dodged a bullet there squire.

Actually, I've been having a loft conversion done recently and the toilet seat for the en suite bathroom is out of stock. So I might be putting his knockoff Bongo to better use....

I really enjoyed it. It was great to meet up with familiar faces. Some whom I really only see once or twice a year. I think I may have been the youngest person there being 40, but it doesn't bother me at all. It's all about the crack really and playing things you might not have access to. Besides, it might be cool to see what "the kids" are using these days. On the other hand it'll probably be drop F Dingwalls with Darkglass everything. Maybe it's best not to know.

A drummer friend of mine is learning bass and was obsessed about getting a Bongo in stealth black. Or at least until he saw the price. He then went and got one off Ali express. Now I haven't played it, but from what he told me it had sharp fret ends, and although there were 2 battery compartments only one was wired. It sounded to me like the mid control didn't work either. Okay, £200, but I said if he wanted a cheap 5 string he should have got a Yamaha or Ibanez. I'll be having a shot of the thing next week so we can see.