BigRedX

It's being sold to people who've bought in to the IR capture hype. Personally I can't see the point. IMO no sound generation method is irreplaceable. The Helix (just as an example) has over 200 distortion pedal models or amps that have drive/distortion as one of their parameters. With that many options to choose from you should be able to find something that will be a close enough replacement or might be even better than any device you are trying to capture.

For me it's the other way around. A broken bass or other gear can be replaced. What I don't want is an injury that could cause me to miss important gigs or even stop me from playing.

No. Never. One of the reasons why The Terrortones only once played in Manchester, because every other venue we contacted wanted us to guarantee the sales of x number of tickets. We always told them that they're not London in the 80s anymore and even London venues now were paying us as well as supplying food and drink. If Manchester didn't want us that was their loss and we'd play Liverpool instead where again we'd be paid and treated properly.

One of the many, many reasons why I no longer play in covers bands. I've played to some extreme audiences - punk and psychobilly - in some very dodgy looking venues, but unlike pub gigs the audience respect the band and the stage area.

The "mass" of a high-mass bridge makes less difference than you would initially think. While most are about 2½ times as heavy as the typical BBOT bridge, once screwed onto a bass body they increase the overall weight of the bass by less than 6%. On a semi-hollow bass like that in the OP it might make a bit more difference, but it's still not a lot.

The bass player in one of the bands we often play with has a Kemper. He loves it, although I'm not massive fan of his bass sound, but that's entirely subjective.

That's fair enough. One of the bands I play with doesn't use any backline and we make the "empty stage" part of our performance. For the other we are normally sharing the stage with lots of other bands' backline so the fact that I don't have any isn't noticeable. Personally I could never go back to a conventional rig unless I was being paid a lot of money to do so.

Sell everything else. You won't need it once you have the Helix and FRFR cab. I bought an RCF745 FRFR which is relative large in the FRFR and TBH it's complete overkill for my usage, although I didn't know this at the time. However it was still smaller and lighter than 2x10 cab that was part of the bass rig it replaced. If I ever need to buy a replacement FRFR I will get something even smaller and lighter. Also the combined cost of the Helix and FRFR was just over £2k new. When I sold all my other amps, cabs and effects units (one huge bass rig, two cabs for my smaller bass rig and some guitar effects) I actually came away with an overall profit.

In that case Helix and a lightweight FRFR powered cab. If you are playing anywhere with a decent PA you won't even need the FRFR as you'll straight into the PA and use the foldback. If you do need a personal monitor you'll find that a typical wedge-shaped FRFR will fit in all sorts of places on stage where you wouldn't even begin to get a traditional bass rig. This has been my set up for the last 6 years now. Most of the time when I do use the FRFR for gigs it's pointed across the stage so that the rest of the band can hear me without needing to have bass in their wedges. I've only done two gigs where it wasn't possible to put the bass through the PA and the FRFR coped far better than my previous very big, heavy and expensive bass rig. Because of the far superior dispersal characteristics of the FRFR I find that I can a lot quieter on stage for the same FoH presence rather than so loud I can barely hear the rest of the band. Image hasn't been a problem. For support gigs I set up in front of the headliner's bass rig and no-one in the audience is any the wiser. If i really needed to have "backline", I'd probably have something fake and lightweight that could be folded flat for transit.

Remember that AppleMusic also has the ability to link to your personal iTunes Music Library, so those who are finding the "right" version of the album, it might be because you ripped it to your own collection at some point.

Because it's easier to hold your phone this way without covering the camera lenses with your fingers. Also most video on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok is viewed in portrait mode. I have it on good authority from people in the know that if you submit phone video to any of the broadcast news programs they are more likely to take it if it has been shot in portrait mode, even if the landscape version is technically better quality and shows whatever has been "filmed" better/clearer, because that is what viewers expect from user-shot video.

Yes but the modern digitised versions may have additional tracks on them. Like CD reissues.

Just be aware that while the Helix Floor and Rack have plenty of analogue inputs - 7 in total including the return inputs only one of them (Guitar In) is at instrument level, so depending on what you intend use with it you may need a level/impedance matching box to use the other inputs effectively.

This

Fair enough. I just looked at the specs for the B7K and the AO and from a cursory glance the AO amp seemed have more options, so I expected that it would cover all the B7K sounds.

IMO there's a big difference between ageing and wear that an instrument has accumulated during ownership by the person playing it, and that which is already on a model that is being sold as new, albeit with an ex-showroom/demo description. If that was a second hand eBay purchase any buyer would be totally within their rights to return it with "product not as described" as the reason unless photos clearly showing all those defects had been included in the listing. To me ex-showroom/demo means that the instrument might be a bit dusty and need a new set of strings, but I certainly wouldn't expect a big dent in the headstock and have been hanging around for so long that the finish was starting to change colour and manufacturing defects (the wrong glue having been used for inlays on a maple board) to have become obvious. That bass needs to be listed as "used" and some more money knocked off and then any potential purchasers won't be disappointed.

Both bands I'm in have been well treated when we have played DHP venues here in Nottingham. Also most of the Goth/Post-Punk promotors make an effort to look after the bands that they book for gigs. Having said that, the "support band dressing room" at the Bodega is tiny. While all three members of Hurtsfall could have fitted in simultaneously (just) it is doubtful that there would have also been room to get changed with more than one other person in the room. Still it's much better than having to use the toilets.

Weird that you can't get a sound you like out of the Darkglass. The Darkglass pre-amp model on my Helix is fast becoming the most important and versatile part of my signal chain and I am in the process of using it to replace the EQ, distortion and amp modules in my older Presets. So far the only thing I haven't been able to get out of it is a cheap nasty DIY fuzzbox tone.

Thank you kindly sir...

I'll have two as long as they're 5-strings...

But it just as easily be automated to appear 2-3 days after notification of dispatch which would be a lot more useful and welcome.

Latest mixes of the next Hurtsfall single.

No as yet. Maybe we've been lucky and had good PA engineers. The one for our last gig had checked out what we sound like from our Spotify page and a few live videos on YouTube so he knew what to expect and how we wanted to sound. If there's only time to set up and do a quick line check, then generally the on-stage mix is one we can live with by the end of the first song. From my experience not having backline affecting the FoH sound makes getting a decent mix on stage and FoH much easier and quicker.

No having amps and cabs means that we can get the whole band, all our gear plus our roadie/merch seller in an estate car. After load in, we can be set up on stage, line checked and be ready to play in about 10 minutes. We're not clogging up the limited stage area with redundant backline and we're easy to sound check/line check because everything goes direct to the PA with no sound sources on stage messing up the FoH sound. Because of this we get lots of gigs, especially supports with much better known bands because we're quick with the set up and fit into tiny spaces on stage that you're typical band with backline couldn't do without the headliners having to shift half their gear. It's win all round for everyone.

Interesting looking device although somewhat pricy. Also seems weird that they make a big thing of error free use on stage and then choose to power it via a USB cable and use mini jacks for MIDI connection. These are both things that IMO have no place in a gigging environment because they simply aren't robust enough.