dannybuoy

If your classic punk tone is a P-Bass with a pick, I too would opt for the VT Bass.

Sold my Meatball after acquiring a Fwonkbeta and Discombobulator, but wish I had kept it as it was in mint condition and the prices are only going up!

I prefer fuzz before octave. Then the fuzz doesn’t get bogged down with too much low end and you end up with clean sub bass underneath the dirt. Hardly makes any difference to tracking in my experience, if anything it tracked better! Filter after fuzz for synth, filter before dirt is more for classic rock tones. Chorus generally at the end, but whatever sounds best.

Aguilar Storm King is my favourite pedal purchase of the year. Heard a lot of bad demos and reviews, but I’m a big fan of the Tonehammer which it’s supposed to share similarities with, so gave it a try when one popped up dirt cheap on eBay. It has some downsides in that it adds hiss no matter what the settings, although I can hardly hear it through my tweeterless cabs. Also the gain knob above 10 o’clock is an unusable fuzzy mess. But keep that gain around 9 o’clock or below, and the ‘kick’ switch pressed in (it just sounds bad without it) and it’s the most fun overdrive to play with a P + flats. It can get pretty squelchy, and reacts a bit like a cross between a cranked amp and a Prunes & Custard when you dig in. It’s made my face ache from all the bassface it has produced!

And I just snagged a Blumes on eBay! I could tell you what my worst pedals of 2024 are, but maybe I should wait until I’ve sold them to you lot! 😆

From that same Tonehammer thread back on Talkbass, I understood the AGS switch on the pedal to essentially be similar to having the drive knob at minimum or maximum. E.g. you can crank the drive and still have no drive if the gain is low - increasing the drive kind of lowers the headroom so that the gain knob causes more distortion, as well as gradually bringing in various EQ shifts. So you can get different mild overdrive sounds - drive set high and gain set low, or drive set low and gain set high, or anywhere in-between.

Mint/sunburst/burgundy in stock also! I really can’t get another one in until I’ve shifted some first though!

Nothing wrong with the Spectracomp other than a lack of hands-on controls. I’ve tried several much more expensive comps but landed on the TC. I find multi-band essential to reign in my clanky playing style without clamping down on the lows too much - and there’s not many of those on the market.

If/when the fretless models come out, I’m going to have a hard time saying no.

Kala U-Bass with Pahoehoe Dreads:

Awesome - there are not many reverbs or delays out there with a low cut feature.

Yeah it’s a keeper for me. I’ve ended up keeping 2 filters overall - I prefer using the Emma for Geezer Butler wah type sounds going into a dirty Sansamp, and the Fwonkbeta straight into the amp for old school funk.

TI flats on my Sandberg Basic, they’re perfect for me and the same set’s been on there for several years now.

They sound quite different, it’s not a bad idea to have both! I prefer one or the other for different sounds or with different basses. I certainly wouldn’t sell the BDDI immediately until you’ve had a good chance to try both side by side.