dannybuoy

It can work well in the right setting. I’ve been considering picking up the newish Fender bass reverb since it allows you to filter out the low end from the reverb signal, as you don’t want too much of the low frequencies being reverberated.

You can also use a simple blender pedal as a mixer. I’ve gotten good results sending the dry out of my Sansamp into another preamp, which then goes into the return jack of a One Control Mosquite blender. The Sansamp main out goes into the Mosquite main input, and the Mosquite’s send jack sits unused. With the blender off, I get pure Sansamp, when engaged I get that mixed with the 2nd preamp in parallel. With the mix control halfway I get a 50/50 blend of each, but you can control the overall mix and volume by adjusting the blend control and master volume of the 2nd preamp. E.g. set the blend at 10% and whack up the master volume of the 2nd preamp and you’ll get an overall volume boost when engaging.

It can be hard to hear bass distortion in a mix with distorted guitars. The 2 very different pedals that have worked best for me: SolidgoldFX Beta - a mild overdrive without a blend (no need for one either), but it has a boost in the lows/low mids that helps you to be heard when everything else gets louder. At low volume it sounds kinda muffled/murky, but at high volume it excels where other pedals that sounded great at bedroom levels seemed to disappear in the mix. Tech21 DP-3X - this splits your signal with a crossover, applying a really punchy compressor to the lows and Sansamp distortion to the top end. If you play quietly, you just hear smooth bass, and when you play more agressively you get distorted high mids coming though. Then you’re punching below and cutting above the midrange where the guitars and vocals typically sit, rather than battling them for the same frequencies.

Try the switch to the right, body and presence at noon, LPF at max. I found that reasonably close to the MkII.

Main difference is the blend, and the bite switch and cab sim buttons. V1 VT Bass had none of these. The V2 has a cab sim button, but turning off the cab sim also turns off the presence boost, resulting in a darker sound than you had with the cab sim on, which is not what most people (IMHO) would want from this button. But that’s remedied in the DI version, which puts the presence boost on a separate Bite switch. I really like the blend feature, since I dial in an obnoxious clanky overdrive sound with the character turned up fairly high, but back that off with the blend. Result is kinda like the Geddy Lee pedal, and it’s a tone you can’t get from the original without a separate blender.

You can get the V to sound close to the MkII with the LPF on and the highs/lows boosted. I find the V better at the transparent low gain thing, since you can bypass the LPF and open up the top end more. But I really like the MkII at high gain, and the V doesn’t react in the same way that I find really pleasing with the MkII cranked.

Nice work with the graphs! I prefer the Spark.

There was a b stock one on Bax yesterday...

If it’s on a daisy chain, try it on its own power supply to see if it fixes that.

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.

Reminds me of the Bassig ‘64 Black Panel.