dannybuoy

From demos, as I haven't played one, I thought it sounded good, but not really that close to the real deal. Especially 'Stingray mode' where the pickup position is all important, something that most dual pickup basses stumble on as the sweet spot is kind of in the middle of the two! I'm also not a fan of the lights but they could be disconnected easily enough I assume. If I had to choose one pickup config to do it all, I guess it would be some P+MM+J monstrosity, but I've never seen it done!

Sounds great here: http://youtu.be/_jBaovVmeBc I love my Sandberg Basic for its Stingray-esque tones but with a slimmer neck and smaller body, I could see myself getting on with one of these too for the same reasons.

I'm a big fan of both of his movies.

Most analog octavers will handle a low G ok, but only for short bursts - sustained notes that low down often jump an octave up and down, that warbling effect I was referring to.

Those tips will come in handy, I have a CV Jazz neck and a bottle of Tru Oil here waiting for a project one day!

Just re-checked the offical Factotum vid I watched before and I take it back - must not have listened on proper speakers before, but I'm not hearing those tracking warbles I thought I heard before!

If an analog pedal provides an octave up, it will be like a fuzz effect rather than a pitch shifter that you'd get from a digital device. There are a few analog ones that do this, the Pearl, Foxrox Octron, Broughton Broughctave spring to mind. I remember listening to a clip of the Factotum and the tracking was all over the place. Sounded like a mediocre octave + mediocre drive in a shiny box with a premium price tag if you ask me. But remember that's an opinion formed from one single demo, it might actually be decent!

It's a different class of effect. I don't like the sound of digital octavers, but if you need polyphonic tracking or non-fuzzy octave up, you need one. If you want a zero latency octave down with a better tone, at the expense of the odd glitch in tracking, then analog is where it's at.

Just trying to wrap my head around that tuning! All strings 2 steps down except the low E is 7 steps down! I guess you just want a regular heavy guage set plus what would be the low B from a 7-string set? I've heard of using baritone strings on standard scale guitars to tune to A or B standard, but those upper strings would be way too tight for the tuning you want.

Sounds very similar to the Prunes & Custard and Red Ripper, but, as they say, on steroids!

I would think of getting a custom guard or control plate made up for it, but due to it being active there are too many knobs in the way!

Quite like this one:

I tried the non-mini 66, and found it good for adding an aggressive edge to pick playing but didn't like the tone of it as a touch-expressive fingerstyle drive so sold it on pretty quickly. I've tried almost all the pedals mentioned in here and made my own opinions on what I did and didn't like... someone else with different gear, playing styles and ears would probably choose a different set of pedals entirely. Some brief comments: [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]EHX Soul Food - sounded like a nasty cheap overdrive with the redeeming feature of a clean blend[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Bearfoot Blueberry - sounds like God playing through a cranked tube amp[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Wren & Cuff Phat Phuk B - more of a boost pedal, adds a very subtle warmth; this can be coaxed into overdrive by tweaking the trimpot but it sounds brittle and nasty when done[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Solid Gold Beta - creamy, dark/muffled, boosted bass; sounds a bit grainy like a tubescreamer with tweaked EQ[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Xotic BB Preamp - like a bass friendly tubescreamer, very touch sensitive and can go from clean to heavy drive by plucking strength alone. Come to think of it, this is what I used when playing [/font][/color][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]fretless in a rock band due to expressiveness and is worth a look.[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Darkglass Vintage Microtubes - very nice but very different to the others in terms of feel; sounds like running your bass through a guitar amp and blending with your clean signal. If you think some other ODs are mushy, give this a go. I had one but replaced it with a Pike Vulcan as I found the VMT too dark and the Pike to have pokier upper mids.[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]DHA VT-1 - lovely gooey warm tube drive, sounds a bit nasty/farty with the gain pushed past low-medium though[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Tritonlab FET Overdrive - not tried![/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Catalinbread SFT - this was my main OD for a long time until the Blueberry replaced it due to sounding very similar but just better. Note there are two versions, old one with the white knobs is much darker in tone.[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]MXR Micro Amp - not tried this either but isn't this just a clean boost pedal?[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Another one for your list - Rodenberg 808B, available for a good price from Bass Direct. Not tried it, but heard great things about it and seems similar to the BB Preamp.[/font][/color]

Definitely, it would be like upgrading your dinner from pedigree chum to fillet steak!

I thought they had the SPB-4 Steve Harris pickup?

Check out the Blueberry at 0:25 here: http://youtu.be/13XHY7GlAXo And 6:25 here: http://youtu.be/qEsOlOX993A If those sounds are too hairy for you, that gain control goes lower still. Also in my experience, the Tone Hammer turns to mushy fuzzy mess with the gain past half way - lovely at low gain, but certainly not one that I crank the gain on!

Agreed that blend is unnecessary here. The Blueberry, Tone Hammer, etc have bags of low end without one... And they work some magic in how they compress and colour the signal which would just be diluted by blending. A blend is necessary for pedals that are mainly about distorted mids (e.g. Darkglass Vintage and Pike Vulcan) or when you have high gain distortion / fuzz and you need to bring back some of the thump to the note attack.

My go-to pedal to pair with a Precision and flats for low gain drive is the Aguilar Tonehammer. What was it you didn't like about the Blueberry? Cos that would've got my recommendation also!

Either pedal would work, the standard VT or the DI. The character control is a midrange boost before the clipping stage - it doesn't affect the lows, but I can see how some would say that since cranking it makes your tone very bright and clanky! Btw, the compressors on the Zoom aren't bad at all. Wait until you get your hands on it before reserving judgement. The BB Preamp model is probably the best place to start for a warm overdrive. You can also coax warm drive sounds out of a B7K if set carefully so try that too!

Hard to judge the tone from the demos as you don't know how it was recorded. It didn't sound much different to what my BB1025X sounds like with fresh strings on to be fair.

Good to know! But I still suspect they are in the minority and expect many boutique Jazz basses would still suffer from a bit of single coil hum.

Unless the tech has moved on significantly you may find those particular things lacking... The B2 had a decent slightly dirty tube preamp model but I could not find anything similar in the B3 (or the fx list for the B3n) - there are lots of amp models and distortion pedals but not a basic tube pre. The Darkglass B3K / B7K models sound very promising though - but they are not what I'd choose for a warm valve sound. I've had to fall back to analog stuff like the Bearfoot Blueberry, VT Bass and Aguilar Tonehammer for that. The octavers in the Zoom units I've had were all terrible in my opinion, in terms of both tone and tracking. Here are the effects bundled: https://www.zoom.co.jp/sites/default/files/products/downloads/pdfs/E_B3n_FX-list.pdf#overlay-context=products/bass/b3n-multi-effects-processor

SFT was my go to but the Blueberry blew it out of the water. I have the BB still and like it but not as much. Low Blow I've not considered, but I remember very much looking forward to its release only to be disappointed by the demos!

9v pedal for blues/rock? I implore you to check out the Bearfoot Blueberry. I've tried dozens and it slays all.

Whatever sounds best, probably a bit of both with any delay/reverb/modulation after the pre and everything else before it.