dannybuoy

Darkglass/Pike pedals and the Two Notes should both cope well with the hot signal though (I used to have a Ray4!).

[quote name='Westenra' timestamp='1490960343' post='3269403'] So what did you end up with? [/quote] A mixture of George L's here and there (even though their reliability isn't great), and a bunch of these in varying lengths: https://www.thomann.de/gb/sommer_cable_spirit_xs_highflex_02.htm Not as compact or flexible as the EBS, but still fairly low profile and look like they'll last forever!

I do not recommend EBS (or the clones made by Warwick); I tested a whole bunch of patch cables in a simple true bypass looper into a headphone amp when trying to diagnose the cause of noise in my signal chain. All the EBS ones picked up a huge amount of hum (presumably from nearby sources of interference such as my PC or dimmer switch), whereas the other ones with proper shielded metal jacks were totally silent. I've mentioned this elsewhere only to have others say they've experienced no issues with theirs. Neither did I until I decided to test them as above, so I invite any other naysayers to do the same!

Depends what kind of tones you're after as there's such a wide range! I prefer the P+J pickup blend on my Yamaha BB, the grunt of a P but with extra depth and growl; ballsier than a Jazz with both pickups on. One thing to note is that those SUBs have really hot preamps in them that can easily overload the front end of many a drive pedal. When this happens, especially the low end can get all compressed and bloated, so a blend can come in handy there. I dig the Blueberry for that old school sound, the Beta mentioned above is also in this camp (but I found it boomier, duller and fizzier). But also utilise some more modern blended distortions like the Pike Vulcan. This Darkglass-esque pedal has a knob that blends between 2 different drive circuits, and I prefer the voicing to the Darkglass variants. With a P and the colour knob to the left, it sounds just like Geezer Butler's sound on the 13 album to me! I suggest you look into the Two Notes Le Bass also; £200 ish new so you should be able to get a used one within budget. When it comes to using pedals with a built in blend vs a blend pedal, I've got a blend pedal but never really found a use for it; pretty much everything I've picked up either had one built in or didn't need one!

Tried one of these out in a shop whilst shopping for an acoustic guitar... Loved it so much I instantly forgot about buying a guitar and picked up a Yamaha fretless as my first bass! Thank you, Michael Kelly!

The LS-2 is a good cheap option and is also flexible for multiple uses. Some pedals invert phase though, resulting in your two signals cancelling each other out when you blend them; so I recommend a blender with a phase switch like the One Control Mosquite. There are plenty of decent pedals that don't need a blend though, especially lower gain overdrives. I play a lot of doom stuff and my main drive is the Bearfoot Blueberry, very thick/warm/vintage sounding.

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!