dannybuoy

Depends what sound you’re going for. The AO does low gain well but it’s a totally different sound to the Tone Hammer. The distortion all happens in the midrange and it has a fuzz like character to it. If you want a more natural soft and furry tone, that adds a bit ‘squelch’ on the attack of the note when the low end distorts like on vintage recordings, then I’d reach for the Tone Hammer! I keep flicking between my Tone Hammer and TC MojoMojo at the moment - they can sound pretty similar but the Aguilar sounds better going direct (the AGS adds a HPF & LPF), is more versatile and has the DI! With the AGS volume boost, yes it’s there. At low enough gain levels you can get it usable as a stomp switch, but otherwise just treat it as a toggle switch that’s there to change the sound and not something you’d stomp on mid-track.

Aguilar Tonehammer is my favourite pre for what you describe. I prefer the sound of this over anything Tech21 or Darkglass have to offer (and I’ve tried most of them) for a warm barely-overdriven tone with my P-Bass and flats, and would expect it to suit short scales well also. I have an Alpha Omega and love it but wouldn’t recommend it as a natural sounding low gain preamp.

It's the same octave up as the older Pigtronix Disnortion apparently, so perhaps there'll be a clip of that somewhere...

I'd seek out bass clips of the Octava first, it might not be what you're looking. Octave up fuzzes tend to only realy be audible on the higher notes, and you can't get a clean octave out of them.

Most of these cheap pedals use the same circuits. The Mooer Tender MkI though was a supposed clone of the EHX MicroPOG, they were forced to stop making it and came out with a MkII which I hear is decent but not quite as good. Mooer also make a Pure Octave which has that horrible out of tune sound you describe, so I bet most of the ones you tried are just like that! The MkI Tender was going for high prices (higher than the EHX original due to people wanting a small pedal!) when they stopped production, they're pretty rare now though.

I'd love to play some side by side, but until then I only have Youtube comparisons to go on. Every time I've head the Sterling next to the Stingray, it just sounded like it had less grunt/growl, more sterile. Yet when I hear comparisons of alnico vs ceramic Stingrays, the ceramic ones still have that certain indefinable something. Maybe the preamp is different as well, or perhaps the body has an influence, or it could just as easily be my visual bias and a lack of quality comparisons out there to watch!

So will this have all the Aftershock distortion models built in also?

Dynamic mics are better in an untreated room. Or you could just put a towel over your head!

Depends on your interface - but you were looking at getting a pre-amp anyway?

Shure SM7b perhaps? Works great to mic a bass cab also. Might not have the sensitivity of clarity of a condenser, but there's something about the warm sound of them that does great for rock vocals in particular (no idea what singing style you have).

Should've kept my original one too! I bought the smaller one thinking it would be an upgrade but it didn't sound as good somehow.

A tube amp with a power soak sounds like a different scenario though, they're designed to push the amp harder at lower volume levels for a start. Strange how some Class D heads have no fan at all and manage just fine. Neither did my Orange AD200B which put out a lot of heat but no fan needed. Makes me wonder how many of these amps would survive just fine with the fan ripped out as long as there was a decent heatsink!

I've returned an Aguilar TH500 for the same issue. Kicked in after 10-15 minutes of low volume usage, at maximum speed when the amp was still cool to the touch. Even worse is that you can hear a pop sent to the speaker cab when it kicks in. On my Orange Terror Bass, I've replaced the fan with a much quieter one - much less air flow than the original, I knew I was taking a risk in doing so but it turned out just fine. It has a massive heatsink and more air flow than most amps though, and larger fans can be quieter since they can get good airflow at low RPM. Most fan systems on amps are under-engineered - low-volume usage seems not to be a primary design consideration, and variable fan speed controllers too much effort to design it seems.

I like a light overdrive into a blended muff... ends up giving the fuzz a nice boost and making the clean side less, er, clean! Also give fuzz into octave a go! It doesn't make much difference to tracking (with a muff at least, YMMV) and you end up with clean lows under the fuzz rather than too much low end making the fuzz crap out.

What's the 1st string, E or G?! If E, you can try a tapered set. Using a tapered B dropped the height considerably for me, I need to adjust it but so far have been really enjoying the grindy sound it produces due to the fret buzz so might have to lower the others to suit!

I found the B too floppy on the Super Brights. Currently have some NYXLs with a tapered B string fitted and like them very much! I might try a few more sets outs but can see myself sticking with these.

II got the expression version mainly for the wahs, but didn't actually find a bass wah sound I liked so it just ended up costing me £10 more for something I didn't use and took up more space. You may find more usage out of it than I did though! But if it's literally a couple of quid, and you don't envisage putting it on a board where you might regret the extra space it takes up, go for it!

The drive on the Terror is pretty mushy, I only have it set to very mild settings. It can't replicate what a lot of distortion/fuzz pedals can do. I haven't tried the revised preamp on the new OTBs, but on the original, flat EQ according to BassGearMag who measured it, is achieved with bass/treble at minimum and mids at maximum. Sounds odd, but it's common with passive tonestacks. So don't be afraid to whck the mids up and the bass down! There are plenty of pedals that don't need a blend to retain lows. Many even boost lows, like the Sovtek Muff reissue, SolidgoldFX Beta and IdiotBox Blower Box. But if the issue is not low end but cutting through the mix, adding clean blend might make you cut through even less! A Big Muff for example can sound really distorted soloed, but mix it with the band and it just sounds like bass with mega sustain! I don't know what pedals you're using but I like various Tech21 pedals like the VTDI / YYZ / DP3X that have really agressive upper midrange to cut through.

Will laugh if someone else bids £120 and it sells for that as there's no longer any other bidders (i.e. you) to compete against!

Sounds like they haven’t quite grasped how eBay works!

I should've stuck with my 1st list, I ended up changing it all around after each listen - at least I might have got 1 right! 4 was the other one that sounded a bit distorted on the low notes, so that could be the Joshwah also. Curious to know what 1 is!

Very tough! C4 Microtron Joshwah Chromatron Only one I'm reasonably certain about is the Joshwah, as it's impossible to dial out the distortion on that sucker! 1 is my favourite by far.

It's not a good thing, no. But amazingly lots of amps are this way including the 1st generation Darkglass M900!

I use EXL 170-5 (long scale, 45-130), and I believe that's what they fit as stock. Perfect fit stringing though the bridge on my BB1025X. No need for super long, as you say you might end up trying to wrap a thick string around the post if you did!

Dunlops dont have coloured ball ends, only D'Addario (as far as I know) plus a few brands that D'Addario manufacture for like Fender. D'Addario nickels are quite lively sounding, when new at least.