dannybuoy

AFAIK they've only made one class D amp, the VT Bass 1000, which nobody bought because they cost around a grand. Now that manufacture has gone to the far east, all bets are off!

I've always thought about getting a clean power amp and a VT Bass DI, then a switcher to go between that and my 2 Darkglass preamp pedals. One of these might work better - I could just either use the fx return (or just turn down the blend) when using another preamp so the VT500 becomes a cheap power amp. Switching would be difficult though without a custom switch box.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTezrda44qo[/media] Made in Korea unlike their more expensive amps, you can preorder for £450 here: http://www.effectpowersupplies.com/tech-21-vt-bass-500-5650-p.asp Although I would wait to see what Thomanns prices are!

I would contact then directly and ask - I have heard from people that have paid them a visit to check out their wares: http://www.walbasses.co.uk/Contact%20us Otherwise there are places like the Bass Gallery and Bass Direct which might have a used one in from time to time: http://thebassgallery.com/catalogsearch/result/index/?manufacturer=356&q=wal

I would try an octave pedal like the Aguilar Octamizer. It generates a synthetic note an octave below (so you generally play higher up on the neck) , you can adjust the bass/octave levels separately and there's a tone control to adjust how clean/raunchy the synth sound is. Also there are some great synth sounds in the Zoom B1on, which for 45 notes has to be the biggest bargain going considering what it can do. That will open you up to a whole world of effects plus throw in a tuner, drum machine, looper and headphone amp into the bargain.

You could add a depth control similar to the Supercollider to control the amount of bass hitting the front end of the circuit!

[quote name='mazdah' timestamp='1429653219' post='2753751'] In US - Hartke (you can call Larry Hartke himself!), Mesa, Peavey, Kustom (they had great customer service for Groove heads few years ago). [/quote] I hear good things about Aguilar too.

Orange may not state a 5 year warranty like Ashdown, buy they fixed my amp which I bought second hand a few years ago free of charge, so they are good eggs also!

[quote name='NoirBass' timestamp='1429632503' post='2753450'] I was hoping for a low gain / clean DI in a Boss shaped box. Guess I'll find out in a couple of days. :-) [/quote] Yup, it's clean with the gain down low. I was just hoping for a bit more of a VT Bass / Darkglass Vintage amp like overdrive sound from it, but it wasn't quite what I was looking for. It does sound great at high gain though!

I always though the BB415 used a ceramic P pup... I found a few references to it being ceramic on the interweb: http://www.wollongongmusic.com.au/ProductDetails.asp?ProdID=1290 http://www.harmonycentral.com/reviews/product/yamaha-bb415-5-string-bass/602082 And also some saying it's alnico! http://www.gak.co.uk/en/yamaha-bb-415-orange-metallic/16121 http://www.musiciansfriend.com/bass/yamaha-bb415-5-string-bass#productDetail

[quote name='pete.young' timestamp='1429343186' post='2750535'] Got a lot of basses with ivory fretboards, have you? If the folklore that ebony boards sit between maple and rosewood in terms of brightness is true, that blows away the hardness argument since ebony is a lot harder and more dense than either rosewood or maple. Beedster you need to get some otherwise identical necks made up with different board materials and test them all on the same body with the same brand of strings to eliminate as many sources of error as possible. [/quote] It's not really hardness or density I would say... From my engineering days there are many different properites that mean very specific things - hardness, density, strength, stiffness, toughness, ductility, malleability, etc. In terms of these material properties I would say stiffness is more relevant. Also the resonant frequency of the resulting object and how the internal structure of the wood dampens vibrations e.g. widely spaced grains would be more prone to flexing and rubbing against each other, converting vibration to heat. But I think my sponge analogy still stands!

Just had one arrive and had a quick play (before swiftly selling it on!). At low gain levels it's a great DI preamp box (if you get an XLR adapter) if you play with distortion and need a cab sim on your DI. At medium gain it sounds horrible to me and the blend really does sound like two separate signals. At high gain though, it's a fantastic fuzz! The fact that the treble control sounds like a resonant lowpass filter only adds to the synthyness (is that a word?). It can sound similar to the Diabolik at low squish settings in fact. So this makes two mislabelled bass fuzz pedals now released by Boss! I'd keep this for fuzz if I didn't have a TAFM and Diabolik. I am keeping the ODB-3, which at high gain is a pretty extreme and unique pedal. People will be upgrading from the ODB-3 to the BB1-X in their droves though, and for most people's purposes it's clearly the better of the two. But if you are looking for an overdrive/amp sim/DI, I'd take Tech 21 or Darkglass's offerings over this any day.

Vampyres look brutal too if you're not adverse to a pointy bass: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/257336-warwick-vampyre-sn-4-price-drop-l850-ovno-shipped/

I just play some of my own original basslines - I hardly know any covers or famous riffs and it would be a little cheesy to play some of them in a music shop!

I've been inspired by Jon Stockman's tone lately, look him up on YouTube. He plays a 6 string Warwick with dual humbuckers through a Darkglass B7K and it sounds monstrously heavy. I've always been looking at single coil jazz style basses for these grindy sounds, but now I believe double 'buckers are where it's at. I've been investigating a range of low-midrange basses lately from Warwick, Spector, Schecter, Traben and G&L. Any of these will deliver, especially when put through the B3K/B7K, which has now become the de facto preamp pedal for the djenty bassist! The Warwick Rockbass Streamer Std is my first step in these experiments, it gets the sound although the pickups are really low output which I'm currently fixing with a boost pedal. A Traben Chaos is next up with its dual MM pickups. You say you don't like MM humbuckers, but try a bass with two of them and you might change your mind! You should check out the Dingwall NG-2 too, especially if you're a fan of Periphery!

[quote name='Shockwave' timestamp='1429529049' post='2752237'] I was also thinking of running a line selector with a blend control. All I know of is the Boss LS2, what else should I be looking at? [/quote] If you just want to use it as a blender, get something else that has a phase switch, as some pedals you might want to blend could invert phase - which when blended with clean will cancel out some of the frequencies, mainly the low end. This is a good choice: http://www.soundaffectspremier.com/effects-c1/controllers-switching-c35/one-control-mosquite-blender-v2-with-bjf-buffer-effects-pedal-p1843/

What amp are you using where the lowest volume setting is too loud for a venue? I've never had any trouble using various amps for quiet practice at home, I found it surprising that you had to resort to turning it down on the bass itself!

I thought the 1025X did a better P impersonation with its alnico pickups vs the duller sounding ceramic one in the 415!

The SFT is modelled on an older SB12 Portaflex - it also sounds nothing like the VT Bass. Check out some demo videos on YouTube.