dannybuoy

I played my first ever bass on Denmark St, some fretless acoustic, whilst out shopping for an acoustic guitar. That converted me, and I went back the following week looking for a fretless electric, and ended up with a Yamaha RBX from the Bass Cellar. Staff were pretty grumpy though! Went back a year or so later looking for a Squier Vintage Modified Precision, and not one shop in the area had one. I could have ordered one in for £250, but thought why do that when I can get one online for £180 delivered? 'Tis the way things are heading, these shops can't really compete with online retailers. I have never bought a pedal from a store either, they are always massively overpriced. For instance the last purchase I made was an EHX Nano Small Stone for £38 online, and it's £60 in some shops! I just pop in to look at the merchandise, or buy a pick/cable/book if I need too these days...

This [url="http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=4066"]Servisol spray glue[/url] from Maplin is meant to be pretty good (seems to be out of stock though). I bought a can when I was going to make my own board but ended up buying a Pedaltrain so I've never even opened it. If you want it, gimme a fiver and I'll send it to you!

There's a Demeter Compulator schematic on freestompboxes.org and Baja, the guy who reverse engineered it, designed an optical limiter which he reckons is even better. Just a thought in case anyone wants to try rolling their own!

If you go for a pedal tuner, the Korg Pitchblack owns. It's true bypass too, so it won't mess with your tone.

Which is precisely why I went for the Diamond - it can run at 9-24v, the higher the voltage the higher the headroom. It distorts when run at 9v when you really dig in, but at 18v (using a Diago 9v - 18v voltage doubler adaptor tip) I can't get it to distort even if I boost into it. The Maxon CP9-Pro+ has a similar voltage doubler built into the pedal. It's not just actives that can cause a problem with some comps, abusive playing on a hot P-Bass is enough to clip most 9v comps too.

I've got the Diamond Compressor and it's the absolute dogs danglies. Very quiet, lots of headroom and a nice smooth compression that lets the perfect amount of your attack come through. There's a bass version coming out that has better low end retention (ony really necesary on a 5 string) and a different voicing for the EQ (which I don't use anyway):

Minus point for Carbon Copy (or VT Bass depending on how you look at it)... The CC has it's power socket next to the input jack, and the VT has it's power next to the output jack. I want to run these pedals next to eachother and I can't use my funky new EBS pedal connectors to get em in nice and tight as the power plugs get in the way! Suppose I could shove my tuner in between them...

Anyone here tried the Peavey VB-2? Heard some good reports of them, but they barely get a mention in the whole 'which valve amp' discussions.

[url="http://www.johnnyshredfreak.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8&products_id=12&zenid=21c221c66f5ec943bf956ab2830ef2f9"]Also the Johnnyshredfreak![/url]

Well, the Bass Centre site has a tick to say they have them in stock, and they're London SE1 which isn't far from me... Tempted to pop in!

Yeah, they love it!

I sold my iAmp ages ago and only recently found the manual! If anyone wants it they can have it for the price of a stamp and an envelope!

If you've got an old nice sized IDE hard drive lying about, I can mod your XBOX, fit the bigger drive and fill it up with games...

It might be beaten when the new similarly priced Malekko 616 comes out but we shall see!

Just got my MXR Carbon Copy yesterday and have been having lots of fun with it so far. Great sounding delay, but it's the oscillation that's the fun part. I spent hours just playing with the knobs making wacky spaceship noises, it's an instrument in it's own right! I' do some clips later, but if anyone's looking for a great sounding delay that doesn't take up much board space, you don't [i]need[/i] tap tempo, and doubles as a noisemaker for experimental projects this is it. Check out the seller Silverflipz on US eBay, bagged it brand new for $135 shipped which is a bargain as most US stores are selling it for $150. Escaped customs charges too! Clips coming soon...

I find that running my 442 filter into the VT Bass gives a little of that smooth distortion to the highs and the filter peaks that you're looking for. It also acts to compress the signal slightly which is good to stop your speakers from blowing up! Try running your filter into a mild overdrive with the gain all the way down, or a dirty boost pedal, Sansamp/POD, tube pre, or just turn up the gain on your amp.

Don't worry about overdriving your cabs - they'll let you know when they're being pushed. Just don't turn it up full and whack that open E!