dannybuoy

I just got some too, the 15mm variety!

I only ever run my basses at 100% volume, I find turning it down changes the sound. Never been an issue for me though as pretty much every amp has a switchable pad, or active/passive switch.

Well, some people that pre-ordered in the US have received theirs already, so won’t be long until we see them over here. Another video has gone up: https://youtube.com/watch?v=TR0xosuYJxs

It’s only an issue when blending digital effects. Blending your sound with itself but delayed by a few milliseconds introduces a bunch of EQ notches, known as comb filtering. Think of a flanger but stuck in one place instead of moving.

You can certainly apply some of these aspects to your patches. With AGS on you get an overdrive circuit plus a ‘speaker sim’ consisting of a fixed HPF + LPF. I prefer a simple LPF to remove top end fizz over a speaker sim, as they usually sound too dark in my experience. I don’t care that they might sound more like a real cab, if that just means it sounds muddy. So tip #1 - try the high and low EQ filters out in place of the cab sims. Also, the mid EQ is before the overdrive circuit, bass and treble after. Therefore the mid knob affects the character of the overdrive, a bit like the character knob on the VT Bass or presence knob on the BDDI. So tip #2 - try cutting a frequency range before drive then boosting it back after (or vice versa)! PS - that post says that AGS turns the treble control into a presence control. Thing is, presence is not really a technically defined term so everyone implements it differently. I thought it usually meant the frequency range above the treble control rather than below it, but then the Sansamp BDDI confuses matters by naming their pre-gain high-mid / treble boost as ‘presence’. AGS probably does not change the behaviour of the bass and treble knobs as such, it just sounds like that because of those additional filters. The HPF lets you boost bass while keeping things tight, and the LPF makes it sound like you’re boosting a lower treble frequency just because the upper ones are rolled off.

Yes, a pedal will effectively make your passive bass active. If it's switched on, or has a buffered bypass, it will have a low impedance output, and you might have a volume boost depending on what you're plugging into and how you have it set. But that doesn't necessarily mean you need to use the active input. I'd only use the active input or engage the pad if I was getting unwanted clipping at the input stage of the amp. And that depends on the bass - some passive basses are louder than some active basses!

Yes, I've seen that post on TB, it was an eye opener to the scooped BDDI tones that I'd never tried before. I can get somewhat close to the Tone Hammer with some of the amp sims but not quite close enough!

At the risk of pulling a Zoom thread severely off topic... I use the dUg and the B7K fairly similarly - set to low gain so that soft playing sounds clean but digging in produces plenty of upper growl that cuts through. But I prefer the dUg as it sounds cleaner with soft playing and dirtier with agressive playing. So it's versatile in the sense that I can get a dark punchy bass sound and a super growly sound from the same pedal with the same settings, just by how I play. But there's still that massive hole in the mids unless you turn mix mode off, which sounds so different that I feel the need to change the EQ settings. But if I want to flip to a warm, slightly driven, mid focused sound though, I'll just turn the dUg off. I haven't found anything that can touch the Tone Hammer for that application!

If it bugs you that much buy a used one and sell yours on for the same price! Mine will be going up soon but I'll have to check the colour consistency!

The B7K sim is great, but it has its place. In a 50s/60s band I'd be more inclined to use something else. In a typical rock/metal track that 500 kHz scoop creates space for the guitars and vocals, letting your bass cut through the mix in the 1-2kHz area. In a more vintage scenario I'd want the bass to be more dominant in the 250-500 Hz range with not much at all going on above 1k. I'm pretty settled on using the DuG pedal and Aguilar Tonehammer for both those scenarios so my B3n isn't seeing much use at the moment!

Some cheaper cables only have two strands of wire to carry charge but not data. See what happens if you hook up a mobile phone with the same cable, if you get the chance to browse the photos on it etc, it should be a good one. Also check the manual, it's been a long time since I did it so can't remember if this applies to the Zoom, but you usually have to hold down a button when turning it on to activate the connection with these types of devices. I believe you only need to update the firmware to get the new effects btw, that's all I did, I've never installed the editing app as Windows Defender always blocked it thinking it was infected! I think they made the effects available via that app first, then bundled them into the firmware later.

Eh? My B3n has a Glam Comp effect, that’s where it showed up first, before the B1Four existed. Maybe you need to update your firmware?

Not missing the extra knobs and stomps from the B3n then?

Put them in a playlist and listen to them all day every day. At work, on the toilet, at mealtimes and during sex. If they haven't given you the chords etc for the original tracks, see if they can do so, it will be a big timesaver. 26 songs in 9 days is a challenge, especially if you have to work. I'm a slow learner so if it were me and I wanted to make a good impression, I'd probably book the week off. Rehearse with headphones with your bass mixed in, not only to let you hear every nuance more easily but to also work out which bass sounds work with the band mix as you go. Don't get too stuck trying to perfect all the fills etc at first, or you may find yourself at day 8 only having got half way through the list. Learn each song to a very basic level first so you can blag it, then fine tune each one!

As above the Thumpinator is designed to cut out the frequencies below 30Hz that your cab cannot reproduce. If you're getting too much boom in the 40-60Hz region, but don't want to just 'turn down the bass' as that will also impact the higher bass frequencies, a less steep but adjustable HPF like the Broughton or the one in the Zoom is just the ticket! Your can also try raising your cab off the floor or just repositioning it. The closer it is to a wall or corner, the more bass you'll get.

One reason I can think of is consistency in mute pressure - if your strings are set to different heights then placing foam under them won’t be even. The reason given in one of the videos is less convincing. Putting foam under the strings can throw off intonation slightly, apparently this device alleviates that. Of course one advantage over the BassMute is you can use it on all your basses (well the ones with the same string spacing anyway!). Price is a total ripoff though!

If you bought new, return it rather then selling it on.

According to the FX list, the Pitch Shift effect looks identical. The 'analog' octaver has a -1 and -2 oct control on the guitar version (just like an OC-2), but just a -1 oct and hi/lo EQ on the bass version. It's likely that the octave tracking and tone is otherwise the same - otherwise I would've hoped if they nailed an OC-2 tone they would've put it on the bass version too! The guitar version is missing an additional monophonic pitch effect that is on the bass version.

Not all passive tonestacks are the same and I know nothing about the CTM100, but the one in my old Orange Terror Bass is flat with the mids maxed and bass/treble at minimum. Sounds totally unintuitive and therefore a setting you might not have tried, so give that a shot to see how it sounds and adjust from there!

The octave down effect which simulates an analog octaver is Very Good Indeed. The octave up is not so great though. Neither is the one on the Helix (for now, they claim to have hired some polyphonic pitch shifting wizards a while back)!

Could it be that you’re not used to / not a fan of P basses? Muddy and no slap punch is how someone very used to J basses (or active dual pickup basses in general) might feel about a P at first listen.

There's a Spectracomp going for £50 in the classifieds, I'd start there. Or do what I did, try several way more expensive compressors before ultimately ending there! Other pedals - an MXR Bass Envelope Filter is fun for Uptown Funk. It has a bit of a vocal quality to it to make your bass line sound a bit like the backing vocals. Your may want to consider a multi-FX like the Zoom B3n if you find yourself using a lot of sounds and need presets, but a handful of well chosen by pedals has always been my preference.