dannybuoy

As was mine!

It's not a valve amp, it's a valve pre mated to a Class D power amp. The impedance switch on the OTB will let you get the full power into am 8 ohm load instead of just over half that you would normally expect to get. Sounds like a similar concept to these newer amps except since these are mostly 2 ohm capable, the switch lets you get the full power out of a more common 4 ohm load rather then having to have 2 ohms connected.

My first P was a Squier VM (with the 'Duncan Designed' pickup) which I really liked. Traded it in for a USA P and didn't think it sounded as good; so fitted an 'Original' 62 pickup only to find it didn't make much difference. After fitting flats the stock pickup, I'm really happy with it now. But for a brighter roundwound sound I would go back to the old Squier VM any day! Which Squier do you have?

Not sure about the combo but the head does, but it's different to the ones mentioned here so far. It's designed to let you get the full amp power at 8 ohms, rather than to allow the amp to work at 2 ohms.

Going back to basics and forgetting the extended and complexity of the Helix for a second - if you were getting unintended clipping from the Sansamp, surely you just need to play with the gain structure to stop this. Either reduce the volume on the pedal, adjust the line/inst level switch on the pedal (unless yours is the old version that didn't have these switches), or play with the pad and trim controls on the desk. The Sansamp BDDI or VTDI are great little units, far simpler and cheaper to boot. No reason why you can't get a great stage sound from them. If you have an audio interface you can actually download a full 15 day trial of the Helix in plug-in format. I tried this out last night and I realise I've only scratched the surface so far but I tried all the amp models out and would prefer to use my VTDI than purchase a Helix to use as a bass amp modeller.

Had an hour or so with Helix Native this evening. Pretty impressed with the B7K Ultra sim, I'm used to practicing with the M900 preamp out direct to headphones and it gets pretty close (but not quite). Sure beats the model in the Source Audio Aftershock, would love to compare it to the model in the Zoom B3n. Also enjoyed the UK bass preset with a Hiwatt amp, great for nailing 'My Generation'. Octavers are decent, filters aren't great though (haven't tried the newly added legacy ones yet though). So far though I'm glad I did it this way with the software trial rather than buy the hardware just to try it out. I don't think I'm ready to give up my standalone pedals just yet!

I think Tech21 outdoes Ampeg when it comes to emulating an Ampeg amp... The SCR DI does clean Ampeg sounds and has an overdrive circuit that is just your basic od with blend. The VT Bass and the like do a great job of emulating the sound of an actual overdriven tube amp.

MIM Fender IS real Fender... A long time ago they used cheaper ceramic pickups but these days I believe they use alnico like the US Fenders? If so, no idea when they changed but you would be able to tell from a photo. Whether they would be any better than your stock pickups is a gamble though. Personally I'd only get them if they were dirt cheap, otherwise I'd be more inclined to get something more specialist, DiMarzio, EMG, Seymour Duncan etc.

Clue is in the image URL! http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Yamaha_TRB_5P_files/yamaha top edge 1.jpg Lovely looking bass though: http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Yamaha_TRB_5P.html

Digging in is a big part of how I play, however you can get a lot of those growlier sounds with a lighter touch if you use lighter strings and a lower action!

The only thing I can think of is that maybe the preamp is wired up incorrectly.. there are tons of Sire users using pedals and never heard of this before. I wonder if this is the kind of symptom you might get if the preamp output is hooked up to the jack with the wrong polarity, and your particular amp happens to work but the input stage of one or more of your pedals doesn't like it? Got any other amps or audio interfaces you can try out to see if they can reproduce the same issue with no pedals in the chain?

You can't beat a Stingray when it comes to fretless tone IMHO, I'd love to pick one up some day too!

Ten bands sounds like overkill though if the OP just wants a gain control and mid boost. You're right to look at the EWS BMC v2, seems to tick all the boxes: http://ews-us.com/item_BMC2.php?item=custom

I have an aggressive playing style and don't find TIs a problem in the slightest. Tried the LaBella FLs for a while, meh. The TIs were back on within a few weeks! This just goes to show, horses for courses. Try everything you can!

Active basses are fine with the Bass Big Muff. In fact I think active basses sound better then passive basses into a Muff, as long as their output level isn't too high as to overload the front end of the fuzz circuit, and the Bass Big Muff handle more input then most Muffs. I put a buffered bypass pedal in front of my Green Russian as it makes the sound tighter and more defined vs plugging a passive bass straight in. Fuzz Face based pedals can be a different story though, a Wooly Mammoth sounds thin with an active bass. Also a Malekko Diabolik (and therefore probably anything based on a Brassmaster) sounds different (not bad, just different) with an active bass.

This! Don't use mine much but hanging onto it as it's great fun and they don't come up for sale that often: Tech21 Red Ripper and TWA Dynamorph can get similar sounds too.

From what I've seen, ash is typically heavier than alder, but swamp ash can often be lighter than alder. I'm not sure it makes a huge difference tone wise as I've had really bright lively basses with alder or basswood bodies and really dull sounding ones with ash bodies! You could probably get just as much variation in resonance between two ash bodies from different trees as you would from ash vs alder. All IMHO of course!

A low nut should only affect the open string. Once you fret the note at frets 1-3, all that matters is the height and condition of the fret you're fretting and the all the frets further up, shape/relief of the neck and bridge setup.

You do like to overcomplicate things Bas! It's more likely that he changed a resistor value or two and kept the pots the same. Not that it matters, who cares what was done inside, all that matters is the outcome!

Saw Bas had ordered a new pedal that was on back order so got him to cancel and buy used from me instead! Prompt payment as always.

I didn't think v1 and v2 were that different, just more volume on tap in v2? I have heard a complaint mentioned that v1 still leaked a bit of clean sound through with the clean volume at minimum, is this fixed in v2 also? I never noticed this issue in my v1 though so it must have been pretty minor and therefore unlikely to affect my opinion.

I'm sure this has been hashed out already in this thread, but I had a T16 v1. I sold my OC-2 a while back so could not A/B them but I was very familiar with the soloed octave tone. The T16 could vary between a subby or a raspy tone, but nowhere in the middle could I conjure up that familiar sound, until I plugged in an Octabvre Mini instead! To me the difference was like night and day, especially with fast staccato playing. The OC-2 / Octabvre are just way punchier with more attack and more mids.

I sold my T16 primarily because I could not get it to sound anything like an OC-2!

I thought it did run off USB power? Been a while since I tried it with my Corona Mini though.