dannybuoy

That's pretty reasonable actually, was expecting it to be more. Now the question is how does this compare to the Geddy pre? I guess one could always rent both and find out

There's a fretless Aquila Shortbass One in the classifieds for £200. Larger than a U-Bass but also therefore louder and easier to play!

The HX doesn’t have any amp sims in it though, but it might be able to be an alternative if it has models of Sansamp stompboxes and the ability to run parallel chains... will look it up.

I think you've totally misundertood my post due to a typo! I'll fix... 95% of my playing at home is through a PJB Bighead. But most of the time I am playing along to an mp3, backing track or drum loop etc. I practice solo as well of course, but being able to play against something is so important that any headphone amp without an aux in is officially useless since you'll just have to buy an extra headphone amp anyway!

They've been around for a while, but I haven't been blown over by any of the demos enough to make me want to take the plunge!

The P+J setting played agressively with lots of bends and slides etc to get the growl going sounds great into the M900!

Headphone out without an aux in isn't much use though unless you are a solo bassist!

I'll get mine from the US if the price is too high over here. Either by finding a dealer on eBay willing to ship to the UK, or just going with the cheapest and using a parcel forwarding service.

And one recorded direct instead of from a camera phone!

The bridge, case, headstock logo and neck plate all look correct. The uneven bits elsewhere could just mean it was a Friday afternoon job down the factory!

The NG3 already has the same preamp, I think the only difference is the colour and scratchplate!

Nice one. Those gig bags are standard by the way and they are very nice (even though they could do with being about 1cm longer inside!).

Exactly, and a cab sim is superb at doing just that! Just think of it as a unique EQ purposely designed for what you are trying to achieve. You can only go so far with for example a Big Muff tone control or preamp/EQ - e.g. most preamps don't feature LPF/HPF controls, just bass/treble shelving, which sounds quite different. All I'm saying is don't write it off it you haven't tried one!

Only £389!

Wasn’t expecting that feature set though, thought it would just take the blueprint of the B7KU. At least we now know why he had hired a DSP engineer!

The best way to get a great clean sound is to distort it.

Looks like an IR cab sim, headphone amp and graphic EQ have been added!

Maybe it would, but I see the Accountant as more of an overdrive pedal with a bit of compression thrown in for good measure! If you want a boost for solos etc then in some cases a bit of extra compression is very welcome to help you stand out.

Anyone saying they aren't useful can't have tried one in combination with distortion. Just as a guitar through a fuzz pedal going direct into a PA or headphones sounds awful, so does a bass - yet it sounds great going into an Ampeg 810. If you want to recreate that sound for live FOH or with your FRFR monitor or IEMs on stage, a cab sim is just the ticket!

Well there's dirt and then there's dirt. Some are darker, distort the lows more and work perfectly well with flats, some are more adept at blending in distorted mids and upper harmonics, when you really need rounds. e.g. a SolidGoldFX Beta would sound pretty much the same with flats or rounds, but a Darkglass B3K would sound pants with flats.

A clean boost would give you an accompanying volume boost which might be a bit unmanageable playing live, so I'd go for a drive pedal personally, one that's fairly transparent that could be dialled back to a clean boost. A TC Spark Booster would fit the bill, I've been meaning to try one as it's getting a rep as a fine bass overdrive in its own right, but the toggle switch lets you just use it as a boost pedal also. The Earthquaker Westwood is a new 'transparent overdrive' pedal out that also looks good, but really there are tons of low-gain bass-friendly overdrives out there, prepare to be overwhelmed with recommendations (both good and bad)! Another recommendation that's slightly unusual is to use a dirty compressor like the Fairfield Accountant.

Fender's site pees me off. Whenever I get an email from them the links are broken because it just redirects to the UK home page!

Sure but if you really want to dull the upper harmonics, the tone control would be more effective and quicker to try than a string swap!