knicknack

Oh man... that's the perfect solution! We really need to get him back in business...

Cheers @Gwilym, that looks like a decent all rounder! I may give it a punt...

I've been pondering over life without a 5-string for a little while... it's always been a tool for me and my heart is really in my 4s, despite having a wonderful Sandberg 5 that really is my best bass! For the rare occasions I need anything lower than a drop D, and with the advances in pedals over the last few years, I was wondering if anyone has tried anything that really can make the B on the A string sound like a low B and track really well? My octave pedal research has largely centred around synthy/OC-2 goodness, so I've never really delved into the more utility side of things! Any advice appreciated, compact and easy to power is important!

@ambient I have a dropbox folder full of them, drop me a message if you'd like them!

I may have a look into that, would love to find a non destructive option!

The BT-7 is the model that fits, but it's holes are outside of the Sandberg tuner outline, so once done it's not reversible without evidence it was there! That said it's a non-negotiable mod for me!

Just received a Fender head from Luke, great dealings and rapid delivery!

@MrTea Back when I was living in Devon I took my Stentor up to Bristol Violins... in a couple of hours and not a colossal amount of cash they totally transformed it for me. Highly recommend!

@nash I'll be driving past you in late June for a gig in Hereford with two Limelight Ps in the van, if you are still pondering on it then I'd be happy to drop in so you can have a play (through your old Super Bassman even) 😄

Just received a Polytune from Ian, prompt delivery and top notch communication!

This took a little longer than I anticipated! I thought i'd record a few sound examples for those pondering between the two... not trying to match them, but finding settings at low, medium and high gain that appealed to me on each. I've also put in examples of the 2 cab sims and the straight DI with the pedal bypassed. I've really enjoyed playing with these, and I do feel they give me something that other amp sims/preamps haven't in the past. Going in I expected to like the Super Vintage more, as I am SVT biased (and I'd say that my Super Bassman is more SVTish than anything vintage fender). This initially was the case as it felt very familiar, but as I spent more time with them I really fell in love with the Black Panel. It has so much character and some wonderful settings that I really loved playing with. However, I would say that 1. The cab sim with the pedal bypassed is pretty much unusable for me (but pretty accurate to a 2x15 there really!), whereas the 810 sim in the SV is a useable sound. 2. All my favourite sounds required quite dramatically different settings. If one of them was really appropriate for particular gig it'd be great, but the SV has alot on tap with very small changes. So with that, I took the SV out on a gig on Friday, to a local venue with an in house engineer. SV and IEMs in the gigbag, that's it! Engineer is used to me bringing my pedalboard with Noble DI and big Cali76 so I was interested in his opinion. The SV was really fun in the IEMs, but my previous cab sim experience led me to worry that the tone might be too rounded to really work in the PA. The reports however were good! I didn't even really miss my Cali76, as there is an element of amp-like compression. Later in the gig i upped the drive a little and pulled back the master to compensate. Again great fun and positive feedback. It's certainly different from my usual setup, but i can't see owning this little Ampeg in a box as being anything but another great tool in the armoury. Whether it goes on my board or not I'm not sure yet, it may be that it's more useful as a standalone unit. Happy to answer any questions, and I hope you find the examples above useful!

My initial impressions (and pre-bias) was shattered after a bit of a play so it's definitely worth trying both. I'm still very uncertain as to which would be the most useful to me, and really looking forward to A/Bing them with my current pedalboard.

I had a very fun evening playing with these... lots of thoughts but need some more time to get my head around them! Will gather them over the weekend 🙃

I gave in...

Hi @lancer I have the 2x10 combo (I think that's the only option anyway) and I use it in some pretty large rooms and for playing at home. Gain and volume control so fairly easy to dial in something you want and still sounds pretty big when turned right down. Hope this helps!