uk_lefty

I know, not another "VXL v Batallion" thread I've been looking at downscaling my board. Currently I have a Boss LMB-3 Limiter Enhancer that only ever gets used on the enhance setting with my fretless... That's rare. I have a Hartke VXL and I briefly had an EHX Bass Soul Food. I play through an Ashdown RM500 head with onboard compressor and footswitchable drive and sub octave. So I wanted to reduce pedals. I made an early decision that the Soul Food wasn't giving me anything that the rest of the set up wasn't already doing. I've now got the issue of the Compressor on the LMB-3 which I never use. So that's more dead space. I always liked the Hartke. For over a year it was "always on" but this year and gigging season it's not been used much at all. I figured the Batallion could do a job to replace three pedals: Soul Food, LMB-3 and the Hartke. I want a DI pedal with good onboard EQ, the Batallion fixes that. I wanted a more gnarly distortion than my amp drive, and I also sometimes use provided backline so having it on the DI pedal helps. The Hartke "harmonics" function provides a nice light drive, whereas the EHX provides a more sculptable but more on your face distortion. I have not yet used the Batallion with the band or with all my basses, but I'll add to this thread as I go. Both are great pedals and can be picked up at good value, but YouTube demos don't always tell us what we need to hear, so I'll try to go in to detail here if anyone is thinking of buying either.

Exactly! Whoever is playing won't be rubbish.

Don't show her this one, then; she may decide it's the one for you..! I wouldn't mind it to be honest. My rock and soul covers band however....

My wife has watched three of my last four gigs and told me I need a new bass!! I already have three basses... But she says mine look rubbish and Pete the guitarist has a shiny red guitar, get one like Pete's... Well, I'm not going to correct her on that one. I'm now showing her guitars online and asking "that one?" And more often than not getting approval. I just have to hide my offence at her saying my Kramer and my MIJ Precison look rubbish.

My singer is a pub landlord and he runs a music festival at the end of summer every year. We headline it and the last two years it's been the absolute highlight. It's a friendly crowd and that helps, everyone knows their local landlord but they also know he's a damn good singer. The entire village and most of the few villages around are there, there's a fancy dress theme and there's a LOT of beer and BBQ consumed. It's a great gig to play because the energy is there with everyone singing along and dancing. It's not the biggest or best paid, but it is the most fun.

Thanks everyone. Going to get some D'addario pro steels today and see how it goes...

IMO Dave Ellefson can do whatever he likes.

Thanks. I am listening to all this. DR's and D'addarios keep coming up, so far they're the ones I'll explore.

And what is your advice?

Lefty premium, looking at about £2,800 for a bass that was around half that just five years ago. Second hand with lefties is pot luck whether you will sell at a decent price or not, very limited market. Looks like a blue one is going for £900 on fleabay... If it were any other colour I may have gone for it at £900 but not a penny more. And not a blue one.

I have a heavily modified fender jazz with Bartolini pickups. I have been using Ernie Ball slinky bass strings for some zingy brightness but they've been gigged a bit too much and need replacing... Nothing wrong with the Ernie's but fancying a change. I tried GHS Bass Boomers a while back and was not at all impressed. Neither do I think Fender or Rotos are up to the task. Any recommendations for a bright sounding string? I like a bit of grit in the sound but lots of brightness and zingyness would be a great compliment to my p bass which wears tapewounds. Thanking you

Saw that on his Facebook page. From my discussions with him he seems incredibly reasonable pricewise too... That colour and all round look is fantastic

I agree with Bazzbass here. I would like to own a Rik... But at nearly three grand and no budget option? Not in my lifetime. Oh yeah, and they're poorly built one trick ponies. It's a good trick but it just is not worth the money, not even half that.

Thanks, I'm now in touch with him and seeing whether he can find what I'm after

As a cheap option I use the Caline5. I've had it for two years and it's not let me down once. Was very cheap on eBay. My guitarist uses the same and also has no complaints. Mine velcros under my Gator pedal board.

Thanks, they don't have the colour I was looking for but I do check them regularly.

There's a guy who is over in Japan who can source instruments for us over in the UK, I've seen him mentioned and participating in the forum but I can't remember his name... Can anybody put me in contact with him, please?

That's how I learn covers but I wanted to make my own way through random tracks in different styles and create my own bassline to test myself a bit and do something different.

You sure own a lot of basses blablas. Curious, do you keep them all or sell a few on? Or is this a collection you are putting together?

No pickguard.

One of the guitarists used to run sound for touring function bands for a living. He keeps the PA in his van and he is in charge. I do as he tells me and ask what to him must be stupid questions until I learn. He is a bit of a legend, gets on with it all quietly, never complains... But we all make sure we help him out as much as possible.

When I first started out I saw a blue one of these in my local music shop with gold hardware and gold strings, right handed though, but it was just a thing of undeniable beauty. It would be a dream but I don't think I can part with almost two grand for one!

I've had a few compressors that actually affected my tone, most notable being the Line 6 constrictor which could really squash the sound on its max setting. I now have a Boss Limiter Enhancer which only gets used on the enhance setting when playing my fretless because I want it to bring out the little string slides leading in to a note, which it does. I don't use it as a limiter though. I tend to have the compressor on my Ashdown amp permanently on at its mid point. It doesn't add to the tone or anything but it evens things out, so when it's off the bass can be a little uncontrolled in terms of volume peaks etc. And it definitely sounds better with the subtle compression on. If I didn't have the amp compression I'd probably need to really improve my technique or I'd look to get a spectracomp and choose one of the toneprint settings that suits me best. It's not something I want to invest time in messing about with like I do my chorus and drive effects.