uk_lefty

No, £250-£300 for pubs in Hertfordshire IME.

All pedals are "right handed"... Wait! Let me explain. You input on the right side of the pedal, output to the left so the signal flows right to left, the opposite to how you *should* be reading this. It's just wrong. Also, it means I have to do my wah pedal with the wrong foot. Unless o want lengths and lengths of cable to wire it up so I can lay it out in a way that feels right to me. I think this is because I'm left handed, it seems backwards, though right handers may feel the same? I dunno.

They can't be accused of a Fender rip off... Interesting designs, would be interesting to play one.

I've just hooked up an abandoned expression pedal..... Holy moly. This is fun.

The Desert Penguins play The George in Hoddesdon on Friday 21st January. Expect guitar driven pop, big drum noises, a fantastic singer and frontman, and a left handed bassist.

Interesting one here.... Why do some basses sound much clearer playing harmonics? What is it that REALLY influences good, clear, bell-like harmonics ringing out long loud and clear? Obviously fresh round wound strings help, but I'm hearing big differences between my basses. The clearest of all is my five string fretless. It's wearing stainless steel round wounds but it always sounds good for harmonics even with old flats. Is it the massive rosewood fretboard with no speedbumps, the very stiff maple neck (dual truss rod), the swamp ash body? If P basses don't usually produce good harmonics why did my MIJ Fender P sound so good for them? Alder body, massive thick maple neck, Steve Harris signature SD pickup? Curious as to thoughts on this. Not that I do more than mess about with harmonics but when I play my fretless I just can't help but throw in harmonics a lot because they sound so good on that bass. On my Jack Casady, no chance. My Stingray is just ok for harmonics, it doesn't inspire me to throw them in when I go off on one despite it being my "best built" bass.

Your hat is very much safe.

I pre ordered a case on Gear4music before Xmas and it got delivered on NYE, so it's now able to leave the house. I gigged the bass for the first half on Friday. We had some PA and feedback issues and I occasionally felt some feedback coming through but I had to have my amp up high. I wore a sweatband on my forearm which helped me avoid the edge of the body digging into my arm, I was wearing the bass high on the strap. Next up is to get it fully set up with some new flatwounds and lower the strap slightly. It is such a comfortable bass to play and so uncomplicated with its single pup and three way switch, but just so effective. A really fun bass to take out!

Fender Musicmaster on fleabay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/fender-musicmaster-bass-/175102386921?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

Well, I took the plunge. I got one of these for a good deal on eBay just before Christmas. I've not had a lot of chance to fully explore the unit but I've fiddled with most of the presets to find something I will use in my set. So far it's been very promising. Good stuff straight off: It's so simple to use. Choose one of the synth settings like Bass, or Strings, then number 1-11 for which variant, fiddle with the tone and depth to get it where you want it. Of you like the sound take a photo on your phone and label it! Couldn't be easier. A lot of the sounds are usable, not squelchy weird mess, but usable synth sounds from recognisable pop records. You can make them weird if you want. There's also some weird stuff I'd never use too, but others might love. So what am I going to do? Well, it's already inspired one addition to the band set list with one of the sounds. It's also going to let me add some stuff for passages in songs that will just lift things up. For example, locked out of heaven by Bruno Mars has a slower pre chorus but with a synth sound that I would call a "soft fuzz", I'm going to do something on this unit that's soft fuzz with a bit of octave up, it will just elevate things from "guitar sound" and keep things interesting. Will try it with the band on Weds and then possibly a gig a week on Fri if all goes well. This is how I see the pedal being used, for me at least, elevating some passages of pop songs that need a synth sound to prevent it feeling empty in quieter or slower sections. This can often happen with pop covers, something feels missing and if you really listen there's often a synth somewhere hidden in the track that holds everything together. This pedal won't give me that subtlety, far from it, but it should do enough to keep things lively and interesting. I'll try to record some bits with it and share in here.

Have you tidied them all away as best as possible? If you're still tripping over one, check the bass is ok, don't worry about your foot pointing the wrong way. If you're tripping over one and damaging the bass you have too many.

They look good after a bath

Was thinking the same though couldn't see very well from the photos. The Elite 1 I had was a lovely bass, this will be too, but at close to the price of a new MIM Fender, more than a Sire V7, it needs a collector who really wants this bass to buy it. I can't see it selling for £550 unless someone who has given up finding an SB1000 in lefthand jumps on it.

In other news, Bass Bros have a lefty Aria SB600

I've seen that advertised in various places for a while, I just think £1000 is too much, especially at the moment second hand lefties are going for pennies.

Indeed! In a band that I (happily) folded the guitarist was more bothered about programming his full fat Helix than actually learning the songs. When I told him I didn't know how to do a few things on my Stomp he was gobsmacked, "that's the whole fun of it!" He said.... I'm more interested in playing bass than p!ssing around with software, personally.

Yes it will do all these things. But as some have already said, if there's a particular pedal that really works for to, and you love it, don't expect the same quality out of the HX. However if you feel like using an effect you don't have at the moment chances are it's on the Helix in a close enough quality, so you can experiment or not but new pedals then that song gets dropped off the setlist. Also to consider is how much you switch effects in and out, you may want a Stomp XL, or have to get extension switches for an ordinary Stomp. A Stomp isn't a one-box solution, sadly. I thought mine would be, but instead of having three multi effects (bass, elec guitar, acoustic guitar) I now have a board of bass effects that can do some guitar stuff too. It's not because the Helix can't do everything I want, it pretty much can, but it's because I wouldn't be able to use it live without hours and hours of pre programming which I'm not prepared to do. For example, I have a boost pedal on my board for when the singer drops out of playing guitar or when it's bass and drums only. I could do this without a separate pedal IF I set up the Helix for Snapshots or add a boost as a footswitch option, but that requires me to free up a few of my footswitches which means something else is sacrificed. Far easier to just have boost always there in a separate box.

I bought the bass essentials pack from 3 Sigma audio and it's pretty good, I also got their Trace Elliot IR which some love but I found a bit too deep and almost boomy. I've been using the Helix Stomp presets because making my own patches led to having really inconsistent volume output between patches. Like you though I want some cleaner sounds. A bit of drive helps get through the mix but I'm listening back to a gig from early December where I mostly used the "Brit Bass" preset and there's just no bottom end and too much grit, I'd like to start with a clean sound and add EQ and drive as required.... Hopefully Line6 or someone clever can create this, Boss were excellent for this with the GT10B multi.

Thinking of trading to the HX Effects and getting a pre amp pedal IF I can find one that sounds good and plays nicely with both passive and active basses....

That's stunning! Did the MIJ Jazz give you the J bass bug? Hope you're well mate.

I get it! I'm not as extreme as you but my "one pedal solution" has become a pedal board! Here it is for the last gig but there's now a synth pedal ready to be added.... Like you I don't want to spend hours and hours programming instead of playing. That's why I use tweaked versions of the presets instead of setting up my own patches from scratch. I'm also thinking of adding a preamp pedal if I can find the right one....

I had one for a while, loved it. Sounded fantastic passive.... Or I just can't get my head around a 2 band EQ!! If the string spacing weren't so tight I'd still.... Who am I kidding.

Also, forgot to mention, when I bought my bass there in 2018 they gave free setups for life with it. Great if you're able to just drop in every now and then. If not, just shows they're wanting to look after their customers properly.