Painy

For me would be my old Warwick Streamer Stage 1 5 string which I bought new but it was very nearly a much bigger indulgence as I was on the verge of ordering a custom shop bass. Would have been a neck through Corvette 5 string with a fancy burled wood top, matching headstock and the full dragon fingerboard inlay. I was literally in the shop filling out the order forms to send off to Warwick when I had a change of heart and decided I just couldn't justify that amount so ended up ordering the 'off the peg' Streamer instead.

I was spending a lot of time alone in my bedroom doing my very best to try and ruin my eyesight. Yup, I was painting Warhammer miniatures under artificial lighting.

I think the standard of playing amongst bands on my local pub scene - particularly among younger bands - has gone up a fair bit over the last 10-15 years. If you'd asked me 10 years ago I'd have said my playing was probably a bit better than most of the other players who were about in my area at the time (certainly not all of them though. Some of them - Dood springs to mind for one - would have wiped the floor with me ) These days I still feel like I can hold my own pretty well and I've yet to come across a song I've wanted to play that I couldn't get down with a bit of practice, but the bar is definitely getting raised amongst the 'competition'.

Once Mrs Painy had stopped ticking me to try and make me smile I managed to take this. Gotta be said, getting a whole bass into a selfie is easier said than done!

[quote name='Jus Lukin' timestamp='1474902529' post='3141385'] You've probably seen it, but this nerd-out compressor site is a great resource for reading up on comps from a bass perspective and has loads of reviews. http://www.ovnilab.com/ [/quote] Where do you think all this compressor GAS is coming from ?

Ah, but does the thickness of the squirrel's neck affect the tone?

Shame there isn't such a thing as an effects pedal library where you can borrow different effects to try before you buy - although I suspect that would bring the industry to its knees if they couldn't seem you all those pedals that turned out not to be what you wanted after all! I think it is the fear that I'd just end up spending ages trying to recreate the sound I already have vs the lure of all the fun I could have doing it. Think I may just have to save up for a really good, versatile used compressor. Any recommendations other than the M87 with lots of control that would be good to experiment with?

Just for clarification, when you say it doesn't go high enough, do you mean the treble frequencies which it boosts aren't in a high enough range or just that it doesn't offer enough boost from the treble control? Either way, my suggestion would be to try adding an EHX Steel Leather pedal to what you have. When I was using a cheap Behringer head for a short while, I found the Steel Leather made a massive difference to my bass' presence in the mix - really cuts through!

I'll take this please if it's still available. PM'd .

You just need one of these.... and maybe a mains plug adaptor.

I'm currently using a Palmer Deepressor which I actually really like. It doesn't overly colour or squash my sound other than a little pleasant thickening and added punch, it doesn't add any noise to speak of and it smoothes things out nicely. The trouble is, as I'm learning more about compression I'm getting GAS for something with more control and with metering (MXR M87 maybe?) - even though the compressor I have is doing the job perfectly already (not to mention I'm a little bit skint right now after just buying an MXR Bass DI+). I guess my question is, am I really likely to gain anything much over what I have already by having that extra control?

[quote name='moonbass' timestamp='1474808064' post='3140635'] There was a trick I saw on YouTube where you engage the distortion and turn it to zero to give a little valve warmth like sound. I found it quite good, but agree the distortion itself is pretty unusable. [/quote] I'll have to give that a go. Thanks .

Well it arrived yesterday and I'm pretty pleased with it. I'd agree it can sound fairly dark - especially with the colour switch in. I'd also agree that the color switch does have a kind of Sansamp vibe to it. The colour switch apparently is mainly boosting a lot of bass and a little treble whilst scooping the mids but there is clearly more to it than that. I found it too boomy in the lows and lacking in clarity with the mids gone but by cutting the bass back down a bit and boosting the mids back up I was able to fix that and it was then adding loads of aggressive, tight punch and the lows still seem warmer and fatter- which is exactly what I was looking for. The distortion is probably a little bit fizzy for my taste to be honest but I was able to squeeze it onto my board alongside my other dirt pedals in the end anyway so it's all good and I might still find a use for it at some point. All in all I'm a happy bunny!

[quote name='Painy' timestamp='1469915474' post='3102028'] After getting to the point where I was running 2 boards together in order to accommodate all my pedals, I've decided to trim it down to just the stuff I REALLY need for the stuff we're playing. So now it's just Snark tuner, Palmer Deepressor (always on compression to give it some punch), EHX Bass Soul Food (for anything that just needs a little subtle grit and some added harmonic content in the sound), Palmer Ubertreiber (for a more full on overdrive), EBS Octabass (when I need a bit of a synth sound - especially combined with both drives doubled up), Joyo Roll Boost (simple, clean volume boost for when I need a line to stand out). Just received the Harley Benton Power Plant Junior to run it all off yesterday after my cheap and cheerful Chinese Caline PSU from Ebay started to make some funny noises! [/quote] After cutting down to these basics a couple of months ago, I decided a pre-amp/DI pedal was the missing piece of the puzzle so an MXR Bass DI+ arrived yesterday. After a bit of a game of Tetris this morning, I've still managed to squeeze everything onto my smallest board. Pretty pleased with this now:-

[quote name='jay bass' timestamp='1474192014' post='3136092'] Thanks for all the info and advice i have decided to try a Tomsline Aroma Octpus Pedal its a budget made in China pedal, but seems to have the options im looking for il let you know how it performs when i have tried it in a live Band situation [/quote] I recently bought a Tomsline Harmonizer (pitch shifter) off eBay and I'm sorry to say the tracking on it was absolutely abysmal! I'd say there was at least an eighth of a second delay which was enough to make it sound like I was playing completely out of time. I had it listed for sale on eBay the same day I received it and was glad to get away with only losing £6 on it. Fingers crossed they manage to get the tracking closer on a simpler octaver pedal.

Just bought an MXR Bass DI+ from Jamie. Dispatched straight away, great com's throughout and received well packaged and in great condition. Really good guy to deal with. Deal with absolute confidence! Painy.

[quote name='LayDownThaFunk' timestamp='1474570011' post='3138929'] You won't regret it [/quote] Glad to hear it now I've spent my hard earned cash on one! I'm hoping it'll arrive before the weekend so I get a bit of time with it. I'll report back with my findings once I've had a bit of a play.

My first bass (Hohner B2A) was actually bought for me by my best mate so that we could start a band as he'd just gotten a drum kit for Christmas, on the understanding that if I sold it I give him the money back. It cost him £60 which is pretty cheap anyway but when I later sold it I got £70 and he let me keep the £10 profit so therefore it cost me -£10 net. However we only ever played one gig which hardly constitutes "regularly" so I'm guessing it doesn't actually win - more hoping for an honorable mention .

Very much looking forward to more Jamiroquai with Paul Turner - thought Runaway and Radio were great tracks and Rock Dust Light Star was brilliant so I'm actually feeling pretty excited by this!

Right, Bass DI+ now on its way to me so I'll soon see for myself if it's what I'm after

I'd guess it's probably my Warwick Corvette but only really because it's so knackered it's almost unplayable and therefore probably not worth enough to bother but equally it would likely cost more than its worth to get it up to scratch again. The bass I wouldn't part with by choice thought would actually be my Squier VM P5. It was a present from my wife for a start which makes it pretty special for that alone but also the neck sits in my hand just so, I've got it set up perfectly with a lovely action and there are a couple of modifications that I've made to it which make it quite unique to me. It's 'just' a Squier but it's unquestionable my favorite bass I've ever owned and if rather sell a kidney than this bass!

Can't argue with Dannybuoy there but if you are looking at a treble booster, I think you might find the Screaming Bird will just sound harsh, thin and scratchy. EHX do however do the Steel Leather bass expander which is (a) actually meant for bass and (b ) designed for pretty much exactly this purpose.

Thanks for that. I did like the sound from the color switch on the YouTube demo videos (as far as that goes) so I'm now leaning more towards the DI+ as the second channel also means I could move another overdrive pedal off my board to make room for it. Any other thoughts from anyone?