Woodinblack

Well, that is the thing. I have noticed some people out of the normal guitar shops because I have been looking at things recently whos special black friday price was their normal discounted price. The 10% off at PMT was an actual discount on the normal price though - if I had been after a HX Stomp that was about the cheapst I have seen (and it is mostly the same price everywhere). Didn't work for HX effects, as they are 10% more expensive than others anyway although I did think of getting anyway just because I could pick it up tomorrow and I sort of broke my B3 last night, but that is now sorted anyway.

I noted that PMT sent a 10% off everything for black friday thing today. As they have the HX stomp for £465 the same as everyone else, presumably that would take it down to less than £420. Might be worth checking out if anyone is looking. Not much help for me, they have the HX effects for 10% more than andersons, and although they price match I doubt they are going to price match and then take 10% off!

Sadly that is really hard, and obviously it is very subjective, one persons good sound is anothers awful. Objectively it was good, It was very well balanced between strings, and didn't have bad overtones, the sound was fairly pure. All I could describe it as was a very polite, almost synthetic sound - if you wanted to blend into a background mix in a big band it would be perfect I guess, but I was in a 'power trio'. It didn't growl or project at all. I guess the real damning thing from my point of view, the sound it made is the same as the sound my Roland DS makes in 'bass guitar' preset.

Had a combustion (active). Fantastic neck, liked the fan frets, in all honestly maybe 37" is a bit much on the bottom string, but it never caused me an issue, tension is great, looked gorgeous. Wasn't keen on the sound (it had had its pickups changed to other dingwall pickups due to them being early or something) but enjoyed playing it. Took it to an audition, played the songs, they said they liked my playing but weren't keen on the sound and could I change it. Took out my backup cricket bat b2 out, played the songs again, got the gig. Went home, came on here that night, put it up for sale, traded it for an Ibanez 1605, which some would say was a bad deal. 3 years on the ibby its still my main bass. It was still the nicest neck to play though, maybe one day when I have some money or find one cheap I might get one and put some other pickups on it.

Normally after about 6 months the prices come down a bit, but that puts us firmly into the post brexit time, so bets are off.

Mine is on an isolated output at 300ma and is fine, noisewise

Not as much as you think but the digital whine is a thing, you cannot share its supply with any other device, it has to be fully isolated. I have it on my board, it is now quiet, but I had to move things around to get rid of the noise, that and the smoothhound - they certainly don't play well together

Well, obviously I am there

Using it for powering my pedal board, which had a load which said it should last 4-5 hours if their specs were to be believed. It died just after an hour.

I bought one of those and sent it back, it was completely useless.

I think it is the absolute minutia of it - if you just pick a lesson to watch on his site it would be how to play some riff fast or how to do walking bass. But because this is a course you do “playing one note for ten minutes and listening to how it sounds and how your hand feels” and that sort of thing. And strangely, it makes a difference. I still think the mere fact of paying for it actually helps a lot

How odd - I have played through your helix but it didn't occur to me to press any of the footswitches, I thought the idea was to listen to the basses!

So here is a general helix question. a problem I have with the ctm is that I am playing cleanish mostly, bass out into low, gain at half, volume at whatever needed. But if I want dirt, putting the gain to more than half produces a good sound but then volume has to go down some level. Could I set two patches / blocks so I can put gain up on the amp, and change the level sent, gain afterwards so I can have gain or clean but keep the volume the same?

Thats ok, she sounds a bit like a sheep, so it might help you sleep!

Our band had all alternate weekends blocked out after the first year because of the singers wife. Not unreasonable, but that is the problems where I am the oldest in the band.

That is pretty well my experience using join my band. If you get anyone to respond you are half way there!

Agreed that if you needed the routing options the full helix provided, you would hard pressed to find something to touch it. I would imagine most don't though. It does however remind me that having ruled out a helix as I like my amp, with a helix HX I could go chanel -> CTM100 -> effects send -> HX -> HX -> Effects return, which would cure the only real issue i have with the CTM, that i can't easily choose to overdrive the preamp because i want to do some clean songs. But.. the cabling...

I am a day behind, and I agree, finding the time for an hour video can be tricky, but something is changing. I was playing a gig on saturday an I was looking at my fingers. I was fretting with the index finger and my little finger was a short way above the string ready to go down. As I was very much in the flying finger camp, something is going in! And I can say I was also muting.

Thats it! Well, I wouldn't let go of the RH450 either. As good as the CTM100 is, if you just want to pick something up and go, its hard to beat and a fraction of the weight! Thats the other trouble of getting the latest thing, the 'oh we have this in stock, you can have it tomorrow.. no, next week, no next month'. If only companies could give you an actual date and stick to it.

I am sure I have said, although I have sold one recently. Its not a secret, it used to be in my sig but it got too long. I have a SR1000, 5005, 1605, SRF705, ICB305, ATK305, Thunderbird, Squier CV P Bass, Maruszczyk Elwood, Fireman, Dean 8 string and Spector Q5? Technically there are a few more in states of being built, being used for parts etc, but they don't really count. So 12, but I would be happy to sell the ATK, ICB, Spector and thunderbird if I could be bothered, so I am sure that only counts as 8. Guitars, I honestly don't know - I have a yamaha RG, PRS SE, Ibanez SA36, Peerless tonemaster, Two acoustics, Indie tribal, and some more I can't think of. I would happily sell all but one electric and one of the acoustics, I really don't use them much. Did I mention the keys? The Roland Gaia, Yamaha piano, Waldorf blofeld, Bassstation, Roland Juno DS. Or the Akia EWI? Oh I have tons of stuff, but I still feel if there was a fire and I lost every non living thing in the house apart from one bass, and I walked out with the 1605, I wouldn't be unhappy. So yes, if I wanted a full helix I would faff about it for a while then go out and get one, but TBH, if the B3 had a decent drive on it, I would probably be happy with that. If I played guitar in a band now though, I would almost certainly have a helix or even a stomp on order, they are fantastic with that. And if I owned a decent PA with bass, maybe I would have one for the bass too, at the moment I do love my CTM100 a bit too much for that!

Maybe I will change my mind eventually, but if I give it 3 months, @Al Krow will be selling his and moving onto the next thing and I can grab that

No, but equivalent to second hand. Getting tempted though (not for the grey import, for an actual second hand)

The guy who is selling most of them on ebay seems to be selling them new boxed, but with a long wait, so I am guessing he is grey importing them from somewhere.

Seems the prices are roughly: Helix: £800 Helix Lt: £550-600 Helix HX: £300 So some below those occasionally. The Helix Lt at < 600 also seems tempting!