thisisswanbon

I had a similar experience with the HX stomp... your board looks far better than mine though! Did the Adafruit require any sort of midi host?

Another example of lazy design work... They've looked at what's popular at the moment (Serek etc as previously mentioned) and stuck a Sandberg neck on it. I'm sure it'll be fantastically made, and most likely sound brilliant too... But I bet it comes with a hefty price tag for something other companies are already doing better.

Lovely basses that play and sound great... only issue I found was that I'm very animated when I play, and it always felt like it was going to break. Well, that and the static issues on the tort pick guard, and the bridge saddles kept losing height... oh, and I always felt that it could've done with more tonal options; it felt that from full tone to the smallest roll off option was always a massive jump. Maybe I didn't like it as much as I thought I did...

Wow! That's an impressive board! How do you find the new Darkglass Fuzz? Does it do the gated fuzz type thing?

Awesome! Did you experiment with the other IRs too? I like that is shows you a graphic of what each IR is doing to your tone. Mine arrived last night, update etc went as straight forward as could ask for. Only had headphone use, but it sounds fantastic. All of the IR's sound great and surprisingly accurate (better than the HX stomp I had) but I landed on the Starlifter and a Celestion 410 I bought for said stomp, but only because I'd bought it so feel that I should use it. If this could be changed remotely without pc linkup, I suspect I'd be forever changing the amp and IR

This hurts my eyes.

This seems to be a massive struggle with drive and FOH. You'll need a cab sim in some capacity or a LPF and HPF to shave off the high end and roll off some of the lows as a cab would. The only pre amps I've seen with separate EQ for DI and cab sims (except for HX Stomps etc) are the Origin Effects bass rig pre amps. I'm sure the more learned folks amongst us could suggest others though...

I did try this also, although the only things I had in front of it on my board were a true bypass tuner and true bypass 3 Leaf octabvre mini... I had very similar results with all 3 basses when the pedal was the only thing in the chain. You're right though, I still watch the JMJ demo on youtube and the bass face comes out every time!

No experience of of the Amptweaker, but I recently bought a Diabolik and returned it. They get amazing reviews by both critics and forum users, and the youtube videos sounded extactly what I was looking for... I just couldn't get anywhere near those sounds! I tried an 18V fender jazz in active and passive, a Harley Benton passive MB4, and a passive P bass, and all of them sounded thin and trebly unless there was more clean signal than I wanted to have. Even then, there wasn't the massive low end described by other users. A couple of guys on talkbass did say they had a similar experience. Again, take this with a pinch of salt as it could've been something I was doing. Then again, there's only so much you can do with 3 knobs! FWIW, I went back to my EHX Sovtek Deluxe big muff. Doesn't do the gated thing but it's got all sorts of fuzz tones and gets close to synthy territory with sweepable foot switchable mids, wicker control and clean blend. Might be worth checking out.

I did fit these, once. They were horribly expensive for knobs, and took almost a year to arrive. I've also gone back to 4 string so this doesn't go out much now.

Changed the tuners on my Harley Benton MB4 BSK, was fairly under the influence though and butchered it... I'll never change a part on a bass again.

I may very well go the the Warman route myself pick up wise, are they difficult to fit? took my bass out to a gig on Saturday - straight to FOH via my Two Notes Le Bass Pre with bass boosted a touch and cab sim on. Guy comes up and first words are "Muddy that, mate". I did have the tone rolled back around 3/4" to be fair, and he did say it was better after a bit of adjustment (he did ask if it was an EBMM which surprised me). After having a conversation with him, turns out he plays bass and had 3 Bongo basses. If that's what he was comparing it to then I think "a bit muddy" is more than acceptable given the price difference!

Not sure if this counts as a small board, but it's clearly too small for the pedals on it so I'm going with that! 😬 I've been around the houses lately with this; been through a Sansamp VTDI, then an HX stomp in place of the Le Bass, and a Diabolik in place of the Sovtek. I also had an optocomp at the front of the chain. I Found the low end on the sansamp to be bloated and unrefined. I then found that I was shoehorning in effects and over complicating things because I could with the HX stomp and was never truly convinced against analogue counterparts (it couldn't even kick my hot wax off my board). I also just didn't like the flavour that the optocomp added. Reasons for losing the Diabolik were I just couldn't get it to retain low end (despite general consensus of huge low end retention) unless I had so much clean dialled in that it no longer sounded synthy. I suspect it just didn't get along with my basses though. The Le Bass is a fantastic pre, which I'm using as an always on sweetner, and fusion mode for a dirtier rock tone. Struggle to get A, B, and A+B all matched for use at the same time, but A and A+B are worth the cost of admission. The Sovtek is a hugely versatile muff with clean blend, and whilst not as synthy as I'd like, with the sweepable mids get me somewhere into that realm...

For anyone interested in these basses, thought I'd give an update... I contacted Thomann about the unusable tuners, they offered a new set or £25 partial refund. How they can do that on a bass of this value is insane, but very stand up of them. I put this on top of the Wilkinson tuner price and ordered some black Schaller tuners instead. Much better fit than the Wilkinson's sound, with only 1 hole per tuner to be redrilled. Embarrassingly, I made an absolute pigs ear of this after a good skinful; 2 sheered screws later and a few headstock dings later they were fitted. I suspect if I'd been sober, it'd have been an easy job though. the unbalanced string volume was infarct a string issue! Put some D'addario NYXLs on and it sounds awesome for the money. Going to gig it before deciding on the electrics!

Sounds like a shop to avoid if I'm honest! I had a similar experience with an EBMM sterling 5 that had a faulty pick up, sent away 3 times for repair with nothing done! If the sound issue was anything like mine then it doesn't sound pre amp related, as these are passive 😬... Good of him to message you though!

I wouldn't consider this a heavy bass at all to be fair, although my Jazz is an absolute boat anchor!

That's not a bad shout... I'll have a look before spending any coinage! Did you manage to rectify the SBMM Sub issue? I did try adjusting the pick up height last night but didn't make a massive difference in honesty. It's almost as if the E and A aren't as direct as the other strings, almost like the difference between DI and micing a cab from a distance

I may be doing the same myself... I'm guessing they weren't a straight replacement though? Were you left with holes?

Second impressions after plugging in... Sounds great, but the strings seem poorly balanced! D and G are loud and mega punchy, but the A sounds weak in comparison and the E even worse 🤔 I've adjusted action and truss rod and it's slightly better, but still not great. Could be a string thing though although the issue isn't as present acoustically. Other issue is the A string tuner is almost unusable. You can see the paint stripping from the thread where there's friction. I didn't expect glory for just over £100, but I expect functional regardless of how much I pay.

Thanks for the reassurance! Mines just arrived, haven't plugged it in yet but initial impressions are aside from some sharp fretwork, it genuinely feels like a solid instrument and I can't work out how they've produced this at this price point! Can't wait to get her plugged in!

Anyone got their hands on one of these yet? Can't find any reviews, but I'm sure they were supposed to drop last week! Really tempted to move my HX stomp on and grab one of these... Sorely miss my le bass!

The headless mod sounds like it would be incredible! I always thought a headless stingray would be a glorious thing. Where did you put the battery for the active pre-amp? I'm tempted by the Warman mod, but think I'll see what it's like stock first.

That scratch plate looks great! I'd love to exchange the bridge when mine comes, those big back plate bridges without the retaining posts next to the saddles just don't do it for me.

Thanks for all of the info guys... mine hasn't come yet but I'm pretty excited about it. I did seem to read a lot of bad reviews AFTER I'd ordered it, but I'll stay open minded until it arrives. Was thinking of either an Aguilar or Warman pick up depending on how the pick up sounds, I think it's a given that the tuners will need changing. I've read a lot that they're short of low end, have any of you experienced this?