Greg Edwards69

Looks great and a nice form factor. Take off the expression pedal and this is what the stomp XL should have been. I note no XLR output though. Having independent XLR and 1/4" outputs is one of things stopping me from going to anything smaller than my Helix LT.

Bass x2 (sometimes just one if the gig is close to home - I know, it doesn't make any sense). Helix LT Headrush FRFR-112 Line 6 G10s wireless - sometimes TC Helicon Critical Mass vocal processor (crowd vocal simulator / octave up and down) Mic ipad or Kindle Fire tablet with bandhelper and mic stand holder. Leads inc spare extension power leads IEM pack and earbuds Mini guitar stand Plectrums Earplugs Baby powder (essential on hot gigs) large sweat band (so my forearm doesn't stick to bass body) Water bottle (we all use a sport top bottle for water - saves any dangerous spillages) Business cards Change of clothing (depending on gig) Cash, just in case. Phone (useful torch feature) Keys so I can get in when I get home Regarding backups. I used to bring two amp heads before going frfr. I had a disaster one evening when my old Markbass LMII suffered a small drop in its case that caused microfractures and it went into protect mode after 20mins. My trust in class D being roadworthy went down since that day. Me and both my guitarists all use a helix and an frfr speaker each. One of them also bring a stomp as a backup with a couple of basic presets saved for any of us to use. This way, we have a backup if one of the helix devices craps out and each frfr speaker has a spare input so there's redundancy if one of them fails. We also go direct to FOH as well, so it's not a huge deal. We need to upgrade our IEM system because it's crap, but when we do, that will make the on stage frfrs even more redundant.

Have you looked at GR Bass? There’s at AT110, 1x10, only 5kg and 99db sensitivity. Bass direct sell them for £550. It’s £50 over your intended budget, but at that weight it could be £50 spent. If GR bass made a 1x10 combo I’d be all over that, personally. Otherwise, at the budget end, Warwick make some Gnome cabs to complement your head. No idea what the sensitivity is though.

I love the description on their website "8 Decent Guitar Cabinets". 😆

Since the two guitarists and me went all Helix and frfr, this has improved things substantially. I, and one of the guitarists (who doubles on keys) are very conscious of where we sit in the mix and what it sounds like in the room. The other guitarist is very much in the "Set it can forget it" camp (he used to be a nightmare with his old 100w valve combo pointed at his knees and he never touched the eq, not to mention his stompbox and channel levels would be all over the place). Great lplayer but not the best critical listener. We've turned on the hpf on his frfr (and told him not to touch it) and I set up is global eq so that has an additional low cut. We also had a couple of "technical rehearsals" to help him dial in and balance his presets so there's no sudden volume spikes. We also go direct form the Helixes to FOH, so it as long as his on stage frfr is at a sensible volume, our soundman has control of his overall volume. It sounds so much better now.

I don't want to cut through the mix. I want to punch the mix in the balls. Seriously though where the bass sits in the mix is dependent on so many factors. The material, the other instruments, the sound of the bass drum, even what's appropriate for the venue. For me, "cutting through" means note definition. Actually, it means sitting properly in the mix so that it's felt and identifiable. It doesn't have to be all subby low end. You can have note clarity whilst still feeling the low end thump that getting peoples legs gyrating on the dancefloor. It's not one or the other. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm a big fan of Duff McKagan's tone on Appetite for Destruction. The bass tone has a metric tonne of chest thumping wallop in the low end, but it has a glassy top end clarity that let's you identify every single note. PS, I've run the gauntlet of bass tones in the mix over the years. I used to think it was all about cranking the bass knob. Then I discovered upper mids, then I discovered Billy Sheehan and used a dual channel signal path for some time in an effort to get huge subsonic low end and cutting mid-range. Then I discovered hpfs and frequency slotting. I think I've got it just right nowadays - somewhere in-between them all.

Yep. Discovering hpfs and first, second, third etc order harmonics was the lightbulb moment for me. I had really struggled with amp eq in the past, and odd frequency choices (I really couldn't get on with my old markbass' 40hz bass and 360hz low mid). Realising that I didn't need to reproduce the lowest note fundamentals and that removing the lowest frequencies could improve my overall tone was game changing. I've been known to push it up as far as 80-90hz in some rooms without losing the low end "punch" to cut through the mix. It certainly makes for a nicer sounding room too! IMO, hpf should come as standard on every bass amp head.

I'm not sure it is that easy to identify, myself. The "thump" you mention and noticeable "attack" potentially occupy different parts of the frequency spectrum, and different parts of the note envelope. It could also be a psycho-acoustic phenomenon. Your studio bass compressor has an attack control, it would be worth experimenting with that to dial in where the initial bite of the note is before the compressor clamps down on it. Although I understand it has a limited range of control. It might be worth considering a different type of compressor. http://www.ovnilab.com/articles/punchy.shtml http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/vicegrip.shtml EQ wise, I think an hpf would be really beneficial. It will allow you to juice up the lows and low mid without getting woolly, mushy and muddy, and tighten everything up. It might also allow you push the cab a bit harder without getting flabby. Also, have you considered a device lie the BackBeat to simulate the feeling of moving air to get that hit in the back you desire? This could be the psycho-acoustic trick needed to fill out the feeling of punch you may feel is missing from your cabs. FWIW I always think of Duff's tone on Appetite for Destruction as a great example of punchy bass. Low end wallop and cutting top end bite and glassy sizzle. Maybe try an hpf to tighten up your low end and get it punchier combined with a low mid boost, slight and narrow mid cut and high mid and treble boost to bring out the attack even more.

I had a Warwick combo a number of years ago. The low mid and high mid controls were labelled "punch" and "attack" A couple of bass players friends and I once joked about building a fake rack unit with lights, knobs and buttons marked with labels such as ""nice", "oooh", "more" and "that sound"

I'm surprised 'shell pink' hasn't been declared 'Pantone Colour of the Year' yet. I get that some people genuinely love the colour, but it has become a bit of a fad/trend lately. That, and tort pickguards.

Maybe they found a tin of pink paint in Leo's old garden shed.

If the StompXL was the device I hoped it would have been, I would have likely sold my LT and bought one. As it is, Line 6 don't offer a device smaller than the LT that lets you A) disable the master volume to FOH over XLR whilst retaining master volume over 1/4" to on stage amp/frfr, and B) similarly set global eq to only affect output to onstage amp/frfr and not affect XLR to FOH. TBH, I was quite shocked the Stomp XL didn't have discrete XLR outputs at all. If I went completely ampless I would likely be able to work around these deficiencies in the stomp models

Although reading Henrythe8 comment again, I'm not sure if this is possible on the PodGo. It's certainly the way I go about it on the helix. Some of my patches have 3 or 4 eq blocks for different purposes.

I never used the PodXT Live, but looking at the manual it's only got a 4 band eq. The helix is a lot more versatile IMHO. There's a lot of eq options. The parametric may only be 3 band, but it also has low and high cuts, effectively making 5 adjustable frequencies. Not to mention the other eq blocks such as graphic, shelving and tilt etc. And you can use as many as you like within reason - you could fill up a preset with just multiple eq blocks. And don't forget the global eq - this was one of the reasons I bough the helix - it's made compensating for room acoustics so much easier.

That baffles me too, especially when I've seen it advertised as having "all your favourite toneprint pedals". The danger of multifx dying and effectively killing all of your effects is a real risk. But it's also a warning to bring a backup device. I keep an inexpensive Valeton Dapper bass in the gigbag to get me out of trouble. I'm considering use my IK HD2 with Bias FX on my iPad as an alternative backup solution as well, but it's a bit noisy. Heck, even my new Nux Mighty Plug could possibly get me out of trouble at a push.

The features of the LT are just about the perfect device for me, but I do wish it was smaller. When the competitors are building near full featured version of their flagship models in smaller form factors, it baffles me why the LT is so big, and the stomp XL so underpowered. I'd quite happily lose the expression pedal and a couple of footswitches to save size and weight. Perhaps it's time for a Helix Core.

Pretty much agree. The helix LT is almost perfect for me and the “workflow” I need. But I’ve been a fan of zoom since the original 9000 series. Actually, I wish they would resurrect that form factor - a little unit that can sit on your amp with a passive remote pedal board that doesn’t require running power at the front of stage. TBH I’m surprise Line 6 didn't implement a similar feature with the Stomp and one of their Ethernet powered boards.

Indeed. I’ve yet to update my Helix, but I’m hoping the new additions go some way to addressing the issues I’ve had with the synth models. And FWIW the bass octave in the helix is the best tracking octave effect I’ve ever used in multi fx. Tracks perfectly even on the open E string.

I wouldn’t hold your breath hoping for nokia 3310 compatibility.

I picked up a few tips from various youtube videos. But the most important ones that I felt were truly fundamental in getting this right are: Get the neck perfectly straight. A notched straightedge and feeler gauges will help here. The notches take the fret heights out of the equation so you can properly set the neck straight. These are useful for doing setups as well as fret levelling so worth buying IMO. A fret rocker is also a useful tool to have, and take with you if you're buying or testing a new/used bass (I believe stewmac have a new model with in integrated fret file for quickly dealing with single high spots) Do not underestimate the power of the humble sharpie. Paint the top of every fret before filing. After your first filing pass you'll immediately see which frets, and spots on frets have or haven't been touched. Paint the frets again before crowning and file until there's barely a hairline left down the centre of the fretwire. Tape over pickups and bare fretboard with low tack masking tape. It'll save a lot of clearing up and protect the fretboard. A spirit level makes a great filing block. Stick a strip of masking tape along the flat edge, then stick your sanding /wet and dry paper to the masking tape with double sided sticky tape. Viola, instant filing beam. When the paper wears out simply peel it all of and reapply. A little goes a long way. Let the filing beam to the work. Don't push down and check the frets after every, single pass of the file. Add a ski ramp! Once you've levelled all the frets, create fall off up the dusty end by sticking 3 or 4 strips of electrical tape over the 12th fret (or higher if you prefer) and then redo the levelling process (including the sharpie) on the higher frets (I used a shorter spirit level) ensuring the filing beam is always in contact with the taped fret. The strips of tape raises the fret height slightly to create a shallow angle down to the top fret. FWIW, I got a few of the tips from the inimitable Billy Sheehan. His videos might be worth a watch to you as well.

It's as if they didn't realise these things have volume controls. A Ferrari can drive just as slowly as a 2CV if you need it to.

I'm willing to bet that most pubs have been where they are than most residents living near by. There's on pub we used to play at that I believe has been there since 1912. We played there once very humid summer's evening and the aircon wasn't working (thank goodness for baby powder). The landlord told us he couldn't open the windows because of complaints. He later told us there's one particular neighbour (bearing in mind this pub is on a busy highstreet, even at night with the other bars and restaurants) who recently moved into the area. Even when bands aren't playing they complain to the pub and the council about the noise (they even complained about the flowers in the hanging baskets outside the pub setting off their hay fever). The landlord got so fed up with the constant complaints that he moved on to a mother pub and the subsequent landlords haven't booked bands in since. If you don't like noise, don't move to within spitting distance of a well established pub.

You could use this to your advantage. Even though it’s inconvenient for everyone to book a day off of work to do this soundcheck, you could alway tell that it will take 4 hours to setup, play though a range of song styles and pack up again, and thus get a free rehearsal out of it.

I haven't had a chance to listen to the sample yet, but that reminds me of the sub harmonic generator effect in the Ashdown Evo amp range. I wonder if it's a similar thing.

Wasn't that the case over the entire Warwick line? My 2000 Thumb had a monster neck - even bigger than my Yamaha Attitude LTD2 (my 2001 Corvette was relatively chunky too). Comments regarding neck dive with Thumb basses are quite common over the years, and I seem to recall someone mentioning that the older models had smaller necks and balanced a lot better but the necks over the entire line up were reprofiled to be bigger c2000, and back to a slimmer profile c2010 (IIRC).