Al Krow

Seems to be the key point here, thanks. Please remind us why that is Bill - sound reinforcement from the walls? I suspect 8/10 pub / bar bands in the UK put their tops on poles above their subs due to space limitation issues. But if the only downside is directionally locatable frequencies and bands aren't fussed about the losing the ability to put subs anywhere, then no particular problems crossing over at a higher frequency than the usual 100Hz when using a bass combo as a sub?

Completely concur with @Baloney Balderdash on how good this thing is for octave up and down! It wasn't my original use case (detuning) but this will open up a lot of 8 string bass possibilities for filling out the sound, which is ideal for a 4 piece outfit like ours with just one guitar and no keys. An unexpected bonus and, dare I say, worth the price of the pedal by itself?

It's an interesting one, 'cos there's an argument that tops are completely fine with going down to 60Hz? So why cross at 100Hz? I'm definitely no expert here, but if a key purpose is to relieve the tops of their low end lows to focus on non-bass frequencies, then crossing over at 150Hz (because the bass combo can easily handle up to this) would be more beneficial than 100Hz. But, as I say, I'm no expert!

Totally agree with a standard sub, which often don't go much higher anyway. But was wondering whether it might make sense to flex this to make more use of the bass combo's ability to handle higher frequencies?

Agreed! Clean does look really great and very satisfying too! But having engaged the wrong effect at the wrong time mid song and getting justifiably disapproving looks from bandmates, I've come to appreciate the need for adequate spacing for my large feet with gigging boards!

Speaking of compact gigging pedal boards, I've been really enjoying this set up for the past 5 months: However Boss went and released their XS-1 pitchshift pedal, which looked really neat and has been getting excellent reviews for its tone and tracking and meant we could potentially extend our set to the lower vocal range of our alto singer without me needing to re-learn songs in different keys and new muscle memory. However no space on my mini board, and my next size up was a Rockboard, but gave the opportunity to add an expression pedal which puts the XS-1 into full whammy mode. Space left over to re-load a few other pedals that had been sitting on my pedal shelf itching to be used and my trusty Zoom B1-4 as a back up multi, which also provides a beats unit - would have come in very handy at a recent gig when the drummer had a puncture and couldn't make the gig, so we ended up doing the gig as a drum-less 3 piece, which was character building!

Spent a few hours setting up a larger pedal board to accommodate the XS-1 and Boss EV-30 dual output expression pedal, in addition to the three pedals I previously had on my compact gigging board (and then, of course, filled up the rest of the board with a few other pedals that had been patiently sitting on my pedal-shelf itching to be used!) The expression pedal puts it into full whammy mode and seems to work by over-riding the on-off when the XS-1 is "on" (obvs has no impact when the pedal is in by-pass). It applies a range of mix & detune from 0 (fully dry / no detune) to 100 with the destination mix and interval being whatever is set on the XS-1. Effectively allows both momentary to be engaged, plus also incremental tones to be set and held. It is pretty cool/fun, particularly when combined with the SY-200!

@paulmcnamara cheers for bringing this to the attention of the BC community (and maybe less for hitting my wallet, haha!). Would you be up for amending the title to "XS-1 and XS-100" for us, so the thread captures both pedals that are being discussed on here? If so, if you or one of the mods ( @Woodinblack?) could put that through, that would be fab.

Had a chance to try mine out properly this evening. Really nice octave up and down, the momentary is neat! Like the fact that it has a chorus thrown in. The de-tuning both up and down is decent and tracking good. Moment of minor panic when I thought I wasn't able to get a 100% wet signal, however another bassist suggested I might just be hearing the acoustic sound from my bass in addition to the output via my home monitors, as I was playing at pretty low late-night home volumes. When I double checked by recording the output, turns out he was right! And obviously the clean acoustic sound is going to have more of an impact on a pitch shift than with pretty much all other fx - so certainly a point for me to be aware of going forward!

Looks / sounds great, thanks Si! What sort of tracks do you think you'll be using this on live?

Significant improvement over your Sub'n'up?

Nice one! Well given that one of the reasons for having a sub is to take load off the tops, be interested if there's any reason not to cross over at say 150Hz, and you can get some bass as well as your kick handled by the combo? Wished I'd used this crossover set up when I had a MB Alain Caron, which has excellent speaker excursion for a bass combo, with my RCF 310A tops. And ideally combined with the IEMs my crew are using today to avoid needing monitors. Tbf probably would have beem no better than the pair of RCF 932As which we're using currently and overall a comparable outlay.

That's helpful thanks. I've got a preamp tone I'm super happy with on my GT1000 Core, so I may as well stick to the drums and looper on the B1-4, and sacrifice a bit of pedal board real estate.

G4M have got back to me and said it's 28.5kg / 63 lbs unfortunately which is going to put it out of my target range. Still that does leave the Behringer as a £240 budget option The dB Tech 612 and Alto TS 12S come in at the £400 to £450 mark And then a jump to RCF 702 AS Mk3 at north of £700 ...and from there onwards and upwards into @Dan Dare territory!

Ooof it's very tempting at that price!! And has come down from £80 on release six months back. I thought the EQ looked a bit limited in choice, but it has a 6 band EQ and two bass specific option. As well as fx, as others have mentioned, the ability to midi control. It has a drum machine which is currently one of the few reasons I'm holding onto my old and much loved B1-4s (but no looper unlike the B1-4?) Q for those of you guys who have taken the plunge: seems to have quite a lot of drum styles. Does it do different time sigs other than 4/4?

Useful side by side comparison of XS-1 vs Drop. Comments enlightening: - little in it on latency - Boss have focussed on the attack and response as the processing catches and retunes your instrument => the feel is better preserved and the sound of that initial attack sounds right.

Thanks Phil and I was getting somewhere similar with my thinking this afternoon: positives - combos can be light! - ability to use existing kit (and great that @synthaside is getting benefit from his set up - something has gotta be better than nothing, right?) neutral - cost of combo comparable to subs negatives - limited speaker excursion on bass combos vs dedicated subs - only really interested in the sub delivering 30Hz to 110Hz and the combo is not designed to excel in volume at these frequencies (see chart above for illustrative representation)

Such a neat idea! And obviously the combo can double up as a bass amp, if needed on separate occassions / home use. Super compact and portable too! It turns on its head the approach of the PA providing support to backline, working the other way around. Sub 40 Hz is pretty flubby anyway. Kick drum at 50 Hz is the big target here I would have thought? I guess a refinement might be to set cross over frequencies on the desk, directing the lower frequencies to the combo eg up to 100 Hz and everything above that to the PA tops? I've not seen this approach suggested elsewhere, but conceptually I love it. Be very interested to hear from a couple of our resident experts such as @Bill Fitzmaurice and @Phil Starr on why this is bad idea, before seeing if I can bag a used CMD121P (always wanted an excuse to get one, haha!)

Just picked up a pair of KZ ZARs for a bandmate for £31.79 inc P&P from Ali XP. That's 40% less than I paid for mine 18 months back, and I thought they were good value back then!

Just arrived! Great excuse to uprate my little mini gigging pedal board, which has been unchanged for 5 months (must be a record) with something bigger and can provide a home to a few more noise boxes currently sitting on my pedal shelf... PS I'll put a note on file that you want first dibs @Woodinblack if it ever gets upgraded - can give you a status update in a couple of years maybe?

@pantherairsoft - suspect this will be right up your street in relation to our recent chat about the XS-1 vs XS-100, from one of the TB'ers: FUN FACTS about attaching a dual switch to the XS-1 !! I connected a Boss FS-6 dual switch and tested the feature of storing settings on each of the two external switches, plus the built-in switch. The XS-1 can store BALANCE amount, SHIFT interval/mode, and the TOGGLE/MOMENT option for the built-in footswitch, and each of the dual switches giving you instantaneous access to each (one at a time, though). With instantaneous access to 3 different intervals, you could, for example, have a minor 3rd, major 3rd, and perfect 4th, for various harmonizing tasks. Similarly, m6, M6, and P5. You can have up to 4 different keys (counting bypass). I tested this running a full mix through the pedal, the transitions are instantaneous but without any clicks or pops at the moment of change.

Yeah - that Lasse Vuorsola did a great job with his first video, which was all the confirmation I needed given that from my OC5 and SY 200 experience I knew that Boss seemed to have nailed tracking algorithms better than most. Loved the fact he then asked for and dealt with specific queries with a second video. Hero.

Nah, get your own! You didn't wait for me to move my recently purchased cheap-as-chips Ali XP floor floor light on, before getting one, did you? And what about those excellent KZ-ZARs eh, which you jumped on post Krow purchase and recommendation? You're definitely at risk of becoming a West Country Krow gear groupie... But where were you when I eventually upgraded my Boss SY-1 for a Boss SY-200? Boss SY-1 - Effects - Basschat

Yeah I think it's the same side by side spec for the XS-1 and XS-100; I think the key difference being the presets (very useful) and the built in expression pedal on the XS-100

Thanks - doesn't seem to be any info online? But, if that's the case, that could make it a serious contender with 2 speakers each delivering 600W RMS. Scrap that, apparently the power module delivers 600W RMS so that will be split between the two speakers, and its claim of 2,400W peak is pretty far-fetched.