Al Krow

Streamed music has already dealt a blow to most bands' hopes of making decent money from their original creations. AI assisted / generated music music is just the next nail in that coffin. Live music is where it's at for most bands and solo artists looking to make a living from their art. Yes there's one hologram providing superb entertainment, at vast cost and albeit with some incredible session musicians actually playing the music, but an average punter going down a busy pub doing live music at the weekend ain't going to be fobbed off with anything but a live band or solo act. What we all should be campaigning against is the ridiculous infringement of copyright laws that our Govt seems to be wanting to wave through for AI companies to train their large-language models on, and which is theft pure and simple.

Not sure I'd ever find a use for anything above +1 oct anyway with our material!

Two excellent YT clip reviews

Amazing - thanks! 7. I couldn't pick out the younger Mick Jagger from the pic and the drummer looked unfamiliar to me, but makes sense!

Ditto ^^ My only "regret" is that I'm liking it so much, I'm already tempted to move it on...to get its bigger sibling the XS-100

Been asked by daughter (who's a music teacher!) to help research the above slide which she wants to include in a lesson. Going round clockwise - pics not hugely clear, but where I've got to is: 1. ?? Elvis lookalike 2. Chuck Berry 3. Beatles 4. Freddie Mercury 5. Beach Boys 6. Black Sabbath (obvs, haha!) 7. ?? Band with Ronnie Wood in? 8. ?? C&W star 9 ?? BB King If you recognise any of 1, 7, 8 or 9 please share your thoughts!

Cheers - I'd best check back in at 11am on Tuesday to see where it's got to!

Is it living up to expectations? I know you've had same fantastic basses over the years!

I've had a lot band related purchases and very little purely bass focussed, this year. Tops for me goes to the RCF 932A PA speakers which were an upgrade from our previous RCF 912A and 732A sets of speakers (which me and one of singers respectively had). The 912As - excellent on bass, 732As - excellent mids for guitar and vox. The 932As provide the best of both worlds. Managed to pick them as B-stock for less than the cost of my bass backline and we put the whole band through them, none of us using backline, without needing a sub-woofer even for the smaller outdoor gigs we were doing earlier in the year. Worst - none so far, fingers crossed. (I did buy a Fuzzrocious Lil Fella which I've not really used due to finding some great drive and fuzz tones on my Boss Multifx, and which I'll probably put up for sale at some point but not because it's been a disappointment). @Acebassmusic - my Elrick Expat in action (through the 932A). Lovely bass!

OMG I love that Elrick! I've had mine (the "cheaper" Expat Czech made one) for 4 years and totally love - fabulous bass and my mainstay for gigs.

That's a lot of "best" 😅 You got one from that list that you would opt for above the rest if you only had one?

Agreed. Also I've not really figured how you play synth keys and a bass at the same time! And, more importantly, whether as a bass-player, there's actually much demand or expectation for any of us to be a keys player with a different skillset? Maybe surprised at hearing this from me, but once the next software update goes through on the FI v4 VIP (not sure when that's planned - waiting to hear from @Quatschmacher re. timing), I've got a feeling from the comments @LukeFRC has made in his recent excellent review that the FI could actually be the better pedal with better display, many more presets, and midi connectivity. So, if you're getting frustrated waiting for a MXR that's maybe another option and only £20 more new.

No massive rush - the plan is to see if I can pick up the XS-100 used too, when one becomes available. And then upgrade for an all in cost of maybe £90, rather than £130 via Andertons and get a bit more use out of my XS-1 which is barely a month old and already much loved! I've got a midi pedal to get to grips with in the meantime and I'm a complete novice when it comes to midi!

Do you think you might end up going down the synth keys route at some point then? What were the pros & cons that made you all decide to stick with a bass pedal instead?

Well it's somehow already the start of November and following on from the same topic we've successfully run since 2017 - a chance for some useful hints and tips with Xmas goodies still ahead, and, of course, nothing to stop us changing our minds between now and year end! As with previous years, the only "house rules" are that it's bass gear and something you bought (or at least arrived) in 2025. Here's the last thread in the series from 2024 as a reminder of some of the goodies we bought then. Obligatory GAS inducing pics please!

Nah, Andertons slap on a £25 "courier charge" for the privelege of doing an exchange.

I'm going to put a wanted ad up for an XS-100, so Woody may end up getting my XS-1 after all 😅 PS, yes please do change the thread title for us to "XS-1 & XS-100"

@Serginhobass - excellent demo, thanks!

Very tempted to get a sE V7 and Lekato 5.8GHz wireless combo, as a back up. SM58s are now officially banned from our gigs: I'm done with needing to sort out unwanted feedback from non-directional mics!

XS-100: 30 presets - of which I'll likely need no more than 5 or 6, but be very handy for quick changes to keep songflow going mid-set. The ability to combine with an expression pedal to e.g. glide in octave up is a very nice to have. Midi could be useful XS-1: You get to choose 3 presets OR expression pedal from what I understand. But XS-1 plus expression pedal ain't too far off the pedal board acreage of the XS-100 (although I may just wait a while and see if one comes up used once the first movers have decided they don't need theirs!) Presets do make all the difference for me where you have more than one setting on a pedal you want to use live - the exact same reason for switching from the SY-1 -> SY-200, although the SY-200 does have 50 more built-in sound options than its smaller sibling. I was originally thinking this would be just a (finally!) decent detuning pedal, but already finding I'm wanting to use it in different ways to what I had originally intended.

I'm leaning towards the getting the XS-100 for its ease of use, presets and built-in expression pedal and have just realised I'm still within the 30 day exchange period at Andertons. It is pricey, but the octave up is an unexpected boon on the pedal and in a 4 piece outfit with just one guitar as the other instrument, I can see this getting quite a lot of use to fill out the sound when the guitarist is soloing.

Did you not like the Boss EV30 (which is also my one as it happens)? I've not really had reason to use it much before, but am liking it so far - well built and very cool that it has dual output!

Gotcha. What I'm feeling is a really neat live effect (just from home use so far) is sliding in the octave up rather than punching it in so it's simply off/on. Bringing a smile to my face which kinda would be sufficient, but I suspect my bandmates will have a grin on too!

Oh I've done worse and had it set to 100% wet for octave up, as I was too distracted by other things to remember mid set to also change the wet/dry! However, someome on TB has pointed out I can access 3 different settings on the XS-1 using an external footswitch so I may not need to upgrade to the XS-100 after all!

^^ this 100% Have to 'fess I'm actually really enjoying the octave up and bringing it in with an expression pedal (same one as Neepheid is using above, as it happens). Having it set 40:60 wet / dry for octave up and 60:40 for octave down, to make allowance for the higher frequencies cutting through more easily, seems to be a decent mix. Obviously when de-tuning you'll want it 100% wet. Making me think I probably don't actually need my OC-5 anymore! The issue I've now got, is that I'm seriously thinking about upgrading the XS-1 to the XS-100, as I want to be able to quickly switch between songs from: 100% wet, detuned to -2semis or -3semis (depending on the song) 40% wet for octave up 60% wet for octave down And as the XS-100 has it's own expression pedal, possibly either taking the expression pedal off board to free up space or use the dual output with a couple of other pedals. So @Woodinblack if someone wants to sell me their XS-100 used, you may well (finally!) actually end up getting first dibs on mine, haha! But I'll be holding onto my XS-1 until then, for sure - great little pedal and as @neepheid has said, best pitch shift performance either of us have had from a pedal.