Al Krow

Hah - very probably true! In fact anywhere that's not a haunt for aging bass players who know that playing their BB sporting a PJ and thinking about EQ is a perfectly natural pastime.

Congratulations!! I particularly love the look of the LX4. And zero surprise that you've been blown away!

You know your basses! (Btw, small point, I think it's Brunel, rather than Brunnel).

Hah! Tbf when a seller makes you an offer that you can't refuse on a bass that's already turned your head, well...it would just plain be rude to turn him down wouldn't it? Anyway you gents should know by now that I'm a sucker for white neck-through BBs.

The 40TWs with single / dual coil tap give such a broad tonal palette with mix and match combinations thrown in. I love the variety I get from mine.

Ok I'm out. Properly definitely, no way back kinda out. @JohnDaBass pic just for you mate! Needs a new preamp, strings and decent set up but was priced to sell accordingly...so could be a while before it gets a full review. @BassBunny - this is the "offending" item (as far as this thread is concerned anyway 😁)

I think strictly it's £135...but hey what's £215 between mates? 😁

Interesting point. So what's the key cause of a flabby B string?

Should be fine. Maybe a little extra in terms of handling costs, but there are no Customs duties on imports of basses from the EU and you always had to pay the VAT on new basses anyway. Where there is an issue is with used basses to / from the EU where an additional VAT charge applies now and makes UK <--used goods--> EU much less attractive.

Brilliant thanks for that. Love to exchange notes / pick your brains. Will PM you, if that's ok. Mine should be arriving in the next 45 mins

Asking prices in the FS for mint Euro 4LXs seem to be around the £1,350 to £1,500 mark at the moment - which are obviously subject to "haggle" as with any asking price. There were a couple of beauts that went for less last year and the market is generally gummed up at the moment, so you may be able to negotiate a bit of a price chip. Do you know how old the bass he's selling is? What I do know is you're almost certainly going to love the bass! Just remember to wind the TonePump down a bit if the seller hasn't done so already 😉

Well only one to find out if they have succeeded isn't there, and that would be to A/B their "free" patch against a Mesa amp. Not something I'm in a position to do and haven't been for about 18 months since moving on my Stomp. And you'll still need a decent power amp in your signal chain. So not sure how "bottled" the fx sim + power amp route would be, even if it comes close to emulating the real thing. You could go FRFR, of course, but that's a whole 'nother story and not something I'm looking to do having considered the weight options in some detail a while back.

I do, pretty much every day mate! 😉 But I'm not lugging a 25lb head on the road to gigs with my dodgy back. I'll leave you 6' strapping youngsters to do that. I suspect I'm going to end up with a BIAmp for the road - been highly recommended by a dodgy mate of mine, who has a M6 at home 😁

Cheers buddy and doh(!) quite correct about HXFX not having the amp modellers - I'd forgotten that, lol! (which will reconfirm my superior memory skills for @dave_bass5 on all matters Helix!) @LukeFRC - maybe on one of the Helix threads to avoid another non OT tangent 😁, it would be really good to understand what the individual components of the M9 patch are? As I said, I would be positively stunned if a multifx patch can emulate the complex harmonics provided by something like a tube preamp paired with a class AB poweramp you get in the Mesa M9 (and M6).

It would be a shame if this was being stated incorrectly on formal well respected YT reviews such as Dan's, as I get the impression from comments on this thread, and elsewhere, that not working out that the v1 OTB was boost only on the treble and bass EQs, and thinking that neutral was 12 noon, was a key reason for a number of OTB owners giving up on their amps. (Tbf - it's not unique: we've had similar unhelpful comments about the Spector TonePump from Spector, themselves, about the EQ being purely boost, when they are not!)

Ah ok gotcha. Two things (i) I don't currently have a Helix (ii) I would be (very pleasantly!) stunned if a Helix patch could closely emulate what a Mesa M9 (which you're right should be pretty identical tonally to an M6) does. I suppose the way to test it would be to bypass the preamp on an amp and feed the Helix straight into the power amp section of a clean amp such as a DG M900. Having said that - I would be less surprised if you had said a Kemper or the new DG Quad Cortex came close just based on their reputations. Calling @bassfan - dunno if you've come across the M9 patch on your HX Effects, buddy? But if you get a chance to A/B it with your Mesa M6, it would be interesting to see if it comes close.

Nope it won't be. But I'm not really sure what the connection with the HX Stomp is?

Not even close!

Hah, actually you're more than half way to recollecting correctly. It's a bass I nearly bought a month ago, but had the opportunity to try before I bought. It's beautifully balanced and was great to play, but the EQ seemed to be a little shot. The seller kindly agreed to check it out and concurs and has adjusted his asking price to allow me to budget for a new pre.

Nope, not that I know of!

I know, it really does tick a lot of boxes. A Carvin BB neck-through 5 string. Being brought round by the seller tomorrow night. Needs a new preamp, so all the recent chat about those & EQ has been very useful too!

Oooh that does tick a lot of boxes! Cheers gents. What's stopping me?...I may have just agreed to buy another bass literally 45 mins ago, lol! Can't really see my missus being too happy with two basses in one month, particularly as she has somehow found out about me and Cuzzie via another thread... I'm seriously intrigued that he's preferring his Spector Rebop though. Must admit I'm more than a bit partial to nice bit of Spector!

Dammit - I do find these Sire threads all distinctly unhelpful. Lol! The P10 has flamed maple top, roasted maple neck, improved pups, tarted-up knobs. Not sure that justifies the £600 new price premium over the P7v2, but it's still tempting. If one comes up used, I think I'll be finding it hard to resist!

Trouble is exactly the same make and model with same type of woods can easily vary +/- 1lb just from the variation in the wood cuts. My Sire P7v2 5er was excellent, particularly for the money. I mean which sub £1k bass provides such a versatile EQ with parametric mids? I would have preferred greater accessibility at the dusty end - I felt I was effectively limited to 18 accessible frets - but this won't be a concern at all for many.

Yup it's a shame you can't simply flip from up and down sweep settings, but that is true for most analogue filters that have both up and down filter sweeps. It definitely repays investment in careful tweaking - as you say when you get it working optimally it's great! FWIW it's the best filter I've had, for me easily beating the MXR M82 and Aguilar Filter Twin and even the juicy Fwonkbeta; I only moved it on because the more recent 3 Leaf Proton Mk4 matches a lot (but certainly not all) of what the GR2 can do but in smaller form factor.