Al Krow

Thanks mate. Just been back and re read your excellent review post on March 10th - I see you got the amp at around the same time as I got my BB2 i.e. just before first lockdown. Ugh. The thing that jumped out at me re-reading your post was that you were comparing it favourably to your Genzler 800. I know that the GM800 has a huge amount of love on BC, so for me that is high praise indeed. Would you still stick by your first impressions post and also continue to summarise it as having "depth and clarity"? Thanks also for reconfirming my understanding of the difference in output for S500 and the S800. Quite a quirky difference of approach between the two!

Well I A/B'd exactly the same two cabs ie the F112 and the CN212 side by side and put the same volume / gain settings through them from the same amp, with no other competing noise from other band members. Guess what, the CN212 was louder. No surprise there. Not sure anyone said there is a linear relationship. Other things being equal (eg speaker excursion), increasing speaker cones from 1x12 to 2 x12 and reducing the load being faced by the amp from 8 ohm to 4 ohm will result in an increase in volume. That's not really a point we should be debating! But what I'm actually interested in is not to debate cab volume 101, or my choice of cab which I'm very happy with, but to find out what folks experience, if any, is with these new GK S-range heads.

What have you got in mind that would give a BB2 a run for its money? Besides, being able to put out 300W at 8 ohms is not a limiting factor here, so no pressing need to change cab!

Aha - another happy Fender owner alongside DB5! Couple of fine heads you have there Mr Fuze

That's very encouraging to hear! Out of interest, what are you planning on replacing your S500 with?

Yup and it's effectively an upgrade from the SC which I got with perfect timing just before the start of the first lockdown. The Fearless is set up for (pretty much) every day home use with the Mesa M6. Fantastic pairing and a hugely tough act to follow on the road, when eventually we get back out there at the end of May...😁

The 4 ohm CN212 is significantly louder than my individual 112s Dave. Both cos its 2 x 12 and also because it's 4 ohm rather than 8ohm. It's an outstanding cab! And you're mad for selling it. You won't not be a bass player forever...

Both my Fearless F112 and BB2 are 8 ohms, but I only ever use one at a gig (wouldn't have space to take both even if I wanted to!). But getting an amp that can pump out 300W at 8 ohms isn't going to be limiting - all of my gigging amps have been able to do that with ease and there are plenty in the market that can deliver, including the S800.

Key difference seems to be 6 bolt and better pups in the 1005J vs 4 bolt and cheaper humbuckers in the 605. Neither go for body through stringing prevalent in the modern BBs. If the pups are significantly better then it would be a no-brainer for me, I'd go for the 1005J every time. Ricky's comments about the 604's pups being duller than his BB 424 are very much worth taking on board. If you're after one in caramel brown you seen this one? Yamaha TRB1005J Caramel Brown | Back Alley Music | Reverb More than half tempted to get it myself at that price 😊 PS paging @lee650who knows his way around TRBs...

And very nice it is too! Cosmetics aside, the W model you have selected also, importantly, has more standard string spacing, rather than the narrower 16.5mm on the rest of the Ibby SR 5 string range - something else to bear in mind. Personally I don't have an issue in swapping between my Yammy and Ibby basses.

Out of interest which Ibanez SR do you like the look of? It may be that there is an older SR Premium model that has a similar finish, and available for a very decent price. I say this as someone who is a big fan of both Yammy BBs and Ibby SR Premiums and finds that the tonal variety from the two ranges is just the ticket (for me) to have on hand, and manages to keep the sound of both "fresh".

Duplicate post.

Because my experience to date of hybrids is that they can sound great, based on my favourite amp ever being my Mesa M6, and partly down to the more complex harmonics and richer tone that valves can deliver. Having valves in the preamp section of the amp, rather than in a pedal, potentially has the added advantage of the full 240v being available to put across them. Although I'm not totally clear on whether the higher voltage makes a difference - seems to be differing views on that one.

300W at 8ohm min for me as a rule of thumb. Anything less and I find I'm needing to push my amp with a full rock band, whereas if you have headroom to spare you're not needing to push your kit to the limit. Obviously folks mileage may vary on this. And the S500 is only 180W at 8 ohms, I believe, so I would be going for the S800. Not sure why you think it was particularly meant to be pushed as an amp as it's basically a class D head? It has a drive channel if you want a tubey dirt (and why wouldn't you?!), but I don't think you need to be pushing it to get a drive tone from it.

You still keeping an eye out for one of these? Me too - if this is potentially a lightweight hybrid that can deliver something close tonally to my Mesa M6, it could be just what the doctor ordered! Thinking I'm going to want the 800 (or 1200) though, as it will be good to have the headroom of 400W at 8ohms.

Dunno - I was drawn in by the title which suggested it was a review, rather than him just mucking about. But hey ho. Shame that there isn't much else on the pedal by bass players.

Sounds like fun! But how would you rate his review of the pedal? It wasn't really close to being useful for me, nor a decent sales pitch for the Atreides either. But he's clearly an entertaining guy.

Very nice! Congratulations!

Yeah know what you mean...I'm also in the ridiculous position of being in surplus on my gear account for the first time since I took up the bass. NAMM 2021 was a bit of a damp squib I guess completely understandably, and even the recent PH is missing a string...

Congrats! Is that identical to the one you very recently sold or a different model or finish? Obligatory pics of course, please?

First decent length bass review. A lot less convinced about getting this pedal after wading through 25 out of the 50 mins - although he might have done a better "sales" job if he had spotted he was overloading it sooner than 23.35 mins into his review. Lol! Tempted to have a go at an "Atreides patch" on my Zoom B1-4 with comp-->sub-->fuzz-->phaser-->noise gate; I've got a sneaky feeling it won't sound any worse 😁 Here you go @lee650 If I say so myself it doesn't sound any worse ...well that's saved me £150+ on a pedal then! Atreides.wav

Nope I didn't 😁

Had the Hookers Green Bass Machine - very clean drive, which I liked a lot and I love the compact form factor of these pedals. Can run from 9V right up to 18V if you want some additional head room. Some folk complained about loss of low end, but they maybe hadn't spotted the bass boost trim pot at the side! No hesitation in recommending.

Sorry to hear that Dave. It is bloomin' hard to keep motivated without gigs to focus on. I've found that trying to take on a couple of new challenges - in my case learning EUB for use with my 50s/60s band and enrolling on one of Mark from Talking Bass's courses - has been a bit of a life saver. One of the plusses for me from last year was deciding to shed a bunch of gear I was hardly using (mostly pedals) - if they weren't going to get any attention from me during lockdown, they were realistically never going to get any attention from me! Doing that has really helped me to simplify my bass life a bit, which for me was a good thing.

Bet Andy could do it pretty professionally and for half the cost!