Al Krow

A Theramin in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing. Super impressive!

Think I've "lost" my GT 1000 Core...😅 Lent it to a new guitarist who's joining a second line-up of my covers band so he had a decent multi. He's taken to it like a duck to water! Some great tones and he and another guitarist we work with, who has the GT 1000, don't seem to have to fight an inherent harshness of the Helix Stomp / Pod-Go which a couple of other guitarists we work with have had to figure a way around - one gave up and traded in his Pod-Go for a Kemper which he's always wanted, tbf the other one's getting there with his Helix XL.

Agreed! One suggestion: would have been really helpful for live use if the filth button and, especially, the dirt button had been stomp switches, so they could be easily foot stomped on / off when needed for parts of songs. Not sure how tricky that would have been to incorporate@Tech21NYC? If that had been available, I would have been sorely tempted to part with the list price for it!

So literally half (23 so far and I'm as guilty as anyone, haha!) posts on this thread about the non UK PSU. And just two on whether it's actually a decent bit of kit and potentially usable live? 😂 Thanks to @Woodinblackat least for a decent review.

Yes let's not get political. However let's please get the economics right. The current cost of living crisis is primarily down to two things: 1. Covid - governments around the planet printed vast amounts of "free" money (and gave it a fancy name: "quantitative easing") whilst locking down the economy. Inflation is pay back for that. The alternative would have been the mother of all depressions. 2. Putin's invasion of Ukraine and its impact on energy costs, which feeds into all costs of production.

Very true! The one surprise to me came at a recent corporate gig with a younger audience than we're normally in front of (mostly 21 to 23 y/o's). I was concerned how relevant our set list was going to be for them, but they really seemed to love it and I was actually a bit shocked that the song requests from the floor, given their ages, was for more Blondie, ABBA and Queen! And they seemed to know all the words as well as we did! LA Mixtrax (@lamixtrax) • Instagram photos and videos Maybe we, and the great tunes of the 60s to '00s, aren't quite as obsolete as we might be fearing just yet?

Nice review:

Similar experience for me. The Boss is a first rate bit of kit in terms of lack of any distortion/clean sound but the drop outs live were becoming unsustainable and I similarly switched to a 5.8 GHz set up on bass. I went for the Nux which are more expensive than the budget Lekato, as the latter was distorting a little with my active basses. Been very happy with the Nux since in terms of both range and lack of drop outs. But this is using the Nux as a wireless purely for bass rather than IEMs so not sure if relevant to this particular discussion - apologies if it's not.

"It's gonna be free practice for us tonight...super quiet"... Lead Singer Well it was the start of "dry" Jan, but that's maybe going to be the worst prediction of 2024 already in the bag! Was a huge amount of fun!

Yeah but we invented Black Sabbath who invented metal. The rest are just tribute acts 😂

How much of that YT track was the unit actually creating?

Oooh pics please! Very tempted to get another active PJ 5er at some point and I could never quite bond with my Yamaha BB735A. Guess I need to check out what the key differences between the Sire P5, P8 and P10 models are - have to fess I was totally unaware of the 8 series!

My thoughts exactly! Loving the love.

Why not kick off with something like the Zoom B1-4? Very capable and ridiculously good value.

I personally would really miss not having a screen on a multifx to easily remind myself which patch I was on at any given time mid set.

Is it primarily geared at providing amp/cab sims though? Ie does it offer a full range of editable fx in the way that Helix Stomp and GT1000 Core do? If not we're not comparing like for like. There's mention of a "well-curated selection of 136 different FX settings taken from the legendary KEMPER PROFILER FX arsenal that features over 444 FX presets in total" which sounds promising, but no indication of what's available in the that selection.

I think Jaco has just displaced Carol K for a place in the top 10 😊

But have you managed to play lots of bass this year? If so, sounds like you've had a very good year! And there are hairshirt threads (aka "gear abstinence") for recovering Gear Chat addicts where you would be lauded as a hero...

But are you then saying that singers are not musicians and the voice is not a musical instrument? I think the ability to sing, write music, and play an instrument are all aspects of being a musician. And Macca, Geddy Lee and a handful of others could do all three to a very high standard. If, on the other hand, you're meaning the best bass player (which is what this list is about) then yes I'd agree that Macca wasn't technically anything like as good as some of the others and his pre Jamerson inspired 1965 and earlier stuff was very root/5th in approach.

In terms of best "musician", surely that accolade has to go to Macca, followed by Geddy Lee?

@chris_b is that now 15 of your top 3 you've now listed on this thread? 😂

Reminds me a little of the TC Spectradrive? What's the drive like on the NUX?

Ooof!! That does look tasty! Damn I knew this thread was going to be a bad idea 😂

I've had a pretty modest year on the bass gear front - ended up selling significantly more than I spent driven by clearing out my amps and cabs for PA related kit now that I'm no longer using backline. The bit of kit that's given me perhaps the most joy has been a pair of NU-X C-5RC 5.8 GHz wireless bugs which have excellent range, had no interference / drop out issues that I was getting with my 2.4 GHz kit and cost me <£100 used and come in a handy charging case with useful space for a couple of picks! My worst was entirely my own fault! Finally deciding to drag myself into this century, I bought a mic stand mounted tablet to use instead of a music stand and paper crib notes. Worked a treat, but when a mate had said she hoped we would "smash it!" referring to the gig on Saturday night, well clearly one of the inebriated audience took her literally knocking over the mic stand, shearing the tablet holder and cracking the tablet on its first outing. Ouch! Tbf - total schoolboy error on my part not putting a screen protector on before the gig. Anyway expensive(!) lesson learned! It's replacement is half the price and came already fitted with a screen protector 😅

Following on from the same topic we've successfully run since 2018 - a chance for some useful hints and tips with Black Friday and 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 2023. Here's the last thread in the series I posted in 2021 as a reminder of some of the goodies we bought then. (I think someone else kindly did the honours in 2022) And definitely post your GAS inducing pics please!