Al Krow

Lol! I'm suddenly feeling a lot less isolated in doing exactly the same with bass books and CDs! In this case it's clearly not 'wisdom' but 'age'.

If you click on the Amazon link he posted, there's a 'look inside' option and you can browse the content's page.

Dammit. Bloody typical BC thread. I came on here to share some insights on Valeton OC-10s and ended up with GAS for an SX Telecaster. Lol!

Wisdom

Why do I always want to pronounce that as Ariane 'Crap'? 😁

Yeah and that's fair about the MXR BOD - the folk I know who have one seem to divide roughly 50:50 into the 'no issues it's fine' or 'noisy circuit' camps. Mine was unfortunately in the (very!) noisy circuit camp.

Ordered a copy - cheapest new is just £10.85 inc P&P which is definitely worth a punt. No doubt will add to my collection of good intention but-yet-to-be-opened bass books - lol!

You can see why I was trying to bag your B1-4 a few months back now! Must admit the new pedal line up has brought a bit of a grin to this old head of mine. I'm holding onto the Zoom B1X-4 though - it'll make for an excellent standalone headphone amp / tuner / multifx and slip very nicely into a gig bag pouch!

Managed to bag a Zoom B1-4 to take the place of my B1X-4, which has allowed me to give my mini board a bit of a makeover. So I've gone from this... ...to this, with a few recent additions getting a look in. This new combination feels like it could be a lot of fun and I'm kinda wondering whether my larger board may well just have been relegated to back up! The Zoom is there for all the bits that the rest of my pedals aren't taking care of e.g. octave down, chorus, short slap-back delay, quick access EQ for motown-vintage or a bit of slap and of course as an easy to use tuner. Its built in drum machine is also super useful for home practice. As one of the least expensive pedals on the board it certainly pulls its weight! Postscript: managed to source some decent value flat patch cables for under £10 and a couple of right angle daisy chain x2, which tidied things up nicely, and have got all the buttons reasonably accessible. Could even see me using this live now - roll on the autumn and, fingers crossed, the return of gigs!

Just bought a Zoom pedal from Gerry. Super easy transaction - well packaged and quick delivery. No hesitation in recommending Gerry to my fellow BC'ers.

And exactly how do you know it has poor quality and lacks durability? It's just a ridiculous statement to be making, unless you are basing it on your own or others' actual experience. In fact the octave pedal with the worst reputation of the three you mentioned (Boss, MXR, Valeton) is the MXR. It was well known for being noisy and it seems to me a big reason for the release of the latest model to deal with that particular issue. Oh look here's another noisy MXR pedal... https://www.sevenstring.org/threads/mxr-10-band-eq-is-making-tons-of-noise-and-popping-sounds.332880/ It's been replaced with a more recent (silver version) "and it’s been upgraded with noise-reduction circuitry," Please don't assume that just because you pay less for bass gear, it's automatically going to be worse!

@stewblack - that Ricochet looks versatile i.e. both octave up and down plus other intervals. Does a lot more than the Digitech Mosaic which I'm a big fan of, but which only does octave up (very well!). I'm guessing the Digitech pedals are analogue rather than digital but couldn't find anything immediately to confirm.

FWIW I've had MXR M288 octave pedal and found it to be noisy as well as a lot more expensive. The cheap chinese Valeton OC-2 rip-off is actually very good and from a quick read there seem to be a lot of very happy BCers on this thread who have one.

Understood. Yup it seems to me that trying to adjust string spacing simply by using a different bridge can very easily miss the key point of what string spacing the neck has been designed to cater for.

Btw I agree that replacing the bridge on a 5 string bass to allow narrower string spacing may not be an option - mainly 'cos you no longer have your old 5ers! But in any case, setting the string spacing to 16.5mm on a bass neck designed to cater for 18mm or 19mm spacing is not going to make the neck width any slimmer and you'll just have 'awkward' fretboard space on either side of your B and G strings. And as @Kiwi mentioned elsewhere, there is also the issue of pole piece alignment, particularly for the bridge pup. The Helix multifx, mentioned earlier, is very good at pitch shifting and does so without noticeable latency. If you don't want to spend that much then a Digitech Ricochet would be worth checking out, but as much as I love my Zoom multis, which are amazing bang for your buck, one thing they don't have the processing power to do well is pitch shifting!

I'm on a successful variation of this currently. Gear in.

Ok possibly a ridiculous thought: but could you not replace the bridge on a Smith with another high end bridge that allows 19 mm string spacing? And, of course, get a decent luthier to fit it! Or is it the case that the Smith neck width is not designed to cope with anything more than 18mm, in which case the plan would be scuppered!

+1^^ OMG @Rich you guys are great!

@cheddatom - that P bass sits so well in the mix! What's the rest of your rig?

Was after the bridge string spacing though, which unfortunately didn't seem to be provided.

I really like the look of that ESP! But there again, I'm a sucker for good looking neck through basses (ok I'm shallow). Couldn't see what the string spacing at the bridge was from the spec or whether it had the possibility of switching to passive mode. Any insight on these?

That makes very good sense in terms of trying out an Ibby. Can't comment on the GIOs as I've never tried one; I'm sure other folk will hopefully be able to shed some light. But, as you say, you're taking much less of a punt at that price point. Besides orange is the new black. And it should be good for metal(lic) 😁

Yeah, you can often pick one up in vgc and less than a couple of years old for 30% to 40% discount to new. Very decent active EQ (although some folk prefer just to play them in passive, which is also an option) : 3 band plus variable mid EQ selector switch. And personally I would go for a Premium with their juicy Nord Big Singles over the Standard range every time - but then I like my basses to growl!

It is a fair point about the string spacing. Several of my 5'ers are 18mm spacing, my Spector is 17mm and my two Ibbys are 16.5mm. But in my experience, and I don't have particularly small hands, it doesn't take more than a couple of mins to get into the "zone" and adjust to the string spacing of the bass I'm playing.