Al Krow

I'm particularly interested in what parallel set ups folk are using with their pedals (if they have gone down the parallel route) and what improvements in sound they are getting by going parallel over keeping things in series.

The piece of kit that @stewblack has recently got, looks really neat, compact, won't break the bank and has ease of live use with stomp buttons.

Excellent TB'er review of the Becos Stella: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/testing-compressors-cali-smoothie-empress-diamond-keeley-fea-darkglass-doc-lloyd-jhs-more.1345638/page-88#post-22491233

Classic series pedal board order Shared this another forum, but reposting in case it's of interest to folk here. There won't be a single 'right' answer, but the general order I try to follow is : Like to have as much clean to bite on so place at / near the start: BASS --> Tuner --> HPF --> Compressor --> Octave --> Mid board: Synths --> Distortion (drive / fuzz) --> Better with something complex to bite on: Filter (for funk) --> Want to act on the whole of your 'effected' signal: Modulation (chorus / flange / phaser) --> Delay / Reverb --> Preamp(s) --> AMP Parallel routing does potentially offer a whole bunch of additional flexibility.

Cheers! Anderton's reviews are not bad, but don't always get it right e.g. describe the Korean Legend as 'neck through' when it's a set neck (so Mangotango you're completely justified in getting this mixed up, when the retailers who should know better get it wrong!) Here is said video in case of wider interest. They deal with my very question (at 6.40) with regard to the pups - Aggies more rounded / versatile; EMG's have the 'Spector Tone' and more punch particularly at treble end. I'm definitely leaning to PJ Euro LX with EMGs (10.35) over the Legend with its Aggies (8.10), but how much of that is down to PJ vs whatever soapbar setting they had on the Aggies (likely to be single J or dual coil humbucker). Be interesting to see if folk agree? Amusing that they were using a MB LM3 and DG M900 heads respectively, simply 'cos these have been my gigging amp heads to date.

Well not to be out done, we've played Wembley too! (Ok it was more like the Underground in our case 😂)

Cheers! Is that a Warwick thumb doing the honours? Been a while since I've been into anything quite that heavy (drummer in my covers band real passion is death metal, which I'll have to 'fess has never been for me) but I thought that was just great! Must have been awesome playing in front of such a large crowd; and I love the fact that you pull off such a big sound as a three piece and are so tight!

Taking a Wal to a pub gig - good for you! (And you're defo a braver man than me Mr R! 😀

Guys - any views on the Aggie pups & Aggie OBP-2 pre vs EMG pups & Spector Tonepump pre? Both are used on e.g. the Spector Euro LX basses and wondering if folk had a strong preference for either?

But the Pale Waves were keeping up a tradition of quality bands hailing from Manchester, right? Need to stop being such a positive old git, I know... 😄

Just had a little play with the tape saturation ('TS') and stumbled across a useful additional volume control over any 'dry' signal. For folk who are not familiar with the detail; - TS affects the dry (uncompressed) signal only; - the pedal allows you to blend dry and wet (compressed) signals to taste; - the vol control for the tape saturation also provides an independent volume control for the dry signal (i.e. works whether the tape saturation is set at nil or on full); - can add a nice underlying bit of 'dirt' to provide additional harmonic complexity if desired. Or set to fully dry and TS to max and it's effectively a dirt pedal. A cool feature.

Let's see if we can get @Opticaleye back on the case! He's posted some decent clips already and is using tape saturation as part of his sound! I suspect I'm much more likely to be using a full on dirt rather than something subtle like tape saturation. I'll give it try out, of course, but I'm guessing it's effect is going to be akin to having a 'touch of dirt' on a preamp such as the DG M900 which, tbf, I'm coming round to!

I likely won't have found the 'on' switch in that time. Be realistic, give it three...😀

What I would say in passing though, is that: the additional level of control (particularly attack / release and side chain filter) on the Stella does seem to add quite a bit over the Becos Mini and I'm really glad I went for this fully featured version; two big thumbs up from opticaleye (in particular) and less importantly from a numpty compressor user like me, but who is already sensing that this is the best comp he's managed to get his hands on (and I've been through a fair few, as you know krispn!) ... will hopefully be an encouragement to others to check this rather excellent piece of kit out.

Well I'm kicking off with these, although I suspect will only be of interest to other Becos Stella owners, of which there is just one other BCer as far I'm aware! (1) Comp at 9 o'clock = 2:1 light touch compression (2) Threshold at 10 o'clock (3) Gain set to ensure no increase or decrease in volume when engaged (although less of an issue if this becomes always on) (4) Auto Fast - for attack / release (5) Soft knee (vs hard knee => which is more suitable for limiting rather than 'musical' compression) (6) EQ pivot set 'Low' at 330Hz for bass (vs High / 1kHz for guitar) (7) Side Chain Filter ('SCF') set 'Low' (but not all the way to 'Deep') giving a more fulsome low end. (8) 60 wet / 40 dry (9) Saturation and dry level - currently off / min [I should maybe boost the clean dry level a touch] That may change over time and with experience!

See if you can join a 'hobby band' that just like to meet up to jam and have a beer? Maybe trickier where you currently are based to find like minded musos, but worth a try? Personally I love gigging, but a hobby band is what the guitarist in one of my covers bands does for his other musical outlet. They also write and record stuff - so it's a different focus but one that they all really enjoy.

Discovering bass was a passion later in life but being too old / inexperienced to ever have a hope of getting through an audition, I took the leap of forming a band. That was 5 years ago and we're now playing weddings as well as pubs. Loving the fact that I've managed to keep up with a talented bunch of musicians; that all of the existing line-up have been together for over 3 years now and that bass is still my passion!

Brilliant! Any video clips?

Wonderful story. Glad you left that to post 42 'cos if that had been the first reply we would have seriously needed to think about closing the thread - gonna be very hard to top that!

I've currently got all the pedals on my board set up in series. Simples! How about you guys? Any of you using any of your pedals in parallel loops on your boards (or possibly even in your amp's fx loop)? If so, be really interested in your thinking behind this and what improvement to the sound it's delivering; what pedals you have in parallel and what you've left in series and what your board set-ups look like (pics very welcome!)? Are you just using the effects loops on existing pedals or have a separate dedicated pedal (e.g. a Boss LS2)? Cheers, AK

Any tips on what you're using for Attack and Release settings / timings? I'm thinking of simply using the Auto Fast setting and avoiding needing to think about this too much to start with(!) but I'd be really interested to know what you have settled on as your default? With regard to the other selector switch settings, I've gone for the more 'obvious' choices of: (i) soft knee (vs hard knee => which is more suitable for limiting rather than 'musical' compression) (ii) EQ pivot set Low at 330Hz for bass (vs High / 1kHz for guitar) (iii) Side Chain Filter set Low giving a more fulsome low end. I'm guessing you may landed on something similar for these?

I did indeed...but now I know you've got pdf editing software I'll be getting you to do the updates in future 😁 I've also just posted it on the OP for ease of reference, so folk don't have to rummage about to find it.

Whilst the other half will merrily still be gigging with their basses direct --> amp + cab (bit like yours truly) still eh? 😉

Here you go buddy, just for you... L6 HX effects & models (2.80).pdf

I think there were a few more added with firmware release 2.81 but Cato's lists are kinda 98% there / very useful thanks.