Al Krow

I put together my first pedal only a couple of years' back, having been pretty much a pedal agnostic before then. The rabbit hole was a pretty steep one! 😂 I've bought and sold a LOT of pedals since then, 55 to be precise! So it's kinda interesting to look back on my first board and how it compares to my current one. First pedal board Current pedal board What about you guys - what's your pedal board journey been like and what's the single biggest thing you've learned along the way? What did your first pedal board look like and how does it compare to your current board?

Bit cheeky my posting two updates in one month...but having found a decent bitcrush effect on the HX Stomp, I've been able to move on the Mooer Lofi and as I've managed to get round to ordering a reverse polarity cable to connect up a Smoothhound wireless to my PSU that's been able to get onto my board in place of the Mooer. One other nice thing to discover is that the 3Leaf GR2 is 'officially' capable of handling 18V, so I've been able to make use of one of the 18V on my MXR IsoBrick reducing the number of outputs that need to be shared. The Stomp is powered with it's own supply and the remaining 12 units from the 10 output Isobrick which is under the board and which still has juice to spare. Ok, now need to get my head around using midi 😂 Gonna be brave and post what the underside looks like too

Yeah - presets on any pedal that offers multiple setting options ("quasi multifx"), such as this, is a real plus.

I've not had one myself, but the TCE Spark Booster is getting a lot of love on this thread with three BC'ers placing orders for one to take advantage of the sale price at GuitarGuitar - just £39 (normally £59): A couple of comments to pull out from that thread, which suggests that it could also hit the mark (provide the spark? 😁) for what you're after:

Totally agree. It's a classier and more capable pedal, with two interacting drives, than some of the others e.g. the very capable Mojomojo (which I have also previously had on my board) but, as you say, it's a LOT more spendy! Low end is all too often lost with a lot of drive pedals and clean blend becomes essential if you're not going to end up sounding toppy. But obviously leaves your low end not benefiting from the drive. What is great about the Grizzly, and Mojomojo too, is that they both retain bottom end very well. In the case of the Grizzly it does this better than any drive pedal I've come across which allows it to dispense entirely with the need for a clean blend!

@fretmeister and I both have VMT on our DG M900s and @Kev is a pretty BIG DG pedal fan. However, I tend to use my VMT more for out and out drive rather than for a valvey tone, but the other two may have more insight on whether it can be used for what you're after. My view, for what it's worth, is that DG fx, even the VMT despite its 'vintage' moniker, have a trademark modern bright / treble sound, whereas 60s / Motown is much more high-end-rolled-off. This thread might also be useful... Final thought, is this the kinda sound you're looking for?

This is freakin cool! You get to audition all 121 effects on line with the ability add in delay, reverb, different the 'depth' settings and vary between bridge and nec pup. Well done Boss! Boss SY-1

Glad that the ability to play a bit faster with closer string spacings is a 'thing' and not just me spouting off! But it does conceptually make good sense as you have (marginally) less distance to move your fingers or plectrum.

It does indeed look good and is gonna be a million times easier to use than some of the current and prospective market leaders e.g. FI or Source Audio C4 which both require PC editing software to get the best out of them. Some key features which jumped out at me: The SY-1 boasts 121 sounds to play with across 11 types with 11 variations of each. Polyphonic => you can play chords (as well as single notes) without glitching Apparently minimal latency (this is fundamental to a good synth and the key area that I am nervous about with the forthcoming SA C4) But it's going to come with a feature laden price...£175 still that's not outrageous compared to many dedicated pedals (e.g. Darkglass, Aguilar, 3Leaf etc) I do need to see what I can do with my FI when the 3.0 editor is out and explore the synth features on my HX Stomp first, but I'm definitely tempted and promise not have sold mine before you've even bought yours Woody! 😁

HX Stomp (and Floor) patches for download Recently spotted this link on the TB forum: This chap, Jon Willis, created a website for all of his presets which he has made publicly available for free download: http://drtonelab.com/ I'm particularly interested in what he has managed to do on synth - 4 patches uploaded. He apparently has a good fBook page too. [NB I've not checked for viruses etc on his website so any downloads are at your own risk, but someone in the bass community would hopefully have spotted if there were any!]

Awww...TJ please do NOT get me started on only us bass players ever paying attention to our bass tone and everyone else being completely oblivious to it!! In your case it sounds like not even the bass player is paying any attention to his live tone 😁😂🤣

That's really very kind Luke. If only I didn't already have a B1X-4 (which has the same chip and effects patches as the B3n) I would be finding your offer almost irresistible. Right best head off and go fiddle about on my Stomp...

now, now... 😂

Split that over all Barefaced cab owners and we'll be good 😂

These?

Can you get black staples?

Ah Copydex - is that still around?! Excellent - must get me some!

Yammy BBs & J pup The J pup tends to be viewed as the poor cousin on Yammy BBs and rarely gets solo'd from what most folk have said. I'm 'with the crowd' on this and typically use the P or a blended PJ on my BBs when playing clean. Was messing about with a couple of drive pedals today, and frankly the solo J with a drive pedal blows the P and PJ settings out the water in terms of delivering a meaty drive with great sustain. Guessing this may already be familiar to BB Land - but it was a very pleasant surprise for me and yet another facet to the capabilities of the Yammy BB.

Narrower string spacing potentially allows for marginally faster right hand technique and more importantly puts less strain on the left hand, not least by allowing for slimmer necks whilst also avoiding neck dive. These are both more of an issue with 5'ers. For me, my Ibby SRs with 16.5mm bridge string spacing are an absolute delight to play. But I agree that is at narrow end of what's out there. 18.0mm seems to be a widely accepted compromise between string spacing and not having ridiculously bulky necks. A shout out to the necks on Yammy BB 5ers, they are the opposite of baseball bats and really are very comfortable to play.

Oh dear it's not been a good 'PR' couple of weeks for the Stomp has it? And just when I am finally getting to grips with and appreciating what a good effects-patch software editor HX Edit is! I was even thinking of maybe trading in my little Zoom B1X-4, but sounds like it would useful to keep that around as a back up.

Ibanez BTB? My experience of the Ibanez SR Premium range has been nothing but positive, so I suspect that the BTBs will also be very good!

Haha - well only if folk want to! You don't have to follow this thread matey 😋 But I am genuinely interested to find out what folk think the Stomp does well and what it's not so good at. And who knows, some others might be interested in whether a Stomp is going to cut it for the particular effects they are looking for it to do?

2. Helix Stomp vs Digitec Mosaic (octave up) 1-0 to Mosaic On octave up the Stomp has a slightly clanky latency which feels pretty tinny. The Mosaic is noticeably 'smoother' and provides a very usable octave up. I was kinda hoping for better here on the part of the Stomp as it managed to get a pretty decent octave down: tracks tightly to around a low F# with minimal latency. Tonally a bit bland, but I may be able to sort that separately. Doubt it will ever do an OC2, although I've since been advised to check out the Stomp's square wave capability in that regard. But for thickening up the bass line, which is what I've pretty much used oct down for, it'll do just fine. So no need to splash out on a dedicated octave down pedal for my purposes. However, the Mosaic is definitely staying on my board for now! (sorry @bassfan )