Al Krow

Helix Stomp vs Mooer Lofi (bitcrushers / sample rate reduction) 1-0 to Stomp The Mooer (around £50 from Andertons) is a good intro to the world of bit crush / sample rate reduction but has a very limited usable range pretty much with one parameter. The bit crusher (small knob) is not particularly useful - pretty much just adding white noise. The sample rate reduction (big knob) has a 'usable range' going anti-clockwise from 5pm to 1pm (any futher than 12 noon anti-clockwise and you rapidly get into a beyond human hearing frequencies). My own preference being in the 3pm to 4pm range which does add something to the low E and B strings. The Helix provides a whole range of usefully tweakable parameters on its bitcrush effect and it was fun putting together a 'gated' bitcrush on the Stomp that's only triggered when you dig in hard by setting the open and close levels appropriately. Not something you could being to imagine doing on the Mooer.

The Helix Stomp has clearly proved massively popular as an effects pedal as evidenced by the fact the Mini Helix - HX Stomp thread has more followers and had more replies in the space of six months than any other effects thread ever and there are a lot of us who have splashed out on one. But how good is it really? How does it stack up against dedicated pedals? I know several of us have ditched entire pedal boards in favour of just the Stomp and there are plenty of convenience and cost issues for doing just that. Well it's been out for 9 months now and it would be great to hear your unvarnished thoughts on which dedicated pedals the Stomp holds its own against and which pedals don't yet have anything to fear from this one-stop little wonder box. The story so far: 1. HX Stomp 1 vs Mooer Lofi (bitcrushers / sample rate reduction) 0 2. HX Stomp 0 vs Digitec Mosaic (octave up) 1 3. HX Stomp 0 vs Panda FI (synth) 1 4. HX Stomp 0 vs Boss RC 30 (or virtually any decent Looper) 1

I was disappointed to find out that the Ottobit Jr doesn’t have an output volume control to enable us to equalise the volume to clean bypass. Seems to be a common theme with Meris pedals. It’s kinda annoying that you're "expected" to be bringing extra kit in the form of midi control or a separate volume pedal control to the party to be able to use a £300 Meris pedal to its full potential! Anyway I found some solace by spending a bit of quality time with my Helix Stomp this evening. The bitcrush on the Stomp is without doubt a whole level better than the Mooer Lofi, so my Mooer can get swiftly moved on having had a short but sweet stay on the Krow pedal board! It was kinda fun putting together a 'gated' bitcrush on the Stomp that's only triggered when you dig in hard; dead easy to do by setting the open and close levels suitably. Just as an fyi - the bitcrush parameters available to adjust on the Stomp are also a whole level more sophisticated than those available on the Zoom multis (I've got the B1X-4 and previously had both the B3n and the MS-60B). So I guess that we could reasonably add another bitcrush option to our list: Helix Stomp.

Me neither. Get one of those Helixy Stomp gizmo thingies and you can drop tune or change to whatever key you like at the press of footswitch. Or buy a 5 string. Apparently Yammy make these too. And you can then take the key down by a whole 5 semitones and still sound completely authentic 😁

We don't do boring songs.

Haha - this is going to annoy me now that I've you've noticed it and pointed it out to the rest of us. I suspect the easiest option would be to simply strip the paint back to the natural wood on the headstock, although it shouldn't be a biggie to get it resprayed in midnight blue either. But once I've started meddling I know I'm just going to end up going the whole hog...😁

Please do tell me a bit more as to why the Newtones rather than the LaBellas for you?

Cheers BRX - those alternatives from LaBella and Newtone look good.

Ah yes - I see what you mean. It's natural wood on the side and rear of the P34/5 headstock (which is obviously what I see when I'm playing it) but black rather than midnight blue on the front of the headstock. Must admit I hadn't noticed - so good spot by you! And I agree the HS paint colour should really match the body colour, particularly on their flagship passive BB.

Aha - sounds like the one posted by @sykilz a little while back? No need for wood dye IMO, looks great as it is!

I actually prefer the natural wood HS on P35 to a midnight blue one, so I guess it's squarely aimed at the more middle-aged-spread (MAS) gent like myself 😂

And a better toupee as well by the looks of it 😆

Something like this, right?! Luverly! And has the MHS (see earlier post on previous page for list of 3 letter abbreviations!) common to the 414 series. Can't really go wrong with vintage white IMO, other than thinking that VW is much more associated with a cheating diesel German car maker...😂

Dan - you and @bassfan make a very persuasive argument for the B|Amp and I've also been keeping an eye on the Forte HP which is due for release in the UK right about now. Although it's £100 dearer than the Mesa WD-800, the Forte HP pricing somehow seems less of a p*ss take than what Westside Distribution are doing in marking up the US price of the Mesa $999 to £1,299 in the UK; the comparable prices are $1,399 US and £1,399 UK for the Forte HP, which is much more what we might expect allowing for transport, import duties and VAT. There have been some comments that the Forte HP has a responsiveness pretty much on a par with the Aguilar DB751. If that's correct, that is high praise indeed! The B|Amp is a few years old now (I think it came out in 2015) so is anyway due for a refresh; and whilst 350W into my 8ohm Fearless F112 or 8ohm BF SC should be okay, a little more headroom (particularly with the Fearless) would certainly be welcome. The B|Amp and Forte share the same ICE power module. With the upgraded 600W 8ohm power module now available on the Forte HP, it seems to me that it won't be a big stretch for Jim B to similarly share the power module with the B|Amp to come up with a B|Amp HP which he will maybe announce at NAMM Jan 2020? In which case I'll maybe hold on for another half year until the B|Amp HP comes out. Now that really will be one truly awesome amp.

It's all relative. You spent £2k on your bass, so I make that price differential to a Squier about 200 years' worth of potential savings on slightly cheaper strings! But you've almost certainly got a much nicer bass to play (and more comfortable to wear) though for the rest of the 21st century...😂

Welcome It's always perplexed me that string spacing seems to be measured at the bridge. I'd have thought that the 5th or 7th fret would have been the more obvious place and would also then better take account of both the bridge and nut string spacing?

Yes it is! It's a normal bass size, which it didn't need to be given the shorter scale. Weighs in at a not inconsiderable 10.3 lbs on my scales.

Thanks - like you I'll be sticking to rounds on my recently acquired Squier Bass VI, rather than switching to flats. I've become a recent convert to D'Addario EXL nickels for my 5 strings and will maybe give them a try out here too. Does anyone know off hand what the guages of the stock strings provided on the Squier are? Seems to me that the cheapest solution might simply be to replace the low E string with something with a thicker guage!

What replacement strings are you using on your Squier?

Just measured: 72 mm from the mid point of the B string to the mid point of the G string at the bridge (=18 mm spacing). 35 mm for the same measurements at the nut.

Mine's a boring black (pics posted earlier in the thread). Although I did manage to buy a spare grille, from another BCer, which is in garish yellow to remind me of my former Markbass glory days! 😂

One thing I should have mentioned about the NE is that it delivers thunderous, bone rattling LOWS!! Very probably the deepest, meatiest low end of any bass I've come across. Great review, Dan...and don't worry about forgetting to mention the B string - I think I've covered that off in my comment immediately above! 😂

The flip side with steels, being harder than nickel, is that you're going to get greater fret and fret board wear, so it's a bit of a trade off. Having said that, the bespoke KS steels on my KS do sound fantastic!

@mcnach - great post above, thanks! Just picking up one point in your final para: As you've probably guessed from my recent posts on this thread, I think I have found exactly that single 112 in the shape of the Fearless F112. This review by Ed Friedland sums it up really well: His conclusion at 10.15+ completely summarises where I'm currently landing! "This thing will take on a gig that you would never dream you could do with a single 12"...This is top quality stuff. It's not cheap but, man, it's worth it! This is the last cabinet you may ever need."