Al Krow

Learn to play 6 string bass and then sell all your four and five string basses! 😉

Nice little shoot out, including several Yammys... Yamaha Nathan East (Pensa Preamp) Sadowsky NYC Chambered 21 Fret Sadowsky NYC Chambered 24 Fret Dingwall Combustion (Sadowsky Preamp Mod) Yamaha 1005 Ibanez ATK Yamaha Attitude (4 String with Pensa Preamp) Fender American Deluxe (J Retro Preamp Mod) Fender American Deluxe (Pensa Preamp) Yamaha TRB5P2 (he would like to try!)

For sure, they don't sound worse than they did before. It's just that once you've enjoyed the almost zero latency of e.g. the Helix pitch shift it does mean that the Zoom pitch shift is not something you're able to put up with any longer! It's like coming back from my parents' place where they have a 4K TV and having to settle down in front of our own 10 year old 720p screen! Equally some newer things can sound worse than the older tech...not found any of the modern Mesa D class amps to be in the same league as the now discontinued but still outstanding Mesa M6.

I'd agree with you on analogue pedals. But not when it comes to digital. As a rule of thumb increased DSP capacity + improved software => better emulations. The Helix Stomp is a step up from the Zoom kit in terms of capability (and price!) no question.

The latest generation chipset Zooms are the B3n and the B1-4. Neither have a particularly good looper, although the B1-4's looper is the more easily accessible of the two. The looper recording time on the B1-4 is just 30 seconds and I think the B3n will be similar. If a looper is important for you, then there are plenty of other options, but that's a whole separate thread! The NUX Loop Core is around £60 and provides 6 HOURS of loop recording with 99 memory locations and seems to me to be one of the better value loopers, although I've not had one myself (I've still got my old trusty Boss RC30, which provides 3 hours of recording also with 99 memory slots). Just as an fyi - there is an almost new B1-4 in the classifieds if you're interested. The seller is a really good guy.

@Quatschmacher do you reckon you could reproduce the synth bass at 0.00 to 0.13 and 1.01 to 1.28 on the FI ?!

Interesting you say that - what's your source? I've not come across any other online rumours / gossip that Line6 are releasing a new version of the Stomp. They may of course be doing a software update (which is to be expected from time to time), but that would be making use of the existing hardware.

Agreed that the drive on GK (and the EBS too) have a quite different flavour to the DG. If you do get to A/B them, be very interested in getting your feedback. We obviously share a fair bit of what we're looking for tonally in both having DG M900s and BF cabs!

Hah! Not at all...it was based on this following comment from Stoo.. But it seems to me from your screen grab that all is in order 😊 and that Andertons caused a bunch of confusion by pairing the back of the 800 model with the front of the 1200 model. i.e. the 800 is 800W at 4ohms and lower impedances. @fretmeister what did you think of the comparison on the EBS Reidmar YT video?

That actually makes quite a big difference if the "800" is 500W at 4ohms / 250W at 8ohms and not 800W/400W respectively. In which case I need to be comparing the 1200 with the EBS Reidmar 750 in terms of pricing. [EDIT] BUT it seems from the follow up comment below that isn't the position and the "800" is 800W at 4 ohms and lower impedances.

The GK legacy head and its range of sounds reminded me quite a bit of the EBS Reidmar 750 - anyone else agree? The comparable EBS Reidmar 750 is £549 vs £849 for the GK Legacy 800 head...Hmmm in terms of a back-up amp, I think I know where both my heart AND head are going to be leading me

You would be very welcome to pop round any time

RCFs are excellent. Be interested if the 732A really could go head to head with a Fearless F112 at the low end, given that the Fearless has more low-end punch than most cabs I've come across (including excellent cabs such as the VK 210 LNT and BF SC)? Appreciate we are really focusing on the first harmonic of the low B at 60Hz and above but the 732A does have a low end f response cut-off of 50Hz, so it's not catering even for the open low E fundamental at 40 Hz and, as a FRFR PA speaker designed to give great performance across the full f range, it's not been attuned to bass frequencies in the same way that a bass cab would be.

Useful parallel thread on whether the BF 110 will be enough - the answer I guess will entirely depend on what setting you're using it in. A BF SC should tick the boxes in terms of compact size and also gives a bit more headroom than the BF 110. They're around £500 used, and do come up from time to time, so that should leave you with plenty of budget for any number of excellent amp heads. Be good to know what 5 string you've just got and what sound are you looking for in terms of sound to give you a steer on amp heads? But if you want a compact cab that not only handles the low B but "bosses it" then a Fearless F112 is unsurpassed in terms of being able to do that and all round quality. It's just awesome. However, new, they are around £810 delivered, which is not going to leave you much budget for your amp. There have been a couple sold for around £625 to £650 used but they seem to be less prevalent with BC'ers and therefore tend to come up less often used. In terms of size, the F112 is also another very compact cab, comparison next to my BF SC:

Lots of good practice amp suggestions already. The other combos that are maybe worth checking out are the TC BG 250 series and the Ibanez Promethean 3110, but you could just as easily go down the separates route in which case you have lots of good options. That Ibanez SR 655 PJ is a nice choice btw - been tempted to get one myself! Please do let us know how you get on with it! There's a bunch of Ibby SR fans on this thread if you fancy posting any pics and a review there:

Welcome to BC! If this is your first multifx, I'd recommend also checking out the Zoom B1-4 (or B1X-4 with the expression pedal included, which is the model I have). The free ToneLib PC software makes creating and editing patches very straightforward and fun on Zoom pedals. In terms of value for money, you'll be hard pressed to beat the B1-4. The Helix Stomp is a step up in quality from the Zoom and has a strong BC following. The additional DSP power of the Helix allows for better effect sims than the Zoom B1-4 but it is about 6 times more expensive!

Depending on if you're using a 'flat' pedal board eg a Pedaltrain Metro, you may want to consider either the Ciocks DC5 or the One Spot CS6 instead, so that your PSU can fit snugly underneath. The DC8 is better for angled boards with a bit more space underneath. I've replaced my DC8 with a MXR IsoBrick (oodles of power and 10 outputs) for my big PT2 board and got a One Spot CS6 for my smaller flat Metro 24 board. The key with MB SS is definitely having access to 12V outputs and if you have more than one on a brick you can use a 'current doubler' lead to combine eg 300 mA + 100mA outputs to get you 400 mA. But if I was to give you 'best advice', I'd be saying forget the MB SS, it's now pretty dated 2009 pedal synth tech; sell it and together with the saved cost of a new PSU get yourself an used Panda Future Impact!

Which power bricks have you tried? I agree that it does need 12V for sure, but in my experience it worked fine with around 300mA to 400mA current draw - I managed to power mine quite happily with a Ciocks DC8 power brick.

The volume level on each effect in a patch can be adjusted as required so you can get the same overall volume for each patch. Silent switching between patches.

You can only scroll through different effect patches (up to 50 in banks of 10). So you would need to set up one patch with a chorus and another one without etc.

Sounds like my BF Super Compact can rest easy for a while yet then! You've just saved me £675, what do I owe ya?! 😁

Hah! I'm not arguing with you at all when it comes to upright basses - given the closest I have to any 'experience' on that front is playing a Stagg EUB at home Now that's a principle I can totally agree with! Although I'd qualify that by saying set your 'core' stage tone on either pedal or amp pre, but then it's nice to be able tweak 'on the fly' on a bass preamp if only to cut / reset treble when moving from vintage Motown to more modern rock mid set! And 'less is more' gets my vote too! I've spent most of the past 4 years gigging with just bass-->lead-->amp & cab and it doesn't seem to have caused too many band melt-downs or audience riots 😂 I have, however, become a massive believer in the importance of a great cab being the key aural 'connection' between my fingers & bass and our audiences, hence being very interested in this new offering from AI** (**see what I did there to flip the discussion back on track? 😁 )

Not sure I've come across too many BCers pushing that line? Surely lots of bass players use pedal preamps without bypassing the preamps on their amps? And an active bass EQ is also an additional preamp...

Latin rock jazzy funk! Sounds awesome!! Really looking forward to hearing you guys in action - will be certainly be watching this space. Now about that Bubingagroovebooster pedal...😀

Hey - welcome back to BC! That's actually a lovely looking bass - it can be hard to beat natural wood grain in terms of finish! Rather than upgrading the bridge and preamp, given that you're not a big user of active EQ and how you're using your EQ seems to be exactly how a lot of us with passive Yammy BBs use ours, just wondering whether it would be worth considering getting a used BB 434 or indeed the 424 that's currently in the FS, which are both purely passive?