Al Krow

@hookys6stringbass? You tried contacting Yamaha directly?

@bassjim you've reminded me that 'perfect' can be the enemy of the 'good'. And it's sooooo much better if Scott is 90% right and helps a bunch of bass players than doing nothing; it's a lot easier and of much less value to anyone for me be making criticisms from the comfort of my arm chair. I think the lesson for me here is simply to get my head around who Scott is aiming his videos at (and actually perhaps to remove him from the pedestal I may previously have had him on!).

Haha, so that entire previous thread, which the mods had to close, was an "unreaction"? 😄 And in no way did Scott feel the need to post a 30 min video to justify himself.

Another vote for Alto from someone who has tried them. Excellent, thank you. Hah! The prospect of having something that is half the volume and 25% lighter week-in week-out far outweighs, for me, the prospect of an extra £30 or so resale value in 4 years time, if / when we come upgrade! Besides the RCFs wouldn't quite be a matching set: the 310s I have are the older Mk2. And with happy Alto users crawling out of the woodwork, as they already seem to be doing, they are soon likely to be in demand!

That's helpful - I hadn't read the previous SBL thread or seen his 30 min justification for spouting stuff that with a bit more care and thought wouldn't ruffle the feathers of other experienced bass players. Can't deny he's both successful and entertaining (and I have a massive amount of respect for him on both counts). I will going forward, however, take his 'clickbait' videos with the health warning he himself attaches to them.

I suspect my taste is more in line with yours if your favourites are the B3K and Aggie Agro, but if I happen across an AO pedal on my travels (eg at Wunjos) I'll certainly give it a try.

@thodrikgreat review, thanks! It sounds like the VMT / B3K on the M900 v1 should suffice from a dirt perspective for my needs then. From what you are saying, the AO circuit seems to be a different flavour of DG dirt, but still very much recognisable as a DG dirt in the same family as VMT / B3K.

Am I right in thinking that the drive goes from subtle to fuzz, but the Omega is more of a 'fizzy' drive compared to Alpha at any given drive setting?

Clearly 😛 [0.05] "So in this video we are going to walk through EVERY SINGLE ONE of the big steps that makes up our tone as a bass player" Doesn't get any more comprehensive than that, does it?!

Haha - see earlier in this thread for brief discussion on IEMs. John beat you to the punch on that one!

Alto have recently released their 3 series, with a lot more headroom than the previous 2 series, which our dep guitarist went for in preference over Yamaha and QSC on value for money grounds. If Alto's quality of components is on a par as some of its peers, as Luke is implying (and I have no reason to doubt him!) then maybe RCF, Yamaha and QSC need to start looking over their shoulders

One thought: have you tried putting a compressor before your filters? My signal chain is Thumpinator (i.e. HPF) to clean up low end crud --> TC Spectracomp --> Filters I find that the my filters (particularly the MXR BEF) are significantly more responsive with the compressor before them in the chain. I just wonder whether you would find your Fwonkbeta able to handle slap if you had your compressor at the start to feed it a tighter signal? Be interesting to see if this makes a difference or not.

That's reassuring! i.e. 'odd' in the sense of 'unexpectedly good quality' for what they seem to be charging?

Genuine Q - have you A/B'd the Alto and the RCF or are you going on reputation (and I agree RCF has a great reputation and our PA speakers have never let us down). Reason for asking is that one of the guitarists I work with decided to go FRFR with his full fat Helix. We went to PMT Romford and he A/B'd Alto, Yamaha and QSC. He left with an...Alto (!) - neither of us could hear anything materially better with the two better known / more highly rated brands to justify the additional price. But maybe the price difference is not reflected in sound but in the quality of components and reliability / longevity?

Agreed But for some reason he starts by saying it is a comprehensive guide! Why do that? He does it indirectly by saying that his students complain that their basses are not cutting through the mix and goes on to say that an active bass won't help them to do that. Well, with due respect to Scott, that's bollox: just flick the active switch, give the mids a boost and see if that doesn't make a difference compared to playing the bass passively. It will, believe me. Tbf - he may not be aware of this as he "only ever plays his basses passively". Lol! Ok I'm just kidding, he knows this stuff very well... Anyway, I'm sure you and I have other things to be doing this evening than discussing this one point! Have a good rest of the day Mr Tobe

@Tobe we're at cross purposes here mate. My point is that tone of a preamp in a bass, a pedal and an amp is much more than about EQ settings. Scott is suggesting that tweaking the EQ on an amp can have a massive impact on tone but doing that on a bass makes no difference. He can't have it both ways. EQ is basically EQ, albeit centre points play a part. Let's agree to disagree on this one.

@Merlino - our Fwonkbeta settings are pretty close!

Cheers Cam. On price grounds then a single TS308 is going to win hands down over multiple Helicons. I take your point about individual monitors and would certainly be ideal. But it's a trade off between simplicity and quick set up (particularly for pub gigs) and the ideal.

Errr not quite my reading. Scott says "students come to him all the time and say things like they are not cutting through the mix" [7.05]. And then he dismisses using an active bass to deal with this. Well, actually, that is a BIG reason why I would use an active bass - by boosting the mid EQ to cut through the mix. He can't in the same breath say that the EQ on the bass makes no difference and the EQ on the amp makes things wildly different from a tone perspective. And when referring to "pre-amps" he only refers to the EQ not to whether it is SS, valve etc and the fact that each pre-amp has it's own tone completely irrespective of the EQ. He's conflating and confusing a whole bunch of issues.

One other thought on the TC Helicon getting back to John's initial point is that, unlike the TS308, in an emergency it wouldn't be a back up for the PA speaker (given the 150W power rating). The Alto is only an extra £30 on top of the Helicon, so relatively marginal in terms of benefiting from that additional 'insurance'. Of course, if I do start getting Alto gear I'm going to be totally tempted, and completely without good reason, to get this TS218S as well god help me! 😂 🤣...

Very interesting suggestion, thanks. Love the weight / size! But is it going to be much louder than the Behringer - they are both rated 150W RMS? I think with the full back line behind them, a chunk more volume from the monitor would be welcomed by the singers (and the rest of the band being able to hear them from behind the PA also).

Fair. But, if so, he could (and should) have simply said that this was an introduction rather than imply that this was a comprehensive and full picture. I'm not sure that would have lessened the impact or benefit of this for beginners. I just think folk who are in a position of influence and regarded as the "experts" by beginners (and I have a huge amount of respect of what Scott has managed to achieve), just need to be a mindful about making overblown claims about what they are putting out.

Just upgraded our Allen & Heath small mixer (Zed10fx) for a slightly larger one (Zed14fx), John. We did think briefly about a digital mixer, but decided to stick to a simple quality analogue as we don't have a dedicated sound man and felt there was going to be too much of a learning curve / opportunity for things to go wrong with a more sophisticated digital mixing desk. That and a significantly higher price for a quality digital desk. I've had figures of £2k suggested for going IEM. But from what you're saying that's maybe too high? Realistically, I think that will be something for the next upgrade in 2 to 3 years time rather than something we are ready for just yet. I do like very much the suggestion of no back line, but I did the math and to get rid of a bass cab and putting bass through the PA, we would be looking at either swapping the 310As for 745As to deal with the low end well or alternatively adding a separate woofer / sub woofer. And the weight saving was actually negligible (or actually a greater weight for FRFR only).

Sorry, fair point, I read your post too quickly. The vocalists are pretty happy to just have the vocals going the small B205D (just one), possibly with acoustic guitar, as the drums and back line are audible behind them.

@Quatschmacher "Running a bass through a Moog 1". Some great sounds for sure, no question, BUT.... it's not going to fit: - on my pedal board (or currently anywhere at home for that matter!); - my budget either at a bargain basement £6k!! Kinda feels wrong to be playing it as a bass pedal when it's really a polyphonic keyboard synth? But for a pro, it could well be an amazing piece of kit and I can see why you've fallen in love with it.