Al Krow

So....how was the walk? 🙂

Thanks for that. I think it represents a step up from HX Stomp in a number of areas: the most critical IMO is its DSP, which can make quite a difference at the margin in terms of the quality of the fx sims or as their sales pitch puts it: "delivering a more detailed, organic sound with richer tonal dimensions" 😊 My understanding (tbc) is that the Ampero II tri-core chip may provide double the DSP of the chip in the Helix units (which were originally made available in June 2015 i.e. over 6 years back, when Helix Floor was launched). HX Effects and HX Stomp have one of the HX chips. Helix Floor and Helix Lite, two. In other words, if I've got that right, we're being offered something with the processing power of Helix Lite in a HX Stomp sized box. the colour display is both larger and has a touch screen, which are both welcome improvements on the HX Stomp and the HX Effects (and indeed over the GT1000 Core); I've seen clips indicating we will be able to "draw" desired EQ curves which is a very neat feature (again tbc); Obviously the software / fx sims available is going to be absolutely key to a great multifx and Helix have got several years quality fx patch development under their bonnet and have ironed out most of the glitches in the software. But Hotone have been building up their library and credentials in this area, too, over several years now. So I think Hotone may well be offering quite a significant upgrade over the HX Stomp at the same price point. Definitely got my interest!

Let us know how you get on and whether he manages to sort it for you. This thread has got me thinking about moving my Thumpintor off my home "creative" board, given that I'm not playing at much volume there, and putting it as an always-on pedal underneath my little gigging HB board which I've recently put together...turns out there's enough clearance for it 👍😄

Yup that does sound faulty. Max at sfx is a good chap - why not get in touch with him and ask him to check whether there's an issue with it. You never know, he may even offer to replace it.

Seen a couple of YT clips of the Ampero II where the initial reaction is that it's being compared favourably with both the HX Stomp and GT 1000 Core, but with more detailed comments to follow...certainly looking forward to finding out exactly where it excels / falls short of these other two market leading mid-range multis which are its direct head-to-head competitors.

I've been super tempted to get this. I've got a sim on my Zoom B1-4 which sounds great, but doesn't manage particularly with low end notes (on low E and B strings) - I'm guessing the real thing won't have any such issues? (And it obviously also has my all time favourite BB moniker 😁) Any significant difference between the Mk1 and Mk2 versions of the BB?

Even better! I mean what better guide of which one to keep vs move on eventually, than the "which one do I reach for when I don't want to get my BB PH** trashed at the next local pub gig?" test?

The 1024 has higher-end pups which are harmonically richer (which I really prefer) vs the 424 which has flatter pups (which plenty others really like / prefer); The 424 pups are 'hotter'; Both have laminated bolt-on necks and body-through stringing; Upgraded body construction on the 1024 (spline jointed body, body through stringing, metal nut) vs 424 (single piece body, normal stringing, plastic nut) - I think I've got that right, although I'm sure someone will be along shortly to correct me if I haven't. I'd actually recommend getting that lovely 1024x in the FS (can't believe it's not shifted yet!) and A/B'ing it with your 424 and then moving on the one you don't want to keep as, whilst I would go for the 1024 every day of the week, others would do the opposite!

I put the question to sfx who make the Thumpinators back in 2019 and received this response which was instructive: "I do not publish the slope of the micro-Thumpinator filter. The only thing I can tell you is that the micro-Thumpinator cuts at more than 12 dB/oct." All the best, Max [sfx] Phil's charts in the post above really do demonstrate how effective it is in reducing unnecessary speaker excursion in the sub-audio range. Be interesting to know if any amp's HPF are comparably good? My guess is that a few may be, particularly where they are an advertised feature, but many are not given the additional component cost etc. Perhaps worth pointing out that it's not either / or - a Thumpinator in series with the amp's HPF should work in tandem to eliminate unwanted low end. I do like where the Thumpinator cut-off is set i.e. just below the low B fundamental on a 5 string. Perfect for us 5 string players - although I appreciate we're going to be much more focussed on the 1st and 2nd harmonics, it's nice to know that the fundamental is still in there!

Interesting from the FS ads that there seems to be very little difference in used prices between the 'Modern Series 2' and the latest 'Modern Series 3' Yamahas, these days. I guess that's down to: - people appreciating the quality of the 1024/5 and 424/5 Series 2 line. No doubt the love shown for them on this thread won't have hurt! - plus the new range came out in 2017 so the difference in price folk are prepared to pay for a 3 or 5 y/o bass probably isn't a lot. - supply and demand: they ain't making any more of the Modern Series 2!

@bubinga5 - see that your love affair with the 434 was a bit of a one night stand! Guess it didn't hit the spot for you? Mind knowing what other basses you've got / had it had some pretty high-end competition to deal with! GLWTS.

Interesting. We currently use the A&H Zed60 14-FX, but its key limitation for us in thinking about going wireless is the lack of sufficient aux-out for individual monitoring. I guess we may face a similar sound quality trade-off if / when we swap over to a RCF M18 i.e. additional functionality of the digital RCF vs the component quality / warmth & musicality of the analogue A&H - perhaps not unexpected given the two units are the approx. the same price so something has to give!

Oh, believe me, @ped has already done that - I'm just getting quietly dried off in a corner.

Damn, you boys are making this increasingly difficult to steer clear of! Looks like this will be getting added to my 2022 wish list.

Congratulations Chris! Glad that amp has gone to an appreciative home and look forward to hearing how it pairs with your BB2 when you've had a chance to put it through its paces.

@AndyTravis I see that you've been wrestling with the age-old conundrum of how to reconcile having a fantastic Spector Euro LX with owning a wonderful Yamaha BB bass. This same problem will eventually lay the basis for the Kobayashi Maru. After giving this a lot of careful thought over much time, @lee650 and I seem to have independently arrived at exactly the same conclusion: there is only one good way to resolve this conundrum, and that's to have one of each.

+1 ^^ definite correlation between nice pics and enthusiasm shown by fellow BC'ers on this thread! Don't tell me she's mates with @skankdelvar's niece? 😄

Will be around £470 to your door from AliExpress (including VAT and Customs handling charge) i.e. going directly head to head with HX Stomp. Be interesting to see if this makes any serious inroads into Stomp sales, given the vast and established fan club Helix has built and / or whether it will nudge Helix to upgrade their own chip set to match the DSP of some of the more recent competition such as this. Although given the worldwide chip shortage that may be a significantly bigger ask than previously!

Apologies for the mini-thread diversion, but the Ampero's successor has just been announced. It does away with the built-in expression pedal for a smaller PB form factor, has a larger screen and seriously upgraded DSP allowing parallel routing of fx. And given your comment about how good the UI already was this is going to be on my wish list for 2022...

Word on the street is that the Ampero II Stomp is due out on 11 Nov.

Most B1-4 patches allow you to have some form of digital blend. Not the same as what a Boss LS2 does by splitting the original analogue signal. But there again an LS2, by itself, costs what a B1-4 does and clean blend is just one of many strings to the B1-4's bow. With the Rat patch on the B1-4, I've added both a significant digital clean component plus a boost to the bass EQ to counter the natural low end suck of the Rat sim. But as @DawnPatroller said, as a starter pedal for your daughter, which will cover a huge amount of ground, the B1-4 sounds like a great choice to me. I suspect you might be stealing this one form her from time to time (particularly if you need a decent headphone amp), just to even the score 😁

That is super useful to know that you can speak to someone when needed, really does add a level of "comfort" when entrusting precious gear to someone else. I've only had good experiences with UPS, too. Sadly the shop round the corner where I could drop things off at has ceased to be a UPS collection point. Shame. Good luck with the new outfit - sounds great! Whereabouts are you guys based? Our guitarist is an 80's obsessive too, I've told him we can include his 'Gold' in the set the moment he gets us a gig. 8 years in and it's still not in the set!

Cheers ped. Understood that there will be no latency with wired heaphones. But I was just wondering if you can go wireless with the Nux with a pair of bluetooth headphones (and if so what the latency would be)?

Hah! I also had a little Vox Bass Amplug a few years back which was ok but not great in terms of sound (you had dial the treble right down to get rid of the hiss) and obviously now have the B1-4. So I guess if I'm after the perfect compromise...😁 Can you bluetooth with the Nux and, if so, what's the latency like? @ped would likely say he's had the Nux and the thing to get is the Boss Waza-Air (Bass)!