Al Krow

It's a great combination. My preference is to roll the treble right off for Motown numbers but dialled back up for the rest. You're in between - which just goes to show the versatility that you can get from this bass! For me, the 'flattened' underside of the neck is super comfortable to play. It took me quite a while to appreciate the solo J bridge pup setting, but I find it's great for cutting through the mix if you've got something that is using a lot of the low B string (e.g. Uptown Funk).

I'm sure that's something we can sort out for you eg I'd be happy to post it on if GAK won't post to IoW. I presume Royal Mail don't charge any extra to post to IoW vs mainland?

Very nice! Must admit my bass 'studio' is the one place I really don't mind having heavier gear.

Ouch!! Really sorry to hear that. Hopefully you managed to sort something out without breaking the flow too much? One of the mods recently shared a tale of woe about his Stomp, too: "Re the Stomp, what a journey …. Power supply issues, freezing up, tone suck. Maybe just coincidence, but I do not trust it anymore. Several crappy moments during gigs." It's obviously a fantastic box of tricks and maybe suffers more wear and tear than other pedals as it gets so much use as an 'always on' pedal and by so many BC'ers. Maybe stories of breakdown are therefore statistically no worse than any other piece of kit. But equally I guess worth having a back up / plan B if you're using a Stomp for live work.

Congrats! Having had several Yammy basses, the BB1025 (same model as yours but without the scratchplate and chrome knobs) is the one I've held on to; as you say, completely holds its own against many more expensive basses, so I'm not surprised at all you're loving it!

Now you're just fishing for compliments! 😁

Haha, yes I know what you mean! Which is partly why I've only been taking just a Zoom B1-4 as a standalone micro board to gigs recently.

I guess the latter is for night time only then? 😁

You're absolutely right (about the number of pedals at least 😁) - I was reading 'Tech 21' and 'YYZ' as being two separate pedals (as I've got a VTDI which is also a T21). I think it was the great bassplayer @bassfanwho said "Al Krow can't count". Probably exactly why I should be hanging up my work shoes and focussing on something more creative? I've just spent a few hours rewiring the larger board tonight as it felt a bit like a bomb-site after I'd filched key pedals off it to put onto the gigging board. Re-doing pedal boards is a strangely satisfying activity, lol! Weird thing is I'm now feeling very much happier with both boards than I was with either before this little rejig. Maybe 'cos they both have a clear purpose in my head now.

Although I make that one pedal too many in your list for my little gigging board, at least you didn't drop your mic 😁 (And nice post btw!)

“Always I have lived with two sounds, one political, one musical” Mikis Theodorakis, freedom fighter, composer. R.I.P.

Well it's been two whole days (plus 1 hour and 30 mins) since a new piece of gear turned up at Krow dungeons. I'm already waaaaaaay ahead of you, buddy! 😂

Maybe I've been fortunate: zero amp failures in 7 years of pretty active use, although I've very been recently persuaded by fellow BC'ers to take a spare amp to function gigs, together with a jack to DI lead to go straight into our PA as a couple of back up options "just in case". Tbf the longest I've had any one particular gigging amp has been 4 years, before wanting to try something else. Older models are generally going to be more prone than newer kit, in terms of wear and tear, and valve (power) amps seem to feature quite a lot in tales of breakdown woes. All my gigging amps have been D-class and were either been bought new or no more than a couple of years old used, which probably explains not having any breakdown issues with any of them so far, touch wood!

Just came across this on eBay and the angled heads are going to provide a useful space saving on my pedal board: DC BLACK CABLE LV POWER SPLITTER 2.5MM - 1 x FEMALE IN/2 x RIGHT ANGLE MALE OUT | eBay Oh and if you want more than one, do it via the "Send me" rather than the "Quantity" and they can then pass on the postage saving to you.

Well paid function gig in Brixton on Sat 9th Oct. Couple of rehearsals in Bethnal Green E2, beforehand. Female lead vox to share lead vocals with our male lead singer.

I totally get where you're coming from and maybe it's just the way my brain works, but I do like to also try to understand why certain things work they do - either from the manual and/or the insights and clarity provided by fellow BC'ers or, in this case, the useful additional snippets provided by Tech21 themselves. Must admit the fact that their cab sim is core to their sound and should be regarded as 'always on' was a really helpful tip and not one I would have gleaned from the manual. @dannybuoygot to the same result by trusting his ears, which is your recommended approach. But I'll be bearing that in mind when using Tech 21 pedals in future. And all part of the fun and pleasure that 10% to 20% that our gear brings to party. The 80% to 90%, of course, being in our fingers and time spent on the fretboard rather than the keyboard (which I have spent far too much time on these past 5 years)! Now back to the task of trawling through StarNow to see if I can find another female dep to cover for the dep who has pulled out of a well paying function gig in early Oct...ugh! Any suggestions welcome - please PM me!

No denying it's a big brick of a thing! I can't (at this stage) confirm or deny whether it makes the cut though...😄

Just wondering whether the boom you were getting on your BB2 could have been dealt with by cutting the bass EQ on your bass or amp a touch, rather than reducing the overall volume? I can't remember now whether you've held onto your BB2 or now moved it on?

Well you and @bassfan currently definitely have the two best guesses 😁and you're ahead as you've had a very decent stab at a sensible signal chain. My bad - I originally incorrectly posted it was 5 pedals plus the B1-4. It's actually 5 including the B1-4. So which pedal are you going to lose from your selection?

I really don't recall you saying that, last time we were in the pub? 😁

A BC'er very recently twisted my arm and persuaded me to upgrade my Boss WL-20 wireless to a Shure DLXD6 wireless. In terms of pedals for gigging (we play standard pop/rock covers) I've been happily just using my Zoom B1-4 as a 'standalone' micro pedal board since the end of lockdown. But the Shure is a much heftier beast than the WL-20 and it made sense to set it up on a small 'gigging' board with the Zoom B1-4 and a few other pedals and keep the rest on the larger 'creative home use' board. With a bit of pedalboard tetris, I can fit 4 other pedals onto my smaller board together with the B1-4 and the Shure. (Alas, sadly not quite enough space for a Thumpinator hpf underneath, so that will need to remain on the larger board and I'll make do with an hpf effect on the B1-4). But it got me thinking - which of my pedals would I really want/like to use for gigging? Proved to be quite an interesting and useful exercise! My starting point is these two boards and a recently acquired Tech 21 YYZ: For a bit of fun if you fancy it(!), have a guess which 4 pedals I decided to "save from the fire" besides my Zoom B1-4? Bonus points for working out the signal chain I've used. Please also feel free to share which 5 pedals you would have gone for (no prizes for that - lol!), what order you would put them and why. I'll limit any comments to your personal choices so as not to give the game away! Assuming mods are ok with this - £10 prize (PayPal f&f) for whoever is closest. Closing date : Sunday 12th.

Yes indeed - and sometimes (more often than not in fact!) there's no right (or wrong) answer because a particular pedal is not for you, whatever setting you have it on! I suspect pretty much every bass player has moved on far more pedals, over the years, than they have currently on their boards. All part of the fun, particularly when you can buy used from a trusted cabal like we have on BC, without suffering much, if any, financial loss.

Thanks @Tech21NYC - I've now had chance to play using the cab sim on the VTDI now and found the following: In line with your comments, the cab sim provides a more rounded / 'pleasant' tone than when not engaged. No cab sim = harsher more brittle tone I associate with taking a DI out from an amp without the coloration provided by the cab speaker. Previously I had 'bite' always-on, but going forward it will be the cab sim always-on and the 'bite' engaged just for cleaner tones with the 'bite' off for dirtier drive settings; the bite is effectively doubling-up the treble enhancement of the distortion taking it into 'sharp' / RAT territory (which could, of course, be what's wanted on occasion). The overall impact of engaging the cab sim and disengaging bite on dirt settings gives a fuller, warmer drive that I like a lot! This little exchange has been really useful and not something I would have easily gleaned from the manual, and further enhanced the high regard I hold the VTDI in and the uses I will be putting it to! The irony of this little side-track discussion is that the YYZ doesn't have either the 'bite' switch or a cab-sim and from my perspective it's just had the bar raised in terms of competing with its VTDI sibling. But I'm still very much looking forward to putting it through its paces.

Yeah I've gone through 25 basses of which I still own 11, but I'm not and never will be Peter Hook! So I'm still with Mr Beserk on this one. Just put the thing on a wall - I mean that's all a fan is ever going to do - it won't be getting used down the Dog'n'Duck!

I can't imagine he's short of a bob or two? I'm with @gobasserk on this one! Maybe he does genuinely prefer his new signature bass to his old 1200S?!