Osiris

Send Calsim your Promethean.

I bought a set of these around 3 years ago and they've been great. Someone mentioned earlier about them going brittle, mine haven't. When they're new they're a little stiff but that's reassuring as it means they're not going to ping off unless they're under a lot of force. I've had one that has got a small crack developing from repeatedly taking it on and off, I only do that as the big thick strap that its holding in place needs to be removed before putting the bass in its case, but the crack is still small and the washer still usable although I'm keeping an eye on it. But in its lifetime it must have been on and off the bass at least 100 times.

Wet wipes may well work. I once used some to clean some molten tar off the car bonnet that some kids had chucked on there on a stinking hot day. They cleared it all off without affecting the paintwork.

Looks like an interesting addition to the choices of 30" short scales. Only problem for me being that I struggle with that nasal Stingray sound. Might have to try one just to rule it out.

I've gone through the same process of having expensive gear but then finding that I'm just as happy with cheap and cheerful gear. 3 years ago my 4 gigging basses would have cost between £1000 and £1500 new, 3 of which were bought new. Then a wrist injury forced me to move exclusively to short scale basses. A few months of chopping and changing later and I now have 4 short scales that I was gigging before leaving my band a few weeks ago. Of these the cheapest was a used Ibanez that I paid £50 for (and it's a cracking bass in its own right too) and the most expensive was around £600. But my favourite bass at the minute, indeed one of my favourite basses I've ever owned in more than 30 years of playing cost less than £150 new. Admittedly it's had some hardware upgrades and new pots, but even they don't add up to more than another £50 on top. The neck just feels right in my hands, the sound is great, it resonates brilliantly and best of all I found that I wasn't precious about it on more rowdy gigs. This is a bass that gives me as much, if not more, of a buzz than basses costing 10 times as much. And there's an additional satisfaction from playing it and getting disapproving looks from the cork sniffing muso brigade! These days with precision machinery and manufacturing techniques there are some truly fantastic inexpensive basses around, stuff that performs as well as basses costing many times more. Obviously there's still some lower quality basses at the bottom end of the market, but over the years I've played a few duffers with 4 figure price tags too. Which leads me to conclude that the price of a bass is only ever indicative of its cost. Nothing more. There's good and bad at all price points.

Try both and see which you prefer, there's no right or wrong answer but generally speaking compression is usually - but not always - before any other effects. If you have it after the Battalion you can use the 4 band EQ to boost certain frequencies to be squashed more than the others which can give some interesting tones. With compression after the EQ you're obviously then shaping the already compressed signal.

Steve just bought a pedal from me and it was an easy, hassle free transaction. He's fast and friendly to respond to comms and he paid instantly once we'd agreed the sale. I'm more than happy to deal with him again and to recommend him to other Basschatters.

I don't know why he does it. 😁

The TC Electronic Mojo Mojo is a great little drive pedal that doesn't cost a fortune, I found it great for a mild drive sound at lower gain settings. It's got bass and treble controls to help fine tune the tone although I found the pedal generally a little dark sounding but in a good way. As for the Boss ODB-3, I found it fizzy and nasty!

I'm not sure if you're being serious or just trolling, either way this should help; https://theproaudiofiles.com/video/compressor-threshold-explained/

So, err, exactly like a compressor then

I don't slap myself but I do like to have a compressor of sorts on when I'm playing. I know you said that you don't want anything on the floor but a very good, cheap and cheerful way to start your compression journey would be the Boss LMB-3. Assuming you use a regular amp head you could have the pedal on top on the amp to keep it off the floor? Funnily enough it's not my first recommendation for the Boss today! On another thread here I'd written earlier; You can't go wrong with the Boss LMB-3, they're cheap as chips and pretty much indestructible. I've had 2 or 3 over the years and whenever I've sold one I've ended up buying another down the line! It's actually an excellent compressor too and has an infinity to 1 setting on the ratio control for limiting duties. The enhance feature is a bit noisy but usable at lower settings if you want that ultra high end thing. The pedal itself imparts a slightly scooped mid range when engaged so it's not really transparent but it's quite a pleasing sound in its own right. With the inherent mid scoop and the enhancer control to add some ultra highs to the sound it looks like the Boss was designed with slappers in mind. Might be worth a look, there's usually a few used ones on eBay for not much money.

You can't go wrong with the Boss LMB-3, they're cheap as chips and pretty much indestructible. I've had 2 or 3 over the years and whenever I've sold one I've ended up buying another down the line! It's actually an excellent compressor too and has an infinity to 1 setting on the ratio control for limiting duties. The enhance feature is a bit noisy but usable at lower settings if you want that ultra high end thing. The pedal itself imparts a slightly scooped mid range when engaged so it's not really transparent but it's quite a pleasing sound in its own right.

This just popped up on my phone, thought it might be of interest to some of you. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/guitar-maker-fined-4-5m-for-illegally-preventing-price-discounts

Just to confuse things I went the opposite direction to Lozz! I played regular scale basses for more than 30 years before moving over to short scales - including a Mustang. Being a bit of a short ar5e I find short scales basses so much more comfortable to the point that I now wonder how I managed to struggle with standard scale basses for so long, whenever I pick one up now after playing short scales exclusively for a couple of years, they just feel big and cumbersome. But there's no right or wrong answer, whatever works for you. A short scale is probably easier to learn on but you may find that by the time you're playing with others and gigging you may prefer a standard scale.

That's a real stunner, Frank.

Hope this helps.

Don't. Just don't ever mention the C word to @Al Krow. It always ends in tears. 😃

One of my favourite basses ever is my Ibanez Talman short scale, they're only £150 new, cheaper than a set of boutique pickups! Admittedly it's had some minor hardware upgrades - new pots, £10 eBay special high mass bridge, Wilkinson machine heads and I swapped out the pickups for a set from my old Peavey Zodiac. But the upgrades cost no more £50 in total. It's been shielded and I've rolled the fretboard edges. It's comfortable to play with its distinctly un-Ibanez chunky neck, but it sounds great, resonates as good as anything ten times the cost and it just looks cool, a bit like a Jaguar but with a daft shaped head stock. The only gripe is that it's a bit heavy but it's my go to bass. I prefer it over a number of basses that I've owned that cost many times as much but the Talman just feels right in my hands.

As @dave_bass5 says the TC Spark Booster (the big one, not the mini) probably isn't the best choice as a pre-amp, although it might well do what you want. But it does do a nice, smooth low gain drive though if that's your thing, especially with the mid boost on. Another contender in the same price range as the Ampeg and MXR is the Fender Downtown express. It's a pre-amp, drive, DI and usable compressor all in one box for well under £150. Having used the usual DarkGlass and Tech 21 suspects in the past I personally prefer the voicing of the Fender, it doesn't have that massively compressed sound of some of the Tech 21 stuff and it doesn't have the mid range canyon of some of the DG pedals. But it does have a very flexible 3 band EQ, unfortunately not semi parametric like the MXR, a drive section voiced to be more mid range focused so about as different to an Ampeg/BDDI or B3K as you're going to get (but that works perfectly for me) that does a decent low gain warmth through to balls out distortion. Then there's the (what sounds like an optical) compressor too, which smooths things out nicely. I like it a lot. Might be worth a look, perhaps?

Looks like there's 3 different variants of the Gnome including a (theoretically) giggable 300 watt version. Any ideas what the USB interface is for, plugging directly into a DAW for recording?

Bare with me while I toot another couple of lines of jama. Snifffffffffff Right then, where were we? As you've probably gathered compression is a widely misunderstood and divisive subject. Compression is best understood in the context of a band mix, if you're not currently playing with other musicians you'll get a similar experience playing along to some music. But before you start playing around with the various compression models on the B3 (which I think are a great place to start) I'd strongly recommend doing some homework on the subject, get an understanding of what the various controls do and how they affect your dynamics. I can't stress this enough, as I think ignorance is why so many people don't 'get' compression. That's not meant to be a condescending put down by the way, it's just I've seen many erroneous arguments against the subject that, to me, appear to be based on misunderstanding. Anyway, the various comp models on the B3; Each one has a few different parameters rather than the full compliment of controls you'll see on a studio unit. But this is a good thing when starting out as it keeps things simple. With the understanding you've picked up from your homework start having a play and try to get something that works for you. Each model offers a different type of compression, neither one is necessarily better than the other, they're just different. The OptComp models the squishy characteristics of an optical compressor. The DComp does the less than subtle DynaComp flattening of the signal. Far from subtle but useful as an obvious effect. The MComp is one of my favourites, fat and controlled. I like this a lot. Dual Comp is aimed at slappers. Your reputation precedes you. Separate control over high and low bands with an adjustable crossover. Too much of a void in the mids for my taste. 160 Comp does that big, fat dbx style compression. A little dark sounding perhaps but the weight it adds to the rest of the signal makes me do a little wee. My favourite model, I gigged with this for a couple of years on my MS-60B. Have a play and see what works for you.

Getting your B's and D's mixed up again?