Osiris

Yes, sound clips and knowing what settings you are using on the Stomp - and the stand alone pedal - would be invaluable as well as helpful for other Basschatters wishing to make similar comparisons.

That's fair enough. I'm not playing metal these days, and when I have in the past it's been old school Black Sabbath using a Precision, but for that type stuff you want the bass sitting underneath everything else. And for that you need the big fat low mids, but unfortunately those juicy low mids seem to be nowhere to be found whenever I go near anything DarkGlass. But, of course, we're effectively talking about different genres of music. Horses for courses.

Indeed I did only try the DG amp for 20-30 minutes or so. However, if you go back and read my original review where I compared it against some of its peers, you'll see that I actually championed the clean channel. I've been playing for more than 30 years and I have a good idea of what I want form an amp and how to get it. With the DG amp I was able to get the clean sound that I go for in a matter seconds, the pre-amp is great and has a versatile and intuitive EQ. I liked it a lot. However, as I said then and am saying again now, I couldn't get a drive sound that I was happy with, then or now. And if I can't get what I want after 20 minutes or more fiddling then whatever I'm using at that time clearly isn't right for me. Imagine trying to problem solve your sound in 20 seconds on the gig if you can't get what you want in 20 minutes without any other distractions!?!? That's why I ended up with the Genzler Magellan, there was much less control (and indeed gain) on the drive channel but it had exactly the sound I want; smooth and silky, mid rich low gain drive - the very antithesis of what DG drive sounds like whenever I use it. But maybe that's all in my podgy fingers? Drive is a very personal thing but I find that even on low gain settings the B7K sound obliterates my low mids and replaces them with shrill high mids and treble. Trying to EQ them back in just doesn't sound good to me ears. But this is just my opinion and my experience, everyone else has their own. If it works for you, that's great. But it doesn't work for me. I like it when I hear it, but it just sounds utter 💩 when I try it. The word on the street is that you prefer comfortable white slacks to daft jumpers

The Helix family, including the baby Stomp, allow you to run parallel signal paths and to use variable crossovers for splitting your signal however you want. There's a ton of drive options including some bass specific ones* and you also have the option to use guitar amps as drives too if you want to. The quality of the modelling is virtually indistinguishable from the real thing to my ear too. * There's even a B7K model, which I find totally authentic if only because I can't get a usable drive sound out of it no matter what I try, but that is exactly the same experience I had with the Dark Glass amp. Loved the clean channel but the drive section isn't for me, but then again I'm not trying to sound like Noddy whatshisname with the daft jumpers

So is this. And it's less that twenty quid.

The black one looks great, IMO. Looks like they've kept the traditional Mustang bridge too in place of the cut down version used on the American Performer Mustang.

A, Mine are Lynx cables but there's plenty of options at different price points. B, why would you want to??? Try it and let us know how you get on.

Err, I'm not sure I understand what you're asking?

It is indeed, both outputs are balanced so as @mr zed says all you need is a TRS to XLR cable, or just run a regular unbalanced cable if it's only a short run to the desk. As far as I understand it, if you have any pedals in the Stomp fx loop you can place them anywhere within the Stomp signal chain, although it's not something that I have personally done. But before you do this it's worth having a look to see what models the Stomp currently has as there are models of both the Ampeg Scrambler and the EHX Big Muff so it might be that you can do away with both of these and just use the Stomp as a stand alone unit.

Seconded.

There's also the Jackson Minion bass which is another 28 and half inch ish scale length, I've had a play on one and it seems a very capable little bass and it has that classic Jackson styling which takes those of us of a certain age back to the 80's with our long hair, skin tight jeans with Peace Sells But Who's Buying blaring out of the cassette deck* *Well it did for me anyway!

Another vote for the Ibanez Mikro, they're 28 and half inch ish scale length, light, very well made with the super skinny neck that Ibanez use on their SR series of basses which are perfect for young hands. They sound great too. They're simply great basses, and not just for the money, they're great basses full stop. I picked up a used one a few months ago for £50 and it's a brilliant little bass, I'd have no qualms gigging it as it is without having to mod it in any way - and until recently I was gigging a couple of Sandbergs before moving over exclusively to playing short scales!

You can run a single amp and cab block (you can mix and match the amps and cabs, you don't have to stick with the default cabs when you change amp, the only thing you can't do is mix and match guitar amps and cabs with bass amps and cabs within the single block) or you can use separate amp, cab or just pre-amp blocks. That will allow you to run a guitar amp into a bass cab, for example. Splitting your signal using a parallel path or a crossover does not eat into your block count, you can insert a parallel route (and mix the signals back together) at any point in the block chain. I use the Stomp and for my needs 6 blocks is more than enough, I have a core sound using 2 blocks; amp & cab in one and a compressor in another, then I use the other blocks for things like drive and the awesome Simple Pitch for detuning. Unless you're running crazy sounds or using loads of effects 6 blocks is plenty for most situations. For HPF you can always use the global EQ and set a low frequency cut off on the cab model. Both will save you having to add one on a dedicated block, although you can do still that if you want to. As for switching options you can use the Snapshot feature (it's worth reading up on this as it's very clever and such a simple idea) and you can also assign multiple blocks to a single foot-switch so you could switch several things on and off at once (or some on and some off) from a single tap. Again, it's all clever stuff! Likewise, I'm ampless on stage too, I use a couple of TRS to XLR cables to run both outputs, one to the desk and another to my wireless IEM transmitter. I picked up a used board for not much money and a Vein Tap double soft touch foot-switch for £25, so you don't need to add too much to the cost of the stomp if you decide to go down that route. Hope this helps

This looks interesting. The Classic Vibe range has a great reputation so hopefully that will carry over into the new Mustang. At that price it's very tempting https://www.kennysmusic.co.uk/squier-classic-vibe-60s-mustangr-bass-laurel-fingerboard-sea-foam-green

He doesn't look terribly happy about it, does he! Maybe it's the yellow drivers clashing with his bling hardware?

Realistically it's more like 20 seconds on Google if you're using sensible search terms But as someone pointed out earlier there are those who won't - or can't be bothered - to look, they're the ones that annoy me, especially if I've already gone to the trouble of putting that information into my ad that they haven't bothered to read. I have actually backed out of a couple of sales like that over the years as I won't - or can't be bothered - to deal with people like that. How long is it before you get a snotty message back saying something along the lines of "it's got a chip in the paint" to which you're obliged to point out that that was clearly started in the ad had they taken a few seconds to read it. I'd rather lose the sale than my sanity.

I'm the same as you in that I do my homework, as you say most of the technical information is available online so not exactly difficult to come by. When listing something for sale I try to put in as much useful detail as I can to try and pre-empt any obvious questions - but that, of course, only works on the assumption that the people actually read the description, and judging by some of the questions I've had over the years many people clearly don't. I usually try to politely say that the answer to their question is in the description. And you can guarantee that is someone asks for the weight of something it will be too heavy regardless. In much the same way that the nut width will never be what they're looking for!

@Clarky The TC MojoMojo has loads of low end available, there's certainly no loss of the bass frequencies with it. It doesn't need a clean blend, they only really come in to their own when you're into the realms of distortion. For a subtle Motown-esque drive you're unlikely to need it.

I do keep looking at those especially now it looks like they're remaking the silver version which looks great, IMO, it makes a change from the endless procession of dreary turdburst finishes . Trouble is I'm a fat, bald middle aged man so I think it's look utterly ridiculous on me.

Another vote for the TC Electronics MojoMojo, despite most of the YouTube videos focusing on running at higher gain settings it does a great, smooth, creamy low gain tone that will give you that Motown/valve amp just breaking up vibe. It doesn't get too gnarly or fizzy like some bass overdrive pedals. It has a 2 band EQ and isn't inherently voiced to have all the useful and useable mids scooped out like some of the offerings from DarkGlass and Tech 21. It easily holds its own against pedals costing many times as much. The full sized TC Spark Booster is also worth a look, despite the name it does also have some low gain drive built in although it doesn't go as far as full on overdrive, but you're not looking for that anyway! Put the voice switch into the mid bump position, dial in bass and treble to taste and job done.

How about a readily available short scale Precision, Jazz or P/J with traditional-ish body shape? I know there have been a few different models over the years like the Fender modern player short scale, and that Polish company that begins with M (that I can't spell or even pronounce) make some but they're very thin on the ground. There's very little choice in the £1000~ish short scale category other than a couple of variations of the Mustang so I think if someone was to fill that gap with a regular production traditional styled model they would sell loads.

@CameronJ I fully agree with that. I'm one of the ones who has had an issue with my stomp but I don't think that that automatically means that they're all ticking time bombs. I've been around the block a few times and realise that these things happen, it's a PITA but in the grand scheme of things it's not the end of the world. I seem to remember reading somewhere (it could have been an unsubstantiated claim online) that the electronics industry considers a failure rate of 5% to be acceptable, if that's true, the people making our consumer electronics expect to have a failure rate of up to 1 in 20 units. But I suspect that in reality the failure rate is lower than that. It happens, unfortunately.