Osiris

Compression is topic that regularly crops up on here and there is great deal of misunderstanding about it as well as a few urban myths associated with their use. You really need to understand what a compressor does and how the various controls available to you do in order to get the best out of them. When used correctly they can transparently smooth your dynamics, or add some controlled squash, make the bass big, consistent and punchy sounding or even add some pleasing tonal colouration to your sound. When used incorrectly they invariably choke the living daylights out of your sound. If you want to get the best out of a compressor it's definitely worth the time and effort to do your homework first. One of the biggest misconceptions about compression is that people expect to hear it as an obvious effect like a distortion or a delay. You can set it to be an obvious effect but that is almost always going to be detrimental to your sound. Some folks set it up so they can hear it squashing their sound but by then you have usually gone too far. Less is more with effective compression. My advice would be to first and foremost do your homework. Read up online and see what the controls do and how people are using them. You might be better off trawling the sound engineering type forums rather than basschat if you want a more objective opinion on the subject!!! And it'd be wise to avoid any opinions that contain the usual gripes about compression killing your dynamics (which it does if you don't what to do with one) and the reasoning that some folks can completely control their dynamics with their fingers (which is to misunderstand the effective use of compression). As part of your homework, a great and cheap way to experiment with several different compressor types is to get the Zoom MS-60B multi-fx pedal. This unit has several different compression models in, each with their own flavour and all usable in their own way, my personal favourite is the model of the dbx 160 which is adds punch and a touch of darkness to your tone - just how I like it! Have a play with them and see what they individually offer. Play with extreme settings as well as more subtle ones in order to get a feel for what they are doing to your signal. Compression is usually more apparent in a band mix and at a reasonable volume than just messing about at home, so if you play with other musicians, take that opportunity to apply what you have learnt and use it in a real world situation. If you don't want to do your homework buy the TC Electronics Spectracomp as it does all the thinking for you and gives you a great, versatile compression pedal for a modest outlay!

I should probably point out that I don't really use any effects myself other than occasional low gain drive, always on compression and high pass filtering. All through the front end and I've never had any issues doing it this way. By all means experiment to see what works for you but my personal experience has taught me to leave the sexy and flashy effects to the guitarists and keys player, it might sound boring but I've found them to be mostly detrimental to the bass in a band situation. But see what works for you!

Do you actually need an effects loop? Can't you just run any effects into the front end?

The fan is dead silent to the point I wondered if it actually works - and it does! Even after playing a 2 and a half hour set with a 4 ohm load, the amps have never been any warmer than ambient temperature. So efficient as well as silent.

No problem. It's definitely not Niagara falls noisy! It's not totally noise free either, but then again I'm yet to hear an amp that is completely silent when pushed. But used under normal circumstances the background noise is not at all noticeable in my experience.

Thank you @TonyMontana I've not had a problem with background noise or hiss with either of my Magellans. I should probably say that I tend to favour passive basses and use a relatively flat EQ setting and I'm not one for using super bright sounds. My cab has a horn but I tend to keep it turned down low, around 20-30% of full whack. The usual caveats will apply though depending on what else is going on in your signal chain; if you use an active bass with the treble boosted, apply compression with a high threshold, have a bass that isn't particularly well shielded, use loads of pedals including additional pre-amps and or distortion, have a cab with a cheap horn etc then obviously you risk introducing additional noise into your rig. But the amp itself does not have any additional inherent noise that is obtrusive. There is a very slight touch of background noise if you turn it up very loud as you will get with any amplifier but at sensible volumes I don't notice it and I doubt if anyone else would either. There's no noticeable noise or hiss through the DI either. Hope this helps!

But that's not the point of what I am trying to understand! I do occasionally read these type of threads but what I want to understand is when someone states that Product X is the best bass/amp/pedal/whatever few people actually say why, or explain how they arrived at that conclusion. And that's what I want to understand. Maybe it's the scientist in me but when someone makes a claim I want to see the evidence in support of that claim, to test the validity of it. Otherwise it's just an unsubstantiated opinion. As Christopher Hitchens once said "What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence". As I said in my previous post, I have no doubt that the two amps you have chosen are great. But why those particular two? What were your selection criteria? Why didn't you include some of the other suggestions in this thread? How and why are these the best? I'm not trying to be difficult, no more than usual anyway, and I appreciate that this is all a bit of fun and that maybe I'm just over thinking the whole thing. I just want to know why and understand some of the claims. I'll just sign of by saying that the Mini Metro is the greatest car of all time.

I'm always slightly bemused by these 'best of ...' type threads. How exactly do you define 'the best'? What criteria and metrics are being used? I've no doubt that the 2 amps in the original post are superb, but are they 'the best' because they among the most expensive class D's available? Or because they have an impressive and unique feature set? Or for some other reason? Some specifications have been quoted as have some of their unique features, but no-one yet seems to have mentioned their respective tones and flexibility, which for me personally help me decide what 'the best' amp is - for me. For example, I was tried out the Mesa Subway D800 (I'm guessing an amp that shares much of its DNA with the WD800) and it was a fantastic sounding amp, but I found it very limited in what it could do. It went from shouty and aggressive to REALLY SHOUTY AND AGGRESSIVE. Now, I'm quite partial to a shouty and aggressive bass tone, but at other times I want something more subdued, but I wasn't able to coax that from the D800. In the end I plumped for the Genzler Magellan because that could do shouty and aggressive too, but it could also do subtle and mellow, warm and vintage, bright and funky etc, and it could do all these with the conviction that the Mesa delivered its aggression. Out of the 2 the Genzler was the 'better' amp for me because it was way more versatile. But if I was playing in a punk band the Mesa would likely have been 'better' for my needs. One mans' treasure and all that.

@Cuzzie, I've already started digging a hole under my patio for you.

Yesterday Graeme and I met for a dodgy deal in a motorway services where I purchased a Mustang bass from him. The bass was in great condition and was at a fair price. I'll happily recommend him as a trustworthy guy to deal with.

I believe the technical term is Turd Chromatography. It's a big thing in certain dark corners of the internet, apparently.

Or knackered. Or phuqed.

You beat me to it! And it's surprising how infrequently you are wrong

Great work @Cuzzie that's one fine looking finish on the body.

Someone mentioned replacement tips for the ZS10's a page or 2 back, I ordered some of these and can confirm that they fit the ZS10's perfectly, although they do fit deeper into your ear canal than the stock tips so they feel a little odd at first!. Unfortunately they do not fit my Shure SE215's, the bore in the tip is too big to fit over the narrow sticky outy bit of the Shures. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Replacement-Sport-Ear-Gels-Earbuds-Tips-for-Various-Devices-Flange-Ear-Buds/282177969644?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=581177088266&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

I'd buy one of those on the strength of the name alone Oh, and yeah, gimme a P bass (at least the pickup) too - although I'm playing a P/J Mustang these days as I struggle with full sized basses these days.

I've used Acetone too before and it works a treat for this sort of job. It evaporates really quickly so you have to work quickly, I just applied some to a rag and worked it over the stain in circles and the stain came up in a few seconds. There were no obvious watermarks either once I'd finished. I'm not sure how the acetone may affect any finish that's already applied to the body but if you're planning to refinish it anyway that shouldn't be a problem.

I don't really have a favourite colour as such, I tend to judge each instrument on its individual merits. But anything turdburst is fundamentally wrong and should be cleansed with fire. So I'd probably have to say all of the above as long as it doesn't like a dirty protest 😀

On the water bass the seller forgot to mention what to me is its biggest selling point, namely the crude drawing of a Sci-fi or superhero film villain on the finish.

Cheers @intime-nick 😀

Cheers!

Cheers, Are you using something like these? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Replacement-Sport-Ear-Gels-Earbuds-Tips-for-Various-Devices-Flange-Ear-Buds/282177969644?var=581177088266 If it's something else, can you share a link please?

Out of interest, what replacement tips are you using with the ZS10's? I am using the large rubber ones that came with mine and they offer a good tight seal for me but one of the tips has an extra bit of rubber that look like a moulding defect that irritates the inside of my ear after a while, so I'm looking to replace them but I don't know what aftermarket tips fit them. What tips/buds have you tried?

That's a great colour and a good tale too. Even with the extra charges I guess it still worked out about half the price of a new one in this country? I have an Olympic white one (yes, the sonic blue ones look virtually identical) and have ripped the pickup selector switch out and fitted a blend pot instead, it makes the bass way more versatile. It's a cheap and simple mod that really opens up loads of new sounds