Osiris

Depending on what you're looking for this thread may (or may not) help you - http://basschat.co.uk/topic/303884-amp-test-drive%3B-aguilar-darkglass-genzler-and-mesa-boogie/

[quote name='lowhand_mike' timestamp='1495018634' post='3300455'] congrats blimey, i've been knocking around here since may 2007, guess i dont post much [/quote] I've been with the site since 2008 and post even less

[quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1495004148' post='3300276'] Make sure the volume is up on your phone too. It took me longer than it should have to work out that bit... [/quote] Oh yes, I forgot to add that

First, find the appropriate tone prints in the app for you pedal. [size=4]Select the specific tone print you want to try from the list available for your particular pedal - there are different tone prints for the full sized pedals and the mini versions, so double check that you have selected the correct pedal within the app. [/size] Next, switch off any other pedals in your signal chain, but make sure that the chorus is on. If your bass has more than one pickup, solo one of them (it doesn't matter which on my jazz) and make sure your basses volume control is on full. Point the phones speaker towards the pickup, holding your mobile as close to the pickup as you can. It gets a bit noisy but don't worry about that. Tap the button on the app that is marked "beam to pedal" or something like that. You'll hear what sounds like an old dial up modem noise for a couple of seconds and the red light on the pedal will flash green a few times. Once pedal light reverts back to being constantly red, that's it, you're done. From beaming the tone print to being able to use it takes no more than a few seconds. Rinse and repeat to try another tone print!

Another Northants chap here! Looking round online, I couldn't find anything about your Status bass. But there may be guys on here who can shed some light on it for you. It might be worth putting a post in the 'Bass guitars' forum under the 'Gear' section of the site. A couple of photos will definitely help too. It clearly holds a great deal of sentimental value for you, and there is the possibility that as an unknown quantity it may not be worth much if you were to sell it on. If that turns out to be the case, and you're happy with the way it plays and sounds, then I'd suggest you hang on to it as it sounds like it's probably worth more to you than it is to sell it on for a few quid. Unless it happens to be a hidden gem that's worth a fortune!

[quote name='Al Krow' timestamp='1494421318' post='3295820'] Hey Osiris - I definitely think we should line each other up as deps for our respective bands Ok you have THREE Sandbergs to my paltry one but we seem to be after exactly the same tone, which you said you achieved by changing your amp to the [b]Genzler Magellan 800 [/b]as set out in your excellent review[b]:[/b] [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/303884-amp-test-drive%3B-aguilar-darkglass-genzler-and-mesa-boogie/"]http://basschat.co.u...nd-mesa-boogie/[/url] I'm hoping I can do the same thing by using the BDDI v2 pedal with my Markbass amp. I was thinking about going down the Darkglass BK7 / Vintage Ultra option as the alternative (given how much love BC's have for these two pedals), but from what you and other folk are saying on this thread the Sansamp route does seem like the best way of getting to that warm tubey sound... [/quote] Yes, it sounds like we're both after the same tone. And I could do with a dep as I don't have anyone to cover any gigs that I can't make - but then again I tend to book my life around gigs so haven't missed one in years! As for depping for you at some point, you never know... Send me a set list and I'll take a look. Re the Genzler Magellan, I clearly rate the drive channel very highly but in contrast to the Sansamp, the sound is not quite as immediate, for want of a better word. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad sound, far from it, it's warm and rich and smooth, but the Sansamp just has that [i]something[/i] that a lot of guys really like. I suspect is the slightly scooped edge. But for me, the way the Genzler drive works in the mix makes it invaluable, particularly with my experience with the VT pedal (although that was with my old TC RH450 amp). The Genzler sits perfectly in the mix, it cuts through as much as the clean channel, it is clear and punchy and has great dynamic sensitivity too. It just works. Having owned both a Mark bass little mark 2 amp and the VT pedal, my guess is that they ought to work well together. the VT adding some warmth and character to the amp. But as with everything, the only way to really tell is to try it yourself and see if it works for you. My thoughts on the Darkglass sound are detailed in the [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/303884-amp-test-drive%3B-aguilar-darkglass-genzler-and-mesa-boogie/"]Amp test drive[/url] thread. I love the DG sound when I hear it on YouTube clips particularly the new Alpha/Omega, but as Musicman20 says, it's more of a high gain guitar sound rather than the traditional driven bass tone. Not that that's bad in itself but it's not going to work for everyone. I couldn't see it going down to well with the rest of the band, or the crowd, if I started playing [i]Groove is in the heart[/i] with a ragged B3K tone

[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1494416627' post='3295745'] Were you using the VT bass as a normal pedal between bass and amp or in the effects loop? The Tech 21 Character pedals sound best if you bypass your amp's preamp stage in my experience. Particularly if you use the speaker sim. [/quote] I tried both, as well as the pedal in the loop still using the amp's pre-amp, and got the same results with each different configuration. It's bloody annoying though as it sounded great and that was the tone I wanted to use, it's just that it wouldn't work with the rest of the band. But as I said in my previous post [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]I've not really seen anyone mentioning these issues with the VT so maybe it just didn't play well with the rest of my gear?[/font][/color]

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1494415422' post='3295732'] There seems to be a recurring theme here... [/quote] I went the other way, from a Mark Bass little mark 2 to the TC . The MB certainly has more low end in the 40hz ish range, but in my experience its these lower frequencies that need to be tamed when playing on boomy stages so a bass eq control set that low is only really useful for cutting mush. But that's just my opinion I also found the default eq points to be much more usable on the TC than the MB, certainly in a gig situation. The MB eq points were too wide (i.e. bass was too low and the treble too high) to be useful in a live situation. No doubt they'd be useful in a studio though. The high and low end roll off was never an issue for me as I tend to play with a flat-ish eq setting and if anything, I prefer to push the mids rather than the extreme high and low end. Both were very good amps and I'd happily own both of them again. One isn't necessarily 'better' than the other, they just offer different sounds.

I briefly owned a Sansamp VT bass pedal, the non DI version, but they appear to be the same drive circuit and controls. At both in house and gig volumes I was able to coax some stunning Ampeg-a-like tones from it and I thought I'd finally nailed the sound that I'd been after for God knows how long. But..... Once the rest of the band kicked in, the bass just wouldn't cut through. The Sansamp bass driver has a reputation for not cutting through due to its inherent scooped sound, but from what I'd read online about the VT, it wasn't supposed to suffer from this. But no matter what I did with it or however much I cranked the mids or the amp up, it just wouldn't work with the rest of the band - we play a mixture of pop, soft rock and indie numbers so it's not as though I was up against a wall of Marshall's. There was a lot of additional compression in there too which flattened a lot of my playing dynamics. Having said that, I've not really seen anyone mentioning these issues with the VT so maybe it just didn't play well with the rest of my gear? Sorry, I've got no experience of the SCR DI so can't comment.

I like them, I've got 3 and I don't think any of them will be going anywhere soon One of the things that I really like about them is the traditional styling but with a consistently excellent build quality and attention to detail compared to some of their competitors in the same price range. My VM4 is active, it has Sanberg's own pickups and a 2 band Glockenklang pre-amp with active/passive switching. With the pre-amp set flat, switching from active to passive, there is no change in volume as with some other active basses. There's a very subtle tonal change as you'd expect, but the signal doesn't drop. [quote name='Opticaleye' timestamp='1494251915' post='3294334'] The newer models seem lighter (my VS4 is 7.5lbs!) but none of my older ones are particularly heavy. [/quote] I went to the Sandberg demo night hosted by Bass Direct a couple of years ago and had a good chat with the main man from Sandberg (I forget his name, Holger, or something like that, I think?) and he said the newer basses have chambered bodies to help reduce weight and increase resonance. I've played Kev (Opticaleye)'s VS4 and it is very light indeed, as is my passive TT4.

I use a Line 6 G55, which also has the [font="helvetica, arial, sans-serif"][color="#282828"]metal transmitter pack and very good battery life. [/color][/font] [font="helvetica, arial, sans-serif"][color="#282828"]The reason I chose the G55 over the G50 is that the little half rack receiver sits nicely on top of my little class D amp and I don't use a pedal board - the G50 is designed for pedal board mounting, I think? [/color][/font]

If the finger tips are tingling and numb it could possibly be a nerve issue. I get a similar thing in the pinky and ring fingers on my left hand and it's down to a damaged ulnar nerve caused by years of cycling. As I understand it, you also get similar issues with the thumb and first (and possibly middle?) fingers with a damaged median nerve, aka Carpal tunnel syndrome. As for a cure, if it is nerve damage, there are things that can be done, up to and including surgery. I'm currently waiting to find out if I will need any surgery to rectify my issue. It might be worth checking out the symptoms for radial and median nerve damage online to see if that sounds like a it's the culprit, and then speaking to your GP if it sounds like this is what you have.

[size=4]Sorry, I've got no idea about any possible high or low pass filtering.[/size] I'd say the tone of the RH450 is more mid focused. It has bottom end, of course, but it doesn't really do subby lows if that's what you're looking for. If I remember correctly, the lowest frequency on the bass semi parametric equipment is about 70 Hz. Like the bottom end, the top end is there but it doesn't really do the ultra modern 'glassy' treble tone of something like a Trace Elliot or EBS. Each of the 4 eq bands are semi parametric so it might be that you can dial in the sound that you want. I never really explored the full extent of what the eq could do as I was happy with the flat tone and didn't really deviate from that other than to eq for bad sounding rooms. What the '450 excels at is an old school, slightly dirty, valve amp like sound. I imagine it'd sound great with an old Hammond going through it!

Out of interest, what was the first bass that you plugged into it that you found underwhelming? What was underwhelming about it? Yes, I agree that the Magellan offers you nowhere to hide. It has certainly forced me to be a bit more careful! I've not experienced any underwhelming sounds from any of my basses yet, even my cheap and cheerful Peavey sounded good through it, but it has been fitted with a decent pickup which no doubt helps. As for the weight to the low end, that seems to be a characteristic of the Magellans. I emailed Genzler to ask if they use a high pass filter as there is no mention of one either in the manual or online. I had a reply from Jeff Genzler himself (how's that for customer service!) and this is what he said; [i]Hello Sid,[/i] [i]Thank you for your purchase.[/i] [i]Yes, we do utilize a High Pass filter with the MG-800. It is a very steep slope and set low around the 30 Hz range. [/i] [i]This allows us to achieve a clean, solid and authoritative low end without potential flubbyness.[/i] [i]This also helps with protection from over-excursion for speakers under high power situations.[/i] [i]I hope this information is helpful.[/i] [i]Best Regards,[/i] [i]Jeff Genzler[/i] [i]Founder[/i] My guess is that this accounts for the weighty low end! Class D doubters take note

I owned and gigged an RH450 for several years and never once did come close to feeling like it was running out of power or lacking in volume. I don't think I ever needed to take the volume above about 10 o'clock - even when the bass wasn't going through the PA. While TC may not have been entirely truthful with their figures (if that is indeed the case) but in my experience, their claims that the RH450 can compete with a 'real' 450 watt amp, are perfectly justified. A lot of guys on here don't seem to like them, but I thought it was a superb little amp. As Dood alludes to above, the tone of the RH450/750 is more of a warm, vintage kind of vibe, so they may not be the ideal choice for a synth. As with everything, there are a million and one opinions online. But they are just that - someone's opinion. See if you can get your hands on an RH450 and try it and make your own mind up

Let us know what you think of it once you've had time to get to know it and put it through its paces. Assuming that the Magellan 350 has the same tone as its big brother (of which I am a proud owner) I think you'll be a happy man.

I picked up clone of the Blueberry last week from the classifieds section on this site. I've not played through the real thing so I have no idea how close it sounds to the original. But it does sound really good in its own right. It's the only drive pedal that I've really been impressed with other than the Tone Hammer - and I picked the clone up for less than one tenth of a new TH! Even if it's only half as good as the original (not sure how you'd quantify that exactly, but hopefully you know what I mean?) then the praise for the Blueberry is entirely justified. I've not got any other dedicated drive pedals to stack with it but I have got some great results running a pre-amp model from my Zoom B3 into it to act as a booster to get a touch more gain. I can't remember which model it is of the top of my head but it's the one with a semi parametric mid range, the icon for which looks a little bit like the Tone hammer pedal, although it's purely a clean pre-amp with no inherent drive of its own. I also dialled in a push of the upper mids at 1.2 kHz to add a bit of clarity when using it with my dark sounding passive Sandberg. Backing off the volume of the Blueberry allows me to use the booster to push the saturation from the pedal without a significant volume increase. Other than a bit more more gain and the eq change, using the booster also retains the fundamental blueberry flavour. My guess is that stacking it with another drive pedal would make a more noticeable change to the overall sound. Could something similar be an option rather than another drive pedal? Not had a chance to try the Blueberry clone through the Genzler yet, I'll need to wait for the elderly neighbours to go out for a while before firing it up in the house. But though my little 30 watt, 1 x 10 practice amp, with and without the B3 pre-amp, it's brilliant!

[quote name='Dan Dare' timestamp='1493825308' post='3291025'] Just looked at the site. Sounds a pretentious twerp. Give yer hard earned to someone who deserves it. [/quote] Definitely. I got as far as "An aristocracy of artistic instrument" before I was engulfed by nausea. He could teach Calvin Klein a thing or 2 about pretension.

I also have a bass that could do with some fret work doing, so I'm also interested to know the going rate for a fret dress (not a full re-fret) too, if anyone has an idea?

[quote name='DBerriff' timestamp='1493811769' post='3290822'] Osiris. I missed you at the Grainstore. Sorry. That is what comes from skim- reading posts. [/quote] No problem. It's probably as well you didn't make it, we had to cancel the gig in the end due to the drummers hypochondria flaring up again

[quote name='Al Krow' timestamp='1493809954' post='3290795'] Here's a GZ M 800 YouTube review which I think illustrates the points that Osiris has made very well, for those of you interested. [url="https://youtu.be/YzkCtlcffw0"]https://youtu.be/YzkCtlcffw0[/url] It's clearly a really good amp. My only hesitation is that I'm not convinced that the in built drive on the Magellan comes close to competing with some of the best dedicated drive pedals and that a GZ M 800 on its own would therefore improve on a transparent, but true, Markbass amp (which I have already) + good drive pedal. [/quote] I'd also watched that YouTube clip (plus a couple of others) before buying the amp and had come to the same conclusion as you had, that the drive channel was nothing special. Mind you, he plays through the amp with a Stingray and I've never been a fan of that nasal tone. Plenty of guys love it, but it does nothing for me In the real word the drive channel is much smoother sounding, has a ton of clarity and a great dynamic touch response, the harder you dig in the more it growls, ease up with your right hand and it cleans up again. There's no low end mush or harsh, fizzy top end. It just sounds good. Really good. In my opinion, of course! Anyway, as I'm sure you know, when trying something in real life, there is usually little tonal resemblance to what something sounds like online plus there's a multitude of other variables to factor in that have an impact on the tone on a YouTube clip. I'd still recommend you try one out if you can - if only to eliminate to from your list of potential new amps. And I'm guessing that Muzz would second me on this too! Obviously tone is a personal thing and we all have different ideas of what the perfect tone is, or what we want our sound to be. This obviously includes drive sounds too. The Genzler drive channel just sounds right to me. It's definitely on the low gain, smooth and silky side, but that's what I want. That's not to say that it's what you want, but from your other thread, I'd be surprised if the Genzler isn't in the same ball park even if it's not exactly what you're looking for. Try one and let us know what you think

Less is usually more with eq settings, i.e. don't massively boost some frequencies and then make a big cut of others as you'll end up with a hole in your sound - some notes will be be really loud and others will be inaudible in the mix. Keep the pattern on the eq setting smooth, not spiky! Also, don't be tempted to cut the middle frequencies out of whatever tones you eventually settle on. The bass sounds great on it's own with the mid range scooped out, but when you use that sound in the mix you'll struggle to hear yourself and to cut through. And don't just keep boosting frequencies, remember to cut them too - for example, sometimes if you want more presence it's better to cut back some bass and/or mid range rather than boost the high end which usually just adds more hiss and noise to your tone. These days I tend to play with the eq flat and only make small adjustments for the room if they are required, e.g. cut a bit of bass if the room is booming or add a little bit of treble if things are a bit mushy. The bass may not sound very exciting with a flat eq compared to a scooped sound, but you will have no problem hearing yourself in the mix. Hope this helps

[quote name='AndyTravis' timestamp='1493649380' post='3289684'] Tim Allen does. He's on here... TimAl I think is his user name. [/quote] And this is his website - [url="http://www.originalscratchplates.com/scratch-it/"]http://www.originalscratchplates.com/scratch-it/[/url] I've not used him, but have plans to in the future!

[quote name='indiegrungesound' timestamp='1493451908' post='3288366'] Hi Osiris. You've peaked my curiosity with this! I use the Spectracomp all the time on my BH500. It gives me the kind of loud, punchy sound I like without having to turn my volume up! I have toyed with the idea of getting the pedal if I had to sell/trade up my amp. Are you saying the pedal is better to use than it's onboard amp form? [size=4][/quote][/size] 'Better' is a subjective term as we all want different sounds from our gear * [size=4] [/size] I've no experience of the Spectracomp in the BH500, but I'm assuming that it's the same, or at least very similar, to the one in the RH450. I was a big fan of the one on the '450, it sounded and worked really well and had a pleasing punch as you say. My assumption was that the default tone print that comes loaded on a new Spectracomp would sound the same, but in my experience it didn't - but you also need to factor in that I was using another amp too (my new Genzler Magellan - which is another thing of wonder in itself, some of my thoughts about the Magellan [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/303884-amp-test-drive%3B-aguilar-darkglass-genzler-and-mesa-boogie/"]are here[/url]) so there was more than one variable that could account for the difference. I felt that the default tone print was making the mid range a bit mushy. It's hard to describe the sound but it wasn't for me. But that's not to say that you wouldn't like it, or that it wouldn't work well with your gear. However, the Spectracomp has got to be about the most versatile compressor currently available. It can be as simple (one control knob!) or as complex as you want it to be if you have the time and sufficient understanding of compression to use the tone print editor as Dood says above. But for my needs, the tone prints you can load to the pedal from [url="http://www.tcelectronic.com/spectracomp-bass-compressor/toneprints/"]TC's website[/url] offer pretty much any style of compression that you're ever likely to need, and a free, quick and easy way to have a taste of the different flavours of compression. All you need to load tone prints are the pedal and the free tone print app on your mobile. Or you can use a PC/Mac and a USB cable. It takes 2 or 3 seconds to load a new tone print, and if you don't like it you just load another one. Simple as that! [size=4]If you're looking for loud and punchy compression, check out the Muscle Comp tone print - it's [i]really[/i] punchy and makes the bass really cut through a busy band mix. [/size] * My personal opinion is that the pedal is way better than the one in the RH450 [size=4] [/size]

Just received a pedal from Paul, a clone of the Blueberry bass overdrive made from a Fuzz dog kit, and it was a fast, friendly and easy transaction. The pedal was really well packaged and Paul posted it first class the morning after I'd paid. Can't ask for more than that!