Osiris

As Jean-Luc says above they're actually doing different things despite being called the same name! The Thumpinator will cut the subby lows from your signal which in turn will make your amp have to work less hard and reduce the strain on your speakers, as well as helping to tighten up your low end. The HPF on the Cali is used to remove the lowest lows from the compression circuit only, not from your signal, if that makes sense? By reducing the deep lows going into the compression circuit the compression is not being triggered by the low lows which can reduce the whole signal down and can dull the high end frequencies. By removing the lows like this the compression is triggered more by the mids and highs while the lows are left alone. This might sound counter-intuitive but it actually makes the lows sound deeper and fuller. So despite the confusing naming convention they are 2 different things doing 2 different jobs so no, you're not wasting your money 😀

Sounds like you have the gain set right, but try backing it off a bit next time and turning up the master volume. I don't think I've ever had the master above 9 o'clock on mine, if so not my much, and it was really loud - as it more than loud enough for most situations - and I'd expect it to be just as loud if not louder through a BB2. Are you using an active bass with the lows boosted by any chance? Or using a big bass boost on the amp, including pre-shape A? Or anything like a filter pedal that's pushing huge low end spikes through to the amp? Failing that it sounds like the amp may possibly have developed an issue.

Got to admit that I've not looked at the configuration thingy lately so not certain what options they currently offer. My Lionel has the stock black label pickup and despite being initially unsure about it - like you a bit too modern, but I have vintage vibes more than covered by my JMJ Mustang - I've grown to love it. The pickup position is actually 10-15mm closer to the bridge so you don't get that classic Precision sound unless you play right over or just in front of the pickup. But the pickup position naturally pushes the right hand back a bit so the inherent tone is pretty unique, you have that low mid punch but with some extra clarity.

If you order directly from Sandberg and use their online configuration thingy you have a choice of pickup options so you can choose whatever suits your needs. I previously had a passive TT4 with Hausell pickups and it was a classic jazz tone only a bit bigger sounding!

That's a bit worrying especially as I have both the 350 and 800 watt versions of the amp and never had this even with the 350, it's never come close to it sounding like it was struggling even with loud drummers. But I have a few questions to clarify what was happening. Was the clip light flickering on the input gain for the clean channel? It's a red LED that lights up if you overload the input, and if you're overloading it constantly it will produce a nasty distortion. If it is, just dial back the clean volume control until it stops flickering or lights up very occasionally. Had you got the drive channel engaged? Not that the drive channel gets unpleasant even at full gain! What speakers were you using? Your own or something in a rehearsal room that could possibly have had years of prior abuse? And the 800 is an obscenely loud amp, what situation are you in where you need to push the power amp that hard??? Just trying to figure out if the amp is potentially faulty or if it's something else 😉

Thanks for the graphs. I briefly had one but just couldn't get a sound that I was happy with from it, it just sounded overly scooped whatever I did with it, same with the Tech21 Bass Driver. When I eventually dialed in a passable tone the blend was right backed off to fully clean which kind of defeated the point of it, IMO. So I shifted it on and went through a shed load of other preamp pedals before setting on one that gave me what I wanted. But it's good to know that it can get flat even if (assuming I understand you correctly) you are effectively bypassing the tone controls.

I've owned and gigged both models before and know them well. I still have a Genzler amp although I gig with in ear monitors these days so don't get to use it in anger often. Personally I'd keep the Genzler, it's the bigger and punchier sounding of the two and is the more versatile. But it's also probably going to fetch a lot more than the TC so if there's a financial consideration then maybe sell the Genzler and keep the TC.

Another vote for @Chienmortbb. I've also used Custom Lynx and Deignacable and can't fault them but I recently dropped him a line enquiring about a 10 metre XLR cable and he was around £5 cheaper than the above and was using the same quality components (Neutrik jacks and Sommer cable).

I'm gassing for an Atlas at the minute it looks to be THE one compressor to rule them all. But as I said earlier in the thread, compression is a very much misunderstood subject. To get the best from any compressor you really need to understand what they do and how to apply them. Again, this cannot be stressed enough. My guess is that a lot of people assume that it's a fancy effect like a phaser or synth pedal and that they will notice a huge difference in their sound. But that's not the point of them. If you think of it in terms of shaping and controlling your tone (think more along the lines of EQ and HPF) and think more like a sound engineer or producer than a bass player, then they will make a total sense and - IMO - prove to be far more useful than one of the flash effects that you might use for one song on a 2 hour gig.

Does the Boss impart any character or tonal magic? Or is it more on the transparent side? It's one on my short list of units to try. I'm still using the Boss LMB-3 which I absolutely love, it's only a simple pedal but I love it's aggressive edge and the punch it adds to the mids, it's possibly the punchiest unit I've ever used. It's cheap and dirty. Like me.

It depends on what you want from your compressor, are you looking for something transparent? Or something that will give your sound some added character? Are you looking for another optical compressor? If you weren't overly enamored with the BBE maybe look at a different compression type, for example something FET based will feel a lot different to an optical comp, more immediate and aggressive. The new Source Audio Atlas compressor looks intriguing and should do anything and everything you could ever want from a compressor. I'm thinking of writing to Father Christmas to ask for one myself this year...

After the recent complaints about the numerous inaccuracies on their website, bass direct have decided to rebrand themselves.

Just received a custom spec XLR cable from John. The cable is made with quality components (Neutrik connectors with Sommer cable) and was cheaper than the online sites I've used for years. Quick delivery too!

You just need to set the threshold so that it works in conjunction with the amps gain control. Just bear in mind that if you swap basses you'll likely have to tweak the threshold and possibly the amp gain too. Or if you have an active bass and make any adjustments to the onboard preamp you'll probably need to fine tune the settings too. Once you've set things up right you might find that your driven tone is more consistent too.

Some pedal comps can reduce the low end on bass especially if they're designed with the guitar in mind. Dyna comp style circuits - of which there are a million variants are notorious for low end loss. This is why dedicated bass comps, multi-band compression and side chain high pass filtering have been developed as they help reduce any low frequency loss. With a multi-band you can have separate compressor that deal with the lows and high working in unison, that way the lows don't swamp the highs and you have independent control over the low end makeup gain (amongst other parameters) so you can boost the lows more if you want to, the TC Spectracomp is a decent multi-band unit. High pass filtering is a technique where the compressor is 'tuned' to react less strongly, or not at all, to bass frequencies, the Cali76 Compact Bass and DG Hyper Luminal both have adjustable HPF's, for example. While this might sound counter intuitive (to me at least) it actually increases the low end weight of the compressed signal. A fair assumption for a lot of pedals but not when it comes to compressors. This is where having a good understanding of compression will start to pay off, you need to understand what the Threshold control does in order to set it suitably - this controls the point at which the compressor applies the compression. There's no single answer to where you set the threshold as there are a number of factors to consider such as bass output level (a hotter bass will require a lower threshold, for example). A comp with decent metering is really helpful for setting the threshold just right. Set the threshold too low and you may not trigger the compression, too high and you'll obliterate your dynamics. My preference is to set the threshold at the point where it catches the signal peaks (unfortunately I'm only human and therefore lack a totally impeccable technique ) to keep the bass signal even when digging in hard but allows me to retain dynamics when playing softer. The importance of the threshold is probably where most people go wrong with compressors, IMO. This is easily doable with a suitably set threshold and when set up properly it would make the change in sounds easier as well as potentially saving your fingers from having to dig in so hard! It's all about the threshold.

But that's exactly what a compressor does! See the previous links I posted. Anyway, nobody has to use one. But when used properly compression makes the bass (and all other instruments, vocals, drums etc) sound more consistent and allows them to sit together more evenly in the mix while still retaining dynamics, transients, overtones etc. As a result the whole sound is improved, so why wouldn't you use one? I often leave my EQ set flat but would never consider telling anyone they should never use an EQ on their bass. It's the same principle. Any decent sound engineer, and we all know they're a rare breed, and certainly studio engineers use compression all the time. But just because some bass players don't or won't use one it doesn't invalidate the idea or make it pointless. I use them all the time and if someone wants to believe it's like riding my bike with the stabilisers on I'll just have to learn to live with it 🤷‍♂️

But if you were to use a compressor it would remove those overtones... 🤣🤣🤣

Making sure your technique is consistent as is humanly possible is fine, but how do you deal with playing the same note in different parts of the neck? For example, if you were to play a G on the 15th fret of the E string, it will have sound more dense and weighty than playing an open G string. Same note, same pitch but one contains much more energy than the other. How do you control that? Play the 15th fret G quieter? In which case it could get lost. Play the open string harder or maybe pluck it further up the neck?

Can I respectfully ask you to read this - it's a different link to the one I posted before but from the same website, and written, as before, by an authority on the subject of compression. The first main paragraph is the main point of interest. http://www.ovnilab.com/articles/howto.shtml The first main paragraph is the main point of interest; "A compressor is just an automatic volume control. At a basic level, it reacts to volume spikes from your music, and turns down the volume a bit as your input levels go up. That's really all there is to it."

I use D'Addario Nickel 50-105 guage. They're 34" scale strings but with the through-body stringing it's only really another wrap of the string around the machine head post thingy. I've been doing this for years, only because I have a job lot of 34" strings, and have never had any trouble with intonation or strings breaking.

Try some rounds on the JMJ, it makes a huge difference compared to the stock flats IMO. I don't really like flats in general but the ones that came with the JMJ aren't as lifeless as some that I've tried... But once I put a set of rounds on the bass really came alive, you still have that rubbery low end things but much more clarity and articulation in the upper mids and high end. Much more of a classic Precision sound 😎

I don't think they're being singled out as such but speaking from personal experience of BD as well as making a sweeping generalisation based on some of the posts in this thread, it seems to me that BD's unique take on customer service is arguably more variable than most shops, be they selling music equipment or anything else. In my own experience the level of customer service I have received from them has varied from excellent through to condescending, to apathetic incompetence. IF you go to one of the big box shifters and deal with the 12 year old Saturday boy on minimum wage then you might adjust your expectations accordingly. But when you go to a specialist shop like BD you, or at least I do, expect service that's a little more consistent. I neither want nor expect some fawning sycophant to blow smoke up my exhaust, but a little respect and common courtesy goes a long way.

And of course, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Ars