CameronJ

Oh wow, I really haven’t been keeping up. Do you ever reminisce fondly on those dual humbuckers though? Having a similar config on my Super 5, I know I’d sorely miss that tone if I ever sold that bass.

@Al Krow since when do you have an Ibanez Portamento?? I’ve clearly not been paying attention 😂

It would probably be between my Aguilar Octamizer and Mr. Black Fwonkbeta. The Octamizer edges it though. It was my first pedal (not counting the 24 hours I owned an EHX Micro POG before promptly returning it) and is truly the sound in my head when I think of octavers. I realise that may be heresy to the dedicated OC2 heads out there but so be it. If my pedalboard were lost or stolen it would be the first thing I bought back, no question.

This was my setup when testing toneprints. The his probably wouldn’t have been noticeable through an amp but I’m a bit anal like that! I can almost guarantee that it was the toneprints used.

I just had a look at my TonePrint app to remind myself which ones I saved as favourites. Looks like I ended up between “Hold My Neon Mule” by MonoNeon and “Born Again Compressor” by Nik West. They both had the lowest noise floor to me and the best tone for my needs. I prefer a more transparent/less coloured tone as I do my shaping elsewhere in the signal path. I think I might have Born Again loaded in my Spectra at the moment but I’m not 100% certain!

The spectracomp is excellent. The reason you may have read conflicting reports about its noise floor is frankly because it can be either hissy or dead silent, depending upon settings used. I’m not a heavy compression tweaker so rely 99% upon the toneprints. Last year, I spent a considerable amount of time auditioning the toneprints through headphones to not only find the sounds I like but to find those with the least noise. The available toneprints have wildly different noise floors.

Honestly...they’re great value. I picked mine up for about £300 used and it plays better than basses costing 4 times as much. If they did an Electra 5 stringer I’d have one by now!

Excellent suggestion above. These look less classy than the Maruszczyks but I swear by them. Most comfortable straps I’ve ever used - now I won’t use anything else: http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Comfort_Strapp.html

That almost brought a tear to me eye!

Noooo! How did I miss this?!?

Spectracomp, always on. Always fingers. All styles.

You probably know this but it’s worth remembering that a shop will never give you the full “used market value” for items you trade in - they’ll want to make money on it themselves when they sell it on. Part-exchanging can seem convenient but I’ve always found that if you’re prepared to spend the time selling the gear yourself you’ll come out the other end with more money in your pocket. Of course, if it’s particularly obscure stuff and unlikely to sell privately then that changes things slightly. In that case part ex may be the best option, even if you do take a hit on the value...

I feel like Line 6/Yamaha should employ you as Head of Accessory Design! Honestly they’d make so much money off of your work

Warped Mind

Squelch Box

Your best bet is to add an identical Hartke Hydrive 112. Seriously. That way you keep the same tone but get more volume. Either that or get rid of the Hartke all together and get one very loud and light cab (possibly 4ohm) that’ll do every size of gig.

A good question!

“Stank Face”

Looks to me like the screen area is either open or been made less reflective/mattified somehow? Edit: actually, that’s probably just the natural finish of the LT’s chassis beneath

Ah yes, hence the slightly darker corners. Very nice!

Is that an adhesive skin? Like a phone screen protector almost?

An excellent thread! For me the sound I like comes almost entirely from the bass itself. Pedals to some degree too, but that’s only to provide sounds which would be impossible to achieve with the the bass alone. I never really found “the tone in my head” until playing a Yamaha BB1025x a couple of years ago. It was grin inducing in a way that I’d never experienced from a bass before. Since then I’ve made sure I have at least one P-style bass in my arsenal. A recent discovery is that I have a lot of love for MM humbuckers too - they seems to cut through certain mixes better than a P, yet retain a degree of fullness often lacking from soloed Jazz pups. I’ve found my MTD Super 5 (dual coil-switchable MM buckers) to be the perfect Neo-Soul/R&B machine. Smooth and deep yet defined and cuts through a mix surprisingly well. Once upon a time I might have been in the camp of having “my sound” and sticking with it regardless of the context but now I think of myself as a bit more of a tonal chameleon. I’ll play the bass with the tonal configuration that works best for the music at the time. As has been said, though, the goalposts do shift if you’re in a covers band vs an originals band. I’m not in a band at all, so I suppose I play covers by default! In summary, I guess I don’t always know the bass sound I want immediately but I do know that I want the bass itself to be the primary factor and that I don’t want the amp to be colouring the sound at all. Those are the only two constants.

The worst that can happen by underpowering a pedal (voltage-wise) is that it won’t turn on or won’t sound as expected. Whatever you do though, don’t OVERpower pedals with voltage - that’ll fry them fast!

Congrats! Now, where are the photos?!