CameronJ

Looks to me like a DIY alternative could easily be thrown together for pennies but, for what it’s worth, I don’t think the Subsafes are any more ugly than the average “naked” sub would be

Equilibrium is restored

For a moment I thought you meant Line 6 Helix, which added another layer of comedy for me

You may find this video useful...

Oh dear. Dave doesn’t have a spectradrive, he has a spectraCOMP. The spectraDRIVE is being released imminently. Nobody has one yet. The app doesn’t have the full range of available toneprints yet as they’re probably still being finalised. Also, that video posted above doesn’t actually show the guy “using” the pedal at all, it cuts to an image of the pedal for a few seconds and then cuts back to him playing. Not actually a useful demo. As far as I’m concerned it’s click bait!

Sure that isn’t just in stock at the Swedish warehouse?

Indeed. No built-in-afterthought-tuner is ever likely to dethrone my Polytune.

Couldn’t agree more. The box would need to be bigger to comfortably accommodate much more without feeling cramped. TC have a nice features-to-footprint ratio here.

There are folk online complaining that TC could have made the toneprint slots universal, allowing you to load in 2 of any effect type like in the BH heads. Granted, that may have been cool but this is aimed squarely at the Bass preamp market where the primary features are usually EQ, drive and DI out. The compressor and headphone amp are bonuses which bump it further up the food chain in this pedal category. Ok, it doesn’t have the built in tuner or amp sims of the GK Plex but it does look (to me at least) like a more user friendly design than the Plex. One knob per function and all that. It feels like an analog pedal, which is a good thing in my book.

I imagine there’ll be quite a lot of toneprints available shortly to help combat those of us feeling short-changed by the lack of front panel tweakability, so I’m not too worried there. It’s still a big front runner for me in many ways.

Ah, ok, that makes some sense. I’ll definitely be holding fire. If I can really be patient I might wait til a couple of reviews/demos are online. Pleasant though the TC launch vid is, if it weren’t for the fact I used to own (and love) a BH800 head I’d be completely in the dark about how this pedal will actually sound!

Indeed. The same can be said of Source Audio! Of course SA have far fewer resources at their disposal than TC but I actually think I’d sooner buy an SA multi FX. I reckon the drives available on the Spectradrive will be quite good, although the lack of TonePrint editability means it won’t be ideal for everyone. Personally I think the single knob will suit me just fine. I’ll only be using it for fairly subtle OD tones and leave the serious distortion and fuzz work to my 3 Leaf Doom.

Hmmm. I can quite easily sell both my MXR M81 Bass Preamp and Pork Loin to make room for this. Maybe even my Spectracomp too but I may keep it at the front of my chain as it gives me a nice leveller going into my octavers. So it’ll at least partially, if not totally pay for itself.

Yeah I saw that too. June seems like madness. TC have been replying to comments on the YouTube demo video saying it’ll be available imminently so fingers crossed that holds true for those of us on this side of the pond.

I thought it was too good to be true!

Curiously, Gear4Music are showing this as in stock before anyone else 🤔🧐

So presumably he hasn’t discontinued them, despite the website showing as “out of stock”

Ah, these are quite rare to find these days. Heard good things!

Well I used it in one of Alan’s ACGs on display at the show, this one to be exact - http://www.acguitars.co.uk/project/0282-retrob-5-2/ I’d imagine John East must still be making these preamps otherwise Alan wouldn’t be able to keep making the basses? @skelf?

Yep. SmoothHound for me too. @SmoothHoundChris is very helpful re: any questions or problems you might have. Great product and great support.