radiophonic

@drTStingray It was definitely a US one I've never played a non-US one. It's still on the wall in PMT Nottingham (red, 2H, 3EQ). The radius felt the same as mine but the profile felt different (significantly deeper at the nut) and although mine is probably heavier overall, it's perfectly balanced - which this one was certainly not. I don't really care about weight (within reason - I did sell a Wal...) but balance is crucial. When I bought mine, there were no options. You just got a Stingray and that was that (although I think the 5s were around by then, not sure about the 3EQ though, I never saw one with it at the time). I bought mine 'straight off the wall' after playing it twice and have played it at every gig I've done since April 1992. I was very surprised at how different a new one felt, that's all. If that had been my first experience of a Stingray, I'd have passed.

I saw this in the NAMM coverage at the weekend. I know they consider the 'ray to be a classic design and everything, but how much have the Stingray's changed even since the 90s? I played a 2017 one in a shop recently and it felt absolutely nothing like my '92. The neck profile was different - chunkier, the body felt light (and the neck proportionately heavy) and the bridge seemed a lot flimsier too. It didn't feel like an £1800 bass, that's for sure. I'd be interested in a neo magnet option, but I'd always assumed that the neck dimensions were set in stone in the 70s. Am I wrong about that? I played another one around 2000 that felt nearly identical to mine (weight, neck etc). Did I miss something?

Let's see. I've got 130 quid sitting in my paypal account after selling some other pedals so the obvious thing to do is buy another pedal. I really like the Pork Loin already and I don't have a fuzz... If I buy a Muff, it means more real estate. If I buy the P&P, I can sell the Pork Loin and still not need more space. But then there's the Westwood... Smaller than the Pork Loin and do I really need a Fuzz anyway? Oh Hell. 2018 was going to be the year of no new gear.

@dannybuoy It's less about forum posts and more about those of us who contacted Dunlop directly. I was told that the issue was 'not unknown' to them and 'to be expected' with bass. The new pedal is being sold as bass specific.

@dave_bass5 WRT to whether it's marketed at bass players, I think they've been pretty ambiguous. I've seen it marketed in store type / on-line reviews as being 'for guitar or bass' and the clean blend option is something Bass players tend to care about a lot more than guitarists. It's also interesting that the P&P is being pushed as Way Huge's 'first bass specific pedal'. It does suggest that either they've tweaked the PL side OR that the PL is intended for both guitar and bass. Personally I'm not much of a fan of clean blend in bass overdrives anyway - and the PL is a pedal that really seems to hang on to the low end without it. I just wanted the option to use it as a clean boost and that's my only complaint. I wouldn't be surprised if running it at 12v fixed the clean side anyway! I only have 9 or 18 on my supply.

@dave_bass5 If you turn the clean blend to 100% what happens with the E and B strings? I'm a pretty 'light fingered' player and I got some really nasty clipping from both a Stingray and a Fender Jazz. I discovered it when trying to use the pedal as a clean boost- so the most revealing situation - but even so, if you're marketing a pedal as soft-clip it shouldn't be doing hard clipping at the same time. It was pretty obviously a headroom issue and it's been widely discussed on TB - somebody posted audio clips at 9v and 18v and they illustrate it perfectly. There may of course have been changes to the headroom of the clean circuit. I think mine's a v2 (i.e. 'Soft Clip Injection' not 'Soft Clip Overdrive', but doesn't say 'by George Tripps' on it) from around 2012. Otherwise a great dirt pedal and I struggle to think of anything that sounds quite like it.

Anyone checked this out yet? They have rather cheekily described it as a 'translucent' overdrive. Based on Bill & Ted's YouTube review, on guitar, I thought 'OK'. On bass, I though 'very promising' in a big Ampeg type of way. I notice the bass EQ operates around 80Hz, so no control over the super low end. They are marketing it towards bass as well as guitar though. If anyone round here stocks it, I'd be pretty keen to try it out and stop worrying about running my Pork Loin at 18v...

Mike just bought my Bass Soul Food. Instant payment and no problems at all.

Dermot had my Sub N Up - smooth transaction.Instant payment and no problems at all.

@dannybuoy TBF it isn't entirely clear what the long term effect of running at 18V is. Dunlop are pretty cagey about it. I was advised not to, but other have claimed to have had the OK. I'm a bit nervous about it and I'm considering the new Eathquaker Westwood as an alternative. The Pork Loin clean channel sound is definitely not usable at 9V though - there just isn't enough headroom and it it's nothing to do with active/passive. If they really are selling the P&P for bass, they have hopefully addressed this issue but it was never even raised in the various bass demos of the original Pork Loin so I'm not holding my breath.

@dannybuoy The Pork Loin has always struck me as an oddball. It didn't even used to say 'overdrive' on it and I'm not sure people quite clocked what 'soft clip injection' meant! Hence the later re-branding. I really like the old dark sound and find it one of the more usable drives with a scooped 'stingray' sound IME. I've never heard the bright mod but I do run mine at 18v and this definitely makes a difference to the headroom of clean side. I'll be interested to hear some demos of the the P&P because they are specifically marketing this for bass but the clean side of the standard Pork Loin is very prone overload with bass (open E string can be horrid) and I have never managed to get it truly clean at 9v. I'd always assumed that while 'bass friendly' this was still voiced for guitar. I wonder if other changes to the circuit have been made?

WRT all the 'not stackable' complaints. Has anyone tried running a Pork Loin into a Muff type fuzz? i.e. Would you even want to stack this combo? I pair mine with a Rat - which works very well for my purposes, but I'd imagine with a Muff, it would be very dark and possibly not that usable. I'd assumed the logic here was two flavours of quite dark drive.

That’s just foolish. You can already get a Rat clone for the same money as a decent Guitar lead. Even a ProCo one isn’t expensive. A solution to a problem that didn’t exist and no use at all if you run any pedals before your drive.

I hate the whole 'skipping tracks' thing. If I listen to an album, I typically play it through in order. The sequencing can be a vital part of what makes a track work. The only exception I think is Joy Division Closer, which I've always played Side 2 first and it was 20 years before I discovered I was 'wrong'. I have something like 4500 albums too, so it's not a single artist thing.

When I had a Nano+, I just used a soft-case but once you are up to 9-10 pedals that can easily be 1500-2000 quids worth of gear. I got a hardcase once I had a Novo 18.

Are you considering Max/MSP type manipulation? DI > USB or FireWire ASIO and a laptop would be a flexible approach - although gigging with a laptop brings its own challenges.

Well I just picked up a Turbo Rat anyway. The Cat Tail is like 200 quid these days, which seems excessive for a slightly modded clone of an 80s distortion. The ProCo is built like a tank. It does cut a bit of bass, but I'm not too concerned at the moment. If I stack it with a Pork Loin, the extreme top end is tamed a fair bit but it still sounds as nasty as hell. There's always the option of doing the resistor mod - which I think is all the 'bass focused' clones do anyway. Having tried the MXR and read around a bit, it seems like improved bass trades of against the spitty / spluttery top end but it's that sound that I'm after.

Something in the 25-30 range I think. A lot of it has been quite random though. I was the new guy so I just went with the existing bookings, irrespective. It's a strong idea music-wise, but my mission for 2018 is to instil some focus.