radiophonic

Is that a Marshall Guvnor? If so, what's the low end like? I'm always curious about non-boutique guitar drive pedals for bass - since bass specific drives didn't even exist when most of my favourite nasty bass sounds were recorded!

Personally I've had no problem at all with those EBS cables - and I tend to play in grubby clubs with mains supplies I can only guess at. I do use a decent PSU though.The Rockboard ones have been atrocious however - loads of the 6cm ones have simply failed on me.

@Roger2611 Can't see the Chameleons touring, unless it's a severely compromised lineup. A great pity, mind.

I've been looking at Rat style distortions and this looks like a steal at around 50 quid. If it works as advertised, you get the LED / Si switching that differentiates the Rat from the Turbo Rat and the same filter control. Tiny footprint too. I'm sort of torn between this and an actual Rat. I think it's the Turbo sound that I really need for that really spluttery sound and better low end. The Mooer is about half the money of course. Anyone tried one and how did it hold the low end in Turbo mode?

The Cure were one of the bands that really sold the idea of Bass to me, before I'd ever played a note. Seventeen Seconds and Faith in particular, but I still have the original wax of everything through to Disintegration, even though I lost interest a bit during the 'Pop' era. Simon Gallup could make any 4 note line sound awesome.

So let me think... 'A' list session player with a colossal live and studio CV spanning mainstream pop to the left field, hip-hop originator, industrial dub legend who has worked with Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, James Brown, Madonna, and George Clinton. 'Not a great player'? Spare me.

The (yes - Mooer) pedal toppers fit just fine on everything I've tried so far. The expression pedal behaviour of the PS6 is super annoying and I can't believe that Boss intend it to work like that. I've renamed it the 'Glitch Shifter' but it does have its uses and I'd need two other pedals to cover its functionality. I'm waiting to see what the TC Quintessence does to a bass before I decide to move it on though.

I think Janek Gwizdala summed it up nicely when he pointed out that what he's 'famous' for is what he spends about 5% of the set doing. Nobody makes a video of you paying straight eights. This is true for pretty much every great player.

Pretty sure that I read an interview with Doug where he conformed he wasn't offered the Stones gig but that people just assumed because of his other links with the band (Jagger, Bernard Fowler). Interestingly, he didn't get the Fall gig either - and I heard he volunteered for that one! Personally, I love his work with Tackhead / On-U Sound. My jaw pretty much hit the floor the first time I heard 'Hard Left' - I still can't work out if that insane triple bend is real or an effect, but it predates the whammy pedal by a couple of years. There is some stunt playing for sure, but he delivers a pretty punishing low end on those records too.

Wal Mk 1 that I sold in 1993 when they definitely weren't worth 4-5K. Hindsight is a marvellous thing, but I the 10x appreciation does chafe a little! At least it went to a player.

This is the latest revision. The signal path isn't totally obvious from the layout, but it works for band purposes -the awesome El Cap being the final pedal. The SnU and Harmonist aren't final decisions and the latter may be on notice thanks to it's erratic 'on off' response to an expression pedal. I need to make way for a distortion to stack with the Pork Loin anyway, so anything not punching its weight is at risk.

@bakerster135 - It's a bargain in itself, but I'd need to replace my board due to it's size. I need to keep things compact.

@bakerster135 I'd definitely want to avoid the clean blend issue. I can do it, but I'd need to re-think my board layout. Isn't the TK-421 discontinued? The Cat King is looking like a viable choice - it definitely has the RAT splutter and I wonder if I ran it into a Pork Loin, I'd lose any fizz (the clean side is super dark). It sounds pretty nasty anyway and I don't need it as an always on type pedal - more for piling on the chords at the end of a song

Thanks for the comments on the Vitriol. Even in this YouTube era, decent demos are hard to find for bass and 'smooth' is definitely not what I want. Footprint was the major thing putting me off the Cat King, although the two levels of distortion might obviate the Pork Loin. I'd be sorry to see it go though because it's a great pedal and has the nicest foot-switch ever. The MXR is (I believe ) almost identical to the Cat Tail, albeit with slightly different controls. It retains the LED/Si output diode switch option though, which would be essential (I think it was the Si setting that gave the more uneven breakup that I like). Doing some measurements I can either go Fuzzrocious-size and lose a pedal or MXR-size and keep everything.

Darkglass, probably not for me. PMT are carrying them though, so I can give them another try. Not keen on what I've heard so far though. What I have noticed is that the Cat King is on offer at Anderton's (although 'on offer' is just the same price as before the £ took a hit. Oddly now cheaper than the Cat Tail). That's two levels of R/Cat in one pedal, although not stackable as I understand it. Hadn't considered COG. I'll look into them. Interestingly, having read a bit about the original InterFax Harmonic Percolator, I understand that it's USP was only hard clipping one side of the wave form, so my intuitive 'asymmetric' feeling turns out to be technically correct. It's that kind of vibe I'm after, only in a distortion rather than a fuzz.

@Lozz196 - Sansamp's own blurb seems to suggest smoothness, like an overdriven valve amp. If I can use an analogy from the Fuzz world - I looking for the Harmonic Percolator end of things rather than Big Muff. That sort of almost broken type of nasty.

As title. I use a Pork Loin for overdrive and I find it excellent in that role, but sometimes I need to crank it up a notch. I don't need more distortion as such, I need a more uneven and nasty break-up. I play a Stingray and the scooped sound is a very poor match with the current crop of popular high gain distortion pedals (Darkglass, Pike for example) - you get that fizzy top / separate bass thing and the distortion sound is just too smoothed out for my taste. I'm looking for something really nasty and grainy that I can hit with chords. The words I keep coming back to are uneven and asymmetric. A blend control isn't essential provided there's some control over the low end. I tried an MXR Bass Distortion last week, but it was hard to get a handle on it in a shop (the amp was just too small and quiet and the bass had dead strings - thanks PMT, that was pointless again). One of the output settings sounded promising (can't remember which) and on that basis, I wondered if maybe the Fuzzrocious Cat Tail or Cat King might be a good place to look. AFAIK these are all Rat based circuits (yes?). Anything else I should be thinking about? Mantic Vitriol maybe? Any advice?

Surely a Stingray will sound absolutely nothing like a Dingwall though? It seems like an odd either/or. Mine's a '90 (4 string) and the neck is fantastic, but the sound is very specific and not remotely modern.

DR HiBeams are significantly lower tension than D'Addario ProSteels. I think they make me lazy though and I've just gone back to ProSteels. Ernie Ball Super Slinky are somewhere between the two but don't sound as solid IMO.

@Al Krow The BOD is tempting, but this close to Christmas and having just nabbed the Harmonist... domestic strife that way lies. I really need to reduce the number of pedals on my board! Unfortunately, they all get used in the set.... In fact it;'s got to the point where the Tuner is the least essential pedal!

@Al Krow TBS, I treat the Harmonist as a multi-effect and I'd expect it to be compromised compared to a really decent analog pedal. I got it for the portamento functions really and getting an Octaver out of the deal is just a bonus. What it's done though, is make me a bit less satisfied with the SNU. I'd expected the differences in tracking and latency to be more pronounced, but the Boss seems to perform pretty well. I think Boss on the whole get a bit of an unfair rep, purely because they aren't sexy and boutique, but Roland do know what they are doing. My real decision now is whether to replace the SNU with something dedicated and analog or try and wring some superior tracking out of it. Right now it falls between two stools. I'd probably be looking at MXR (I've got the BCD and I did have the Envelope Filter and I think both are excellent).

@Al Krow Well the Harmonist showed up. I've got admit I was a bit wary after your own experiences with tracking and latency, but I'm so far having no issues. I'll take it to practice later today, but definitely so-far-so good. The baked in Octaver (-1) sound is absolutely fine for my purposes and the wobble that various people have commended on (youtube) is only on the Shifter mode, so you can get a stable octave down in the Harmoniser mode. In any case, my toneprint on the SNU has vibrato added by choice and I actually like the wobble option. In effect I have a basic octaver + something a bit like my toneprint, which is a score for me. I think the -1 is maybe tighter and dryer than the SNU - I haven't really compared them fairly, but the SNU sounds a bit 'bigger' if you get my drift. Probably down to the EQing of the octave (which of course is fixed on the PS-6). Neither mode has given me any tracking issues when used as an octaver, although I've had a few glitches with some of the other harmonies when sliding a semitone. In fact I've had better luck with the tracking on this than with the Sub N Up (and I know this is weird, because everyone really rates the SNU's tracking). It will even track fine with a distortion pedal in front of it and another octaver. No glitching. This is mostly just octaves though, so more demanding shifts might glitch out. Conversely, the SNU seems to glitch out low on the A string, as soon as my strings get a bit dead. I agree that some of the harmonies are a bit quiet on lower notes but I'm not noticing any big latency problems. However - and this is the big caveat - I don't play in a band with a kit drummer - so no kick / snare drum and no cymbals. This dramatically changes the demands placed on my sound. I jammed with a couple of guys last week - basic trio format - and I was suddenly a aware of lot more aware of the latency on the SNU. It's possible that there are issues with either pedal that I'm simply not picking up because of the band context. Anyway, as it stands, I'm not panning on dumping the SNU but if one pedal had to leave my board that would be it. Side note, I'm loving the sound of the harmoniser mode into a Phase 90 and a little tape delay. The short version is that (as always) YMMV!

The Vasey's are from Middlesborough.