jposega

I used Thunderguts on my Ubass for years, then dropped a set of Thunder Reds on it. Much better harmonicity of the E string and overall a much nicer feel. I've not seen any reviews for the Thunderblack strings.

Got the Vitoos DC8 power supply in today. What they don’t show in any of the photos is the text that says that the last six outlets are isolated from A&B. So, I got my money’s worth, but I’m debating sending it back simply because it really is false advertising. But it’s also cheap, fits on the board and does what I need it to; everything is dead quiet now that I’ve figured out which pedal needed to be totally isolated.

Cool, thanks. Much faster with more insight to ask the forum rather than hitting up Google.

Is there a UK equivalent to Small Bear? They’ve got amazing customer service, selection, and prices in the US. I could order parts from their, but the shipping and VAT would be way more costly than buying parts domestically.

I’ve been following that thread disappointedly as I swapped my MS70CDR or an MS100BT that doesn’t have a USB port. Still, very cool that someone has finally done this.

Most delay or reverb pedals can go into self-oscillation.

The greatest color Fender ever produced. I had a CIJ P in the color for a few years. Upgraded to playing Dingwall basses and decided to get my SP5 refinished in Capri Orange.

That’s what I’m doing now. It’s a Godlyke PowerAll plugged into a travel adapter. Some people have commented that the travel plug could also be introducing noise. We’ll see, hopefully in about a week.

Everything I’m using runs at 9v plain and simple, no internally voltage doubling, no digital hoohaw except for the Zoom. Unfortunately I don’t have any extra PSUs. Since I moved from the US, I had to pare down my gear significantly. I’ve found that I can run my Broughctave, Fifth Gear, Muff, and Joshwah with a very low level hiss or buzz. It seems, oddly enough, that the Polytune being on a chain with 2 or more other pedals causes the most horrendous noise. But this does make some sense since it is digital. Even if the new PSU doesn’t totally quiet the Polytune, it’s not a major loss since I can just use the tuner in ProTools or Logic. Its definitely not the same sort of buzz that comes from a poor ground and shielding in the bass itself, and there is no noise when I plug straight into my interface.

“Should be fine,” yes. Are fine sharing a chain, no. I’ve gone through and swapped out each cable for brand new ones I brought with me and replaced the daisy chain. No dimmers in the apartment, I’ve even tried turning off everything but the refrigerator. Each pedal is virtually noise free on its own save for the Muff but every one I’ve played has been a bit noisy. I’ve tried them in various combinations, different orders. I’ve not been using the Zoom since getting here since it was certainly noisy on its own, but even with just the other ones it’s awful. If the PSU doesn’t solve it, then it’s probably a fault with one of the pedals but then I’ve no idea what could have gone wrong because they’ve all worked perfectly until I brought them here. It will be interesting to see what the reality of the isolation is. Even if it’s just two ‘banks’ of isolation, it’s likely just one pedal that really needs to be on its own. It’s funny how everything is using retina destroying blue LEDs now when these high intensity varieties didn’t come around until 1993. Maybe everyone thinks blue looks less menacing than red or orange or yellow, who knows. I’ll have the tape close at hand though.

Yes, there are videos on YouTube of a guy at Truetone powering a Line 6 HX Effects with each of their power supplies. The individual jack mA ratings mean almost nothing: you could daisy chain 500mA worth of pedals off of a "100mA" jack, as long as you stay under the PSU's total rating of 1900mA.

Having struggled long enough powering my board with a Godlyke PowerAll and a daisy chain, I went ahead and did some interweb sleuthing. I've spent the last couple weeks waffling about on what to buy. My plans are complicated by the following considerations: I will be heading back to the US in May or June, and want something that's switchable or automatically works at 110v and 220v; I am using a handful of pedals, analogue and digital, on a Pedaltrain Nano (non +); I will likely be going back up in pedalboard size once I'm settled back in, so having extra outlets is a plus; there are not that many good reviews of the plethora of cheap(er) power supplies that are sold under the brands Mosky, Fame, Memteq, Vitoos, Caline, and so forth. Having had pedalboards with as many as 16 pedals on them, I've always tried to use high-quality name-brand PSUs; the last one I had before leaving the US was a Truetone CS12 mounted under a Pedaltrain Novo 24, powering 16 pedals quite happily. Since coming to the UK, my little Nano is a humming, buzzing nightmare. Running just 5 FX on a chain is plagued with a buzz that can be as loud as 12db when monitoring through a DAW depending on what's engaged and how the board is oriented. I take this as a sign that, A) The power in my building is dirty and B) I desperately need to isolate my pedal power. But, I just can't afford a great PSU like the Truetone, Voodoo Lab, or T-Rex offerings. With this in mind, I Googled. And Googled. And Googled. Reviews of the likes of the Caline/ Memteq/ Joyo innumerously-rebranded power supply suggest it's one of a plethora of daisy-chain-in-a-box power supplies with zero isolation. Diving deeper down the rabbit hole, I started to find PSU's branded as Vitoos sometimes sold under the moniker Ammoon. As it turns out, some users over at The Fretboard have reported that, in fact, the Vitoos DC8 (aka Iso8, which seems to be the same as the DC8) does offer isolation. This is backed up by others over at The Gear Page, too. With this information, I've gone ahead and ordered one on eBay. This link is the best price-to-shipping time ratio I found, as it is reportedly shipping from Ireland. If that's true, then I anticipate it'll get to Belfast a lot faster than what they quote in the listing. I don't anticipate fitting it beneath my Nano without much larger feet and all-right-angle wiring, I might just Velcro it with the cables sticking up on the end of the board. We'll see. Since I'm not gigging, I don't even need to mount it to the board. My only desire is that it can power the following without the horrendous noise I'm getting now: Polytune Mini Noir > Broughton Broughctave > Southampton Fifth Gear (v2 three knob) > DIY Madbean Big Muff > Broughton Joshwah and maybe a Zoom MS100BT if it'll fit on the board and there's a jack with enough juice. Once it's in hand, I'll be able to report back with the details. Until then, discuss your thoughts on the matter!

I've never had better results running a boost into an octave pedal. If tracking is poor, it may because the octave is actually being driven too hard. I've found OC2s and their derivatives to track better with a slightly reduced input volume. That said, it also takes clean technique and finding the right setting for your tone pots so you don't feed the pedal too much string noise.

See, this is a common misconception. You'd have to be absolutely squashing your signal to lose all dynamics from your bass. I think most players, Tony Levin aside, prefer a more even-handed approach. I know that when I use compression on my board, I have it set for very little compression reacting to my normal playing so that it's really just smoothing out the biggest transients. With a good envelope filter, you can set the sensitivity so that it still very much reacts to your playing. My compressor is dead, otherwise, I would grab a few clips to illustrate.

Voodoo Lab has a new series of boards called the Dingbat, and you can buy them with or without a PSU pre-installed. Pretty handy. Then again, installed a PSU on almost any board isn't difficult.

I'd have to see the Toneprint Editor, but I would assume that, given how much everyone talks about there being so many parameters to adjust, one should be able to build a reasonable facsimile of most compressors, short of any harmonic content generated by transformers or tubes or whathaveyou.

Piezo certainly takes care of the control-cavity issue. Then you can rear-mount a strat-style output jack behind the bridge.

From what I've read of routing acrylic, slow speeds and good extraction are key. I don't think you need to water cool anything. I'd just be concerned about the internal routing; I always think it looks a bit meh when you can see the routing channel to the control cavity and for the bridge ground. Maybe rear-mount the controls behind the bridge or pickup somehow?

You could always get an ABY box with gain for each input to put in front.

There are other similar devices: Woojer, Basslet, Buttkickers and similar platforms or seat attachments. If it works for the player using it, don’t sh** on it.

You can use these things called your ears to judge things. Meters and gauges and all that is great, but ultimately what sounds best may look ‘bad’ on a meter.

Someone is selling a Seymour Duncan Studio Bass in the sale section here for £100. Buy it and don’t look back.

I also use the Godlyke PowerAll, but even with only four low-mA, analog pedals on a daisy chain I get a very noticeable buzz/hum, and I've quadruple checked that it is not a faulty patch cable or instrument cable. Too bad isolated power supplies are expensive. I guess you could carry all the power bricks for the pedals on your board as backups in case the PSU on your board craps out on a gig, but given the hassle of getting everything unplugged and replugged with the bricks, I think I'd rather just go without my pedals for the night. I'm also not the kind of person that brings backups of everything and backups for my backups (but I'm neurotic about digital file backups). I've owned PSUs from T-Rex, MXR, and Truetone and the only one that had any problem was the MXR (it just died at home one day); and if it hadn't've been for their atrocious customer service, I would have gladly replaced it with the replacement they eventually sent me after 2 months... after a week without my pedalboard I bought a used Truetone CS12 and had no issues.

Well, with a dedicated power supply you get the benefit of less devices to go bad. Most PSU’s also have a removable (and therefore replaceable) IEC cord. Most venues would probably have an extra if you forget it or it dies (same kind of cable used for most amps and sound gear in general). A dedicated PSU also would be less bulky than a power strip and individual power bricks for each pedal. Finally, a PSU would give the opportunity for expansion in the future.

Well, used is always better than new.