admiralchew

It’s kind of difficult to say. I think some is the likeliest answer. The studio pedals impart a bit of subtle sweetness that I find quite pleasing. I put the tone in a similar bracket to the Caveman BP1: kind of studio sheen rather than beefy heft or overdriven/gain-fuelled. I’ve placed it where I have here to give the envelope, phaser and tubes to get stuck into. A lot of the folks on the Talkbass Broughton thread like to use it with the Messenger as almost a DIY Studio One. The Studio One is a great pedal and crazily good for the price. The BP1-C is about the closest comparator for the price I think in terms of tone that I have used, although I’ve heard a few people compare it to the JHS Colorbox.

I've had a board of Broughton pedals for a long time and, after a recent flurry of succeeding on releases, I decided to make a bigger board. It's sorely missing the flanger of the Utility Knife (which Josh Broughton helped design) so maybe that will go back on the board with the Omnicomp sneaking underneath. It's an absolute monster though and weighs a ton. It has comp, EQ, fuzz, OD, distortion, envelope, phaser, boost, PLL, tubes, preamps and DI and headphone out, so it covers a lot of ground. I've tried my hand at putting together a few more manufacturer specific boards which I expect will see the light of day here soon. I know that doesn't float everyone's boat but I've still got my main board, clean board and headphone amp boards that do most of the work so the manufacturer-specific boards are just ways of enjoying the pedals I've spent forever F5ing for rather than keeping them in boxes. I really like fuzz into octave and realised there are a lot of competing dirt pedals so I've tried to vary them so that I can various combinations e.g. fuzz into distortion into fuzz into OD into distortion. Not pictured: there is a Broughton BBA and a Studio Boost Mini on the back, along with two Cioks DC7s and two DC8s.

That Mu-Tron is an absolute beast! How does it sound?

Absolutely brilliant pedal. The functionality on it (not to mention the routing flex) makes it easier than some of the alternatives to make part of a set up too. I’ll message you on Saturday about some of your wanted ads.

I bought an Analog Music Company SHSL at the same time as the Source Audio Reflex that was sold on here recently. I’d been holding off on getting an SHSL until I’d figured out how to add effective expression control as it looked like it would be relatively inexpressive (if you’ll pardon the terrible pun) without it. I tried them together recently and they are a powerful duo. I’ve been looking to get Tim Commerford’s tone from Calm Like a Bomb and I think this may do it. I bought a fuzz and a distortion I really like but I’ll hold judgment on those until I’ve played them more. The other pedal that really sticks in the memory is the Doc Lloyd DLA-2A. It completed my main board and is a truly fantastic bit of kit.

As an update to this topic, I had a belated birthday gathering at the weekend and my wife had arranged for a birthday cake that hit the centre of my Venn diagram of pedals, basses and Star Wars. It's one of the more over the top things I've seen but loved all the more for it. The bass even has the Dingwall logo on it!

Good question. It sounds like the controls from the short scale basses. Last time round there were active and passive short scale options too.

I wondered when they’d do another run: https://www.music-man.com/instruments/families/basses/tim-commerford I have an active full scale from the first run and it’s a lovely bass. It’s very light and I love it being string-through. The other distinguishing features are string gauge, adjustable ramp and mutes, so not exactly show-stopping, but it’s as close as I’ve ever gotten to Timmy C’s sound (and I have tried!). There is again a passive option.

I've spent a good amount of time with the AB II this week. The neck profile is very thin front to back and the ovangkol is smooth without being tacky: it reminds me of the sanded and oiled backs to the Geddy Lee signature jazz basses in terms of feel. That and the low action make this an extremely enjoyable bass to play. It sounds excellent too: it's got a brand new set of Dingwall nickel strings which, when combined with the semi-hollow body and wenge fretboard, results in a mellow but zingy tone. The Glockenklang preamp is, thankfully, flexible enough to make that work. It's a little different but I'm enjoying it! The guys at Dingwall sorted through their inventory too and were able to find the broadly matching brown Dingwall strap, which was a nice bonus.

Haha, sadly not. Her brother's a really lovely guy though.

Good question! I’m not sure. The triplebuckers are very impressive though, at least in conjunction with the preamp. I’ve managed to get some nice jazz bass and StingRay-esque sounds from them.