SumOne
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I thought that it was a good feature that if you wanted it can be used as a guitar/bass tuner, and use it live for the amp sims and effects (including xy screen), so could feasibly be a decent enough guitar/bass multi fx for one gig and with a different band use it for samples etc. Feels like they are nearly at the point of being able to do it all. -
As anticipated, there is about to be a new Nord Electro 7: https://www.musicradar.com/music-tech/clavia-unveils-nord-electro-7-with-fully-fledged-synth-section-redesigned-interface-and-much-more Looks good, main thing being a synth section and Organ sound updates. I'm still very happy with my Vicount Legend One choice though, not least as it is £1k cheaper.
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Nice one, it's a shame these don't seem to be quite there for live guitar/bass stuff. (and if you decide to sell the 404 Mk2 give me a shoult as I'm interested in it from a sampling and drum machine perspective). As the MPC and the SP 404 Mk2 both have guitar inputs and live effects - including guitar sims they seem in theory to be almost there, and the new KAOSS pad has guitar input so they have at least given some thought for how it can be used to live process the guitar/bass. I wouldn't expect any of them to be as good as bass specific multi fx for that specific thing, but with them being able to also work for effects with keyboards, vocals etc and for the MPC and SP to also work as samplers and drum machines and sequencers has me interested. I expect though that with this current hardware it is still probably cheaper and more efficient to get a bass/guitar specific multi-fx with footswitches, and if I want a hardware sampler or drum machine then to get them separately just for that specific use. It doesn't feel too far off that there will be something that does cover all of the things well enough for live bass effects, they seem to basically have the processing power to do it - it's just how it is accessed, a simple way of adding midi footswitch integration to change through presets would be important.
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Some new Bass products already announced ahead of NAMM 2026 (which starts 20th Jan). Pedals: Boss GX-1B Bass: Andertons have a list The main thing so far seems to be that Ibanez have a new 'Mode' range of active Jazz types. https://www.ibanez.com/eu/products/model/mdm/ And some other stuff that might be interesting to Bass players: Korg KAOSS Pad V Korg microAudio interfaces
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Yeah, I feel they aren't quite there for live stuff yet, they clearly now have an eye on the guitar/bass market but more from a home studio perspective. I think a few tweaks like the things you mention could really help, mounting points is a good call - surely wouldn't add much cost but these things rarely have them. The KAOSS pad having RCA I/O isn't ideal, having stuff like XLR would be great but you usually need to go pretty high-end guitar/bass multi fx to have it included and unfortunately even quite expensive multi-fx specifically designed for live guitar/bass often have those external PSUs and weak cables, you need to go quite high-end before getting the more professional sturdy stuff so I guess the cost/size and multi-region thing is a bit prohibitive. I'd like to see them really think through how someone would use these things live for guitar/bass perhaps with then mounted on a stand and using a a midi footswitch pedal to change presets and turn effects on/off etc, they all have midi in/out and USB interfaces so I assume it is technically possible but would probably be a world of tech faff.
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New Korg KAOSS Pad V announced: "KORG probably took a look around the music-making environment and realized that there are a lot of guitarists buying pedals these days. With them in mind, the new KAOSS PAD has a Hi-Z jack for accepting guitar and bass DI. “A dedicated high-impedance input makes it easy to connect electric guitar or bass directly with no additional hardware required,” says KORG. “Explore textures like ambient swells, rhythmic modulation, time-based glitch effects, or reverb soundscapes, all shaped by simple fingertip control.” https://www.gearnews.com/korg-kaoss-pad-v-studio/ The last bit 'all shaped by fingertip control' is going to be the issue, my fingertips are usually somewhat busy when playing bass! But I guess some things like chorus can just be turned on/off as a preset and dynamic stuff like playing a long note and then use the KAOSS to add tape echo and changing rate and feedback with fingers for a dub sort of effect could work. There's a change in the air with big companies like Korg, Akai, Roland all recently releasing units that properly include Guitar/Bass as a use. Being mass produced units selling to a much wider audience you get a lot of bang for your buck - and they can also be used for vocals, keyboards, production etc. They all lack footswitch control though, perhaps that can be added available via their midi controls.
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Ibanez EHB 1005 MS £750 Excellent condition, just some very small signs of use that won't show up on photos, a shop could get away with selling it as ex display or an 'open box' return rather than as second hand. With Ibanez gig bag. 3.4kg. Bought new less than a year ago. NYXL strings fitted a few months ago (they're an improvement on the stock ones it came with). Specs: https://www.ibanez.com/eu/products/detail/ehb1005ms_1p_02.html Collection from Chichester, or I'm in Central London on Mondays. I have the Ibanez box it could potentially be posted in (will add a photo of that once I've retrieved it from the loft. I just remembered I should also add some ID to the photos too so will do that later). As a 5 string I think these are hard to beat: Clear 35" B string, even tone across strings and comfortable to play the multiscale, ergonomic and about as lightweight as any 5 string you can get - but still well balanced with no neck dive, compact for carrying and using at pub gigs with small stages, a lot of different tones, passive/active switch, decent 3 band EQ with sweepable mids, stays in tune. These are great basses with just two annoying things: Fret markers are difficult to see and the locking jack socket needed two hands for you to remove the cable (one to press the button in and one to pull the cable out) which I found a faff. I've addressed both of those: Glowtec Lumo fret stickers (high quality, cost me about £20 with postage, they stay in place well but are removable if you want) and I took the small spring out of the jack socket so it doesn't push in to lock (I still have the small spring so it could be put back in). I keep buying these Basses (this is my third one!) when I feel I 'need' an active 5 string, then after about a year I feel I 'need' a passive 4 string...no particular reason, sometimes there are some new songs for the band that require the B string and then sometimes there's a whole set with no need for it gets me thinking a 4 would be better, but mostly it is that I'm just fickle and like having new Basses! I'm always a one Bass at a time sort of person as I don't like swapping between different ones especially if different scale lengths or different amount of strings and I always need to sell a Bass to fund the next one so I continue the annual cycle of selling 5 string to get a 4 and vice versa. I have seen one specific 4 string Bass I want, I might remove this advert if that sells first.....and this time next year when I feel I 'need' an active 5 string again I'll probably sell it to buy one of these again! My Feedback: -
Nice, looks good. I like the hexagon buttons that light up - very clear to see what effects are on/off and is quick to edit their parameters. I'm not sure but perhaps a bit confusing with the labelling as isn't it the case that the effects won't always be in that order? It looks like it is limited to about 8x effects in the chain and it seems there is no parallel signal processing, the effects list looks similar to the other GX pedals and the and GT (perhaps a couple of slight niche limitations like the Tape Echo has upto 3 playback heads and I seem to remember the GT having upto 4). I don't think those things are really much of an issue, it is quite rare to really need signal chains with more than 8 things on and most of the effects have clean blends. No effects loop could be an issue for some. A couple of nice features that aren't on the more expensite GX and GT pedals: Can be battery powered (4x AA batteries), and built-in bluetooth for playing along to. For fitting in the gig bag for rehearsals and being battery powered I'd quite like to see an even more compact version without the expression pedal as you do have the option to add one. That smaller size would also be good for fittting it onto pedalboards like people do with the Stomp and Core, fx loop would be useful for that use though. So yeah, looks good - but a smaller version without the expression pedal but with fx loop would be ideal for me. £228 from Thomann ....GX-10 is £70 extra and that has bigger screen that's a touchscreen, parallel processing, longer effects chains, effects loop, but doesn't have bluetooth or battery power or the hexagon lights so it's a tough call.
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Half of one of these?!
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All good thanks, me and my daughter went and we are now set up for 1hr a week (30mins each). It's at a music academy (although that makes it sound posher than it is, it is a bit of a shabby building next to a train station) which is quite a cool and inspiring place as you walk past rooms of people learning drums, singing, guitars etc. He was good at tailoring things, had my daughter playing a game linked to an iPad to make horses race as you play the right notes - which had her wanting to carry on with it at home. And had me improvising I IV V chords in root/third/fifth positions as he played basslines - which inspired me to do some new rehearsing routines. And he's already getting me set up to learn some songs that I can play with the Hammond sounds with the Band (Liquidator, Green Onions) rather than purely going down the Grade route. Trinity grades looked more appealing to me but this teacher does ABRSM and as it seems like he won't ridgedly stick to it for all the teaching I think we'll go with that (he can do Trinity if we want but he doesn't have the materials to copy/lend). He confirmed that I am on about Grade 3 for playing and theory. Interestingly, he recommended I don't bother spending time on theory much at this point and to not bother with theory Grade tests until Grade 5 as that's where it is necessary to progress to the next Grades, he said I'd pick up a lot of what's needded as I do the performance stuff.
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The classic thing is to go: compressor > effects > preamp. ....but lots of amps have an effects loop as it is good to put certain effects (generally delays, reverbs, modulation) after the preamp. And compressors set more like limiters are usually at the end of the signal chain (e.g. can then tame overly 'peaky' effects like tape delay). So there isn't any definitive right or wrong.
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Yussef Dayes ft. Chronixx 'Pon di Plaza'
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Yussef Dayes ft. Tom Misch, 'Rust'
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I had some success using an Akai MPC as a Live Bass effects unit, it has a Tuner, Amp sims, lots of live effects with more parameter controls than most effect pedals have, all relatively easily edited via touchscreen and assigning knobs. There wasn't noticeable latency. The main downside was it being relatively large and not being 'stompable' e.g. couldn't put it in the floor and stomp on/off effects mid-song. It could potentially sit on my amp for always on type effects but seemed a bit big/expensive/complex for that vs just using a cheap Bass multi-fx like a Zoom MS 60B so I never actually used it live for Bass effects but it seemed perfectly possible. I don't own the MPC anymore but I still like the idea of using hardware for sampling and drums stuff so am eyeing up the Roland SP 404 MK2. What is helping to convince me about it is that it seems quite a capable unit for adding live effects and basically using it as live multi-fx unit (all be it not stompable, and not bass specific). It has a big effects list including Guitar Amp sims: ....unfortunately no specific Bass Amp sim though. I'm hoping it could be a useful Bass multi-fx unit, keyboard effects, sampler/trigger, drum machine, and sequencer....5 in 1 bargain! I've also found that some quite limited effects on my mixing desk (Mackie FX 12v3) can be good when assigned just to the Bass. It wouldn't be ideal for all live stuff as again it isn't stompable but does have potential to add stuff like Delay, Reverb, Chorus as long as you don't want them turned on/off mid-song. I also tried Laptop and interface hardware teamed up 'Gig Performer' software. It gives a huge potential for all the different effects you can use, latency was low, it turned into a faff to try and have Laptop and interface etc for gigs though. One big issue was how to stomp on mute and view a tuner without using the laptop screen - I'd need a tuner pedal, by then might as well just have a small multi fx. Any other non-standard ways you've added live effects? It seems there is a whole world of things like DJ effects units out there that can potentially do the job - and many are cheaper, work with different instruments, and more feature full than Bass specific things.
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I got a Zoom CDR 70+. Instant online Amazon purchases and next day delivery is almost too good! It's alright, but I think I'll return it, I just don't like the interface much for what I need.
