SumOne

I've seen a lot of people bi-amp their Bass through Bass Amp/Cab and Guitar (Royal Blood sort of thing) but not noticed it being done with Bass & Sub. Anyone here done it and have any tips? I mostly play Dub and Reggae, and occasionally some electronic/dubstep* sort of stuff that goes into sub territory. I'm thinking that I could beef up the sound with something like a DOD Meatbox or a Mantic Density Hulk with clean signal going to my normal Bass amp/cab and the sub signal going to a dedicated sub - I guess the simplest solution would be sending that signal to an active PA sub. It could potentially go to venue's PA if they happen to have decent enough subs but I'd prefer my own rig for the times they don't have it. *I feel dubstep gets a bad rep a lot of the time as the stuff that got popular was the screetchy/agressive style, there's plenty of actually dubby stuff like this though:

Do you like the Nux Tape Core? I've twice owned Boss RE-20 Space Echo's and moved them on when getting multi-FX but it's an effect I enjoy using (even if it's not that appropriate for Bass!) so I've had my eye on the Nux which is a more pedalboard friendly size and about 25% of the price.

It means the signal can go: Bass > Digbeth (adding EQ and drive) > FX loop (e.g. Delay pedal) > Digbeth outputs (DI and line output). Without it you'd only be able to have your delay placed in the chain before it goes through the Digbeth (a delay feeding into EQ & drive sounds different to having it after) or placed after the Digbeth (so it wouldn't be affecting what goes out of the Digbeth outputs like the XLR).

Octaver before fuzz sounds pretty massive in a wall of stoner doom kind of way, but if that's not your bag - perhaps a Phaser, can sound good either before or after dirt.

Hold your horses everyone. What I actually meant to say when I started this thread was that Xotic Bass' aren't worth owning - look elsewhere, or if you're unlucky enough to already own one you might as well offload it cheaply to me! 😏

My new downsized travel pedal board: They're velcro'd on and it packs into its protective box (which I think was about £5 worth from Homebase). The power supply and all that power cable mess is probably overkill, I might just use daisy chain power which woud make room for a few Pedals that have been evicted (fuzz, Overdrive, filter). Or pedals can sit on top of it. I've got a Fishman Platinum Pro incoming so that'll do EQ and DI and replace the tuner and perhaps the compressor. It works on battery power so it will probably be the only thing I take with me to some practice sessions when I want to travel very light.

I only use online reviews/demos as a rough guide, there are too many variables to really know how it'll sound with your setup so I make full use of online shop return policies, and buying/selling from here doesn't usually end up in much of a loss. I found it useful to find out about the general sounds of the main 'parent' groups of the gain family tree (e.g. Rat, Tube Screamer, Tube drive, Muff, Super Fuzz, Octavia, Gated Fuzz) because most pedals are a variation on them. Personally though, my favorites (so far!) are: Tube drive - DHA VT1 EQ Tube Screamer - Way Huge Green Rhino Smalls Rat - Idiotbox Landphil Muff - MXR Brown Acid

And it's worth knowing what power outlets it trips.....e.g. kitchen plugs will stay on. I did a DJ gig once where the noise enforcement people came along and said to turn it down, I asked the soundsystem operator/promoter if we should (they had control of the amps and it was their equipment just there for that night) and the reply was 'no we're turning it up!' ....police turned up and night came to an abrupt end and the venue was closed down and has never re-opened. I'm not entirely sure that the promoter had the same priorities as the venue owner!

More 4 string Xotic temptation here: ......I think I'm fairly set on sticking with 5 strings nowadays though. Not that I play much below the low E but I think I'd miss the B string.

Yeah, the 4.8kgs seems a too much like unnecessary effort for my generally lazy attitude though! My currenty 5 string is about 4kg and previous one was 3.3kg though so I've probably been a bit spoilt.

Yeah they both look good, I'll probably stick with 5 strings but the 10lb 12oz/ 4.8kg of that one puts me off a bit. It's a shame Bass Bros don't seem to have a physical shop to try them out but perhaps something can be organised.

I only play 5 string nowadays but this could turn me! https://bassbros.co.uk/product/xotic-xj-1t-4/

The main thing I found myself needing to learn on a 5 was the extra muting, and I still find it slightly more tricky to slap the E string on a 5 (having to mute the B and avoid hitting it). Neither are a deal breaker though. I don't actually play much below the low E on the B string but it is useful to not need to play E as an open string and for the added variety of fretting positions. The other disadvantages people tend to mention are the added weight, and extra thickness of the neck (or tighter string spacing if getting a thinner neck). I haven't found either of those to be an issue (I don't like tight string spacing but that's alright as I don't mind wider necks, and had a Sandberg TM5 SL that was only 3.3kg) but I guess they are fairly important things to consider when getting one.

I never spend anything on Bass gear, it's all just diversifying my investment portfolio.

I'd go to Bass Direct and trade your 4 for a MTD. They have always given me good part exchange deals and I found the best way to get used to a 5 is to fully commit to it and ditch the 4, and it gives a good excuse for the new Bass - it's just a trade.

I had one for a while and thought it was decent: good EQ, drive, DI, fx loop, Aux in and headphone out, and very good value. If I was being picky then ideally I'd like the headphone output to have an individual volume control, and the dials look cool but are a bit hard to read, and I never found much use for the tilt eq (it'd be great if that was a HPF instead). Can't have everything though! Overall I thought it was good.

I'm learning 'can't stand losing you' by The Police right now and the speed it rushes through and out of the reggae type bassline bits is annoying me.... No funk or building a groove or giving it any breathing space.

That is annoying. I think they're trying to do the J Dilla 'drunk' drums thing but with the bassline - which doesn't really work.

That's about it, he also calls you a groove hacker and asks you to subscribe though.

I've had a motorbike accident and fallen down a cliff (not at the same time!) so have some back and shoulder issues. As already said - core strengthening and stretching/ mobility exercises help, and a light /ergonomic Bass. Also good technique:

I think the recordings are exactly the same, I guess there wasn't a contract and over time the Mixer, Engineer, and Producer have each claimed credit (it just leaves the Roots Radics to stake their claim!).

Scientist 'Vampires' arrived today. I've got a bit of a collection going on and all these are decent, 'pac-man' is next on the list. Licensing issues mean some are sold as 'Scientist' (mixed) while others are 'Junjo' (engineer Henry 'Junjo' Lawes) and some are 'Linval' (Producer Linval Thompson).

Something along the lines of these outfits, but a bit extra:

Nice. Am I right in saying the one without the toggle switches is a slightly older model of the made in Japan XJ-1T? I see there are also some 'XJ-Pro' versions which look the same without the toggle switches but I think they were a bit cheaper and made in Taiwan instead of Japan - I can't see how to tell between them and the XJ-1T version without toggle switches but I guess there's a 'made in Japan or Taiwan' on the headstock or something.

I think it depends on what you want from a preamp as it seems quite an interchangeable catch-all term: Some are like the one control crimson red which are simple and just add specific amp tones, or there are more fancy ones in that category like the Broughton ones. And some are basically an overdrive pedal. Or there are the combined DI/EQ/Preamp things like the Sansamp, or some that throw everything in like the Microbass 3. Or ones that don't really add any colour - just EQ/DI like the Q-Strip or MXR M81.