SumOne

I was very close to buying the more purple one to then sell my darker one!

Are any of you Reggae Bass players using a P Bass? I guess anything goes and most Basses with flats followed by some EQ and the right Amp/Cabs can sound right for Reggae with the right player but I'm just wondering if there's any particular reason that such a ubiquitous Bass for over 70 years doesn't seem to have been used by hardly any Reggae Bassists. Alpha and Omega being the only exception I've noticed. I tried a few P's the other day and they sounded good for Reggae/Dub withthe tone rolled back, a bit more 'thumpy' in the low-mids than a Jazz, and I think I prefer the feel of a P Bass neck in a 4 string (probably as I'm used to fat 5 string necks) so I might do a bit more investigating.

Another Reggae/Dub Bass effect that I like is one Mad Professor uses a fair bit, seen here at 47 seconds: I think it's a low pass filter with reverb.

I don't often find much use for effects in Reggae other than mild compressor, EQ, and perhaps a little bit of tube overdrive/amp sim colour but I quite like mucking about with occasional reverb and delays for dubby stuff to do things like that Scientist sound. I like that Don's video flashes up a warning 'don't use this effect too much - you're supposed to be holding down the low end'!

Nice! Just tried day with my Helix and it works well for that Scientist sound.

Flabba Holt interview:

The idea of 2022's gear abstinence is kind of having the opposite effect on my end of 2021 GAS! Somewhere in the back of my mind is a ticking clock (less than 8 weeks now) to get all of next year's worth of buying done so I can then tell myself I'm disciplined and bought nothing in 2022.

I'd recommend them too. Quick build/delivery, solid quality and the pedal still works as it should after a couple of years. I got a dual reverse looper and only went as far as choosing the LEDs but it still feels like a (very slightly) custom built pedal.

Sold a pedal to Jimmy and all went well - thanks!

It doesn't come with any instructions either, somebody got this response from Mr Blowerbox though: "The top 4 controls are just like my Blower Box. Low/high cut/boost, distortion, volume into the 2nd part of the circuit. The bottom set are more like enhanced lows/highs, the bottom distortion control changes the frequencies that receive the most distortion.........The bottom volume is the master volume."

Supersize it! https://joespedals.com/products/landphil-bass-distortion

The Zoom B1 four is great value but is quite different to the Nux so it depends how its going to be be used. For a second practice room I'd go for the Zoom, for being completely mobile I'd go for the Nux. The Nux is rechargeable, it's small, light, clicks directly into the Bass and it streams bluetooth music from your phone so you're cable free (other than your headphones). It's the sort of thing you can easily walk room to room around the house using or use in the garden etc. or take in your pocket to a practice session/gig/bass shop if you want a quick private noodle! (and who doesn't like a quick private noodle?!) The Zoom needs batteries or power cable and a cable from the Bass and a cable from your phone (and the cable to your headphones), that's quite a lot of cables if you want to be mobile. It's also heavier and big enough that it needs to sit on a floor/desk (not able to click onto the Bass as you walk about, and is not pocket sized unless you've got some massive pockets!). It beats the Nux in having tuner, more effects, drum loops and footswitch control though so is what I'd go for if I wanted a semi-permanent second practice room in the house and didn't plan on moving it around too much.

Same here. I've just got a Nux to replace the Vox, early days but it seems to be a massive improvement for only about £10 extra. The Vox is bad build quality (jack snaps off), crackly fiddly dials, noisy (hiss), takes batteries. The Nux is good build quality, no annoying levels of hiss, rechargable, lots of decent effects and amps and cab IRs available to save into 6x presets (accessible via a button with 6x colour coded light on the unit), has drum loops/metronome and also works as a bluetooth receiver so can play music through it and play along. The benefit of the Vox is that it has built-in drum patterns/metronome and volume controls which are all available on the unit itself whereas all you can do on the Nux without a phone is scroll through the 6x presets - it needs to be linked to a Phone via an app (which keeps saying it needs an update although it's the most recent version) to make changes to volume and effects and launch drum tracks/metronome and adjust bpm and volume. I suppose in an ideal situation the Nux would have a way controling those things on the actual unit so no phone connection is needed but I guess that'd increase the price. If you've got the ££ then the Boss Waza Air Bass look very good.

Not to be a downer on it as I'd like to talk myself into 'investing' in an expensive Bass but I think inflation and wage/spending power increases are a big thing that people don't often consider. I seem to remember seeing somewhere that a J Bass in the mid 60's cost about £150, average UK wages were roughly £1,000 per year (£83 per month) so it cost nearly 2 months of wages. Average wages are now £29,600 per year (£2,466 per month) so that's getting towards £5k for 2 months of wages. Bass Gallery have a 64 J Bass for £6,500 .....if that asking price gets knocked down a bit and Bass Gallery take their cut you basically sell it for roughly 2 months of average wages - which is exactly the same 'value' as you bought for 58 years ago. There's also 58 years of risk of losing/breaking it/insurance costs/maintainance etc. so it's probably not such a great investment if it's just down to money.

Yeah, I think if I were to go down the investment Bass route I'd probably go for something good to play that's high-end but not yet considered vintage....like a 90's Sadowsky, Spector, Fodera, MTD, Mike Lull etc. Keep hold of it for 10 years and once it's 40+ years old so it starts to go into 'vintage' collectable territory (especially to anyone younger than that!), it'd be a nice playable Bass for 10 years of use and would probably also make some money - win win! I'm talking myself into this!

I looked into this a bit as I have a DI/EQ pedal (Q-Strip) that I thought I might need to keep but I think the Stomp has it covered. This text is from Line 6 for the HX Effects, but I assume the Stomp is the same: Although all the outputs use TRS jacks, they are not true balanced outputs. They are only impedance-balanced. · A true balanced output would have the tip and ring driven with (out-of-phase) audio signal. The outputs on HX Effects are only driven on the tip. · However, because they are impedance-balanced, you can still get some common-mode rejection of external noise sources (i.e. power line hum) if a TRS cable is used to connect the HX Effect outputs to a device with balanced inputs. So I gather that because the Stomp output is impedance-balanced and output level can be adjusted it's fine to use a 1/4" TRS to XLR adapter go into a mixer (or just a the 1/4" TRS cable if the mixer accepts it). Perhaps there's confusion because 1/4" outputs from effects pedals are usually un-balanced (whereas XLR are always balanced), and most 1/4" cables are TS rather than TRS . Being plugged into a phantom power XLR slot in the mixer is something to look out for though, I expect it would be bad news for the Stomp.

Is £14,500 the going rate for a decent early 60's P Bass? It makes the £6,500 J Bass at Bass Gallery look cheap! Is there usually that much difference in cost between a P and a J a couple of years apart?

This is the sort of maths I do when trying to justify getting expensive things! High-end second hand vintage bass guitars are tempting as you get to own a nice bass while they appreciate. I've heard investment people say art is a good investment as it tends to go up in value and you have some nice decoration while it appreciates, if it doesn't appreciate quickly there's no big rush to get rid of it as it's still got benefit as a piece of art in the meantime. The risk is if demand falls and it de-values relative to inflation or if it gets damaged or nicked (and the cost of insurance). Bass guitars are sturdy though and I'd guess a vintage Fender is a fairly safe bet for something that'll stay in demand, it's not like there are more actual 60's Fenders being made........the biggest issue would be ever cashing-in and selling it, I imagine it'd be a tough thing to do after owning it for years. Go for it!

I know this is an annoying answer but the choice I made was to sell the Stomp and (eventually) get a Stomp XL. My Stomp sold for £330 and I bought a second hand XL for £435 so it cost me £105 to get the additional 5x colour assignable capacitive touch footswitches all integrated with no programming, no extra cables and power supplies, it also gets 4x snapshots per preset (all well laid out lit up and easily accessed as the A, B, C, D buttons when clicking to snapshot mode so it's actually easily usable for clicking between 4x different parts of a song) and similar new 'A,B,C,D' layout/accessibility mode for instantly switching between 4x presets and there's an edit mode where the footswitches change all the block parameters, and the 6 button looper with all the footswitches automatically corresponding to the screen layout. Also, I prefer the cables all being at the back and the volume being spring loaded.

Ah s*it, I was too keen and online buying is too easy - it's already ordered! It's Amazon though with free returns so shouldn't be a hassle to just return it for a refund. I'll PM you.

I've checked the Boss websites and the manuals and cannot see that there are any hardware differences between Bass and Guitar versions, just the software for 6x drum/metronome loops and the bass specific amps and perhaps some of the effects being tweaked a bit. There are shops selling the guitar version for £309 but the going rate for the Bass version is £399 (or a couple of shops are trying for over £420). I'm keen but I think this is cheeky - expecially as in the USA there is only $30 (£20) price difference. Hopefully the Bass version will come down to the Guitar version price over time (or other brands will start using this wireless headphone technology). In the meantime I'm going to get the Nux.