thodrik

I am really tempted by these basses as a new 'back up bass'. They look like a hell of a lot of bass for the money.

Same day reply when asking about a replacement bridge. Never had any issues.

Now that I am using an active bass through a Darkglass B3K (ran nearly on clean) and Keeley Bassist compressor, I don't mind if the sound engineer wants to use a DI box or take a pre-EQ signal from the amp. My basic sound is already set before it hits the amp. It is basically what I will send directly to the desk when recording so it is fine when going FOH. I tried splitting my signal a few times into 'wet' and 'dry' signals but the effort and extra faff was never worth the benefit to me personally. It sounds great when done well but generally when doing soundchecks on a three band bill, I am lucky if I get two minutes to set up a bass sound. When using a passive bass running straight into an amp, I am very wary of using a pre EQ signal unless I trust the sound engineer. I have done far too many gigs where the sound engineer has made taken a pre EQ signal and made a complete mess of a passive Fender bass. Of course, if a sound engineer can't EQ a passive Fender bass, there isn't much hope of them handing the vocals, guitars or drums either. It is for this reason I used a Sansamp Bass Driver on 'kinda like an SVT' settings for so many years when gigging with my Precision. It never sounded as great as using a really top end amp (Mesa, Aguilar, Ampeg SVT, EBS etc), but more importantly it was very difficult for the sound engineer to make the signal sound bad!

I would recommend trying out an A/O if you can though to see if you prefer the flavour. I haven't tried the VMT drive yet. I would probably prefer it to the higher gain settings of the B3K.

Personally, I don't find that the Alpha/Omega is really subtle enough for my 'always on' type of sound. . In terms of my favourite overdrive pedals (the Aguilar Agro and B3K) at very low gain settings you can an almost 'pre breakup' sound, that sounds like valve amp being driven hard before heavy overdrive or fuzz is generated (basically a bit of good old 'clank'.). I love that sound as my basic 'go to' sound. I bought the A/O as a 'bit of crunch' setting because I really don't like the inherent top end 'fizz' of the B3K. The Alpha side of the A/O is a great 'crunchy overdrive' sound which is a good effect for certain parts. For complete full on fuzz though I think that the Duality I have is better than the A/O pedal, even with the extra EQ on the A/O pedal. In terms of the Alpha/Omega pedal at least, I have found that there is always quite a bit of 'hair' in the signal. The Omega side to me is more of a fizzy high end, square wave type of distortion, that I think would be great for more modern metal sounds. The Alpha side is more of an old school fuzz/distortion which sounds great when paired with a Fender style bass. It is more subtle, but you can always hear a good deal of grit in the signal. Basically, if I was still playing in a Djent band, I would be playing with the Omega side. Now that I back playing 70s inspired rock it is the Alpha side. In total honesty, since buying the Mesa Big Block I can get pretty much get my ideal basic sound by plugging straight into the amp and my ideal fuzz sound with the onboard overdrive with the amp which is like a Duality+ on the high gain settings. It sounds like I am overly criticising the A/O pedal, but I want to make clear that it is a really well designed and highly flexible pedal. I just don't think that the initial design of A/O pedal warranted the quick release of the Omicron pedal and A/O Ultra pedal immediately after. I thought the same with Mesa releasing the D800, then quickly releasing the D800 plus. It might be me being cynical but it seems that bass gear is being marketed like smart phones in that products are slowing being released in stages purely to maximise financial gain. Release product A, knowing that you already have Product A+ and product A- pretty much ready to go, knowing that a certain percentage of your fanbase will buy product A and then product A+ or product A-. I know companies and people in the music industry have to make money (I am lawyer these days, so pot kettle black), but some of the Darkglass social media hype and 'OMG' product launch videos and social media 'reviews' that are really paid advertisements are a big turn off for me, even though I will freely admit that every aspect of is extremely well done. It is why I find Basschat so valuable, because people are actually willing to give 'warts and all' real world reviews of gear and are willing to be critical of gear they have bought and actually really like!

Love the set up. I think that I have the same TV! Cheers also for the review. I just have the Alpha Omega pedal. I also very much prefer the Alpha side.

I watched it. As far as being one bass player's personal opinion on he achieves his own personal tone i have no issue with it. In terms of his opinions being passed off as 'essentials' for bass tone I thought it was just another case of opinion being passed off as fact. There is nothing from his free videos that would encourage me to pay money to obtain any of his knowledge. I'm happy that he has managed to build up a successful business but I just really don't gain any insight or enjoyment from his videos. I have slowly managed to block SBL from my social media mentions, but I still see SBL posts here on BC. When I see them I can't help but watch (it is like a drug). For my own sanity I am going to pull myself away from all SBL discussions and would ask the mods on this site to give me a warning if I so much as comment on another SBL related topic.

For me it is ‘I have never looked at Fender factory specs’. Action height is a very subjective and personal thing, as is string gauge choice and the amount of relief a player wants on the neck. Owing to that I don’t think that there is a ‘right’ setting. So long as it works for the player, then it works.

Ten years ago: - fully prepared and learned the songs; - enthusiastic; - willing to bend over backwards to meet other people schedules; - always on time; - always bring a Fender Precision 'coz that iz wot the PROs play'; - keen to play and explore as many genres as possible; - always keen to come up with songwriting ideas, but equally happy to play exactly what is requested when required. Now: - I have a car.

I never liked Pre shape 2 for some reason. I just thought it added far too much low end across a broad spectrum and actually cut the area of mids I actually wanted to boost! As with Pre Shape 1 though, you can rebalance with the graphic eq. I always thought that Pre Shape 2 benefits from a 12 band EQ. I got great sounds with it on my 12 band SMX, but really struggled with it on my 7 band GP7 SM 300 combo. Part of the problem was perhaps with the combo itself, which lent itself to a boxy, mid focused tone to begin with, so scooping mids (shock horror) actually helped balance out the sound. On Pre Shape 1, that 6 db boost at 2k is just too severe for my tastes.

Perhaps, it is also amazing that every single 70s Fender for sale now is marketed as being 'one of the good ones'! My one wasn't good to start with. The wiring was crap and had to be re-soldered The wiring was so bad one of the previous owners had cut the scratchplate to provide for 'easier access' to the jack socket! The neck had also been installed at the wrong angle, so the break angle at the bridge was just wrong. It many years of my playing and setting it up to get it in the playing condition it is now (I love it). It makes me think, 'are the good vintage basses actually good basses, or are they just standard basses owned by owners and players who took care into making sure the bass had a decent set up?

In my opinion the pre shape needs to be re-balanced by adding some of the mids back in via the graphic EQ (say around 300-600HZ) and then taming the ultra lows (40HZ) and ultra highs to get rid of some of the built in subiness and glassiness. Once you do that you can get a number of really usable sounds. Basically I find the pre shape useful as a basis on which to sculpt a sound, rather than a sound in itself. In terms of of the compressor, I am afraid I have not had much experience with that amp, though I did have a similar experience to you when using the compression on the SMX 300 unit I had for a 6-7 years. After the smallest turn of the control there was already too much compression. Too much compression, not matter how good the compressor will kill the sound though so I generally don't use compression that much.

That really does not mean much to me I am afraid. I just play bass and know when smoke appears from the amp or when there is no sound then something is wrong! If an amp manufacturer makes an amp that works on 2 ohm or 4 ohm loads an includes impedance selectors and inputs to provide for this on the back of the amp, then it should work on 2 and 4 ohm loads. The Ampeg SVT II has this so should be stable at 2 ohms. If it doesn't then the amp is not doing what it is designed to do or what the manufacturer claims it can do. With valve amps though, when things go wrong, things get expensive to fix so it best to be cautious. For that reason I would be more wary of using the amp with a single 8 ohm than two 4 ohm cabs. Two eight ohm cabs giving a four ohm load would be fine, but then I would feel obligated to bring both cabs to every gig or rehearsal, which would defeat the purpose of having the flexibility of two cabs. Most non valve amps are 4 ohm minimum, so I wouldn't ever use a 2 ohm load on an amp that isn't capable of doing it.

Just checking the price, very reasonable indeed!

Good choice. The Ampeg SVT II is a tone monster. I believe that the SVT II runs on 2 ohm or 4 ohm load, so you should ideally be looking for a single 4 ohm cabinet or two compact cabinets . Since your amp can handle a 2 ohm load, it might be fun to get two lightweight 4 ohm 2x10s. This would give you a light weight 4x10 set up but it would be much more easy to move than a single 4x10. If you are used to a 6x10 I think that moving to a 1x12 set up would be a bit extreme. Plus the cab would be so much smaller than your amp. If you want to keep a similar sound to your 6x10, I would get either a 4 ohm 4x10 or 4 ohm 2x10. If money is no object, then the new Mesa Subway cabs are very powerful and very lightweight (and very very expensive). Barefaced, Vanderkley, Aguilar, Bergantino, EBS (Neoline for weight saving), Matamp and Darkglass would be in my thoughts for 'top shelf' bass cab considerations. You really can't go wrong with any of them. The Ampeg speakers are not the most efficient so you might find that moving to a modern design 4x10 provides far more volume than you current set up.

I love that being 'Punk' is a reason by itself.

I have sinnned sinned and sinned again this year: In: Mesa Big Block 750 Mesa Rectoverb 1x12 guitar combo Darkglass Alpha Omega Out: Mesa M6 EBS Billy Sheehan Drive pedal Catalinbread Sabracadabra pedal Trace Elliot 1x15 Bass Cab Fender American Special Toronado guitar On the positive side it is technically more out than in and my net spend has only been about £300. I am also down to one guitar now, but now at least I actually own a guitar amp!

Back when I was younger (circa 1998) you could buy a 1970s Fender Jazz or Precision for less than a 'new' American Standard equivalent. This was on the basis that 1970s were not that desirable as the quality control varied greatly from bass to bass. Now the same basses are going for much more than than American 'Professional' equivalent. So my 'non-desirable' late 70s Precision has probably doubled in value, despite actually being in worse condition than when I bought it given I have been playing it every day for twenty years. Same with my 1974 Gibson EB3, which is a great investment but generally sounds like mud. It is difficult to anticipate what will be a 'great' investment. Given what happened to me by accident, buying Fenders and Gibsons which are about 25-30 years old (so late 80s to early 1990s) might be a good investment over the long term as: (a) they don't command 'vintage' prices but in a few years they will be classed as 'vintage' Fender as they will be 35 years old and will be a good entry point for people who want a vintage Fender but have been priced out of the 1960s and 1970s markets. The returns here though will not be immediate, not be guaranteed and in will not be that great compared to buying an 1970s Les Paul, putting it in a case for ten years and then selling it on. However the big returns are from buy something for relatively cheap which in the future becomes highly desirable. My other query is whether a lot of the 'boutique' bass builders' creations will result in the instruments becoming highly valuable. So for example, will the value of NYC Sadowsky/Fodera/Vigier/insert custom builder be more valuable when the head luthiers retire? Or will these boutique companies actually become less desirable as other 'new' boutique builders take their place? My bet would be on them being more valuable (look at the price of old Wals!) but you never know. If I was a serious 'for profit' collector I would probably focus more on vintage guitars (Les Pauls and Teles) and guitar amps (1970s Fenders and Marshalls) rather than basses which is always going to be more of a niche market.

Oh no, someone is scooping the mids! Someone call the bass guitar forum police! One should always run the EQ on an amp 'flat' and should only play through a FRFR cab and only adjust the EQ the suit the particular ambience of the room. Seriously though, I would agree with the post above. I would also add that a lot of amps have an inbuilt 'character/pre shape' settings which when engaged result in a mid cut. On a three band gig with one shared bass amp (probably belonging to the headlining act) the other bass players may not want to mess with the settings. Bass EQ and overdrive pedals such as the Sansamp Bass Driver also have an inherent mid cut. Two pick up basses like a jazz bass also have a gentle mid cut when both pick ups are engaged. Active basses also often have Bass and Treble settings but no mid setting. So a rig could feature a bassist: 1. playing an active Jazz bass with bass and treble boosted; running into; 2. a Sansamp Bass Driver with bass and treble boosted; running into 3. A Trace Elliot amp with the pre shape engaged and a smiley face EQ; through 4. An old 4x10 that has an inherently scooped built in sound; and 4. A sound engineer who is cutting mids 'to give a bigger sound'. All of the gear I have detailed above can be used to generate a great sound with tonnes of mids. However once you start stacking EQs on top of each other it is easy to lose any interpretation as to what a 'flat sound' actually is. In a gigging situation when the bassist isn't using their own gear, the soundman doesn't know the band and the inherent time constraints of set ups, I'm not surprised that there is a lot of scooping going on.

The are brilliant at staying in tune. My Excess once went through a week long tour in the winter and I barely had to tune it from gig to gig.

My current 'bit of dirt' is the Darkglass B3K which is run almost at clean levels to mimic a Tech 21 Sansamp Bass Driver but without the inbuilt speaker emulation. I don't particularly 'love' the B3K but I started recording an album with a band in October and used the B3K on the first three tracks. I now feel obliged to record the rest of the album with the same pedal! After the album is done I will probably replace it as it was second hand when I bought it and the pots are and inputs are getting a bit scratchy and loose. I bought an Alpha Omega on here a while back but 'hush hush' I don't really think that the pedal is worth the 'OMG!' hype it received on release. I got a good deal and it is a good pedal, but there is no way I would pay full retail price. I will keep it for a year to see if I find a way of fitting it in. Best dirt sound I have at the moment is the OD channel on the Mesa Big Block I bought recently. It isn't perfect (it could do with a separate three band control from the 'clean channel' EQ settings) however at the correct setting I far prefer the tone compared to either of the two Darkglass effects, mainly as it doesn't sound so much like an effect as a 'really loud amp being pushed into overdrive' (which it is!). My favourite ever bit of dirt pedal was an Aguilar Agro. Used that on every gig for about 6 years but ended up blowing a capacitor after a random power surge in a toilet venue somewhere on tour (either Aberdeen or Basingstoke). I got it repaired but it just isn't the same and the 'Engage' button is a bit sticky. Also, while it had a great tone, it lack a blend control or a basic EQ. I used to run the Aguilar with a Sansamp Bass Driver with the blend off and but adding in a bit off Bass on the Sansamp EQ. However the Sansamp I have is pretty much wrecked becaused it was used for even more gigs than the Agro! Least favourite was probably the EBS Billy Sheehan original. It clean and overdrive settings were out of phase so the sound was always lacking bottom end. Considering it was marketed as 'the bass overdrive that didn't lose low end' I felt it was a bit of rip off. Boss ODB3 is still working after 20 years as well!

Keeley Bassist for me since it was pretty much announced in circa 2014. It can be very transparent if you want it to be. If you want to dial it up to 'slapville' it can do that as well. Also you can turn the compression off completely and use it as a volume boost/cut. Works great on guitars too. There are probably better/more flexible compressors available than the Keeley now. However, I don't get excited by compressors, tuners or power supplies. Not even a big shiny Darkglass compressor advert with dramatic and epic background music and copious amounts of backlight HD camera work gets me excited. When it comes to compressors, tuners and power supplies I just use what I have until it breaks. For example I had a Boss TU 2 for 18 years. It broke in February, upon which I immediately bought the Boss TU 3. Bass overdrives though? I average one every 18 months.

I haven't quite spent that amount of money, but I think on the second hand market in the there is quite a lot of 'Hmmm, I haven't played a 'Bass X' but that looks like a nice bass and the price is much cheaper than buying it new. I will buy it blind and if it doesn't work out I will just list it for sale for the same/slightly reduced price.' In the £3k+ second hand market you are pretty much looking at vintage Fenders, Wals, Foderas, Celinder, Ritters or Sadowsky NYCs with ridiculous amounts of flame or fancy finishes. The price of these basses are beyond most people's buying blind list. The seller (as is their right) is not wanting to take a massive loss on a bass, so the price will remain the same until someone buys it (and someone eventually will). I own 6 basses and just realised that I only played two of them before I bought them. Three have been bought blind and one was bought by somebody else on my behalf on the basis that they were sure I would like it (it was a Fender Precision so not exactly a big jump into the unknown!). I played the Sadowsky Metro before I bought it when I was 23. I have seen some horror stories of buying blind but I have obviously been very lucky as there were no issues with any of the basses I have bought blind. I played my 1974 Gibson EB3 before I bought it in 2000. 15 year old me loved it but 32 year old me somewhat wonders what I was thinking at the time when I could have bought a Fender Jazz or Musicman Stingray, which I didn't like at the time but would bloody well prefer now... (probably 'Free and Cream are awesome!').

Just checking their site and yes they are made in the UK, which will explain the price.

I have never bought an Ashdown product. I actually really rate the amps highly, however the footprint of their pedals have always been far too big compared to the features the pedal actually delivers. I remember the massive double sized tuner they marketed for ages. The Lomenzo Hyperdrive or whatever it was called was massive as well. I can't see there being a demand for three different bass large size compressors. When it comes to a compressor, I just want something that works and takes up the minimum of space on a pedal board. The Keeley Bassist I bought serves both purposes and is much cheaper. The controls on the Tripe Shot Drive Pedal look a bit incomprehensible at first glance ('Dark = bass, 'Light' = Treble, 'Roast' = ?), however it looks like a fun mess around pedal. As an aside, I find the Andertons guitar demos to be a lot more in depth than the bass demos. The bass demos are fine but I never leave them going 'hmm, I think I want that'.