Muzz

I run my Walkabout with my Super Twin (verrry loud) and also stacked with my Compact (even louder) - the 4 ohm minimum is the only thing stopping me from trying one of these out... 😕

Well that's killed any GAS I might have had stone dead... 😕

Something that caught me out, and is obvious I know, but I'd forgotten about it, is to work on your sounds through a speaker(s) which are akin to what you'll use on a gig. I went off all giddy and set up my presets using headphones, then had to readjust them as they were far too bright and fizzy through tweetered PA speakers (FOH), - I took one of the RCF tops home and used that to readjust - then I got caught out again using the Stomp as a traditional effects pedal through my untweetered rig (no DI)...they were all too dull again... 🙄 So now I've got basically the same presets, doubled up with different EQ for PA or rig...that Copy and Paste thing is verrry useful if you've been a biff like I was... 🙂

I play RATM, RHCP and lots of other varied stuff, and since I got the Helix Stomp, I can get all those sounds out of the box without worrying too much about the actual bass. IIRC, Warmoth do/used to do a J body with a rout for a P pickup in the right position (they also do/did the pickguard, but it's been a while since I looked), and oddly, though I don't like the look of Jazz basses at all, put a split-coil pickup on one and it's suddenly a lot more attractive. Yeah, I'm a weirdo... 😀

I look at them as 4 + big fat neck... 😀

I've found that the superb pitch shifting on the Helix Stomp negates the need for an additional detuned bass...song in D? Just pick the patch...and it's cheaper than a good bass, too... 😀

My God! He's included the original screws! Where's my wallet...? 🙄

38mm nut, slim contour...not gonna happen with a 5, unless a couple of the strings are stacked... 😉

I like a very slim neck, which isn't gonna happen with a 5, plus on the few songs I might need to go below the Hipshot-dropped D, I've got Helix patches for Eb, D, C and B... Job done 😀

My ABZ sounds very different from the Combustion I tried...then again, I put a John East pre and two of the (Dingwall) P-Tone pickups in it...but importantly, it felt very different to the Combustion. It absolutely sings acoustically. You'd kinda expect that, as the Combustion is a cheaper range, and there's gotta be compromises somewhere... I had an AB1 for a while, and that was on a similar level, but smoother than the ABZ - then again, it had different pickups and was passive... On topic, the string tension and consistency of my Dingwall is up there with the best I've experienced on any bass.

Had a good gig at the local lairy late venue, the Helix Stomp (and in-ears) was just fantastic until a mystery cutout near the end (to be investigated), but also memorable for a not-that-drunk, obviously-muso punter coming up at the end and advising us with a completely straight face that our last number (Killing In The Name: it went right off ) should have been replaced with something 'that people who appreciate music could get into'. His suggestion was Take Five. I looked at him expectantly, waiting for the punchline, but no, was serious. A set-closer in a lairy, lively, jump-around pub at 1am. Really. Pffft.

I had an otherwise-fantastic Lakland neck with a backbow, I clamped it to a block of wood, slung an old bridge on it and some old strings and overtightened them to pull it forwards. I put it away and left it for maybe 18 months, and it brought it back. For a while. Eventually the backbow returned, so I sourced another neck. I’ve still got it if anyone wants a project...

There's lots I love - Uptown Funk and Treasure, Le Freak and Good Times, Never Too Much; no embellishments needed, the fun's in getting the groove bang on for the dancefloor, then there's the stuff like This Charming Man and I Am The Resurrection, oh, and I always like doing Hysteria...because I'm a show-off. 😀 It occurs that all the above are pretty much bass-led songs...there's a pattern there... 😃

Which finally plays directly into my hands: I humbly submit as Exhibit A my Shukerbird, The Bass With The Worst Upper Fret Access In Christendom. It should sound really, really different* * It doesn't - it's got two split-coil pickups, and it sounds like a P-bass. Sue me. 😀

True, it all went off the rails once his lad Mickey Shitenbacker II got involved...remember the digital display with combined tuner, anemometer and temperature gauge? The one that used to pick up Radio Three?

Wasn't that the one with the active trussrod? It put the Banana back into Bananaboat, IIRC...

Me too, please. Are they any good for metal?

And yet he bought a verrrry expensive FBass with lots of knobs... He lost me at "An active bass doesn't sound better than a passive bass, because if it did, we would all play active basses...", which shows a fundamental misunderstanding of, well, people, and the zillions of reasons people buy both active and passive basses. Clickbait, as we've discussed before...

All my basses are active, most of them have a split-coil pickup in the right position, the ones that do sound like P-basses if I want them to. Do I win a prize? 😀

I think what I'm getting at is the differences in EQ/sound we have mean that the more aggressive, more trebly sound I use might well mean I don't notice, or it isn't such an issue for me...

It's been so long since I used anything other than BF cabs (apart from a lovely holiday with Berg AE112s, but then I was using three of them, which kinda gets around the sensitivity issue) that I might be spoilt for sensitivity, if that makes sense... 😀

I think I may be getting around higher volume definition issues with my EQ/technique, plus up against two Rawk Geetars you can get away with moider...🙂

Looks like an accident waiting to happen to me - a surface switch, easily flickable while plugging in in the dark on a stage; with two of those into a traditional 4ohm-minimum amp, you could easily ping the switches to present a 2ohm load to the amp...it'd put me off buying one immediately. At the very least they should make the switch recessed, or harder to flick...

OK, so I read quite a lot in various threads about the Walkabout being underpowered, but it always mystifies me. I use mine mostly in a Rawk covers band with two traditional (read unreconstructed) 80s Geetards, both terrific players, both using JCM100s and 412s, and a drummer who makes Cosy Powell look and sound like he was in a cocktail lounge jazz trio using brushes... We rehearse way too loud, and we gig loud, too (it kinda goes with the territory) with vocals, kick and overhead through the PA in everything but very big pubs, then maybe a bit of bass and guitar in there too. I run my Walkabout through a BF Super Twin for rehearsals and smaller gigs, and I have a Compact to stick under it for bigger gigs for the whole Bass Stack look... 😀 And here's the thing: it's ridiculously loud. Drummer-flatteningly, ear-ringingly, room-fillingly loud. I wear ear protection when we rehearse, we're that loud. Even without the second cab. I EQ the very bottom end out - I use the left hand parametric set to -15db at 40hz, as I find it clears the mud, but there's still plenty bottom end present. I play mostly with a pick, and use (mostly) a pretty aggressive P-bass kinda tone, with juuuust a little drive (not into yer actual distortion - say midday on the Gain), and I'm not scared of mids - well, not on the Walkabout; it's really, really good at them... 🙂 Is it my EQing, my choice of cab(s), or just my ears that's making me think I can't imagine needing a louder amp*? * Actually, I doubt it's my ears, because the other chaps in the band don't have any problems hearing me - unfortunately, instead of asking me to turn down, they just turn up (see '...we rehearse way too loud...' above)...I suspect it's a Guitarist Thing... 😕

It was built at the same time as Wals were being built? Well, that adds £1000s to the price, and clearly warrants mentioning in the title... I should have added 'Built at the same time as the Ferrari F430' to the sale ad for my old Passat...