Scotticus

Mcgraham, as someone who also HATES stomping pedals, can I ask what you do at the moment? If you're anything like me, you stomp hatefully because you haven't seen a worthy replacement yet. A blunder here, an inappropriate burst of noise there This idea is neat, but I don't use anywhere near enough of the effects on their list to make it the solution here.

Yay... I knew the time would come for me to tell somebody about this! Check out www.bondingsolutions.co.uk (or you might find it a bit cheaper if you shop around). Pedal board tape they call it, and bloody brilliant it is. Pros over velcro are that it lasts longer, holds firmer with smaller amounts (your pedals feel utterly solid to stomp on because there's no movement), and so far it's always come away without leaving residue for me. Top tip - when you first apply it, smooth it over and leave it to settle for 24 hours. It'll be tempting to try it out, but quite often the locking mechanism is stronger than the adhesive when it's first applied, so you'll end up yanking the tape clean off the pedal and thinking it's pants. Give it 24 hours and it's a different story.

I picked up a bass big muff t'other day, and am really enjoying it so far. For the price, I haven't heard a more usable fuzz yet, although usability is subjective. The biggest plus for me is the versatility, I don't seem to have run into any problems yet getting this to either jump out and make people listen up, or sit it in the mix just to add some extra dirt. I've also found the bass boost (top mode of the switch) to be voiced about right so far, it's ballsy but not too crushing, everything just feels a bit heavier once you've stomped. You'll notice that there's a lot of "yet"s and "so far"s here, that's the reaction of a sound snob realising their go-to fuzz might have turned out to be an obvious and well priced choice for a change If I had to criticise something about it (and I do), it'd be that it's a total sod to mute neatly when you've got it cranked. I like that squashy sound as some fuzzes/distortions tail off, but can't say I'm much of a fan of this one. On the bright side, it's making me clean up my playing a bit, until I can afford a decent noise gate at least

Hey peeps, Today I picked up a Bass Big Muff. So far at home it's settling in well, the real test comes tomorrow morning at rehearsal volumes (bloody loud). In the meantime, I'm curious about whether this mod might be possible. The BBM has two outs, a "clean out" in addition to the usual. This clean out stays active regardless of whether the BBM is bypassed or not. Would it be possible to mod this pedal so that the clean out only sends clean, and the standard out only sends the affected signal? IE, the clean out mutes when the pedal is stomped? Just curiosity at this stage, it has to do with me wanting to be able to only compress clean tones and only gate distorted tones in as little board space as possible. I'm considering getting something like a TC Electronic Nova Dynamics to handle both compression and gating. If you've seen inside one of these babies and know enough to do a mod like this, I'd love to hear from you. Cheers Scott

[quote name='cheddatom' post='1227534' date='May 11 2011, 01:55 PM']He started asking me about my rig and I was a little wasted and embarassed so I slunk off as soon as some groupies turned up for autographs.[/quote] Groupies for a bass player? Hmmm, maybe it's because he's Australian. Was that a few months ago when they were over here by any chance? I had tickets to the London show at Scala, but somehow managed to put it in the calendar on the wrong date. To this day I'm a bit shocked at how foul the language was when the reminder went off, I rummaged for the tickets, and realised that the gig had happened yesterday

Well whaddaya know - Tom's comment made me take a poke around Tech 21's site to find out which XXL I have here. Turns out that it's the original version (before they issued specific versions for guitar and bass). It truly was a facepalm moment. That's what I get for not being geeky enough to go research things given to me as gifts I guess. We're off to list a pedal... So, maybe I'll like the XXL more when I get a bass version On another note - you spoke to Jon Stockman? Can I get all excited and ask how/when/where/what he said?

Ok, so the Mastotron is the first fuzz that's gotten me excited. It's making me wonder whether I'm actually after a distortion, perhaps what I'm hearing in my head is a fuzz. To give everyone an idea of the sound I'm shooting for, here's a Youtube clip for reference: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjvtx3HMUks"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjvtx3HMUks[/url] I tend to be a little more mid scooped than that, but that level of narly growl is what I'm after. TBH, I went with the XXL because Tech 21 were a brand I knew and liked on guitar (this is pre-discovery that I'd be 100% happier lolopping about down low). I'm Googling fuzz pedals in conjunction with active basses now like a mad thing, but if anybody else has recommendations based on the song above I'd love to have those. Cheers all Scott

Thanks Mcgraham, that's all useful info. The distortion question is pretty much just GAS, considering I like the Tech 21 XXL and have recently acquired an SFX X&M from here. I'm putting the curiosity down to a few teething troubles I'm having with this new board configuration, and perhaps that I'd prefer not to have my pedals quite so bunched up together, so I'm keeping an eye out for a distortion that might negate the need for the X&M eventually. Compressor-wise though it's more than just GAS, I definitely need something a bit zingier than my TonePress. If anybody who does like compression on bass has got oppinions on the Ego, or anybody would be up for a trade, I'm still all ears. Cheers Scott

Hi folks, Anybody got experience of using Wampler pedals on bass? I'm particularly curious about the Ego Compressor (I like the idea of something a bit brighter than my TonePress, plus it's got an attack control, I've missed that). Also considering picking up a Triple Wreck (not heard this on bass yet, but the guitar samples would suggest low end in abundance, something my Tech 21 XXL does not do well). Any thoughts appreciated... Scott

Hi chaps, Thanks for all the advice so far, here's what I've tested. PSU power - yup, it can handle the combined draw of everything on the board with plenty of head room. Sockets - tried several different places in my flat, as well as two different buildings. The sound changes slightly from place to place (only to be expected I guess), but never goes away entirely. Patch leads - tried all sorts of combos, even got some other cables involved in case I built my Lava ones badly, no difference. Bass - I put a fresh battery in it, don't know how to do much else other than plonk it though After all that, it still seems like the TonePress is hypersensitive. Any other advice, or should I get hunting for a new compressor? Fwiw, I like the TonePress, would rather not change it if there's anything else to try first. Cheers all Scott

[quote name='cheddatom' post='1218568' date='May 3 2011, 01:34 PM']When you have the TonePress on it's own, powered by your PSU, is it noisy? Could you try a seperate PSU for each pedal to see if it's a problem with daisy chaining them?[/quote] I don't have enough PSUs to try a separate one on every pedal, but I have just tried the TonePress running on a separate one... same result. Here's the thing, after untaping all the wiring (neat freak strikes again) and moving where the power is mounted on the board, the TonePress seems to be really fussy about where power and leads are placed in relation to it. I can have it running pretty quietly, then move a power wire a few MM and everything gets either very hummy or squealy. There doesn't seem to be any logic to it yet though, it can get noisy even with the PSU and Distributor under the board at the other end and no obvious entanglement between patch leads and power leads. Is there anything I can do to make the TonePress less sensitive, a way of insulating or something? Scott

Hey peeps, Ok, so the pimping of my Pedaltrain Mini is almost complete. Last issue to resolve is the hum I'm getting from a particular combination of pedals - the very combo I intend to use most of the time Here's the setup: Bass -> tuner (custom build by SFX, so the noise isn't coming from here) Tuner -> Barber Electronics TonePress Tonepress -> SFX X&M crossover, with a Tech 21 XXL in the high loop X&M out to my head Running as much of this as I can on batteries to test, the rig isn't particularly noisy, to the point where I've given up worrying about a gate for now... happy days. Plug in power however, and things start getting pretty buzzy! Running different combos of the pedals, I can hear a wee bit of buzz coming from the X&M, which is amplified a bit with the XXL active of course, but it's not a dealbreaker. The TonePress is what sends it through the roof though to the point where it's noticeable on pretty much any setting even when I'm playing... unhappy days. After narrowing it down to the TonePress pedal, I've insulated the battery terminals of all pedals with batteries, tested all leads involved (freshly built Lava Cable), and tried different power supply outlets, all with no change. Power-wise, I'm running a Johnny Shredfreak PSU into a Gigrig Distributer. Both units are under the board, with the power wires running separate from the patch cable just in case that makes a difference (it appeased my inner neat-freak). I've tried different wall outlets, and even a slightly cheapo Stag regulated supply instead of the Johnny Shredfreak, none of which made any difference. What to do? Any tips muchly appreciated! Scott

Hey all, Call me strange, but that tiny bit of movement you always get when a pedal is attached to a board with velcro started to get on my nerves... honestly can't describe why, but there you have it. I picked up a 1m roll of pedal board tape mmanufactured by Bonding Solutions from an Amazon seller. It's kinda like plastic velcro so far as I can tell, a sticky back strip of stuff with little plasticy mushrooms that lock together and form a grid system. So far, so good. It's about half the width of the velcro that came supplied with my Pedaltrain Mini board, easy to keep it invisible under the pedals if that's your thing. Most importantly though, this stuff locks absolutely solid. It raises the pedals a few mm off the board (you'll need that space to prize them off), and they feel solid as a rock to step on now... no movement at all. I was also impressed that small rectangles of it seem to be suitably sticky to stay put, just give it 24 hours or so to settle and you're in business. Dunno how well it comes off yet, haven't had a need. I'll no doubt post complaining about that part in due course Scott

[quote name='civictiger' post='1207824' date='Apr 22 2011, 03:09 AM']I use an artec noise gate, it isn't a supressor its an actual gate[/quote] Cheers for the tip civictiger, sounds hopeful. I haven't read up on it yet to understand exactly what's going on, but this ns2 seems to be processing the signal more than just opening and closing like a standard gate. Now, if anyone knows of a decent sounding compressor with a loop i can run a distortion in (to avoid the extra space a loop pedal will take), I'd be all ears!

[quote name='joegarcia' post='1206551' date='Apr 20 2011, 10:50 PM']All I meant was that if the problem was turning on more than one pedal at a time neatly you could put them in both either in a single loop (if they both need to go on at the same time) or each in a loop of a double loop pedal so you can easily turn one on/one off in an easy stomp. I personally prefer to do it this way and just be quick switching drive pedals off over resorting to noise reduction. Something like this double one: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Double-Guitar-Loop-Pedal-TRUE-BYPASS-Pedal-Board-Looper-/140517529976?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&hash=item20b77f5978"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Double-Guitar-Loop-P...=item20b77f5978[/url] Or this single one: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Guitar-Loop-Pedal-True-Bypass-Looper-Custom-Design-/140519383324?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&hash=item20b79ba11c#ht_3084wt_907"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Guitar-Loop-Pedal-Tr...c#ht_3084wt_907[/url] Or even a Boss LS-2. There are plenty of fancy ones about though if you wanna spend more.[/quote] Cheers for the links Joe, much appreciated. Really the only reason I'm trying to get the gated setup to play ball is to cut down on the need to turn drives off during quiet sections (minimal amount of stomps is good when you've got massive clumsy flippers like mine). This looks like it could have some merit too though, I'd still need to stomp a bit more often than I was intending, but at least it'd be in one consistent place rather than multiple pedals.

Aaaaand another one done.

I reckon it largely depends on the venues you're aiming at and what the purpose of playing originals is for you. Here in London, most nights are either one or t'other. There's a fairly strict eye kept on it because of licensing. Venues where the staff/promoters actually listen to what's being played (there are a few who still do) won't be impressed if you start mixing and matching. Covers at an originals night - "aaaaargh, you can't play covers here, PRS licensing are gonna crack down on us". Originals at a covers night - "no, people want songs they know while they're drinking our wonderfully watered down beer". That said, I know of a pro cover band who throw in originals if they've had a drink or three by the time they get on stage (pretty much always). If your originals are good enough, you can probably get away with that, but I'll be amazed if an established covers venue books you again if they catch on. That, of course, means that making a big thing of your original music to the people watching is a no-go. Dunno if that's all specific to London, but that's how it is here at the mo. Scott

[quote name='cheddatom' post='1205569' date='Apr 20 2011, 09:58 AM']Maybe try the compressor in the loop of the NS-2? That's how I have mine. But yeh, if you're used to working with studio gear, I guess a rack gate is what you need.[/quote] I had a racked rig when I played guitar (this was pre-bass-discovery of course). The cost of rack gear and effort of lugging it around made me determined to find a way to do this with stomp boxes. Interesting point about the compressor in the NS-2's loop, I'll give it a go in a bit.