SimonK

If it's just 9v that you need get a onespot and daisy chain for a first attempt. After that it gets a bit more complicated working out how to mount the bigger and more capable units to your pedalboard. I have a pedalboard with a permanently mounted CS7, but when using pedals at home, or trying out different combinations, or needing a small board for a one off gig etc. I almost always go back to the onespot.

I think I tend to average what I see on other people's boards, in the sense that I see lots of people have a compressor first in the chain so went out and got one as my first pedal, then saw lots of people had a fuzz so went out and got one etc. Twenty (or is it thirty!) years later and its very much looking at the boards that people post on websites like this to get ideas to try. Thus said I have noticed that when playing live I generally only use compression and then the different EQ options based on the vagaries of the venue, trying to cut through etc. I do add something different every now and again - octaver, envelope filter, chorus etc. - but very seldom find myself using them.

This randomly came up on my youtube feed today and made me think of this thread - especially if double bass capos have already been mentioned! So scores out of ten for his technique 🙂 ?

I think this is a great model and possibly the future for music shops - good enough to consider as a potential retirement plan/quirky hobby! The place in Leiden was about two thirds coffee shop and one third music shop, yet almost everyone in there were musicians, many students working/hanging out, and the guy was probably turning a reasonable profit on the coffee, pastries & critically I imagine loyalty of people who felt that it was much better to buy coffee from him out of principle compared to Starbucks.

Well this makes me feel inadequate, mind you I suppose these guys are probably some of the top session bass players out there:

I went to Leiden on a work trip earlier this year and found "Guitars and Beans" which I thought was an awesome idea - coffee shop plus guitar shop. I ended up staying for a couple hours, bought lots of coffee (and some picks!) and every now and then tried out a different instrument. I'm suprised more guitar shops are not explictly trying this business model.

Student - definitely student!!!

Thanks - have changed the title!

A whole bunch of Trace Elliot gear hitting the market this weekend but most wildly overpriced. Makes me feel a bit sad in a way as indicates the sellers do value the quality (and possibly their history with) the amps, but there is no way anyone is going to get £695 for a 40 year old GP7 combo, or £900 for a 4x10 and 1x15 stack... thus said there is a reasonably priced GP12 SMX in Bristol if anyone is that way...

I quite liked music lessons at school, especially GCSE/A-levels - lots of young ladies whose parents wouldn't let them go to gigs or busking (which we did most weekends & holidays) unless I went with them... this one time, at band camp... 🙂

FYI just seen the following thread - talk about buses (is there an audio joke here?) coming along two at a time!

...I think we are waiting for some to volunteer to be a co-organiser (conspirator) focussing on the programme and attendees...

This - I've very seldom been the best - indeed most of the time I feel the worst - musician in any of the bands I've been in. But boy have I learned a lot especially from keyboardists or guitarists (or even brass sections) suggesting bass lines that I would not have thought of, or drummers suggesting where accents should be etc. It's not that I don't come up with my own bass lines (I do 90% of the time) but I always ask the rest of the band what they think and happily take suggestions - especially if I can't initially work it out/play it - then I have a challenge! But playing live with better musicians is easily the best musical lesson!

I think the main reason I moved to the Magellan was that the controls on the Hartke are not exactly intuitive, and it irritates me that there is a significant level boost when you turn it on. I used it in my live rig where I like having different EQ options, and while the shape function got me out of trouble loads (I like how you can turn it on and then "sweep" the EQ to find the sweet spot) I struggled a bit with the other functions (hence the star stickers to remind me which control relats to which footswitch!). The Magellan does more or less the same thing but with two shape options that you can toggle between, and also has a HPF and critically a mute switch - so thinking about it (and clearly still trying to justify buying a second preamp!) - the Magellan is pretty much the same as the VXL but with a few more functions. But unlike @kingforaday intentions my experience is all live use. Ironically the best recording DI I've come across recently is my Aguilar 350s DI out - essentially using the little head as a DI box! My old pedal board with the VXL as the "brains": My latest (upgraded?) version:

I thought I was the only one to own one of these Hartke pedals! For some reason I always thought it was a "cheap" option so recently upgraded to a Genzler Magellan preamp/DI, but you know what, although I like the fact the Genzler has a HPF on it, apart from that it turns out the Hartke is pretty much as flexible as far as EQ curves go, certainly to my ears... probably wasn't worth the £300 upgrade!

...I saw on the other thread that you 3D printed the pedal board, so maybe you could make another matching it to the green?

...be interested to hear what you make of the pedal mixer as I've been meaning to get one for years for similar uses as you (although I have never needed to mount anything on my pedalboard so use a Eurodesk at the moment). However the EHX pedal looks to me like a very flexible piece of kit so long as the sound/signal quality is OK. The only thing is can you cope with green in your black and red colour scheme!?

Depends on what the socket is supposed to do and what it is connected to internally! But as we have been discussing the failure of an FX return in particular is quite a famous cause for an amp to suddenly have no, or reduced, signal.

Assuming it isn't a parallel effects loop as @pete.young says, there is an internal switch on the return socket detecting whether a cable is plugged in. So if nothing is plugged in the signal bypasses the effects loop altogether essentially internally routing send to return. This is where the fault you describe probably lies - the amp "thought" something was plugged into the return so cut the internal signal routing expecting a signal from the return which wasn't there, hence no sound. The "bodge" is to route the send to the return manually using a patch cable, or as you say, wiggle something in the return socket hoping that it's just some dirt that can be cleared!

If I'm not using the effects send of an amp I almost always put a patch cable between send & return to avoid this problem which seems to happen to most amps over time. Certainly one of the most joyous discoveries of an ebay/reverb bargain for a "broken amp" is when this little trick fixes the problem - but the aim is not to do it in the sellers presence!

That's a pretty common fault when the switching jack sockets go (edit the switch is normally on the return). A small patch lead makes sure your send always goes to your return and the signal keeps running without the middleman so to speak!

Looks like one of these would fit into your pedal board and do at least part of what you want!

If you get a mixer with aux channels you don't need the switcher anymore so long as you don't mind running your main bass signal through the mixer preamp.

Awesome - how did the two together compare to each on their own?

Maybe from a technical perspective, but more is more when it comes to amps and tone. I know he's a guitarist, but watched this today from Joe "I keep adding amps until it sounds right" Bonamassa! Arguably makes less of a difference to bass, but nevertheless if you haven't tried two amps simultaneously - I would!