SimonK

...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!

...so mean impedance makes sense - everyone likes a graph! Re trusting cabs, if others are happy running at 2.67 ohms then fine, but I think I am happier to have a bit more of a safety buffer and not go below 4 with my amps. Also, as mentioned, if I did bring more than two cabs I'd rather run two amps as that makes a much bigger difference to the sound than a third cab.

Thats interesting and reassuring - do you happen to know why - is it just multi meter readings being a bit inaccurate or is there a cleverer reason?

...you trust your cabs more than I do - have you ever connected an ohm-meter to your cabs to see what they actually read? I've had thermal cut-off issues with amps in the middle of gigs before, while if you run two amps simultaneously there is a running backup! (I should probably add that I have only once been arsed to bring a double amp set up to a gig (albeit always have a little Aguillar 350 in my flighcase as a backup), but if I ever did want more than a couple cabs I would definitely do a multiple amp thing rather than connecting all to the same amp - running two amps sounds better as well so long as you can avoid any phase problems).

Here we go - "Escape the Internet" tour - I hope it works for them - it's a sort of 2020s version of G3!

I'm not brave enough to run three cabs - but running two amps via a signal splitter box (so long as it has a phase switch) sounds awesome, and with class D amps carrying an extra head isn't a burden. I've got an Aguilar 350 & Ashdown Retroglide, Radial Bassbone to split the signal, and then as my other thread shows a whole load of trace cabs!

No more than in any other cross-over. Just in this case there is an element of user choice whereas in most cabs it all happens internally without you seeing it. Thus said while we do have a stereo power amp that we could use for biamping purposes, I'm not entirely sure it's worth the faff when we can just use one cable from a mono head in the normal way and get full range. The whole biamping thing may have been a product of the 80s/90s obsession with rack equipment and increasingly sophisticated signal routing, something that seems to have retreated a bit over the last twenty years (although for nostalgic reasons I do still have a 20u rack for my home guitar practicing fun - just coz I can)!

So it's all fixed up now with a new backplate and speakons for the full range signal. Essentially the treble jacks are switched (like in an effects send/return) so if something is plugged into the treble jack (middle in the picture), the full range plug signal is disconnected from the treble 10 and goes to the 18 only. That way you can biamp high frequencies to the 10 and lows to the 18 or alternatively (and probably most commonly) it is full range to both speakers via the speakon when nothing is plugged into the jack input.

But which came first - the egg or the punk?

So do you think there is enough interest? As mentioned I'd be happy to set a date and book a hall, but I would need someone else to commit to create a tally of attendees and arrange a schedule.