SimonK

Yes clearly experimenting is important with different things working at different times - but I think knowing what to experiment with is key. I'm certainly guilty of wanting to buy something new when in fact changing my playing technique might make far more of a difference!

I was playing drums this morning (sorry people) with a 17 year old bass player using a Vigier PJ bass into my Trace Elliot GP7 & 4x10 (so I know the amp itself sounds great). He wasn't playing the wrong notes but it just didn't really sound great. Looked over and he was plucking the strings right at the end of his fretboard - said "why don't you move your right hand closer to the bridge" and boom - straight away everything was loads better. He said he would go away and practice the new hand position, but I was stunned quite how much of a difference right hand position makes - I sort of knew it but as I alway play right over the pickup on my Stingrays I had kind of forgotten!

EQ more than anything - I've had all sorts of pedals over the years, but to be brutally honest the tone knobs on my amp make a much bigger useful difference than anything else. A good compressor is probably second, but I find I have to tweak the EQ every single time I play, even using the same rig in the same room EQ just seems to matter!

Played through these two Trace Cabs on Sunday (2103x & 1153) - I only ever move them about two feet to the right to get them out of the way when we finish playing though. Sound awesome especially with the Aguillar head.

Oh god - just realised that this thread is actually an elaborate game of traitor with a number of wives/partners masquerading as faithful forum members...

...it's amazing how this thread is becoming a bit like a conversation with my wife!!

Sorry my bad - of course it wasn't new gear, merely a coffee/whisky table! 🙂

...although it would solve the quandry of whether strings, cables, spare parts etc. counted if there was a minimum price threshold - maybe anything under £50 doesn't count?

...so I heard banging and commotion, came downstairs and lo and behold my Trace 4x10 had given birth to a healthy baby 2x10, a £40 lovechild from Facebook marketplace - I didn't even know she was pregnant and now have to find room for another cab to feed! I'm guessing blaming my 4x10s infidelity isn't an excuse to still be in this?

Oops, 2x10 also came up for £40 on facebook yesterday, right off my commute home... just need to come up with a suitable excuse for the gear abstinence thread... but I didn't know my 4x10 was even expecting a baby?

Seems someone from the Trace Elliot Facebook group was less worried about the drive:

The logistics are currently beyond me unfortunately, alongside probably needing to buy 4x new KT88 tubes for it (at close to £200 again).

If anyone is in the backend of Wales - 8 hour return drive for me!!

Enjoyed the following this morning: Lion and the Lamb Trust in God Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) into chorus of Everlasting God Greater than it All ..and paired the mini Aguillar head with the two TE (name badges removed) cabs which gave me a satisfying growl. Pretty much just used the compressor + blue channel on the Genzler for both fretless (first two songs) and fretted (last three). Someone did, however, come up to me afterwards and ask why on earth a bass player needed so many pedals - it is true four went unused today!

Was just about to cross reference any other thread with the words "Trace Elliot", and then post some pictures of my horrifically heavy TE cabs, but then realised the OP specifically states "Amps" of which I think the Ampeg valve amps win in terms of kgs, even more so than TE.

...I might not be best placed to comment on the T-shirts as have often tried to go the other way - what can I get away with (Iron Maiden?) before someone makes me wear a jumper! I also went through a phase of trying to buy the most church in-appropriately named pedals - I still use the Big Muff but did once have a Damage Control "Womanizer", and have been tempted with a Way Huge Swollen Pickle...

I switch to Cajon when there isn't a drummer as can't stand playing bass without drums as to me it gets all mushy - what instruments do you have?

RE compressor, the signal goes Octamizer -> Filter -> compressor for exactly the reason you stated. RE LS-2, I could but that would be an extra pedal, and if I am putting something new on the board a standalone synth pedal is probably easier - also I use the fuzz on it's own so it would get complicated if it was in a loop. Some of the EHX synth pedals have been catching my eye - does anyone use a POG on bass?

Right so a few weeks of trying to actually use a synth bass sound live and things haven't been going great. Picture of the board is above - I've found the main part of the synth tone comes from the octamizer & big muff, with the chorus adding a bit of icing on top (but not being that noticable especially live) and the decay control on the envelope filter really changing the sound but not in a great way. Was irritating hitting four pedals when I wanted the synth sound so ended up just using the octave & fuzz. BUT, and it's a big one, the tracking on the Octamizer even when it was the very first pedal in the chain wasn't great. Not too bad for quarter notes or less above the third fret or so, but any attempt to sustain a note - which is kind of what I was wanting with the synth sound - just kept dropping out/changing. So my conclusion is maybe I need a new everything in one synth pedal - any recommendations?

It seems to have gone for £78 in the end, presumably to someone local with tail-lift! The suspension on my car has never quite recoved after bringing a 1510x back from Wales a few months back!

Here's another: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/196967398730

"God tier" is for those who not only don't buy something, but also do not rearrange their pedal board for a whole year...

I've always used a EHX big muff which is cheap and cheerful, but the controls do what they say and critically it has the "dry" mode to mix clean signal in with the fuzz so that you don't get lost in the mix when you engage it.

Awesome - so that cab shaped Trace Elliot side board that I have never plugged in (who knew you could play bass through a table!) doesn't count - and it looks so nice with a lamp and some pictures on top!