I want to chime in to say that, amazingly, not everyone has a smartphone, even in this day and age. Thus, using a headphone amp that relies on apps is not possible for those non-smartphone-using individuals who also play bass.
Saying that, I will confess that at the moment I am one of those people. I have a Vox amPlug on order. It won’t be perfect, but will do for now. The Fender Mustang model looks very interesting, and along with others I will wait to see if they come up with a Rumble version for bass.
I also bought the NUX and have been playing around with it. I find it to be a very useful and versatile tool. It has a built in USB audio interface and there is an ASIO-Windows driver for it. Running a long USB cable between the NUX and the PC, allows me to monitor the backing track and my own playing on the PC speakers and also record myself. You can also monitor on headphones plugged into the NUX.
The “Mightier Amp” for Android is nice in that it allows you to have more presets for bass. (Releases · tuntorius/mightier_amp · GitHub). The official NUX “MightyAmp” app has 3 bass and 4 guitar presets. The “MightierAmp” allows you to use all 7 presets with any of the Gate, EFX, Amp, IR, Mod, Delay, Reverb… so you I have 7 presets for my bass saved on the plug. Its fun exploring all the sounds my bass ukulele can make!
BTW: I think the latency that @JerryP mentioned is a problem on the bluetooth implementation. The usb seems fine… but obviously you are then connected by a cable to the PC.
Another minor niggle is that Linux does not recognize the audio interface. I believe that is fixed in kernel 5.12 … but that’s a bit too cutting edge for me!
It’s a good tool to use for just a clean tone from your bass. I would check if there are any amp or cab sims or a preamp sim and just SEE if they sound good. It’s still a clean bass sound just with slight tonal characteristics (Warmer, brighter, etc…)
Thanks, I think I will be happy once I get it. I’m impatiently waiting for it. . . I want to support my local music store, vs. getting from a chain or Amazon, but it’s been 3 weeks now. I think it may be held up due to getting it from the warehouse somewhere.
I hate to keep calling and bugging them, but if I don’t hear by tomorrow or Saturday, I’ll call early next week and maybe not be so understanding.
I just bought the Blackstar amPlug 2 FLY Bass headphone amp, and I have been refreshing the tracking for a few days. It arrived today and I ripped the box open with excitement only to find…
That part is unclear. I assume it was a mistake, a box mix up.
I bought it through Target, (since I had a Target gift card), so I am just going to do a return on it and make it their problem.
Mostly I am disappointed because I was really looking forward to it. Oh well
Hey uhh… I made an account just for this. Planning to buy the mighty plug soon and from what I’ve noticed here in conversation it has slightly bad hissing? Also I want to know if there’s noticable latency while using it.
I used to just use the USB guitar link, but the hissing is so bad and I really felt the latency. So how bad is the Nux compared to it?
I recently bought the Valeton Rushead Bass headphone amp.
After a week of using it, I’m pleased as punch. It’s much more solid than the Vox (and black Star, which is a rebranded Vox Amplug2 for the most part). The sound is miles ahead and the effects are controlled by pots and sliders, so you don’t have to keep clicking one button to scroll options. It doesn’t have a drum machine, unlike the Vox which did, but so what? I just use Loopzz on my phone through Aux.
I wish I had bought this instead of the Vox, which was tinny, noisy and inconvenient. Also, I got nothing else in the house that uses AAA batteries, so I was always running out. The Valeton has a built in USB battery and a charge indicator.
I heartily recommend this little gizmo (it’s durability remains to be seen, but by first impressions it’s likely to be much better than the Vox, which was flimsy AF).
There is also this pocket thingy which I just recently read about:
Looks interesting and I am tempted to replace my Fender Mustang Micro with it.
It has BT streaming, it is battery powered… it even supports a wireless midi expression pedal.
The Fender mustang and the Boss pocket GT are both meant for guitar. All I hear is just high gain stuff and the only preset that represent bass are the full-range settings (I own a micro too). Think you would be better off with a NUX which has more bass presets.
At this price point I would even say the Zoom B1 four is the better deal you can get for your bass.
Obviously ( and sadly from the bass player’s perspective ) most such devices are biased toward the guitar. Mustang Micro has virtually nothing that is bass related.
I didn’t have Nux, but most comments from people who tested both are favouring Mustang.
I must admit, though, that Nux has bass amps/patches.
Now, when you look into the manual of this Boss, there are some patches for Bass:
In regards to ZoomB1Four, no BT is a huge downside for me (I know I can add an external BT receiver and connect it to aux in). Otherwise, I’d have bought it already.
Also, I do plug in the guitar occasionally.
In that case I personally would go for the Boss. I’m actually a bit surprised at the amount of presets for bass. Boss gear is always solid in my experience. The boss GT core 1000 is still on my wishlist.
