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Yeah it’s true, all the kit from Reverb I bought second hand worked!
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Maybe from now on I should buy whatever pedals @Mark_UK needs, unbox them, and then sell them used to Mark. Win-win 
(Shipping them to the UK would be a deal killer though)
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Haha! You’d have to sell them to me at Reverb second hand prices, ie more than new price!
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Hi @PamPurrs after explaining to the store I got it from (via mail order) all the cable swapping and power supply swapping I did, and the fact that others on here had reported no issues with the same unit, they offered to have a courier pick it up for free and take it back. I think the fact I’d just spent out on an isolated power supply with them also made them agree that if the pedal didn’t work with that, it’s not going to work at all.
I decided not to order another one, got a refund and then mulled over getting some kind of multi effects pedal. After discovering the looping capabilities of the Boss MS-3 as well as the inbuilt effects, I went for that.
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Congrats! That looks like a handy bit of gear.
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Switches look like a serious rabbit hole. I briefly considered a Boss LS-2:
which looks perfect to me as a switch since it’s small and fits right in on the board. But in the end I decided I didn’t need the complexity at all.
However they get large and really complex, with to the point that you get boxes with eight or so switches, each selecting arbitrary programmable loops of pedals, and you just plug all your pedals in the back into generic send/receives.
I’m with that guy. This looks like a terrible overcomplication unless you happen to be Chris Wolstenholme.
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Oh, I saw a video of a guy with one that made that look like a kids toy. He had a pedalboard from another world, with two HOG 2’s on it. If I can find the video I will post it.
@PamPurrs, I have many new toys, and I have not found time to redo the board yet. I played with it enough to know I like it and it is a great pedal (thanks @howard) that will suit me just fine. I did plug it back in and test it for @Mark_UK, to make sure it was not making noise like his, but it is waiting for me to redo my pedalboard before I give it some proper use.
I am replacing my pick-up in my Ray4 tomorrow, and I might make the time to do the pedalboard too. Its gonna be fun, it is about a 90% rebuild. Some new, some upgraded and some old that are going in different places.
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When he lists the drawbacks of switchers his main point is it locks you in to certain sounds you programmed. Can’t you just bypass it? I mean there’s got to be a bypass or off or mute or something right?
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That’s not quite the problem. The problem is that if you manually tweak the pedal knobs then it blows away the advantage of having tons of presets you have set and eliminates the point of having the switcher. They are best used to set up a shitload of presets with sounds you know you want to switch to. The moment you alter any of the individual settings you lose that.
I can see the need/desire to have a couple different loops on your board for sure; hence I think something like the LS-2 makes sense. And I can see the need for someone like Matt Bellamy/Chris Wolstenholme to have one of these (they actually don’t, they use iPads glued to their instruments controlling a massive rack in the back that does this, but the utility is the same.)
But I certainly don’t need one.
The thing @Mark_UK got is a nice compromise. A multi-effects unit with a few flexible loops. Nothing crazy.
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Yeah I use an effects loop as a poor man’s switcher. If you have a song that you want a clean sound during a verse but then chorus reverb and OD for the big chorus, you can switch on all 3 pedals and then use your effects loop to bring all 3 in our out. Of course this only gives you an A or B sound for each song, but that’s really usually enough.
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I might add that my effects loop is activated by a footswitch so I can easily activate or kill it. Most effects loops, you have to physically unplug or plug in a cable so this wouldn’t work.
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Yes exactly that was what got me to get the Boss MS-3 in the end, over say a TC Plethora X5; it is not a mad number of loops, but just has three pedal loops as opposed to say having the one (I think) on the X5, so a bit more flexibility to loop in a couple more pedals.
I was seriously tempted by the X5, I think it’s a more modern unit with better UI etc and expandability etc.
But I know from owning a TC Spectracomp compressor pedal (now for sale) I would just stress about not understanding the detail of the toneprints (if they are all like the Spectracomp ie no instructions on what the parameters do). So nothing wrong with X5 at all, just it would set off my geek “OCD” of stressing if something is an option to me but I can’t utilise it as I don’t understand. Not easy to explain, but that’s how the Spectracomp made me feel!
I should say the main selling point was not the loops feature as such, but the cost saving of getting all the Boss effects thrown in for the one price.
(Beware any potential Boss MS-3 purchasers - you can’t insert built in effects between the looped in pedals, only before or after the stack of three loops. This is the MS-3’s major missing feature)
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I found that video, and I think it might be the same switch box, so, maybe that is the cream of the crop.
this video is pretty good, he just walks you thru each effect, then walks thru some combinations, it is a really good thorough video, and he does a great job of talking you thru everything, so if you are not super familiar with anything, he takes time to explain and does a great job. he might bore you if you already know about most of the effects, or he might not, he is really mellow about his presentation.
This might start in the middle or towards the end, you might need to scroll it back to start it over, this is where I was in the video last time, and it pulled it from my history in the middle.
Yeah, the TC Spectracomp itself, from what I gather, is just a Dyna Comp clone. I bought it, and I personally wold not recommend it to anybody unless you know you want a Dyna Comp compression pedal, with a little more flexibility.
Yes, there are artist Tone Prints, but WTF FOR. it is a Dyna Comp, how can you really change it. I mean, I guess if you could open a dyna comp and adjust the attack or release, and close it back up and use it with those adjustments, it might be OK, and maybe that is what the artists did with the software, made some technical adjustments. But it is too subtle to really notice any difference between them.
Now, I could be wrong, I could have not givin it enogh time, I know @itsratso uses it as his ALWAYS ON compressor, and maybe Mike can tell us if there are any good tone prints for it,
As an always ON compressor, it will do an OK job, like I said, If you like dyna comp, and there is nothing wrong with liking and using it, I just don’t care for it.
So Mark, it is pretty hard to tell the usefulness of the TonePrint from the compressor IMO and IME. But, also with some other effects, it is the same. Like the Sub n Up, it is such an awesome effect. The artists don’t do much better then anything I can dial in. As far as the TC E pack of toneprints, some are really cool, other than that , you don’t get much.
For Tone Prints-
Chorus, I have heard good ones
SpectraDrive, I have heard cool ones on Youtube, but more around the drive.
Maybe there are good Phaser, Flanger, Reverb ones.
the Delay, i could actually see liking artist toneprints, cuz I don’t now how to use delay very good, maybe with the artist tone prints, i would do better.
So Mark, if you sold your compressor, or are selling it, are you going to go uncompressed, or are you going to look for another. I can recommend some that I like and / or want to try, and it depends on what price range you want to stay in.
Or do you want to just get a Dyna Comp style, but not the Tone Print.
there is that one compressor, I think by Kokko that is a very good dyna comp clone that cost less then $50. I tried it too, and It was fine, but I sent it back for the same reason, that I do not get what I want from a compressor from that style.
I won’t go thru the trouble of listing you ones to think about unless you are planning to get another compressor.
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Hi @T_dub thanks for the advice and question. I think I may have posted elsewhere in another thread a while back that I bought the MXR M87 comp, but it didn’t play nice with my passive bass and I assume the lower output from it, so in the end I got the Boss BC-1X. Although I still found the best way to drive it was to put it on one of the Boss MS-3 loop ins, and stick a Boss clean boost from the MS-3 just before it, to give just a little extra signal into the comp. That then gives me a better threshold range via the knob on the BC-1X.
Buts that the advantage of the MS-3 now, I can swap my signal chain around and add boosts, EQ’s and effects for free as needed.
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Oh, I guess I missed that whole section. I have the Boss BC-1x too, and I love it. I am not sure what you mean by the best way to drive it by putting it into the Loop in of the looper pedal? What does this do better exactly. I ask because if I can find a way to make one of my compressors that I love (and I have three that I love, so maybe I need 3 Boss MS-3’s, no, kidding)
better, I want to hear about it.
I have heard that MXR M87 are iffy. they either work great and people love them, or they are defective in some way. I also read that even when they work, they are hard to find a sweet spot.
I also have the Keeley Bassist which is a similar compressor, the MXR is a tiny bit better sounding from the reviewers opinion, but the Keeley Bassist is way easier to dial in, and doesn’t have the inherent quality issues, of Hissing or being defective and not working.
I would LOVE to have a NON DEFECTIVE MXR M87 to to some a/b tests on, but prob not gonna happen.
As far as the Boss BC-1X, I find it easy to dial in a range of sounds that I can choose from depending on what I am playing, but I don’t use it as my always on compressor as of now, I use my SanJune optical compressor for that, it is a softer but still good peak limiter with little to no coloration of the sound which is exactly what I like for an always on compressor. The Boss defiantly adds some punch, and does so while peak limiting, which is awesome, but it colors the sound, so I don’t want it on all the time. it is awesome for slap, and for my driving punk rock type chugging bass lines.
The Keeley is new, not sure where it is going in the line, and how I will use it yet, and I am not sure that I will keep all 3, but from the time I have spent with the Bassist, if I sell one, it will probably be the Boss, and that was not the plan.
The plan was flip the Keeley, cuz I found somebody selling a LIKE NEW pedal for less the 1/2 what I could sell it for.
Stupid me, I plugged the damn thing in to test it, and fell in love with it within about 30 seconds. Thats how easy it is to dial in the Keeley.
Had you known THEN to get the Keeley over the MXR M87, being similar priced similar pedal, but would work out of the box, and dial in easilly, you probably would have stuck with it from the beginning.
But, who knows, you are like a magnet for broken pedals out of the box.
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Hi @T_dub. All I mean is I have used one of the built in effects in the SM-3 (a clean boost) to give the signal from my passive bass (connected to main input of SM-3) a small level boost before it goes to the BC-1X (the BC-1X is connected to a send/return loop from SM-3 so it becomes part of the internal signal chain in the SM-3).
I could probably get away without doing this, but since the M87 couldn’t deal with the lower output of my passive bass, I just went belt and braces and configured the SM-3 to give a level boost first.
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Ok, now I understand.
Yes, you probably could have just run bass - BC-1x - SM-3. But as you know, there are no rules, and if it works for you, then it is right
I am really surprised by this. is this a kown issue for the M87, or was it just a defective unit. I mean if this can’t do that, It eliminates P basses, and those are one of the most widely used basses??? strange.
Thanks for the answer, glad it is working out for you.