It was an open mic, we had 20 minutes to plug in, play 5 songs and then get off. No sound check, no nothing. So no time to check levels etc. Equally, no time to try and properly diagnose the problem - I’d tried turning down the volume on the bass …it was just easier to bypass the pedal and go straight in.
Incidentally, the band that were on before us were also having a problem with the bass volume / sound.
Ahhh now I get it what you mean with open mic (sorry, I blame my Christmas hangover). Yeah, makes sense you just do w/e works in a setting like that. I was like sunDOG surely knows this, what is going on… 
Good to hear that it all worked out!
Yes, this can be something of a humbling experience… and very frustrating. You think you have dialed in a great sound for a certain song and it all sounds peachy in the rehearsal space… and then it sounds like the worst mud at the venue…
On the other hand: maybe it sounded all fine out there in the audience, and just crappy on stage!?! It’s hard to know at the moment, and, in any case, it is often beyond your control…
So, I would take this as an experience; especially the very stressful open mic scenario, where you have to shuffle equipment on and off the stage in a hurrt, and there is no time for sound check, and then it’s just “go ahead and play!”
Bypassing the pedal(s) is one option, but if you don’t want to compromise too much, you could consider adding a pedal like the Genzler Re/Q to your board, which lets you do tonal adjustments (for a given venue/situation) fairly quickly and without having to dive into menus etc.
Yep, that’s exactly what happened! Also, our vocalist was trying to use in ears, and couldn’t hear herself, so ended up pulling them out. She was convinced she sounded awful, but actually she sounded really good (IMHO). We spoke the following day - it’s all a learning experience!
Mr. Crispy will be here all week, folks, thank you!
Morning Duncan
Season’s greetings from 
Both @Paul and @joergkutter have described the core of the problem perfectly. Welcome to the wonderful world of gain staging. I’ve had some hard lessons in that subject over the first year of gigging.
@joergkutter suggestion for adding a pre amp pedal after your multi effects pedal is the route I’d go for numerous reasons.
I had a similar problem to you, i.e. too much gain.
My signal path is tuner>compressor>HX Effects>Pre Amp Pedal>XLR out to our digital mixer.
To get a loud enough signal to the mixer so that the other band members can clearly hear the bass in their IEMs I have to set a certain output on the BassRig Pre amp pedal.
But when I take the 1/4” output from that pedal and run it to my amp/cab that I run for stage volume the signal is way too hot and it clips / distorts.
So my solution is to take the hot signal from the Pre amp run it into a Boss EQ pedal and reduce the overall gain. This means I can turn up the volume on my MarkBass amp and it still sounds clean with no clipping.
It’s all about gain staging and getting your head around what it is and how you can control it.
It’s a massive rabbit hole and I’m glad it worked out for you.
But my advice (along with the others) is buying a nice pre amp pedal with real knobs (no menu diving) will solve all those problems you had.
Oh and you’re gonna need a bigger pedal board !
Looking forward to seeing what you buy 
I got one. A 4 string. Zero QC issues
@sunDOG Barney is right; there are lots of options. Some of these pre-amp/EQs add some color to your tone, others are fairly transparent.
Your biggest weapons to tame sound will likely be the gain adjustment and the hi-pass filter 
Just playing with (new to me as it wasn’t there when I last used HX) the Nobel Bass DI clone. Tweaking patches for our next gig.
It sounds really good, and I saved myself $1400 USD 
Like I was ever going to spend that on a pedal!
Are you able to get that slightly overdriven growly tube sound from the HX version? I may have to give it a spin. I can duplicate my SVT patch and try replacing it with the Regal.
I’m not using it for that. I’m just experimenting with using on the cleaner tones in our set list to (I don’t know the words to properly describe sounds I hear) round out / soften the sound.
I’ve also used the retro reel to achieve this effect.
EBS Valvedrive or Twin Notes Revolt? In the greatest tradition of GAS, I’m looking at preamps with real tubes to pair with my Helix. Don’t need it but seems like a better way to waste some money than buying another guitar that I don’t currently need. Preamp should in theory (at least what I’m telling myself to justify it) make it easier to volume match between my presets on the Helix, plus I kinda want to try pushing those tubes enough to make them break up instead of just relying on a digital sim. I’d like to use it for bass and guitar if one is better at that.
I heartily recommend the EBS Valve Drive. I use mine all the time and I love the way it sounds.
I like the ValveDrive much more than the Two Notes stuff - more color and sounds better to me. Loved mine, it was my favorite preamp.
Do you know of / have thoughts about Sushi Box? I just came across them today and they’ve got a few tube driven DIs that look really interesting?
nope! Looks cool
I’ve read good stuff about both of them. Personally I would go with the Revolt (it offers more features, f.e. cab sims).
The bummer with Two Notes stuff for me (when I was looking, Le Bass) is it is just too neutral and transparent. Frankly, bland.
The EBS sounds likea tube preamp. It overdrives like a tube preamp. It is just great IMO and offers easy access to the tube to explore different tubes.
The Revolt is a lot better compared to the Le Bass, IMO. I just wouldn’t discard the Revolt that quick.
The EBS is also a very good option and perhaps the safer bet for tone. I would check out some videos to see which tone suits best.
You just get a lot more options with the revolt: cab sims, aux in, headphones, 3 channels (clean, vintage, modern), dirt, fx loop, midi. So I thought it was worth mentioning 
Guys… not sure what is going on here, but I stumbled upon this and wanted to at least make you aware of it, and perhaps encourage you to do some more sleuthing…
They have more items with crazy price tags. I am not going to order instruments from the US at this time, but this - if true - is a fantastic instrument at a ridiculous price (which is why it probably isn’t true… 
) Maybe it’s a fire sale of some kind!?!
There is also a 82 Fender Jazz for the same amount… 
