finally my new pb is done! it’s the large sized gator, had the small one but bought too many pedals (oops). so from bottom to top:
- source audio spectrum envelope filter: amazing, the funk machine. makes you bootsy jr in seconds. 6 presets, infinitely customizable from mild to crazy. make my funk the p-funk.
- zoom b1four: you just can’t get away from it. use it more for a rhythm machine than an all in one box, but i do have some sounds in it i use. and i discovered one very important thing for practice that almost nothing i have found has - the aux out plays not just to the headphone jack but also to the line out so you don’t have to wear headphones to practice!
- hotone wally plus looper: just the friggin most adorbz thing on earth. and you can record 11 samples of 30 min each (!!!) with it.
- darkglass vintage overdrive: yes, darkglass. the metal guys. except this isn’t metal. you can really dial in some mellow tube driven sounds with it. and of course, screaming metal sounds if you want. but it skews more umm… vintage. don’t use a lot of od, but love it.
- EHX pog chorus: yes, because i saw it on scotts bass channel. and i haven’t found another chorus that sounds like it. and like scott i (using my zoom) like to use it with a quick slapback type delay, and i throw in a touch of reverb. shimmer galore, really pretty. pog gives you the note you play, the note an octave lower and the note an octave higher all at once for a really big sound.
- TC electronic hall of fame 2 reverb: 11 presets and a ton of downloadable sounds through tc’s toneprint app. (see next).
- TC spectracomp compression: the secret weapon. so i kept hearing about how every bass player needed compression and to never turn it off. and every compression demo i heard was… subtle. like is this doing anything subtle. but i bought this. and was unimpressed. so before sending it back, i tried the toneprint thing. this uses an app that downloads new sounds to your pedal through your cellphone and your bass’s pickups - super clever (I am using the one called the weapon) and my mind was blown, really tight super punchy tone. if you just tap your thumb you instantly get the larry graham KA-TWANG. if you struggle with getting a really funky sound, compression
. and yet still gives a nice smooth fingerpluck, just tight and fat. every bass player needs compression. never turn it off. - Aguilar tone hammer di preamp: it was between this and the tech 21 paradriver, which i also have. i will sell the paradriver, but it was closer than i thought. the para sounds good and makes my ubass piezo pickup sound awesome. the TH also sounds good, you almost cannot make it sound bad but it has a huge flaw. some people say it isn’t a flaw because it’s not what it was designed to do. fair enough, but in the real world it’s what almost everybody expects it to do so i say flaw. it has a gain switch on it, with gain switch on you get overdrive/distortion. gain off, clean/no OD. so you dial in your preamp settings, get to a point in the song that needs a little growl and go to kick in the gain footswitch. you quickly scramble to unclick it, because your bass just got twice as loud. you have to decide if you want to use this preamp with the gain always off, or always on. there is no going back and forth. i have my darkglass for OD so it’s ok with me. but still mind blowing that they wouldn’t have made it unity gain between the two. i suspect a new version will be coming soon.
power is from the cheap but good caline power recommended by Tdub (thanx!). it is dead quiet so far and can power everything from the 18v Aguilar to the 500 mA zoom. i used those little cable organizer things to lock down my cables and keep it neat. the bottom cords that look kind of chaotic are actually tucked under the board lip and do not show when viewed straight on. Switch toppers for Pam. OK WAKE UP, sorry didn’t mean to rattle on. just thought i would share. let me know if this king james bible sized post didn’t answer any questions.