Yeah, the DI on the Element is what swung that one for me. I’m not sure about the touch slider things, but people say those are supposed to actually last longer than the control knobs. I just think they look flimsier, but I’m sure I’ll get used to that.
As you say, I think those 4 together should be pretty amazing. Definitely give me lots of options for tone… and the type of tone I like. Thanks for your help btw. 
My pleasure! Curious how you’ll like the HyperLuminal - it looks awesome.
BTW, have you looked into the ADAM? It’s pretty new, but looks interesting. I think the main thing that puts me off it is it seems to have that modern distortion instead of vintage, but maybe that’s just the demos. It seems highly configurable so who knows.
Haven’t checked it out much but the configurability sounds awesome.
I wish I could indulge in Darkglass gear like that 
I h ave actually been quite impressed with the MXR cheap one. I think it holds its own against some of the more well known boutique pedals, and I can find them for $80-$100 bucks. I may get one some time.
I saw it in a vidwo with Sans Amp, EBS Billy Sheehan, and a one Darkglass, and something else. I liked the MXR and EBS Billy Sheehan best, much to my surprise, and the people reviewing it (reverb or Thomas I think) were surprised and thought both of those were the stand out pre-amps as well.
1 - reviews can manipulate sound of them (I don’t see why either of those reviewers would do that, but it can be done)
2 - hearing is subjective to the listener, as I stated before
3 - almost most importantly, high dollars does not mean better sound, especially when you take #2 into consideration.
I know you already said the SANS AMP is not your favorite, and maybe you don’t like it. I am not hugely impressed by it, but I use it as an example, because you can get a $33 Behringer knock off, showing money doesn’t need to be great for sound to be.
I was not really trying to suggest the MXR to your list, I was merely joining the conversation, but I have come to like that little box (and in way more reviews then the one I just mentioned, also in one against 3 darkglass and the sans-amp. none sounded bad, and 4 of them sounded pretty great, and the MXR was one of the 4, I bet you can guess the other 3) and I may end up getting one used sometime to play with it myself.
And, ou can get it as the Pre-amp or Pre-amp/DI, but I have seen more with DI on the 2nd hand market, and at the same cost as the pre-amp only, so unless space is an issue, I would just get the DI and have yet another place to DI from in the chain for whatever reason, it is just added versatility I guess.
It would be cool if Behringer cloned the VT Bass DI. Unfortunately they haven’t.
(The BDI-21 is a clone of the Bass Driver DI, and sounds very different than the VT Bass DI. But is still a must-buy.)
Yes, it would be cool if somebody did.
for the cost of the pedal new, and the cost of a Tech 21 VT Bass Amp 500w, I thing I would just go for the amp head, but that is just a cute way to say, I won’t be buying one new.
There was the VT pre-amp (not DI) the other day on Reverb for $90, it did not last, but I would have gotten it if I had the money at the time.
as far as DG drive pedals go, here is my opinion. I play a vmt. I love it so much I decided to make it a relatively clean always on pedal. but that means I needed a second pedal for occasional dirt. I already had a subatomic bass distortion for this, but wanted to see how DG stacked up. so I ordered a b3k, a microtubes x, and an alpha/omicron for a one winner takes all competition. the subatomic won. to me DG does two things: a vintage warm tube driven sound (the b3k sounds very much like my vmt) and a clanky metal sound (the x and a/o sounded the same to me). and yes you can make the metal ones sound smooth and the smooth ones edgy but it’s really not what they want to do.
The X also has a nice clean sound
But mostly I agree. Darkglass in their newer pedals has a very distinct modern metal tone and you either like it or don’t.
yeah it does. you CAN do that. I just don’t see getting an x and running it clean. maybe people do.
Yeah it’s definitely not the primary use case. I ran mine that way a lot though.
They are not as accurate as pedal tuners, and pedal tuners cut off signal so you can tune without anyone hearing (say during a live performance between songs).
The Polytune Clip-On in particular is as accurate as most pedal tuners, but yes, it doesn’t mute your signal during tuning. I haven’t done any live performances though, so this hasn’t been an issue for me. Pedal tuner is on my shopping list though.
It would be interesting to see…the signal running through the bass to the headstock just isn’t the same strength as direct from the pickups. I have the Tinytune basic one, it’s like $30, works great and doesn’t take up much space on the board.
This answer to this question may be buried somewhere within the 755 comment on this thread, so forgive me if it is…
Would it makes sense for me to get a preamp for my Hofner (which is passive). Will it make any difference? I’ve got a 500 watt amp head, does a preamp make sense?
If the answer is yes, any recommendations?
I’d leave it as passive, that is kind of a part of it’s sound.
don’t forgert that you already have a preamp built in your amp (the gain, EQ and voicing things, that’s exactly what a preamp is)
Before the sound even gets amplified…you have pickups, onboard preamp, strings, bass itself, pedals/external preamps, preamp on amp affecting the tone. Then there are tubes, cabs, speakers, mics, and of course plugins that affect the tone post signal. Probably even a few things I’m missing, but in general there are a ton of ways to shape tone. In the case of a Hofner, part of the hofner sound is hollow body and passive pickups.
Thank you all for saving me from wasting money 