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Headphone amp or....

#61
theinfamous said:
For your purposes I recommend the tech 21 Bass Fly rig. It's a little spendy relative to the features you get, but I like it because it functions like a pedal. I hate little lcd menus on multi effect units.

Drawbacks- it's really sensitive to power fluctuations. If you try to run it off dodgy power it kind of cuts in and out in a weird way, but I've only had it do it once when I was running off a generator, but keep that in mind. Also some people absolutely hate the octafiler section. I like it, but it's a little fiddly at first. Also the compressor takes tweaking to dial in. Still, I like it and it's very durable. A bunch of beer has been spilled on mine and it still functions perfectly.
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The Fly Rig has no headphone out or aux input, correct?
 
#62
SgtHulka said:
Fwiw, I had a Palmer pocket amp for guitar and it just sounded weak to me all over. Weak sound with a 9 volt and even with the power adapter, nothing special about it whatsoever and it doesn't really have a lot of features so I personally would stay away from that.

I'm not sure why the Plex isn't on your list, it definitely has more features and more of what you're looking for, than the Quilter for example. The extra amp in case of emergency is cool but how often are you going to use that? And no auxiliary or DI?
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Thanks for the remarks on the Palmer.

The Plex is out of my price range. I would like to stay under $200, $250 is my absolute max.
 
#64
embellisher said:
OK, I've narrowed it down a bit, thanks to everybody for your suggestions.

These are the finalists.

Melvin Lee Davis Bass Preamp
TC Electronic SpectraDrive
Palmer Pocket Bass Amp
Quilter INTERBASS Power Amp and Direct Box
Phil Jones Bass PE-5 Multi Function Bass Pedal With EQ, PRE-AMP & DI

The Quilter is also a 45 watt amp, which would be cool to have in an emergency.

I can't find pricing info on the Phil Jones anywhere, I know it was just introduced in December.

Or, I could get the Zoom B1Four and get the Behringer Bass Driver DI.

The Zoom is appealing because of the effects and the built in drum machine, but it would most likely never get used for anything other than practice on my own.

I have read good things about the Behringer BDDI, but I know that Behringer used to have reliability issues. But I think those have gotten better. We've got an x32 and stage box at my church, and have never had any issues with those.

Thoughts on these choices?
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I have the Behringer ADI21, which has the same build quality as the BDI. The sound quality is excellent, the build quality is decent but certainly not spectacular. Mine lives in my backup gear bag.

I also have the Behringer Ultra-DI 400P, which is about as bomb proof as music gear gets. I've only used it a few times (I typically use the DI out on my amp), but I have no qualms about the sound quality. It also lives in my backup bag. You'll be fine with a passive box since you'll have a preamp before it.

I use the Zoom B1 Four on all my gigs just for the HPF and (fully!) parametric EQ. The parametric EQ turned out to be a great replacement for the EQ on my old Euphonic Audio iAmp that I had been missing so much.
 
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#65
DaDo625 said:
Phil Jones Bass Buddy...
BASS BUDDY – Phil Jones Bass


View attachment 4125588
Headphones, EQ, Compressor, DI, supports a 10W speaker, Aux in, 9V option (headphone only)... I picked mine up from a fellow TB member.
Not a Low-Low-Let-Go solution cost wise - but I have been shocked...shocked I say...at how great this is.
Everyday practice when volume is an issue (often these days) and when learning songs.

And good luck with your quest...
Click to expand...

Have you tried the DI on this? How good is it?
Real nice unit. Congrats!
 
#66
I know that they have been mentioned, but The Phil Jones Bighead is what you need. I have the older model as pictured and LOVE it.
01.jpg
02.jpg
03.jpg
 
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#67
COYS said:
Do the Bass FlyRigs work for anyone here? Seems like an interesting idea but I read the reviews of them and basically it sounded like people didn't like the sounds apart from the preamp, which you can get seperately for less.
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That's it in a nutshell. I love the form factor, Sans Amp and tuner but the Octafilter is dire. I wonder about the Steve Harris Fly Rig as an alternative.
 
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#68
embellisher said:
So, I don't really know where to put this, but I'm looking for something to play my bass through while traveling.

I have a Bass Rockman, but it's almost 35 years old and starting to fail.

A couple of things I saw in the past were the Bass Pod Pro and the Tascam Bass Trainer. These are apparently no longer made, I know they're old tech.

I would like something small and portable, that has an aux input and a headphone jack.

Effects are a plus, as well as the ability to be used as a preamp or DI in a pinch.

Something like Fly Rig or a Geddy/ Dug Fly Rig, but with headphone and aux capabilities as well.

Does such a thing exist?

Thanks!
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Not fancy, but I use a Vox Amplug Bass for headphone stuff. Has a drum machine built in.
 
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#69
Unfortunately - no good music apps on Android. I am not an Apple fanboy - I do not have an iPhone, but have used Mac for work. If you can get a used iPad, that will open a lot of possibilities for music on the go.

I use a Focusrite iTrack One it's like a small Rubik cube with a used iPad that I got for 150 and spent 20 dollars on Yonac ToneStack plus 10 on AUM ( an audio routing utility for iPad ) Before covid I was able to travel on a palne with this with my travel guitar and a borrowed uke bass. Latency was negligible and the Tonestack had effects up the wazoo. My drum tracks where from Garageband which is free from Apple.. The iTrack One is hard to come by now but it was 60 when I got it.
 
#70
Laurent said:
Have you tried the DI on this? How good is it?
Real nice unit. Congrats!
Click to expand...

Thank you - and I've only used the DI to feed a Behringer Q802USB - (Garage Band on a Mac) and that worked great (better than the operator) you get a clean DI feed - so you can use the aux in to click or a song track. All of this is overkill at my skill level - but it works and sounds great...
 
#76
COYS said:
Do the Bass FlyRigs work for anyone here? Seems like an interesting idea but I read the reviews of them and basically it sounded like people didn't like the sounds apart from the preamp, which you can get seperately for less.
Click to expand...

Yes the fly rig works for me. I think the reason that the octafiler doesn't work for people is the controls are kind of poorly designed and don't work well in all positions. I can get a useable q tron type tone with a little grind on it, but the controls have to be just right. I just think they tried to do too much with that section and it wasn't particularly well executed or explained in the manual. If you try to run it with octaver, fuzz and q on all at once it's gross and simply doesn't work well at all unless you're just going for chaos.
 
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#80
+1 on the Zoom B1 Four or B1X Four. No, make that +10.

I picked up a used B1X Four last fall... love it. Seek out my posts from a few months ago -- I LOVE THIS UNIT.

The main reason I picked it up was my DSM OmniCabSim Deluxe failed me (PM me for details... I won't get into this here)... so I was looking for a portable unit that:

1. Sounds great.
2. Is well built.
3. Allows for easy, wireless headphone play.
4. Doesn't break the bank.

All of those boxes easily checked with the Zoom B1 Four and B1X Four. PLUS the Zoom offers:

5. TONS of desirable effects and amp, preamp and cabinet simulators that you can alter, combine into one patch in which you can change the order. Whoever at Zoom selected the items they cloned is wicked smart -- there are so many desirable classic and newer effect pedals, amplifiers, preamps, cabinets and more in this box, it's mind-blowing. And it's easy to use, too.
6. a drum machine.
7. a looper.
8. a tuner.

I picked up mine from a fellow TB'er used for $60. Yes, you read correctly.

Not having an XLR output looks like the only box that won't be checked... and maybe that's a big deal for you? It wouldn't for me when you see the upside of the Zoom.

embellisher said:
Does such a thing exist?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
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