Modeling/profiler amp - Helix? Axe FX? Kemper? Neural?

[BassAgent]

I was looking at maybe getting one of those fancy pants modeling things for my cover band gigs. However, I can find many tests of those for guitar, but barely any info on how good they are for bass. Has anyone here compared the bigger brands and can tell me the basic difference, especially when it comes to user friendliness? I have no very complex wishes, except a good octaver (preferably with the OC-2 like square wave), a good compressor, a clean amp and possibly some chorus. For now.

 

[semiprohooker]

I personally run a Kemper or an HX Stomp. I've also tried Tonex and Quad Cortex. If you have pedals you already know and love, Tonex is a fantastic piece of gear. But it only has compression and reverb. The amps sound great though.

Quad Cortex sounds very good, especially the parallel paths for distortion. I didn't get to play much with the FX section though and I'm not too sure what the availability for bass specific stuff is.

Kemper sounds fantastic and support is top notch. The item is over ten years old and they're still pushing out new features as free updates. Connectivity is top notch and ridiculously flexible. At this point I have 35k bass profiles and 85k guitar profiles. The effects section is solid. The verbs and delays are some of the best around, hands down. The navigation of profiles is absolutely awesome. The only thing I wish it had was synth effects. I particularly need a subscription synth for some of the subby stuff I have to cover. I end up putting a DOD Meatbox in the FX Loop.

Helix, I haven't used the full version but I have an HX Stomp on a Nano sized pedalboard. I have a DI, tuner, two button footswitch, and my wireless on the board. If you don't need the smallest footprint possible I'd get the Stomp XL for the extra switching. Otherwise, navigating is a little clunky. The effects section is solid on the stomp. The amps are good. The cabs are meh. Good IRs really wake the sounds up. Sounds aren't quite as good as the Kemper but the full FX section let's me use just it so the portability and convenience is awesome. I can fly with that rig easily. The Kemper is more portable than an amp but nowhere near as convenient as the Stomp. The Kemper Stage model would probably be much closer to that though.

If you have any specific questions regarding the stomp or Kemper I'll do my best to answer.

 

[kjp360]

I love my Kemper, never have had any issues and the support is excellent. That said, I probably use 10% of its capabilities. Even as a sometimes guitar player, I have only scratched the surface. Mine is the powered head. I have tried the Stomp in store, but didn't enjoy it as much FWIW. I really loathe menu diving.

 

[Solude]

For bass Helix is the easy choice. Simply more to choose from. You'd think Neural having been Darkglass related but they decided to profile the pedals instead of having models

 

[DirtDog]

I’m using a TONEX. Good bang for the buck.

 

[john hennessy]

HX stomp + a Jay Ganz straight ahead power amp is a killer combo. Under half the price of a Kemper, all fits on a small pedalboard and weighs nothing