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Tech 21 bass fly rig

#601
cable extender, add 12' to your own power supply Amazon.com: Hanvex HDCQ12 12ft 20AWG 2.1mm x 5.5mm DC Plug Extension Cable for Power Adapter, Male to Female, For LED, CCTV, Car, and more: Home Audio & Theater

just the OneSpot adapter (it's a 10' cord not 12' btw, apologies...) Amazon.com: Truetone 1 Spot Adapter: Musical Instruments

OneSpot adapter with daisy chain and other plugs, if in the future you would want to power multiple pedals Amazon.com: Truetone 1 Spot Combo Pack: Musical Instruments
 
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#602
cavemanbass said:
cable extender, add 12' to your own power supply Amazon.com: Hanvex HDCQ12 12ft 20AWG 2.1mm x 5.5mm DC Plug Extension Cable for Power Adapter, Male to Female, For LED, CCTV, Car, and more: Home Audio & Theater

just the OneSpot adapter (it's a 10' cord not 12' btw, apologies...) Amazon.com: Truetone 1 Spot Adapter: Musical Instruments

OneSpot adapter with daisy chain and other plugs, if in the future you would want to power multiple pedals Amazon.com: Truetone 1 Spot Combo Pack: Musical Instruments
Click to expand...

Perfect, thanks!
 
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#603
mc900ftj said:
I pulled the trigger.

My BFR shipped and should be here in a couple of days. Anxious to try it out. I'm hoping it "lightens the load" for walk-on gigs...maybe even replace my multiple-pedal board on all gigs to simplify things. Obviously depends on what I can get what I need out of it. I'll post my impressions here after I've had a chance to put it through its paces.
Click to expand...

So I've had the BFR now for a little while. My impressions from my get-to-know-you period, which consisted of one rehearsal and several hours in studio:

Overall: I like the form factor and build quality. The output from the 1/4 output isn't hot enough to really drive a power amp well. I thought that I might bypass my preamps (Ampeg PF800, Rumble 100v3) and go into the FX return to just use the power amp sections. Even cranking the levels on the SansAmp and Compressors, the output is not enough to drive either power amp well. So'I'll stick with going into the instrument inputs and setting the preamps on the amps as flat as I can. Still not sure if this is a show-stopper...We'll see.

Compressor: 5/10. It's usable, but fixed attack/decay settings make it not-so-versitile. It is what it is.

Boost: 8/10. I like that it's pretty/post SansAmp selectable. Works.

SansAmp: 8/10. Best section of this multi-pedal. Character control makes for good flexibility.

OctaFilter: 5/5. I'm still trying to figure this one out. Pretty usable for me as just a filter, though it's very fiddly to get it right. Having trouble bonding with the OCTAVE bit...Just can't dial in something usable...May take more fiddling. I don't really use FUZZ, so I have no opinion on that function.

Chorus: 6/10. Works for what I need. Pretty good for a one-knobber.

The proof is "in the pudding"...I plan to gig this board tomorrow and Saturday nights...We'll see how it goes. Friday night is a big room, full SR, soundman, the whole works. Saturday is a smaller trio gig.

I'll report back. But it is just so cute...
IMG_20170223_080033.jpg
IMG_20170223_080100.jpg
 
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#604
I should be getting mine in today. Gigging with it on Saturday night. Curious to see how competent the chorus is to my ears. The Sansamp portion should be a no brainer for me, since I've gigged with a Sansamp for 20 years now. The Fuzz/Octa/Filter section needs the compressor engaged, or at least that's what I pick up from reading the manual online. I have high expectations for the chorus and fuzz sections, and I plan on using the boost to full effect. My pedal board will consist of a POG2 at the beginning of the chain, followed by the BFR. The BFR will be replacing my trusty Sansamp and a Red Ripper pedal.
 
#605
mc900ftj said:
So I've had the BFR now for a little while. My impressions from my get-to-know-you period, which consisted of one rehearsal and several hours in studio:

Overall: I like the form factor and build quality. The output from the 1/4 output isn't hot enough to really drive a power amp well. I thought that I might bypass my preamps (Ampeg PF800, Rumble 100v3) and go into the FX return to just use the power amp sections. Even cranking the levels on the SansAmp and Compressors, the output is not enough to drive either power amp well. So'I'll stick with going into the instrument inputs and setting the preamps on the amps as flat as I can. Still not sure if this is a show-stopper...We'll see.

Compressor: 5/10. It's usable, but fixed attack/decay settings make it not-so-versitile. It is what it is.

Boost: 8/10. I like that it's pretty/post SansAmp selectable. Works.

SansAmp: 8/10. Best section of this multi-pedal. Character control makes for good flexibility.

OctaFilter: 5/5. I'm still trying to figure this one out. Pretty usable for me as just a filter, though it's very fiddly to get it right. Having trouble bonding with the OCTAVE bit...Just can't dial in something usable...May take more fiddling. I don't really use FUZZ, so I have no opinion on that function.

Chorus: 6/10. Works for what I need. Pretty good for a one-knobber.

The proof is "in the pudding"...I plan to gig this board tomorrow and Saturday nights...We'll see how it goes. Friday night is a big room, full SR, soundman, the whole works. Saturday is a smaller trio gig.

I'll report back. But it is just so cute...View attachment 1064192 View attachment 1064193
Click to expand...

Whelp, sorry to say it's going back tomorrow. Gigged it tonight. The compressor just isn't usable for me. Coupled with the Octaver not tracking well for me turned out to be show-stoppers. So I will probably try a SansAmp BDDI Deluxe and keep my discreet pedals for Comp, Filter, Octave and Chorus. Oh, well. If at first you don't succeed, try and try again.
 
#606
BlushResponse said:
I should be getting mine in today. Gigging with it on Saturday night. Curious to see how competent the chorus is to my ears. The Sansamp portion should be a no brainer for me, since I've gigged with a Sansamp for 20 years now. The Fuzz/Octa/Filter section needs the compressor engaged, or at least that's what I pick up from reading the manual online. I have high expectations for the chorus and fuzz sections, and I plan on using the boost to full effect. My pedal board will consist of a POG2 at the beginning of the chain, followed by the BFR. The BFR will be replacing my trusty Sansamp and a Red Ripper pedal.
Click to expand...

I'm curious to hear how it goes for you.
 
#607
BMr2kVz.jpg
Well, I'm back after playing a gig with one band and practicing with another. The Sansamp portion actually took some getting used to, since my old sansamp pedal wasn't the VT model. Getting my levels to match up also took me some time.
The compressor was 'alright', though during the show I hardly used it. The sansamp portion, after dialing it in, stayed on all night. The boost was great! Especially after I made sure to dial that thing up. The Octa section was weird, and to be honest, at this point, I only used the Fuzz effect by itself. The Fuzz I think is usable in live settings; usually with the compressor on; not sure so far on actually recording it. For the life of me so far, I haven't been able to fool around and dial up some of the envelope filter settings that the Octa section can produce without engaging the Fuzz/Octave buttons. Also, it seems like I would have to change my settings on the Range and Q settings in the Octa section to get those sounds, then dial them back to get my Fuzz sounds. Again, this section seems to work best with the compressor engaged. The Chorus was fine. Very understated and not over done. Definitely no Peter Hook style sounds. The tuner/mute worked as promised; I have no issues there.
At home, while dialing it up, I played it through my living room rig; a solid state Trace Elliot BLX GP7 SM130. During the show I played through a V-Type 4001 solid state and a 2x10 2103x Trace cab. Didn't sound so great at home, but sounded killer during the show. For practice with my other band, I played it through an Ashdown CTM300 and a Trace Elliot 1524 (2x15) cab. The interesting thing at practice is that I had the compressor engaged the entire time for the tube amp. It really seemed to smooth out my signal! I also toned down the drive for the tube amp.
I'll be keeping it since I think live applications are what this thing was made for.
As for the cons:
The compressor adds some noise to my signal; noticeable, but not enough to bug. I'd say it's up there with a noisy single coil pickup. This could be partly my fault though, so I'll continue experimenting.
The tracking on the Octa section is strange. Synthetic sounding is one way to describe the Fuzz sound, though as I said, it was useful. The tracking seemed weird enough to give me doubts that I would use this pedal to record anything other than the Sansamp and Chorus portions.
The Chorus dial lights up red when I'm clearly overdriving my signal, or at least that's what I'm guessing. I couldn't find anything in the manual describing that. Anybody else notice this?

Still though, this is preliminary. And just so I cover all my "basses": For the gig, I played an 81 G&L L1000 fretless. For the practice, I played a 94 G&L SB1 fretted.
The pedal board has been streamlined with just my POG2 and the BFR, in that order. They play nice together.
 
#613
In the Flyrig5 manual, it states that the level of the DLA portion (which corresponds physically to the chorus in the Bass Fly Rig) lights up red as a clip indicatior. My guess is that the same fucntion is in the BFR, but it was ommited in the documentation.
 
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#614
Mine adds a lot of hiss when I engage either the compressor, octave, fuzz or Sans Amp. It does not occur as much with the chorus. I have tried it with my three basses: an active Status Stealth, a Turner Renissance (piezo pickup only) and my new Clement bass that only has a piezo pickup. I play through a LMIII head into a 2x10 or a 1x15 speaker. The "in pad" button does not help. I have put the gain on the LMIII at almost zero, the lower the gain the lower the noise but it never goes away. I will try it through the effects loop when I get home tonight.

Does anyone have a suggestion?

I do not see the red clip light come on through any of this.
 
#615
BluesWalker said:
Mine adds a lot of hiss when I engage either the compressor, octave, fuzz or Sans Amp. It does not occur as much with the chorus. I have tried it with my three basses: an active Status Stealth, a Turner Renissance (piezo pickup only) and my new Clement bass that only has a piezo pickup. I play through a LMIII head into a 2x10 or a 1x15 speaker. The "in pad" button does not help. I have put the gain on the LMIII at almost zero, the lower the gain the lower the noise but it never goes away. I will try it through the effects loop when I get home tonight.

Does anyone have a suggestion?

I do not see the red clip light come on through any of this.
Click to expand...
Weird. So far the only source of noise is the compressor; regardless of the input, tone or amount of compression. The Fuzz is noisy on purpose, as far as I'm concerned.
When I get the red light on the Chorus, I don't hear any distortion through my amp.
The "in pad" doesn't change anything in any appreciable manner. I suppose I'll just keep it engaged since G&L's do tend to have hot pickups.
 
#616
BluesWalker said:
Mine adds a lot of hiss when I engage either the compressor, octave, fuzz or Sans Amp. It does not occur as much with the chorus. I have tried it with my three basses: an active Status Stealth, a Turner Renissance (piezo pickup only) and my new Clement bass that only has a piezo pickup. I play through a LMIII head into a 2x10 or a 1x15 speaker. The "in pad" button does not help. I have put the gain on the LMIII at almost zero, the lower the gain the lower the noise but it never goes away. I will try it through the effects loop when I get home tonight.

Does anyone have a suggestion?

I do not see the red clip light come on through any of this.
Click to expand...

Think I'd contact support. Mine doesn't have any noticeable hiss or noise, SansAmp and comp on all the time.
 
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#619
Dammit I really want this to be awesome... But there has been a quiet unanimity in this thread. I love tech 21 and the vt range in particular.

My bfr 2.0 thoughts:

Comp, boost - keep.
Vt portion- blend knob- just like the vtdi and vtrm.
Octafuzz- This has to go. To weird and nichey sounding- too narrow in its application.
Chorus- keep, but since it's digital, and one knob, add a phaser sound too.

Add in: a take on their bass fuzz.


That way you get a more fully featured dirt section. In a utility pedal like this, there is no need for synths sounding effects. IMO
 
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