Petitioning EBMM to release more PDNs for the Reflex HH5

[tunaman4u2]

Again, my PERSONAL thing here as to not step on toes about the Gamechanger... programming works great at my house & the second I get to a practice or gig it just goes to hell whether its different amps, different room acoustics, different cabs, different interactions with other instruments... etc.
I've tried & traded many a good pedal with the anticipation of doing this very thing... its not for me! The REFLEX HH5 is for me. I'm playing my Bongo HH5 as we speak & I'm having some difficulty dialing in tone on songs that I can just quickly flip a switch for with my Sterling HH

 

[tunaman4u2]

We all know I was wrong about the market for the Reflex HH... but here is why I am RIGHT about the Reflex HH being awesome

1) The Bridge H in the sweetspot JUST like the Sterling & Stingray which is why they are magical
2) Playing off the Bridge pickup in that location more similar to the neck pickup than further down in the Bongo & HSS (Its a personal preference but its more natural to me Gimmie 3 Steps on my Sterling HH vs Bongo HH, Big difference)
3) Its the ONLY EBMM with a series & parallel button which changes TONE not just EQ. If you've owned a Sterling\Stingray H you know how cool it is to go parallel vs series at that bridge pickup... yes the Al & HSS have series\parallel configs
4) Passive tone (Not on Bongo Sterling Stingray)
5) 4 Band EQ (Not on Sterling or Stingray) Once you master these, you can really get your mids exactly where you want them & make up for cabs\PA\room dynamics that have too much mid bump or are too scooped without losing total control of your mids
6) Mahogany tone block standard (right?)

To me... it just has awesome extra features a Stingray\Sterling doesnt have & everything they do... also compared to the Bongo\Big Al\HSS it has the pickups in the magical spots that made the Stingray & Sterling so great... so why wouldn't you want MORE??

Its about versatility for ME... but some people may just want to dial in their tone, set it & forget it for originals... I can see why they would like a Bongo, Stingray H etc. I personally play covers all over the map & need to nail a tone from Skynrd Gimmie 3 Steps to Sublime What I got, to Bob Marley to GreenDay etc

The Sterling HH is the BEST I've found so far for versatility & the feature set on the Reflex can only improve that... so somebody tell me... what the hell gives? What bass exists that can nail so many tones? Why aren't people jumping all over these? Even if you are in an original band, this bass can get a million tones. Isn't it fun at night to play with all the knobs & buttons while practicing? Who wants the same tone all the time when they can have that PLUS everything else?

AND IT LOOKS LIKE THIS !!!

I'd rather focus on this above though, what makes a Reflex HH5 so damn good. So what gives, why it should fly off shelves... you guys agree?

 

[bovinehost]

I like how motivated you are. It reminds me of me during the early Bongo days. It's really FUN to be that excited about something, isn't it?

What I have in the arsenal now is just great stuff, period. No fluff. All bad-ass. If something happened and I woke up tomorrow with only one, I'd be fine. (Sad, though.) I could do anything with any of them.

Since I got the Acid Reflex.......

.....as seen in the photo above, I have gigged it a number of times and it's WAY more versatile than I am. The way I use it, it's kind of like sitting in a Lamborghini, idling at a stoplight. But that's okay, too. The main thing is that I LOOK great.

I wanted the whole effin' kit and kaboodle. Just slap every pickup there is on it and let's rock. Why not?

For someone like me, who really is safer with a single pickup bass, it's a lot of fun to have these choices even if I don't exactly open it up very often. I also kind of knew that this would be the last bass I would buy for a very long time and so wanted extra bells and whistles even though I would have been fine with a single H or HH.

Why not?

So I'm Lord Bongo and all that, everyone knows it and it's not likely to change, but this bass just has some serious horsepower and I'm with the tunamelt guy - they should be flying off the shelves! Of course, I also thought the same thing about the Bongo......is it me?

I hope it's not me.

My buddy Tris, who plays in an INXS tribute band amongst other things (and is on the forum but now I can't remember his imaginary name here) messaged me last night. He picked up a single H 25th Anniversary 4 banger and was pretty stoked about it. I said, "Well, YEAH." He's a Stingray guy from way back and I think he was initially just sucked in because it didn't have a pickguard. Then he played it.

Yee-haw!

I would suggest that all you guys - even the Bongoloids and hard-core Stingray guys - pick up a Reflex just once and give it a test run. Lord Bongo? Yes, absolutely! But this Reflex will never leave me. Ever.

Jack

 

[KevinM]

I have a Bongo that I like very much but my 25th/Reflex is my main working bass. I might try and give it a rest once I get my PDN Bongo but as long as I can help it the 25th will never leave my arsenal.

 

[Big Poppa]

wow tunaman if you are having those problems with the gamechanger do we know about it or are we just posting it here for the world to see first?

We are not experiencing this in the field...this is the first complaint/issue that we have on this....give us a chance to fix it. thanks

 

[tunaman4u2]

BP- I don't want to come off as something wrong with the gamechanger... its just a personal thing with programming. My best laid plans programming pedals, effects etc always goes to hell when I play live due to different amps, different room acoustics, different cabs, different interactions with other instruments.

Gimmie those Reflex buttons & I'll adjust on the fly... I've gotten burned too many times with programming presets, never used the Gamechanger

EDIT: As for a fix... next PDN release it will all be fixed when I grab the Reflex HH5

LORD BONGO-
Beauty of a bass man! Glad to hear you love the bad boy, we gotta get the love out for the Reflex, I dont see the downside of having more!

 

[Golem]

`

I've just read this thread for the very first time. The thread title
never actually moved me, but just now I just hadda burning
curiosity to looknsee how it ever grew so huge so fast, and wow,
now I feel exhausted !

Tunaman, as the active driving force and sorta the emcee of the
thread, I kinda picture you as likewise exhausted. Please take
this as sympathetic advice and not a negative personal comment:

You gonna get an emotional hernia over "nailing" cover tones, so
please allow me to remind you that the audience is NEVER quite as
nuanced in their listening. YOU can play a recording at rehearsal
to critique how well you nail a tone, but THEY are out there on the
floor with no way to A-B your tone against the original, not that
they would bother to do so, even if they were equipt to do so. I'm
just saying 'cut youselves just enuf slack' ... "just enuf" ... not in
any way saying to get sloppy !

BTW, no live performance can match the tone [nor the mix, nor
the playback influences] of what is heard when listening to the
originals, if the originals are best known via recorded versions,
as is generally the situation. I think this is related to your stated
disappointment with presets that worked at rehearsal but never
cut it on the gig.

I get the impression that you're a skilled and versatile performer.
Just wishing you could ease up and not let 'failure to nail' exact
tone constrict your joy in in playing well in what is presumably a
fine, tight band ! ENJOY !

Don't ignore the IISGIIG principal [as per Ellington]

`

 

[tunaman4u2]

Golem- The Sterling nails the tone every time, freaking sick bass my man. LOVE it... but its a 4 string & I'm moving to 5er.

Instead of getting a Sterling 5, I'd like to get a Reflex HH5, for variety sake. If the Reflex HH5 can do everything and more than a Sterling HH then I will be VERY happy, promise

 

[Golem]

Golem- The Sterling nails the tone every time, freaking sick bass
my man. LOVE it... but its a 4 string & I'm moving to 5er.

Instead of getting a Sterling 5, I'd like to get a Reflex HH5, for
variety sake. If the Reflex HH5 can do everything and more than
a Sterling HH then I will be VERY happy, promise

Unnerstoodt. Great to here that your standardt of "nailing" is
within the realm of achievable reality. As to the relation of the
5- and 4-string Sterlings, I love my ceramic SR5P [as does Ms
Diva ... thaz also important] and so I wanted to match it with
a 4-string. Since the 4-string version of the ceramic SR5 is the
Sterling, I hadda hunt for an affordable Sterling 4P. It's the 'P'
option that made the hunt kinda challenging, but with mission
accomplished I find them a fine match.

Hope the above is encouraging 4U, but caveats here are four:
1. Never had identical strings on both [nickel on both, tho].
2. I don't hafta NAIL anything ... just please Ms Diva.
3. My pair are FL.
4. I run close to an even mix of piezo and humbugger.

Nevillethelesch they're a well matched pair. Identical ? Can't
swear to that, but I suspect you'll be happy in the long run
with the current Sterling 5. The current SR5 is no longer the
5-string Sterling, thus the recent intro of a 'properly named'
Sterling 5-string simultaneous with the latest generation SR5
[latest SR5s having alnico PUs like SR4s have always had].

Anywho, plz let us all know how your quest finally shakes out !
Would prolly be appropriate to start a new thread for that ;-)

 

[five7]

Get a sterling 5 and make it easy on yourself.

 

[tunaman4u2]

I do love the the Sterling... but here are the advantages of the Reflex HH5 vs the Sterling HH5

Advantages
1) Parallel vs Series in all pickup settings... I'm looking forward to all coils series & the bridge parallel most
2) Passive mode
3) 4 band EQ to tame some zing I like to roll off high treble & high mids etc
4) Retains value... simple supply & demand, very few Reflex HH5ers available vs Sterlings. Ive seen 25ths & Reflexes sell fast for good cash on TB while Sterlings sit a bit
5) Look (I like the no pickguard look & having something different than my Sterling 4HH)

Disadvantages
NONE

So... I still dont get why more people dont jump on these Reflexes... MORE features, why not? It keeps practice fun for me when it can get monotonous, fun to play with all the knobs\buttons.

 

[4play]

Tuna, why don't you jump on that 5HSS Reflex at The Perfect Bass? I love the HSS config.

 

[tunaman4u2]

HSS

Bridge H too far down for my tastes affecting both tone & playability off it
Not a big fan of the neck single coil or bridge alone which limits my pickup configs available
No parallel series button
Not a huge upgrade vs the Bongo HH5 I have now. Id rather stand pat. I consider the Reflex HH5 to be a large upgrade personally vs my Bongo HH5 for what I'm trying to do with covers

BTW

I have my Sterling HH 4 string for sale in Boston on craigslist, IF it sells then I'll grab a PDN Sterling 4 HH.

 

[4play]

Saw that. Not a Sterling guy or else that BFR Black Sugar/ebony/roasted 4H down at BassCentral would be making a trek up to The Bean as we speak.

 

[Big Poppa]

ok the horse is so beat dead.

Really amazed that you can imply in this thread that the gamechanger's programming is instable in live situations and if I hadnt asked about the issue it would never have come to light that you have never used one. Implying that can sway a potential customer away from something that I believe is really important technology.

I think we answered your questions regarding the pdn and the reflex.