I was using VC for few years with my basses (-2 semi) with nice results, anyway into two of my basses I have installed Hipshot detuners on B string which is perfect. Still my basic bass (Bongo 6) does not have Hipshot detuned (as it is unavailable), so I am still using VC. My main rig for bass is AFX III, in the meantime I built another small rig other projects (mostly guitar, but also for bass) initially based on Boss GX-100. Boss does not have VC, so I had to buy Digitech Drop, which I found not perfect (same issues as Axe), but seems for me more precise than Axe. The other rig was modified, FM9T replaced Boss, but I decided to keep DDrop as more reliable for bass and guitar (bass-2, with guitar -5 sounds great).