JohnDaBass

I own two Super Compacts and a One10 with steel grille. I did a great deal of research before purchasing my first SC and IMHO the steel grille adds to the stiffness of the cab as the steel grille adds an extra brace across the front of the cab. One of the design concepts of Barefaced cabs is to create a stiff, rigid enclosure using thin walls and multiple internal bracing to achieve a light weight cab which is colour neutral. If you do the "knuckle " test on each face of the cab you will discover how "dead" each side sounds. So having the steel grille, which is equally as "dead", stretched across the front of the cab linking the top, bottom and sides adds to the stiffness and "deadness" of the cab and making it less coloured. I don't feel the silver front is as rigid or stiff as the steel grille. But I maybe completely wrong but at least I sleep well at night not worrying that I made the right decision.

I have an FSR Seafoam green MiM Deluxe, great bass with a well selected range on the mid control. So easy to change the character of the sound on the fly mid song. Mine has a bound neck and block inlay markers on a maple neck ( see avatar). There's a really good balance between the pickups. Many PJs suffer with a huge gain variation between the Pups but the Deluxe preamp balances the Pups really well, I am a fan of blend controls. Great build quality.

Consider Status Hot Wire flats. I bought a set of medium scale off @Pestie for my Fender Stu Hamm and they sound amazing. A great middle option between flats and round wound. The thump of flats with the "zing" of round wound. Just ordered a set of short scale for my 2008 Gibson SG Bass (EB3). If they work as good as the medium scale I plan to get a set on my Eppiphone Allen Woody Rumblekat. I normally use Fender 9050ML on my P basses.

Yup, I think it's the worn brown for me!!

@Osiris for a change what about one to the new Gibson Les Paul Jr basses launch at NAMM this week. I have a lovely slot head 1970 Gibson EB3, a recent Gibson SG bass and a RumbleKat, all lovely to play with a wide ranges of tones on offer.

@Al Krowyou are absolutely correct Fender has stretched the "multi effects" term a little. Perhaps they should have used "Preamp". But Fender has simply joined the segment with what they believe is a decent proposition. For us Bass consumers it's another option to the TC Spectra Drive, Mesa Subway Pre & Subway Pre +, etc that are on offer for those who are on the journey of building a suitable flexible pedal board to drive their amp or FRFR rig. More competition in such a segment is always healthy for us bass consumers.

+1 plus it would have been helpful if it had a fixed or variable HPF. But at this price point it does look appealing. Maybe if they sell well Fender may launch an upgrade "big brother" at say £199 with all the features they missed. As @CameronJ says if it had Aux in, headphone out, and HPF it could provide a one stop shop for many pe9.

https://shop.fender.com/en-US/effects-pedals/downtown-express-bass-multi-effect-pedal/0234538000.html Fender have launched a very reasonable multi effects preamp that may well offer an alternative solution in front of a FRFR powered speaker.

http://www.flyguitars.com/gibson/bass/EB3_schematic.php Here you go, this is how Gibson use to do it. The bass boost on the EB3 was enormous. Gibson called it a " Tone choke"

https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2019/01/25/tech-21-introduces-the-power-engine-deuce-deluxe-cabinet/ Looks as if Tech 21 are jumping on the FRFR bandwagon. I hope it's got a bit low end capability than the Tech 21 VT Bass combo I tried late last year. I like the inclusion of HPF & LPF, but I'm not a fan of rear facing ports.

WOW that's a lot of money. Not sure if I could use that sort of dosh on something more desirable.

Hope it's similar to the old Gibson EB3 circuit. The 69 had a huge bass boost.

+1 natural Ash body with maple neck would be my choice. Probably sounds a little warmer than the full scale big brother with its active preamp. Looking forward to seeing how the passive sounds.

Lovely basses Chris everyone a stunning bass. I've fallen in love with #4 .Ash body, rosewood Jazz neck, black tape wound strings and DiMarzio Pups. Handsome!

I bought a 51 P pickup for a Bitsa project and it sounds fantastic. It's the twin coil version and with a series/ parallel switch it delivers both a great split P and single coil 51 P sound. Sadly Jess uses the Spanish equivalent to the UK's Royal Mail and my first consignment got lost somewhere in Spain. After raising a PayPal dispute the second pickup delivery arrived within 4 days. I highly recommend the 51P pickup!

Fantastic job, looks great and I bet it sounds awesome.

As Phil says a Makie Thump 12A is not going to be as loud enough and powerful enough for bass as a bass combo. But, the Thump12A does offer a solution in some gigging environments. We have some regular gigs ,as a duo, in the bar of a small local pub and we use a Thump 12A and a JBL EON One Linear array. Bass & Alesis drum machine into the Thump12A and guitar & vocals into the JBL. It works really well for us at the volumes we need. My bass goes into Zoom MS-60B >> Tech21 VT Bas DI>> channel 1 and Alesis SR16 >> channel 2 of the Thump12A. The JBL line array copes really well without the need of any sort of monitors. I would agree with the other comments that the Mackie Thump 12A cannot compete with my Fender Rumble 500 head and my DIY Basschat 12 mk1 cab. Clearly for larger gigs you have to invest in one of the premium brands RCF , QSC etc.

Heft was used THREE TIMES during the Jerry Corbyn interview on the Andrew Marr Sunday morning programme. Surely it'll be Ampeg on BBC Breakfast next and HPF on Good Morning Britain. Can't wait for the benefits of using a compressor for bass on Question Time!

+1 for Tech21 VT Bass as the simplest most straightforward method of "warming" up any amp. For a little more control maybe add a Thumpinator & Spectracomp.

Heft is in the ear of the beholder!

Watching this one.

+1 for Fender Kingman. Lovely Jazz neck with a body large enough to produce a decent acoustic output to keep up with most mandolins. Great Fender branded preamp with on-board tuner, notch filters & quick change battery compartment.

Check out the DiMarzio model J PUPs. Split coils, so humbucking, passive, punchy with a great range of tones. I've found them to be a great all round upgrade.