03/01/26 - Super Compact / Super Mini - Australia

Hey there,

My guitar player recently received his new cab from you and it has literally blown me away so I’ve gone down the bass cab rabbit hole as the bass player in the band.

I’ve been watching a bunch of your YouTube videos so I thought I’d contact you for your suggestions as to which cab (or combo) you’d recommend. My band is a blues band, but I also play in a rock band at times. I don’t play any slap and rarely with a pick. My current rig is a Markbass rig, running 2 1x12 inch cabs (New York 121) through a Little Mark Vintage 500w head. In terms of the gigs we play, mostly in bars etc as you’d imagine but we also play some open air gigs and not always with line out, so I need to oomph. I run a number of drive pedals and run it all through a valve preamp pedal to give me a warm sound and some nice gentle break up (using the drive pedals for more OD as needed)

The things I like about my current rig is the component nature, giving me option for 1x12 or a stack if needed. The cabs are easy to lug around but your cabs are even lighter. I like having the headroom so typically run both cabs unless it is a tiny room.

In terms of tone, I like that the Markbass cabs are pretty much neutral for tone so basically what goes in, comes out. Certainly nothing like the FRFR gear you have, but I don’t feel they add much voice to the sound. I like that because I can use the bass, amp and pedals for the tone I need, whether that be a bit brighter or warm.

When using one cab, they actually go reasonably well but they do lose the ‘thump’ that I think most players love. Also, as you’ve highlighted once you move off axis it falls away a bit and can sound boomy in some rooms.

I guess I’m interested in whether a Super Compact or Super Mini is big and powerful enough to potentially replace the stack, at least initially, until I can save some more gig money to double up?

Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you,

Jeff

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Hi Jeff,

My gut feeling is that a Super Compact should enough most of the time - outdoors is always a pain but for the rest, I think you'll be fine!

Best regards,

Alex