chrisgriff Posted February 27, 2020 Share Posted February 27, 2020 I was looking for a smallish but good quality practice amp, mainly for my Kala U-bass, and I trawled the bass sites and discussions on here for ideas. I really liked the idea of the ashdown B-social, despite what people have said about it (in fact looking at Yamaha’s latest THR wireless offerings, which requires additional purchase of wireless gear, the high price of the b-social doesn’t look so bad now ...£465 at pmt). I was really tempted as it has loads of great features and pretty much stood alone in terms of this, perhaps until yamaha launches its latest product. However I realised I wanted something that didn’t have to have all the features under the sun...I wanted 2 inputs, reasonably small size but high quality bass sound were mainly what I wanted....ive had a blackstar ID core beam in the past which was fine for messing around on the guitar but playing a bass through sounded too ‘modelled’ and not substantial (not knocking as it was a decent product for the price) I noticed phil jones has recently released an updated bass cub released this year. I’ve heard a lot about these things and always been interested just always had other priorities. No dealers near to me to try much out so I ordered it on a whim from bass direct. It is a bit dearer than I was going to spend, but I’m glad I did. The quality is superb, very robustly made. Sounds fantastic and the U-bass sounds great through. And it’s so tiny! I still think the ashdown is an interesting prospect, I just wanted something that will travel well, and the phil jones bass cub is just so reassuringly sturdy. I’d not seen much posted anywhere about the new model, so just thought I’d share! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPJ Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 What a cool setup! I’ve always loved the PJB stuff and will own another briefcase one day soon. Hope you don’t mind me saying but that photo has a whiff of Spinal Taps Stonehenge about it 😂 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Dare Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 Nice. I've been promising myself a Cub when I have spare funds. I have several PJB cabs already. Been thinking I could use the Cub and slave it to a power amp to drive additional cabs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisgriff Posted February 28, 2020 Author Share Posted February 28, 2020 3 hours ago, Dan Dare said: Nice. I've been promising myself a Cub when I have spare funds. I have several PJB cabs already. Been thinking I could use the Cub and slave it to a power amp to drive additional cabs. The flexibility of combining with the powered cabs is pretty useful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maude Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 On 27/02/2020 at 16:43, chrisgriff said: I still think the ashdown is an interesting prospect, I just wanted something that will travel well, and the phil jones bass cub is just so reassuringly sturdy. I have a B Social and a PJB Suitcase. The PJB is leaps and bounds ahead of the Ashdown in terms of build quality, the Ashdown is strictly a stay at home amp. I like Ashdown gear (I've had a lot of it) but the lack of any physical speaker protection completely rules out using a B Social for any kind of gigging situation, something will end up going through the speaker, either in the car or at a venue. Even putting it in a non rigid case would wreck it. The PJB gear is built for gigging, the Ashdown stays at home looking pretty for practicing and the PJB gets slung in and out of cars, vans and venues without having to worry. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisgriff Posted February 29, 2020 Author Share Posted February 29, 2020 1 hour ago, Maude said: I have a B Social and a PJB Suitcase. The PJB is leaps and bounds ahead of the Ashdown in terms of build quality, the Ashdown is strictly a stay at home amp. I like Ashdown gear (I've had a lot of it) but the lack of any physical speaker protection completely rules out using a B Social for any kind of gigging situation, something will end up going through the speaker, either in the car or at a venue. Even putting it in a non rigid case would wreck it. The PJB gear is built for gigging, the Ashdown stays at home looking pretty for practicing and the PJB gets slung in and out of cars, vans and venues without having to worry. The lack of speaker cover on the b-social was exactly the reason I chose the pjb as it gives the option of using it outside the house if I want to. If I could have bought both I would have! But had to choose one and very pleased with the cub so far 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maude Posted February 29, 2020 Share Posted February 29, 2020 10 hours ago, chrisgriff said: The lack of speaker cover on the b-social was exactly the reason I chose the pjb as it gives the option of using it outside the house if I want to. If I could have bought both I would have! But had to choose one and very pleased with the cub so far 🙂 PJB gear is great, I really like my Suitcase with the 4b extension cab and have absolutely no desire to look for anything else, it just does what I need it to. The B Social is perfect as my at home, practice amp. I usually use it with headphones with bass and phone plugged in but the ability to sit on the sofa (without headphones) and connect my bass and phone cable free and just noodle is great. I got mine as a b stock so didn't have to pay too much which made it affordable. If I had to only have one the Ashdown would be the one for sale. Enjoy your Cub, you made the right choice 👍 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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