Well, just come back from Andertons. Tried out the TC BH250 Mk2, Markbass Little Mark 250 Blackline and the Gallien Krueger MB 200 Bass Head, all on an Ashdown 1x15" cab (with tweeter turned off).

With no tweeter, the treble control in the TC had almost no effect (more use with 10"s and with the tweeter in), so you were reliant on just the bass and middle controls. However it was the lightest and most compact. 'Controls all flat' sound was fine.

The Gallien Krueger MB 200 head had a very similar 'all flat' sound, but benefited from hi-mid and lo-mid controls as again the treble control did almost nothing with just the 1x15" cab. A bit of hi-mid roll-off and it sounded just like the TC. The pre-set contour option wasn't anything special, but does add another option.

The Markbass Little Mark 250 Blackline stood out from the other two in sounding slightly less clinical and having a bit more character to the tone. It's probably all down to a bit of subtle distortion but it did make the bass used (a Mexican Fender Player Jazz Bass) sound a bit more interesting. And the treble control did have some affect on the sound through the 1x15" cab. It too had lo-and ho-mid controls, so gave you more useable tone shaping controls with that cab choice and a classic bass sound. Plus, in addition it has a 'vintage speaker' filter control, which seemed more of a treble and mid roll-off filter if you wanted it to sound thuddy with very little definition and a variable pre-shape filter, which seemed to boost the mids as it was turned up.

So the MarkBass won, and that's what my friend Jim bought.

Lee and Chappers and Rabea were in the shop doing some filming, so there's some chance that I may end up in the background of one of their videos, but they are normally pretty good at cropping the shoppers out now.

I avoided the temptation to actually play the 2018 LP Goldtop Classic with P90s, as I picked it up and it was pretty heavy, heaver than my LP, and the particles in the gold top were too fine grained compared to a nearby CS '56 Goldtop reissue, and I didn't like the kidney Grovers as much as the standard tulip tuners on the CS goldtop. If the CS goldtop cost the same as the Classic goldtop, then I'd have bought that; but it was double the price. So, temptation avoided and credit card saved.