My local store just got two of these in yesterday. I went home to watch a YouTube video or two but there was nothing! I am going back to see if I can play around with it for a bit I think.
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Fender Downtown Express
- Thread starter Snakeman1066
- Start date
I can't believe there hasn't been a demo yet, unfortunately making me wonder why that is. One would think a demo would hype it up a little bit. Fender has been decent about this in recent years with their releases.
Sweetwater also has them in stock, I'm not pulling the trigger until I at least see a demo of any kind.
Yeah, plenty of talking descriptions, but no playing demos that I can find.
Shame.
Yep! It’s surprising actually! Every other bass product no matter how obscure seems to have 10 videos from bedroom players. I guess I might have to do my own video as soon as I pick this up.
I think when it comes to pedals there’s a little prejudice being shown against all-in-ones like the Downtown Express. Most pedal aficionados prefer to select and discuss what they consider best of breed single pedals rather than what amounts to a completely preconfigured pedalboard.
Curiosity it getting me on this one too. I've been impulsive many times but for some reason I want to hear this thing first.
To be honest, If I had a way to get one of these today, I would go buy in a heartbeat. But then I am a preamp pedal collector, more or less. Still no demo's anywhere. Or even reviews.
I think I'm gonna drop the hammer and get it. I asked my sales engineer at sweetwater who happens to be a bass player if he's seen any demo's and this was his emailed response:
I had a chance to play through one when Fender was here a couple of months ago, and I was very impressed with it. it's like a SansAmp Bass Driver, but with compression and the same 3-band EQ. As much as I like the SansAmp pedals, I felt like this one gives you more control over the overdrive function, which is pretty basic (if good-sounding) on the SansAmp…it's just a single knob there, where the Fender pedal provides an additional tone knob for the overdrive itself, plus a level knob for additional volume at whatever level of drive you've selected with the Drive knob itself. The compressor is also pretty impressive, and it offers a blend knob, so when you put that up about halfway, you've got a nice parallel compression going, where your compressed signal is blended with your uncompressed signal…that provides all of the even response of compressed bass, and keeps your sound as a natural foundation, but also blends your dynamics back into the signal as well, so it doesn't sound squashed, and it gives you response like you're used to if you don't use compression when you're practicing, etc.
Because the EQ, overdrive and compression are all set up with their own on/off switches, you can use as much or as little of these as you like in your sound…it's a nice bit of extra flexibility that helps it stand a bit above the SansAmp models, as those have a single on/off switch for all functions, and there is no way to enable the EQ without the drive or vice-versa, etc.
I had a chance to play through one when Fender was here a couple of months ago, and I was very impressed with it. it's like a SansAmp Bass Driver, but with compression and the same 3-band EQ. As much as I like the SansAmp pedals, I felt like this one gives you more control over the overdrive function, which is pretty basic (if good-sounding) on the SansAmp…it's just a single knob there, where the Fender pedal provides an additional tone knob for the overdrive itself, plus a level knob for additional volume at whatever level of drive you've selected with the Drive knob itself. The compressor is also pretty impressive, and it offers a blend knob, so when you put that up about halfway, you've got a nice parallel compression going, where your compressed signal is blended with your uncompressed signal…that provides all of the even response of compressed bass, and keeps your sound as a natural foundation, but also blends your dynamics back into the signal as well, so it doesn't sound squashed, and it gives you response like you're used to if you don't use compression when you're practicing, etc.
Because the EQ, overdrive and compression are all set up with their own on/off switches, you can use as much or as little of these as you like in your sound…it's a nice bit of extra flexibility that helps it stand a bit above the SansAmp models, as those have a single on/off switch for all functions, and there is no way to enable the EQ without the drive or vice-versa, etc.
Thank you for sharing this!
I just wish it had a tuner, headphone and an aux in? Sort of like a Bass Fly Rig hybrid?
I'd still like to see a demo though.
In one of the recent Andertons( Love those guys! ) videos where they demoed some of the new Fender effects, they said they had a Downtown Express but were doing a review of it later.Best wishes to all,
Brent
Fender put up a little sound clip...(literally, one short example with one tone using compression and eq)... that hit my Facebook feed last night as a sponsored item. It sounded fine, but it really did nothing to "demo" the pedal. It was a fine bass tone, but then so is a P-bass into a straight DI. I, too, am perplexed by the lack of attention even Fender is giving this offering.
It's quite disappointing since Fender has really been on top of this type of thing lately.
I'm awaiting FedEx to deliver it today and I'll get to tinker a little with it tonight. I figure at worst I send it back and if I like it, it'll be a keeper. My only question is will I put my Broughton Super Stack before or after it because I know it'll never replace that pedal.
I guess I'll go check facebook now too for at least something.
Edit: Well that was 27 seconds of decent tone but with not turning a single knob or turning anything on or off it's a completely worthless post.
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Those of you who have bought the Downtown Express - what power supply did you get?
It doesn't appear that Fender is making a 400 Ma supply. Sweetwater does not have a recommended PS on the product page.
It doesn't appear that Fender is making a 400 Ma supply. Sweetwater does not have a recommended PS on the product page.
Whofan- are you saying you bought the DE and got a Strymon? I'm interested in what people got for a PS who actually own the pedal, if they bought a separate wall wart PS just for the DE.
I don't own the pedal. When I was checking it out my Sweetwater rep recommended the Strymon Ojai R30.
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/de...current-low-profile-guitar-pedal-power-supply
Whofan- thanks for relaying that. I could have asked my contact at Sweetwater too, I suppose. I am interested in hearing from the actual owners of the DE and what they are using. I would not be buying a brick, probably a wall wart to use with just the DE.
