Very easy to handle, as practically fully assembled. All that needs to be done is connecting the pickups, battery leads and the input socket; and that's no problem, as all the relevant soldering points on the PCB's are clearly marked.
If your bass has a small electronics cavity, you might need to consider shortening some of the wires though. I built mine into an SX Jazz Bass copy, and it's a tight fit if you don't want to route an extra cavity for the battery. But it just about worked without further modifications.
So far, so good. But how does it sound...?
Well, I was rather surprised, and pleasantly so.
The center frequencies are chosen very tastefully.
The treble control gradually adds that little bit of hi-fi style crispness, without adding much noise. It never gets brittle, metallic or unpleasantly rough, and that's already a plus in my book.
The bass control throws in a substantial boost to the bottom end, and there's more than enough headroom. A word of caution: resist the temptation to turn this one up all the way - depending on instrument & pickups, it can be too much. Adding just a little bit already works wonders thickening up the lows and hence adding warmth & body without loosing definition.
The components used make a good first impression. The pot's turn smoothly, the wiring job doesn't leave much to be desired, and the soldering is well executed. There were some minor flux left-overs on the PCB's, but that's purely cosmetic and doesn't interfere with the proper functionality of the kit.
The Artec SE-2 is a remarkable product, and I highly recommend it to everybody who would like to give their instrument an "acoustic face lift" without breaking the bank. For less than 25.- EUR, you simply cannot go wrong.
