Markbass f 500 for upright bass?

[AdamWoz]

I'm thinking about selling my walter woods and getting one of these. I'm sick of the way my woods sounds with my new bass and I stand to make some money by selling it.

What do you guys think of this amp for upright?

[AMJBASS]

I am not a huge fan of this amp for DB. It is a really nice sounding electric amp, but too colored sounding for the DB. The MarkBass Mini CMD 1x12" combo however, sounds quite good for Double Bass. I would be more inclined to look at Euphonic Audio, or Acoustic Image though.

[Wilbyman]

Originally Posted by Adrian Juras

I am not a huge fan of this amp for DB. It is a really nice sounding electric amp, but too colored sounding for the DB. The MarkBass Mini CMD 1x12" combo however, sounds quite good for Double Bass. I would be more inclined to look at Euphonic Audio, or Acoustic Image though.

I agree with Adrian. I have had pretty decent success using the AI amps with a Realist where the 500k ohm Markbass impedence isn't a problem. However, with other piezos it is quite bright. This is accentuated by the F1/F500 voicing which is also really bright and modern (brighter than the LMII etc). The only MarkBass head I really like with my RSII pickup is the MarkAcoustic, which is pretty similar to the Acoustic Image front end.

W

[Jeremy Morgan]

I use a Markbass LMK (a dual-channel LMII) with upright & electric bass.

I feed the upright into the upper channel through a high-pass filter/preamp based on Fdeck's HPF-Pre. This works very well - it gives a high impedance for the pickup (Fishman Full Circle) and allows control over the low/subsonic frequencies without losing bottom end punch.

The 4-band EQ seems to be adequate to get a good tone (I mainly reduce some of the lo & hi mids).

I am using an EA Wizzy 12 cabinet at the moment.

[B String]

Originally Posted by Adrian Juras

I am not a huge fan of this amp for DB. It is a really nice sounding electric amp, but too colored sounding for the DB. The MarkBass Mini CMD 1x12" combo however, sounds quite good for Double Bass. I would be more inclined to look at Euphonic Audio, or Acoustic Image though.

The head in the 121 combo is the regular LMII head, so much
depends on the box being used. I happily use the 121P with
my electric and upright. For the upright alone I prefer the
Focus1/Bergantino HT112. Having said that, I'm getting an
F500 to use with both basses.

For some reason, the 10 megohm buffer pre I got from fdeck
sounds different than one Rick Turner made for me years ago.
Fishman also makes a very good simple 10 megohm buffer pre.

[AdamWoz]

thanks for the feedback. what about the EA doubler or micro? and thoughts about these?

[AMJBASS]

Originally Posted by B String

The head in the 121 combo is the regular LMII head, so much
depends on the box being used. I happily use the 121P with
my electric and upright. For the upright alone I prefer the
Focus1/Bergantino HT112. Having said that, I'm getting an
F500 to use with both basses.

For some reason, the 10 megohm buffer pre I got from fdeck
sounds different than one Rick Turner made for me years ago.
Fishman also makes a very good simple 10 megohm buffer pre.

I'm positive that the front end on the F500 is different than the LMII/III. There is a very noticeable difference in tone between the 2. I find the F500 sterile, but it may work for you. Markbass definitely makes some nice gear. I still think that for doubling the EA heads are tough to beat. Especially with the "Doubler" on the market. Lots of great gear out there!

[B String]

Originally Posted by Adrian Juras

I'm positive that the front end on the F500 is different than the LMII/III. There is a very noticeable difference in tone between the 2. I find the F500 sterile, but it may work for you. Markbass definitely makes some nice gear. I still think that for doubling the EA heads are tough to beat. Especially with the "Doubler" on the market. Lots of great gear out there!

I don't find the F1 sterile. Actually, I can get closer to the
sound of an old Walter Woods head with the F1 than the LMII.
I think the F500 will be a great head. Maybe the high eq point
could be a bit lower, but I'm still very hopeful.
If I could find one, I'd like to try a doubler. Looks good.