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Markbass Amp repair?

BassSaxMan

BassSaxMan

Supporting Member
Jul 11, 2008
391
250
#1
I have a Markbass F1 that was damaged in shipping. It still lights up, and reacts to an incoming signal, but no audio is heard. Two of the knobs were damaged (pushed in slightly, feel a little rough to turn at points and are slightly crooked) and that is the only extent of the visible physical damage.

I'd very much like to get it working again, but Markbass seems to only be in Italy and this obviously isn't warranty work. Any ideas?
 
#2
I bought a B stock Ampeg 4BR that shipped in real bad ( UPS) with the fan not working. I was lucky, the tech fixed it and it only costr me $95.00.............In your case, if you can't send it back, then you have to find a tech that can do the job. Maybe the manufacturer can refer you to one even if it is not under warantee....Worth a try......good luck . . . :cool:
 
#3
Take it to GC and ask them to send it to an authorised repair center. You could also pm Peter Murray, who is the rep here.
 
#4
I had the same problem recently, I had to get my LMII repaired. I contacted Peter Murry via a TalkBass PM and after a couple of weeks he replied with a request I contact:

stefan medeiros
quality control manager
Guitar Center
Distribution Center
950 Northfield Drive
Brownsburg, IN 46112
317.858.9999 ext 3308


Stephan referred me to a repair center in MA:

Hi Tech
Robert Doucette
Operations Manager
491 Essex Street Lawrence, MA 01840
Office D
(978) 686-8742
(978) 686-1440 (FAX) Att: R.Doucette







[email protected]
 
#5
Oh yeah, mine was also not warranty work. Hi Tech charged about $80 to look at it with the $80 refundable if I got the work done. It ended up costing about $225 to get two knobs/pots replaced and solder repair on a board.
 
#7
My Markbass LMK has been in the shop for over a month. This issue has really got me questioning Mark Bass because for a working musician, being without your primary amp for over a month is simply unacceptable. If MB fails to figure out how to better back their products here in the U.S., I can see them losing massive market share to Genz Benz (who I have since switched to for this very reason) and other manufacturers with superior product supportin place.
 
#9
My plan was to buy a used LMII and if it quits, it probably won't be worth repairing.
I do love the sound, but figure any serious repair makes the $400 investment seem silly.
Since MB won't provide schematics, it forces the repair to one of their shops.

Just like a Bic lighter; very good and reliable but when they quit you toss them.
 
#10
These amps often are not all the easy to repair, because companys like Markbass don't really REPAIR them. They often just pop in a new power supply/power amp/preamp board and call it a job.


Thats just kind of the way it is now days... many electronics are disposable. Modern music players come to mind....
 
#11
Jim C said:
My plan was to buy a used LMII and if it quits, it probably won't be worth repairing.
I do love the sound, but figure any serious repair makes the $400 investment seem silly.
Since MB won't provide schematics, it forces the repair to one of their shops.

Just like a Bic lighter; very good and reliable but when they quit you toss them.
Click to expand...

IMO $400. is way too much for a BIC? :D
 
#12
faulknersj said:
My Markbass LMK has been in the shop for over a month. This issue has really got me questioning Mark Bass because for a working musician, being without your primary amp for over a month is simply unacceptable. If MB fails to figure out how to better back their products here in the U.S., I can see them losing massive market share to Genz Benz (who I have since switched to for this very reason) and other manufacturers with superior product supportin place.
Click to expand...
honestly, a month in the shop is about par for the course these days. some shops are so backlogged that it takes a while.
 
#13
JimmyM said:
honestly, a month in the shop is about par for the course these days. some shops are so backlogged that it takes a while.
Click to expand...

You know, I've given that exact situation some thought recently and I haven't really come up with an answer. It seems that just about any type of business that primarily repairs things (doesn't matter if it cars or amps) is almost guaranteed to be really backed up. Why on earth when you have so much demand for a particular service you provide wouldn't you expand your business with an employee or two, and if need be move to a larger, more efficient location? Sure it costs more for the employees, but if you are sustaining your repair business with X number of techs and Y numbers of repairs completed, then you obviously would make more money by having X+1 techs possibly completing 2Y or more repairs in the same amount of time. Not to mention you could provide better service to your patrons which hopefully was the intent of the business in the first place...
 
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#14
any tech worth hiring is going to want his own shop. you might get an apprentice or two to do the easy stuff, but as soon as he figures it all out, he's going to leave and open his own shop. why make $15 an hour when you can make $50 an hour? or more in some cases?
 
#15
Hi.

hrgiger said:
You know, I've given that exact situation some thought recently and I haven't really come up with an answer. It seems that just about any type of business that primarily repairs things (doesn't matter if it cars or amps) is almost guaranteed to be really backed up. Why on earth when you have so much demand for a particular service you provide wouldn't you expand your business with an employee or two, and if need be move to a larger, more efficient location? Sure it costs more for the employees, but if you are sustaining your repair business with X number of techs and Y numbers of repairs completed, then you obviously would make more money by having X+1 techs possibly completing 2Y or more repairs in the same amount of time. Not to mention you could provide better service to your patrons which hopefully was the intent of the business in the first place...
Click to expand...

Don't know about Your neck of the woods, but running a business / a shop doesn't quite work like that as far as I know.

Any "light investment", "high skill/experience" business follows the path Jimmy said above.

Also it's a sort of a sad fact that people want to make a living first, providing better service comes down on second, or third.

There will come a time when some very skilled electronics expert will come up with a way to repair the new amps, Markbass included. Up until then, when it blows, it's scrap. And that's a shame.

Regards
Sam
 
#16
JimmyM said:
any tech worth hiring is going to want his own shop. you might get an apprentice or two to do the easy stuff, but as soon as he figures it all out, he's going to leave and open his own shop. why make $15 an hour when you can make $50 an hour? or more in some cases?
Click to expand...

Been there, although I did stay with the boss till he retired and never pilfered his customers. He could have hired more techs but he hated laying off techs when the work would slow down. Can't get good people back.
 
#17
Haven't seen it so much with amp repair, (since I use old Peaveys, :smug:) but I've seen many really small but excellent Auto repair shops go to hell when word gets around about how good they are and they have to hire anyone that's still breathing to keep up with the demand.

Also excellent technicians do not necessarily make excellent business management types. cough * Dr. bass* cough cough.............
 
#18
It's also a sad commentary on new equipment these days. One of the reasons techs are so crazy busy is that new equipment, for whatever reasons, is failing more frequently, it seems to me. That's why you wait 6 weeks for repair. My old B15N finally needed service after 43 years of use. OTOH, I have had new preamps, power amps, heads fail after a few years of use. Most of the time it's something simple like a bad solder joint, but there you have it.
 
#19
jnewmark said:
It's also a sad commentary on new equipment these days. One of the reasons techs are so crazy busy is that new equipment, for whatever reasons, is failing more frequently, it seems to me. That's why you wait 6 weeks for repair. My old B15N finally needed service after 43 years of use. OTOH, I have had new preamps, power amps, heads fail after a few years of use. Most of the time it's something simple like a bad solder joint, but there you have it.
Click to expand...

You can probably blame RoHS for that.
 

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