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80% ready to make the Markbass buy

cchorney

cchorney

Supporting Member
Oct 21, 2010
1,928
1,490
Meriden, CT
#1
So like a lot of other folks on this board I am getting too old to schlep my oversized and over weight stuff around for my gigs, and I really want to downsize (but without, of course, losing volume, tone, or "oomph"). I've done my basic research and it looks like my best option for a lightweight bass amp and cab that still sound like a bass amp and cab is gonna be from Markbass.

Specifically, I've narrowed it down to the Traveler 151 cab (or NY151, still undecided) and the Traveler 102P cab (or a second 151) and the Little Mark III amp. I am thinking of starting with just the LMIII and 1 cab, probably the 151 but I'll A/B them both to see.

My question is:

1) While I do get PA support at a lot of my gigs, sometimes at the smaller bar type gigs I don't. Will the LMIII and the 151 cab carry me over the acoustic drums and my tube amp guitar player? Or with these smaller lighter pieces do you basically always need to be running 2 cabs parallel at 4 ohms and 500 watts to get the necessary oomph for things bigger than a living room practice session? We play Fleetwood Mac, ZZ Top, some Motown, and other misc fun rock music. I'm not a slap player, if that matters. I play a Fender Jazz with round wounds and a Washburn Chicago (P style) with flat wounds.

Thanks for your opinions, Chris
 
#2
I play in a quartet with an acoustic drummer, vintage tube combo amp guitarist (backing vox) and lead vox. No PA support. Rocking the LMII and a 2x10" MB combo. Plenty loud and I have tons of headroom to spare. Whatever you decide, I recommend two identical cabs.
 
#4
in my opinion just one of those cabs (151 or 102) is not really enough. i own the 102 and while it is awesome for practices, jam sessions, and smaller gigs, i wouldn't use it alone for a show with a full band. unless your band is relatively quiet and polite, you'd probably find that a single 102 or 151 just doesn't move enough air. that's not a criticism of markbass, it's just my experience with smaller speakers in general. i'd say that a 102 combined with a 151 is probably enough, and pairing either of those with a 410 would be seriously rockin. fyi, the amp i usually use is the LM800 - long live markbass haha.

PA support can obviously change all this quite a bit, but i play better with loud stage volume anyway.
 
#5
i used to have a LMII with the traveler 102p. I play a jazz with flats but when i had the markbass stuff i used rounds. At really small gigs without pa support it was heard but really wasn't felt (didnt rumble anything all that much). At a the biggest gig i played with it a borrowed a gk115 to pair with it and had PA support and it was great. I never played the 151 traveler. If you like a good low end the 102p may not be enough, it wasnt enough for me. It was great to carry around a college campus for really small gigs and practices but some of the bigger gigs where often enough there wasn't pa support for anything other than vocals it just wasnt enough. Any gig on the small/medium and larger side would require pa support IME.
 
#7
Dont overlook the 1x12 combo. You can do allot with it by itself or, add another cab for larger venues like I did. I am running a 115 HR cab with mine and sounds huge. Another 1x12 cab sounds great with them too. Adds allot of fullness to the sound. The 1x12 combo will not cut it by itself without breaking up if the drummer is heavy handed though. Markbass recommends using a cab that matches the combo but, I havent found that to be neccasary myself. Allot of people are running the 2x10 combo with a 1x15 cab.
 
#8
I have the 102P combo (same as the Little Mark and the 102P cab) and it's fine for smaller gigs (say, less than 100 people) on its own on stage with a fairly loud ten piece soul/funk/disco band, although I usually run through the PA as well. One of the great things about the combo is the tilt back design, this helps immensely when I'm using it on its own. I've used a separate head and a 210 in the past and it's a pain when you have the cab tilted back on a stand, as you have to put the head somewhere else, sometimes where it's hard to reach. This is the main reason why I prefer the combo. That and it being a single item, one hand carry.

For louder/bigger gigs I run it with the 151P extension cab and it really pumps out some serious bass. Not really necessary to tilt back then as the combo is up higher, although I can still tilt it if I want insanely loud noise beamed directly at my head from about two feet away. :eek:
 
#9
The CMD102P is not exactly the same as the LMKIII and the 102P cab b/c the combo has the front port making it a little bigger box and therefore more internal volume. If I was going separates, I'd get the 102HF cab instead of the smaller 102P cab.
 
#11
I had noticed the difference with the combo 102 vs the cab 102s - the combo has the front port which should give a bit more bottom but in order to get a front port on just the cab you have to get the standard which weighs significantly more. And that's a frustration because I am trying to stay with separate components rather than a combo because of my concerns that eventually something in the combo will catastrophically fail and then I will have either an amp with no sides or a cab with a strange hole on the top.
 
#12
Freddels said:
The CMD102P is not exactly the same as the LMKIII and the 102P cab b/c the combo has the front port making it a little bigger box and therefore more internal volume. If I was going separates, I'd get the 102HF cab instead of the smaller 102P cab.
Click to expand...

I agree...get the 102HF.

I have one paired with my 102p Combo.

Don't let the "anti combo" people scare you off. The head can be removed from the cabinet by removing 4 screws and you can use it with any cab you like. It won't have a top on the amp case, but I think it's looks dang cool that way. If it bothers you, you could easily get a piece of alumimum flashing, paint it, drill some holes in it, and VIOLA!, you have a top for your amp for a few bucks.

I like not having to mess with the seperate amp and cab. Just grab and go. If I need more OOMPH, I grab the 102HF and speakon cable and I'm off to the races.
 
#13
chadhargis said:
I agree...get the 102HF.

I have one paired with my 102p Combo.

Don't let the "anti combo" people scare you off. The head can be removed from the cabinet by removing 4 screws and you can use it with any cab you like. It won't have a top on the amp case, but I think it's looks dang cool that way. If it bothers you, you could easily get a piece of alumimum flashing, paint it, drill some holes in it, and VIOLA!, you have a top for your amp for a few bucks.

I like not having to mess with the seperate amp and cab. Just grab and go. If I need more OOMPH, I grab the 102HF and speakon cable and I'm off to the races.
Click to expand...
Good points all.
 
#14
Oh dear. GC must be watching my threads. Guess my tin foil hat didn't stop them. I received in the mail today a postcard worth 15% off any purchase costing $300 or more (to which any Markbass amp certainly fits). Worse, I talked to my guy over at GC, and he has everything I want to look at in stock. After rereading these responses (and thank you all for participating), I am also going to take a good hard look at the CMD102P. Which I know is a combo and I said I wanted to stay away from combos... but I've played it before and it does sound really good thanks at least in part to the front porting, and its a great weight. So... we'll see but probably early next week I will report with the whatever I bought report.
 
#15
Read the fine print on that GC offer b/c there are exceptions and you have to go online to see what products/manufacturers have opted out. Markbass has been opting out lately on certain products (it never states which ones) so ask the salesman if those items you want qualify.
 
#19
The one negative about the CMD102P combo is the tweeter hiss. There's no attenuator on the combo and the hiss is noticeable when you play by yourself but you can't hear it in a band setting. The hiss is there even with nothing plugged into the amp.
 

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