An AI Contra IIa (600w combo, probably about 10 years old) was listed on a local buy/sell page and I managed to borrow a new Markbass Mini CMD 121P combo.
My bass is a plywood Chinese factory bass of unknown vintage with a Revolution Solo p/u.
I had both amps in my living room for an hour this afternoon and thought I'd report in.
The AI is nice because it has a low z and a high z input so I don't need to run my double bass through an MXR 10-band eq (all eq sliders set flat) as a pre-amp. With the AI amp's eq flat, I'd turn the volume up while playing and it just sounded like my bass but louder.
It's nice to have the amp match the bass sound-wise as it's basically stereo set-up.
The Markbass is nice - it is louder than the AI but the sound was, to my ears, more mid-range gritty even with the eq controls set flat. Of the VLE (vintage speaker emulator) and the VPF (smiley-face eq) knobs, only the former yielded positive results.
The wrinkle is trying to use my EA CXL 112 cab as an extension. It wasn't great with either as the sound was gritty (like the markbass) and it was only marginally improved by turning the cab's tweeter down. Not sure if there's a impedance issue what with trying to optimize ohm-age - maybe tweaking the tone controls on the AI would help the EA's sound.
A knock against both is the lack of a mute switch. Further, the Markbass head is behind the speaker and facing up, so getting to the effects loop jacks and the extension cab jack is awkward as I pretty need to turn the amp upside to know which is which. The AI has the effect loop jack on top so the aesthetics of having a mess of cables running out of the top of the combo isn't great.
If I was just looking for a good'n'loud amp, then I'd lean towards the Markbass but I think the AI fits my bill better as I'm usually playing theatres, not noisy bars.
Any thoughts or comments?
ted
My bass is a plywood Chinese factory bass of unknown vintage with a Revolution Solo p/u.
I had both amps in my living room for an hour this afternoon and thought I'd report in.
The AI is nice because it has a low z and a high z input so I don't need to run my double bass through an MXR 10-band eq (all eq sliders set flat) as a pre-amp. With the AI amp's eq flat, I'd turn the volume up while playing and it just sounded like my bass but louder.
It's nice to have the amp match the bass sound-wise as it's basically stereo set-up.
The Markbass is nice - it is louder than the AI but the sound was, to my ears, more mid-range gritty even with the eq controls set flat. Of the VLE (vintage speaker emulator) and the VPF (smiley-face eq) knobs, only the former yielded positive results.
The wrinkle is trying to use my EA CXL 112 cab as an extension. It wasn't great with either as the sound was gritty (like the markbass) and it was only marginally improved by turning the cab's tweeter down. Not sure if there's a impedance issue what with trying to optimize ohm-age - maybe tweaking the tone controls on the AI would help the EA's sound.
A knock against both is the lack of a mute switch. Further, the Markbass head is behind the speaker and facing up, so getting to the effects loop jacks and the extension cab jack is awkward as I pretty need to turn the amp upside to know which is which. The AI has the effect loop jack on top so the aesthetics of having a mess of cables running out of the top of the combo isn't great.
If I was just looking for a good'n'loud amp, then I'd lean towards the Markbass but I think the AI fits my bill better as I'm usually playing theatres, not noisy bars.
Any thoughts or comments?
ted
