I was never a big fan of their amps and last year I bought a 200 watt model as a spare . I liked it so much I bought a 500 or 800 watt model and was pretty happy until I discovered a huge problem with the amp.The amp kept shutting down at gigs and after the third gig , I sold the amps and bought a Mesa .
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Mark Bass Reliability
- Thread starter portpc
- Start date
I bought a CMD102P combo in 2006 - still going strong after nearly 17 years including hundreds of tough gigs. I also have the Traveller 151P cab (similar story) and the 121P combo (which has been mainly used for home practice for five years). No issues whatsoever with Markbass reliability in my own experience. First rate company, first rate products.
---late reply obviously -
Selling mine now - loved the lightweightness, dug the sound of it - but yes that reliability thing was an issue -
Wound up using it on smaller sized gigs and couldn't use my MM sterling bass w it as it would peak and clip even at very low settings
The stingray was fine as well as all my passive basses - bummer was really looking to use this cabinet a lot -
Sounds like user error to me. Probably had your preamp Gain set too high.
Nope, as I said in my reply all settings were low
Never had the gain set high, ever -
I've owned two. The 800 watt Marcus Miller and the AG1000. Got these used and both of them had a background hiss / bubbling noise that was present when not playing even with the volume turned down and nothing plugged in. Also the Marcus Miller didn't fully 'mute' the signal when the button was engaged. You could hear background pulsing noises. 2 different amps both with problems? Not for me. Other players have had great luck with the brand. I wish I did.
Strange. Certainly not normal. I've used MarkBass amps for the last 14 years and never had a problem like that. Did you try an exchange?
Was on the phone w them about 8 months ago while it was still under warranty, they wanted me to ship it to them and then if they couldn't fix or find an issue it would have been @another issue of it must be me and not the Amp and all I can say is to repeat what I said earlier I would hv had to use a different bass than my preferred go to (mm sterling 4)... I just bought another rigg for smaller gigs - NOT A COMBO
also I believe this 3 x 10 combo has been discontinued - - -
Yep, Allgood
Never had good luck w combo amps & live Gigging -
The 48lbs was nice though - LOL
My Musicman Sterling has a much higher output than my Stingrays due to the ceramic pup and extremely powerful 3 band EQ . I can't believe the input level on your Markbass couldn't be set low enough to stop clipping; it goes all the way down to zero after all.
The gain looks like it can go lower than that.....
I think Markbass combos are a lot like Takamine acoustic-electrics. When they first came out, they really set a new bar and eclipsed all (or most) comparables. I bought three. Then everybody else caught up and many surpassed them on most metrics. Add in the unpredictability of repair potential now and that makes them non-contenders.
You can also turn volume down on Bass being Active there will be no tone loss[similar effect to low gain setting on many Heads]
I turn down 3 EQ controls on Active pre to about 10 O'clock on my Bass so Active and Passive switching is perceived same volume when switching between them[have Active /Passive switch]
I know for most off us turning down anything seems sacrilegious
Or you can buy something new [which is always good] that has Hi/Lo input gain for your Sterling's Hot output
I wouldn't point a finger at 'Markbass Reliability' just yet; plus as stated above EBMM sends out Sterling with hotter output than their other Basses.
I turn down 3 EQ controls on Active pre to about 10 O'clock on my Bass so Active and Passive switching is perceived same volume when switching between them[have Active /Passive switch]
I know for most off us turning down anything seems sacrilegious
Or you can buy something new [which is always good
] that has Hi/Lo input gain for your Sterling's Hot outputI wouldn't point a finger at 'Markbass Reliability' just yet; plus as stated above EBMM sends out Sterling with hotter output than their other Basses.
I also have an old 121P from 2005. Hard to imagine it's been nearly 20 years! The only thing on the fritz is the DI out (I don't know why, must have tumbled over the sidewalk one too many times), but I just bought a cheapo DI box to put on my board, one and done.
My Markbass tube 800 is a great tool. Bought it used in a pawnshop. It had noise, so I detoxit-ed the pots and it truly became a new amp. It's got a balanced input for my semi broken ABG (which only has the balanced out working).
It's kinda sterile but at around 9 lbs it's the perfect head for shows I don't care too much about like tomorrows duo show with. BL who can never find the pocket...
It's kinda sterile but at around 9 lbs it's the perfect head for shows I don't care too much about like tomorrows duo show with. BL who can never find the pocket...
I have a Jeff Berlin 15in combo , I bought mine when Guitar Center here in Austin first started selling MB amps. I have had it for years and never praise God know trouble. I was playing in a band and carrying around 2 speaker cabs and a SWR 350 head. A lot more than I needed and it just took up too much room. So I sold all of it and me and my buddy went to GC and tried out the MB amps and I really liked the Jeff Berlin combo and with the 15in speaker well it sounded good to my ears . Man this must of been way back in the early 2000 like I said GC just started selling them here in Austin . But I have giged with it and everything never know problem.
