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Mark bass... transparent?

H

harley_ou812

Sep 30, 2001
486
44
46
Lebanon, PA
#1
hello all,

I have been looking for a rig I can use for both keys and bass. Everyone pointed me to EA for such a purpose. Problem being I havent been able to find any EA to try. I have also notice alot of people trying to compare Markbass to EA. Would a Markbass amp also give me that flat sound that would work well with a Keyboard? Or is EA going to be THAT much better for those purposes?
 
#2
The Markbass is a very Clean amp , its built for not coloring the sound at all. And i think it lives up to that goal.
Its very flat , tells you how you bass (or keys) sound.
Try them out , they are a little cheaper than EA to.
 
#3
I've been considering going this route as well. I know EA stuff is very transparent and you can use the iAmps for any instrument. They market it this way.

Markbass is also very transparent, but they market it only for bass. However, there's no reason you couldn't! Sounds like a great idea, and you'll save gobs of money.
 
#6
Lorenzini said:
I've been considering going this route as well. I know EA stuff is very transparent and you can use the iAmps for any instrument. They market it this way.

Markbass is also very transparent, but they market it only for bass. However, there's no reason you couldn't! Sounds like a great idea, and you'll save gobs of money.
Click to expand...

We do have a lot of keyboardists using our amps, and have been receiving many requests to produce a keyboard amp line... it's being seriously considered!

cheers,
Peter
 
#7
This is all my opinion of course...
If you want transparent and true. I would try Bergantino IP cabs with a preamp or mixer of your choice
I tried the Markbass stuff at Bass Player Live in nyc last week and was very Un-impressed as far as sound goes.. Yes they are light but the sound was less than what i thought is true or big sounding.
I will give it the fact that there was some noise from other players playing loudly on other amps near by.
But to me it lacked crystal clear transients.
It has a murky upper mid and weak feeling deepness. If you like a sound like jeff berlin which is taylored to cut through in a jazzy type setting it is perfect,anot able to be touched, but if you want a Marcus Miller tone , forget about it. A semi type rock tome was able to be gotten but even the aguilar500 was more authentic.. IMO

I tried my friend EA iAMP 800 while in town. And that amp was a delight. I was really very skeptical before i tried it since it is one of those lightweight amps.. but it had ALOT of bottom. Clear top, and very fast and present.. to me it, it is WAY ahead of Markbass if those are the things that you are looking for.
I also did a direct AB side by side with my friends iAMP800 and his Alembic Preamp/ Crest CA6 into his Wappo Junior.. Again i was floored.. The Iamp sounded real good, but the Alembic pre/ Crest annihilated it..
But again i was so impressed with the Iamp that I am going to get one finally since my search for a lightweight amp has been going on for months now..
 
#9
azzyrazzy said:
Could it be that the iAmp is a more colored bassy sound?
Click to expand...
sure, i guess it is possible... but other things were not pleasing to me about the marbass stuff.. it was just murky sounding to me..
i was wondering to myself if that was their interpitation of sounding warm? i dont know.
but i liked the iAMP with EQ disengaged... through the wappo jr it sounded great....
i did not do i direct AB.. but after playing your own rig for a while you know and have that sound and response in your head.. and the markbass fell short to what i am used to..
i use variuos heads but latley it is my Crown MT1200 with alembic F2B...so that is my reference sound..it is massive, fast, tight, huge and round with sparkle...
but it is heavy.. i have a carvin b1500 that sounds great too but is heavy as is the SVT2... To me the iAmp800 had alot ofthose good traits and was light.. had more top clarity and bottom bloom than the markbass,,, imo
 
#11
azzyrazzy said:
Did you try to turn up the bass a little on the Markbass? If so, what happened to the sound, in your opinion? More murk but bassier? :)
Click to expand...
i pretty much played it flat..except to boost the bass a tiny bit.. usually all knobs straight up... but i do that with almost any rig.. so that is my reference...
I dont know if it is the cabs or the head that was murky sounding but the combination of the both was murly. i could have addedtreble but that just made the tweeter come out that adds that hissy bright sound....
If you want lightweight there is no lighter amp on my opinion..
I think it may be great for guys that have to take a taxi or subway to a gig.. nothing can beat it there..
there was another booth that had a Glock and accugroove that when set all knobs straight up sounded fantatstic with great attack.. and another booth that had the aggy 500 through 2x 10 and one with a gs112 and they both had more punch and girth while keeping an open top.
I think the markbass stuff is great for many players though.. just not my cup of tea...

Playing the Crown/Alembic F-2B preamp rig has spoiled me beyond and sense of reason over the years..
 
#14
svtb15 said:
i pretty much played it flat..except to boost the bass a tiny bit.. usually all knobs straight up... but i do that with almost any rig.. so that is my reference...
Click to expand...

I hope you realize that if by saying all knobs straight up you mean the vle and vpf on the markbass, you allready have a heavily coloured sound.
Vle and vpf should be first set all way counterclockwise.

I have the cmd121h, and been very pleased with it.
Coupled with a jazz with dimarzios js I end up rolling off bass.
It's way too much, so markbass stuff is all about the piece of wood that gets connected to it.
The better it is, the better sound you'll get.:)
 
#15
i mean all tone knobs straight up... i rotated one of the knobs but dont remember if it was the vle or vpf. the only basses that i saw there were some MM basses... the BMT knobs i set at the center click area...
it is not that the amp is not bassy.. but to what i am used to it did not bloom....and sounded like EQed in bass which to me sounds way different than a fullness that is just there natrually...sort of Solis State sound squared... this is all just from my experience and taste... i like an open even top end with tigh full lows.. to me it does not make the mark...
 
#17
svtb15 said:
This is all my opinion of course...
If you want transparent and true. I would try Bergantino IP cabs with a preamp or mixer of your choice
I tried the Markbass stuff at Bass Player Live in nyc last week and was very Un-impressed as far as sound goes.. Yes they are light but the sound was less than what i thought is true or big sounding.
I will give it the fact that there was some noise from other players playing loudly on other amps near by.
But to me it lacked crystal clear transients.
It has a murky upper mid and weak feeling deepness. If you like a sound like jeff berlin which is taylored to cut through in a jazzy type setting it is perfect,anot able to be touched, but if you want a Marcus Miller tone , forget about it. A semi type rock tome was able to be gotten but even the aguilar500 was more authentic.. IMO

I tried my friend EA iAMP 800 while in town. And that amp was a delight. I was really very skeptical before i tried it since it is one of those lightweight amps.. but it had ALOT of bottom. Clear top, and very fast and present.. to me it, it is WAY ahead of Markbass if those are the things that you are looking for.
I also did a direct AB side by side with my friends iAMP800 and his Alembic Preamp/ Crest CA6 into his Wappo Junior.. Again i was floored.. The Iamp sounded real good, but the Alembic pre/ Crest annihilated it..
But again i was so impressed with the Iamp that I am going to get one finally since my search for a lightweight amp has been going on for months now..
Click to expand...


Wow, the MB setup I played did not sound murky at all. Perhaps not as bright top end as many other amps when set flat, but murky?, no way
 
#18
svtb15 said:
This is all my opinion of course...
If you want transparent and true. I would try Bergantino IP cabs with a preamp or mixer of your choice
I tried the Markbass stuff at Bass Player Live in nyc last week and was very Un-impressed as far as sound goes.. Yes they are light but the sound was less than what i thought is true or big sounding.
I will give it the fact that there was some noise from other players playing loudly on other amps near by.
But to me it lacked crystal clear transients.
It has a murky upper mid and weak feeling deepness. If you like a sound like jeff berlin which is taylored to cut through in a jazzy type setting it is perfect,anot able to be touched, but if you want a Marcus Miller tone , forget about it. A semi type rock tome was able to be gotten but even the aguilar500 was more authentic.. IMO

I tried my friend EA iAMP 800 while in town. And that amp was a delight. I was really very skeptical before i tried it since it is one of those lightweight amps.. but it had ALOT of bottom. Clear top, and very fast and present.. to me it, it is WAY ahead of Markbass if those are the things that you are looking for.
I also did a direct AB side by side with my friends iAMP800 and his Alembic Preamp/ Crest CA6 into his Wappo Junior.. Again i was floored.. The Iamp sounded real good, but the Alembic pre/ Crest annihilated it..
But again i was so impressed with the Iamp that I am going to get one finally since my search for a lightweight amp has been going on for months now..
Click to expand...

What if you factor price into your comparision. Everything you are comparing the MBLMII to is considerably more expensive. What do you like in the sub-$1000 price range?
 
#19
I got an LMII a week ago but finally set down and read the manual. Immediately went back to the head and dialed in the best sound I got so far. Now I really love the amp. The manual states to turn down the gain and master. Turn up the bass volume all the way up. Move the gain up until you find what you like and then control the volume with the master. I started with that premise and started dialing in great sounds. I did this with an active preamp in my MTD Grendel 6.

I also have a Peavey T-20 that sounded tinny and then I found a manual on peavey's web site and it recommended to turn the volume up on the bass and use the master control on the amp. Immediately sounded fuller.

It's interesting that I improvedl 2 things this week by just turning up the volume on my basses. Sure is fun being a midlife newbie.
 
#20
svtb15 said:
This is all my opinion of course...
I tried the Markbass stuff at Bass Player Live in nyc last week and was very Un-impressed as far as sound goes.. Yes they are light but the sound was less than what i thought is true or big sounding.
I will give it the fact that there was some noise from other players playing loudly on other amps near by.
But to me it lacked crystal clear transients.
It has a murky upper mid and weak feeling deepness. If you like a sound like jeff berlin which is taylored to cut through in a jazzy type setting it is perfect,anot able to be touched, but if you want a Marcus Miller tone , forget about it. A semi type rock tome was able to be gotten but even the aguilar500 was more authentic.. IMO
Click to expand...

He seems to like it... Spent at least 20 minutes there playing and some 10 minutes more talking to Marco. IMO it fit perfectly with his sound.

IMG_0019.jpg

IMG_0013.jpg
 

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