Mark bass... transparent?

[Coelho]

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...

I tried the Markbass there with the MusicMan, and I can guarantee 100% that bass was the problem. Not exactly sure what was wrong with it, but it was definately not ok.
They should have other basses there. Or at least one sounding ok.

 

[svtb15]

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?

You are correct about that.. Well used gear there are allot of amps in that range.. new.. to be honest with you i have not even looked at anything in that range.. The Thunderfunk is a tad over 1000.. I would consider that.. the EA Iamp800 is also just a little over 1000 at bass central..
I was originally looking for a lightweight amp that can do 2 ohms and the EA keeps coming up. The thunderfunk would be my pic if it did 2 ohms but it does not.
YOu have asked me a real tough question and I am almost at a loss to answer..
I suppose if i had only $1000 i would buy used gear but if it had to be new i would have to go for a GK or an Ashdown ABM900 or ABM500.. each is under $1000...
The carvin b1500 is a good sounding amp at about 700..and it is pristine sounding.
There are a few more i guess.
I simply did not find the markbass what is is hyped up to be.. especially when it is compared to what my reference sound is.. and that is the alembic pre and crown poweramp.. that is the sound by which i judge all other rigs..
i have been using it for 20 years and i know what balls is...
To that reference point the markbass is anemic, and may i dare say puny. Compared to a GK well maybe it is not that much of a difference.. again as i said before it is all just my opinion and everyone really needs to try one for themselves to make their own judgment.

As for a keyboard rig I am sure it would do fine.

 

[svtb15]

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.

I will beleive it when i see him using it on a gig. You know how those things go.
The thing is at these trade shows, NAMM included, star players demo gear all over the place... sometimes becuase they are just there and most of the time like in MM case his manager was leading him to or away from companies to try their gear..
When he is there people gather around and that is good for product promo.
I am not saying if he liked it or not.. he very well may have..
Last year at NAMM Marcus was hanging at the Aguilar booth trying amps and cabs right on the showroom floor... He still played his EBS rig at the aftershow on saturday night during Bass Player Live though...

 

[kasbrey]

To that reference point the markbass is anemic, and may i dare say puny.

IF you think that the LM11 has a puny sound you couldn't have set the filters correctly (or were using a bad bass).

My sound (again) last night had the deepest tightest lows that I've experienced from any gear in my 30+ years of pro and semi pro gigging.

 

[Coelho]

I will beleive it when i see him using it on a gig. You know how those things go.
The thing is at these trade shows, NAMM included, star players demo gear all over the place... sometimes becuase they are just there and most of the time like in MM case his manager was leading him to or away from companies to try their gear..
When he is there people gather around and that is good for product promo.
I am not saying if he liked it or not.. he very well may have..
Last year at NAMM Marcus was hanging at the Aguilar booth trying amps and cabs right on the showroom floor... He still played his EBS rig at the aftershow on saturday night during Bass Player Live though...

The thing is that you said before: "... but if you want a Marcus Miller tone , forget about it."
Having listened to Marcus playing thru the MarkBass stuff, I couldn't disagree more. It had exactly the Marcus Miller tone. And was loud and clear.

 

[FiedelP]

I simply did not find the markbass what is is hyped up to be.. especially when it is compared to what my reference sound is..

Hi,
as was mentioned before, if you did set the VLC and the VPF to 12 o'clock, as you wrote in an earlier post, you simply cannot do the Markbass amps justice. Even the manual warns that one shouldn't use both filters at once - maybe only if your looking for some rather unusual sounds. What you did is this: you did filter the entire sound using a filter that filters out the entire high end of the signal while pronouncing some lower mids, not the real bass frequencies. Then you took this preshaped sound through a filter that enhances the lower frequencies and the upper high-end while at the same filtering out the entire mids.
Even if you use just one of the filters, setting it to 12 0'clock, you shape the sound in a rather drastic way.

Maybe you should give them another try? If you then don't like the sound, your entitled to this opinion. I did the same kind of injustice to the Sadowsky preamps once.

Dirk

 

[Ale]

The thing is that you said before: "... but if you want a Marcus Miller tone , forget about it."
Having listened to Marcus playing thru the MarkBass stuff, I couldn't disagree more. It had exactly the Marcus Miller tone. And was loud and clear.

Its all in the fingers

 

[steveb98]

The thing is that you said before: "... but if you want a Marcus Miller tone , forget about it."
Having listened to Marcus playing thru the MarkBass stuff, I couldn't disagree more. It had exactly the Marcus Miller tone. And was loud and clear.

I was over at Marcus Miller's studio about a year ago and we went to compare a couple basses. In the corner was a MarkBass rig with a head and 4 x 10" cab he fired up. So I would say Marcus knows more about MarkBass than just playing one for ten minutes at a trade show.

 

[Micolao]

markbass....transparent?

IMHO
the heads: yes, absolutely (and I own the old little mark, the yellow one)

the cabs: no, absolutely, extremely muddy and pumped in low middle

 

[KJung]

+1 Marcus tone obviously comes mostly from his fingers, but his aggressive 70's style J Bass and fresh roundwound SS strings also has a lot to do with it.

Any amplification with a reasonable amount of power, some solid state quickness, and a full range cab with a true horn type tweeter will get you in the range of that tone if that is what you are looking for IME and IMO.

 

[64jazzbass]

You really have to experience the Markbass amps in a live setting to fully appreciate the sound. A trade show or music store doesn't do justice to the sound compared to a gig.

 

[svtb15]

Hi,
as was mentioned before, if you did set the VLC and the VPF to 12 o'clock, as you wrote in an earlier post, you simply cannot do the Markbass amps justice. Even the manual warns that one shouldn't use both filters at once - maybe only if your looking for some rather unusual sounds. What you did is this: you did filter the entire sound using a filter that filters out the entire high end of the signal while pronouncing some lower mids, not the real bass frequencies. Then you took this preshaped sound through a filter that enhances the lower frequencies and the upper high-end while at the same filtering out the entire mids.
Even if you use just one of the filters, setting it to 12 0'clock, you shape the sound in a rather drastic way.

Maybe you should give them another try? If you then don't like the sound, your entitled to this opinion. I did the same kind of injustice to the Sadowsky preamps once.

Dirk

i believe the vle was all the way left.... i wont swear to it in a court of law// the B-M-MB and T were all set at 12 noon..
You all may be 100% right about the settings not being just right to acheive the perfect markbass sound.
But like i said it did not meet my expectations compared to my reference rig which is crown amp and alembic preamp...
that just says that it is not right for me..as i stated a few time so far..

I ask everyone here. What is your reference point for the tone in your head?
Because that really matters and changes the discusion.. my reference point is simply different than yours, and from what i feel is almost perfect, and i say almost because the only thing that sucks is that it is just too heavy for daily use.
There are a few here that think i am on a markbass assasination here, or work for the competition.. wrong on both.. just looking for a lightweight amp that has REAL ballzz with hair on them.
I will try it again and use your recommendations because I am on a quest for a light amp that kills.
And many folks are so pro light-amp they may be missing something and only listening with their arm muscles and not their ears.
Now these are only my observations about the amp and MY OPINION... as i said a few times.

 

[svtb15]

Hi,
as was mentioned before, if you did set the VLC and the VPF to 12 o'clock, as you wrote in an earlier post, you simply cannot do the Markbass amps justice. Even the manual warns that one shouldn't use both filters at once - maybe only if your looking for some rather unusual sounds. What you did is this: you did filter the entire sound using a filter that filters out the entire high end of the signal while pronouncing some lower mids, not the real bass frequencies. Then you took this preshaped sound through a filter that enhances the lower frequencies and the upper high-end while at the same filtering out the entire mids.
Even if you use just one of the filters, setting it to 12 0'clock, you shape the sound in a rather drastic way.

Maybe you should give them another try? If you then don't like the sound, your entitled to this opinion. I did the same kind of injustice to the Sadowsky preamps once.

Dirk

I beleive the VLC was all the way left or ZERO and i cant remember where the VPF was.. I think that is what i wrote but all tone controls were set at 12 noon.
I will try them again with your recommendations becasue i am honestly looking for a lightweight amp that has guts.. If it is markbass then my prayers are answered.. but so far i was not very impressed with the line. IMHO

 

[svtb15]

Its all in the fingers

+100

I have heard marcus up close (5-10 feet away) in a few situations.
He sounded like himself on Aguilar , Ampeg and other brands of gear. not just the EBS stuff he currently uses..It is in his fingers.. as is with all of us.. the sound is always there but i think the delivery via the amp and speakers may change the feel somewhat.

 

[svtb15]

markbass....transparent?

IMHO
the heads: yes, absolutely (and I own the old little mark, the yellow one)

the cabs: no, absolutely, extremely muddy and pumped in low middle

I think you are right!
you may have saved me from more typing.. thank you..
you may have hit the nail on the proverbial head...

 

[svtb15]

You really have to experience the Markbass amps in a live setting to fully appreciate the sound. A trade show or music store doesn't do justice to the sound compared to a gig.

+1 i do agree with you whole heartedly on that. I think i may have said that in my original post or maybe i meant to put it in there and just forgot.
The Gig is the only place to hear what gear can do..

 

[bino]

my tonal reference is usually an Ashdown ABM C110 combo that I once owned. I loved that tone, but it was just too small to be useful. It put out a very big sound, lots of transients and depth, and good punch. All while sounding very warm and gritty if you like.

I do like the markbass heads, but would agree that it doesn't have that "presence" you get from a larger head. It's sounds more implied which is probably why everyone hears it as so clean or transparent. All the light heads (AI, Portabass, even TFunk) I've played have been like this. The WT550, Ashdown ABM, DB750 and Ampeg are generally where I hear "size" to the sound. The Markbass sounds thinner than those heads, but only muddy and middy when I turned up the VPF knob.

I will say that even though I don't care for their cabs (hissy and easily break up from what I've heard), I do think the heads pairs very well with the way those cabs are tuned. If I bought the head, I would be looking for an alternative cab that sounds similiar.

 

[Smallequestrian]

markbass....transparent?

IMHO
the heads: yes, absolutely (and I own the old little mark, the yellow one)

the cabs: no, absolutely, extremely muddy and pumped in low middle

I would take this even farther. I think the Amps are super, but the cabs are just kinda average.

Anybody who has had the pleasure of playing a MB head through a couple of Bergantinos or other similar cabs, will realize that its the MB cabs that are coloring the sound the most.

 

[Gintaras]

I was debating on adding a Markbass 2x10 cab to my LMII and Aguilar GS112 combination. My other choice was that I have available to me a Epifani T-110 NYC. Also I know where I can pickup a Eden CXC-110. Any thoughts to a second cab???

 

[Bassist30]

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..

I agree. I was not impressed with the Markbass amps. In reality what i have noticed that the heavier amps sound better. I love the Alembic pre but with a heavy crest or crown... Look Out. I do believe in the future the lighter amps will sound as good. But I never heard anybody say something like the Markbass sounds better than an alembic and crown or Crest. Or even the Aguilar 750. Even a Carvin B1500 (Which is about the same price). As far as light amps. The Eden, EA, EBS all sound better than the light Markbass, But not a separate pre and a Crown or crest CA6 or CA9. Now I have not heard the tube markbass amps but what I heard at the NY bass I was not impressed at all.