MarkBass Black Lady

It sounds great, but not really diggin the looks.

 

“ Proper Jazz Bass tone” .....Yep!!

I like the headstock shape and matching color stripe .

The name Black Lady..... NOPE
Same goes for all of those knobs.

The body shape screams 80’s/90’s . Reminds me of the Fender Duff, PJ Lyte, Boxer series.

 

$2000 (aprox US).............nope! Not feeling it either. I also prefer Jazz body Jazz basses.

 

Is it a bass from Aliexpress ？？？

This demo dint show any advantage from the bass especially how versatile the preamp work.
Usd 2K price tag , you get thin bend plate bridge, old fashion square neck joint, ugly gamma yellow neck tint, nondescript headstock, blank one piece maple neck, soft gig bag instead candy case..... worth ？ Only the tuning machine look like Gotoh brand if I am correct.

Both Markbass and Ashdown launch their bass guitar but with high price...... they seem to overestimate that they have Sadowsky's level of motives for electric bass.

Justmy2cents

 

The body shape is fairly Precision-like, if you ask me, so the 80's-90's look is probably more due to the lack of a pickguard. I rather like it, myself - it's not unlike what G&L has done with the JB-2. And it's a more practical body shape than the offset body of an ordinary Jazz, if a little less distinctive. The striped headstock is a good idea, but the coloured stripe is very much at odds with the headstock shape, IMHO.

 

I think you're being a little unfair here. The bass looks well constructed, and the hardware looks quite good. It's a little traditional, but a lot of people actually prefer that. It's a considerable contrast to Markbass' Kilimanjaro/Kimandu basses, which would probably be more to your liking:

MARKBASS | Products | MB KIMANDU ARTISAN GOLD 4 BK MAPLE

It's very much a question of taste.

 

I quite like the idea of a P Bass body with a jazz neck and pickups in the jazz positions, a bit like the bass that Jeff Berlin used a lot in the 80's. However, this thing has not blown me away there.

The aesthetics of it are rather challenging to me and I do echo the comments about the cheap looking bridge. The finish on the neck looks a little too bright and rather cheap, though that could be an effect of the studio lighting. The tones in the video were nice enough for what they're aiming for.

I didn't much like the demo video though. I think the presenter could really benefit by spending less time looking directly into the camera and working on his delivery.

 

Gonna be a hard sell in the USA with that name and that price.

 

I really like the Markbass amp range but I have some reservations about these bass guitars. The Kilimanjaro looks to be an excellent bass, the Kimandu on the other hand looks sort of cheap despite it's stiff price tag. I find the styling of both to be highly derivative of the Zon Legacy. It's interesting that Markbass have sought to make their own designs rather than making an outright copy of the P and J. However, I don't think the overall product looks all that impressive. The 'Black Lady' name probably sounds better in Italian than it does in English and there is no doubt that the company still approaches the market with an Italian worldview rather than an American perspective. I don't find the name offensive, just a bit naff.

 

Sandberg's Cali TM is along that line. Here's a pic from their Configurator. You can split the bridge pickup, so it's JJ.

 

Just curious Doc, how do you prefer five knobs to be aligned?

 

Makes sense. I really can't stand the ergonomics of stacked pots though, personally. I'm not too keen on two straight rows like that in any case, and the two tone headstock is a big nope in my book.

 

Have Markbass even distributed their basses in North America ? I’ve never seen one for sale here.

 

Come on, do they have a completely clueless marketing department? "Black Lady"? Even if I loved it, I don't think I could buy one based on the name alone. Maybe nuances were lost in translation.

 

I am a black lady and I don’t find it offensive either. I find it to be just plain stupid .

 

Will Markbass be coming out with a White Guy p-bass ... sunburst with tort and flats?