Markbass combos - What's your favorite?

[woodyng2]

Just curious if your CMD 121P's are Italian or Indonesian??


Mine’s about 6 years old,Italian origin. I also have an italian made 800 tube head,and a traveller 12 cab.
All have been very dependable,with no issues so far.

 

[Slevage]

Mine is Indonesian—- no issues in 6 years of regular use.

I repaired an older LMIII ( I assume Italian) that I got cheap.
It was not working when I bought it and wanted to expand my knowledge of the amp ( I have an electronics and electrical background).
The driver for the power supply was ng.
The info on the chip was dremmeled off—
I heard the Italian factories did this.
Thanks to the internet I was able to determine the correct component.
Two output transistors were also fried.
About $40 in parts and lots of time to repair—- then sold it with full disclosure of the repair.

 

[Pedulla-Player]

The 121H.

How do you like your 121H? I would honestly be more interested in that over the 121P because I'm not a fan of the amp in the back of the cab facing upwards. That was one of the things I didn't like with the TC Electronic that I took back. I read about a few people having problems with their 121P an they think that it was due to the position of the head in the combo (too much vibration or something like that). Unfortunately the 121P is 25% off and the 121H is only 15% off.

 

[Pedulla-Player]

I've heard a few replies saying that they'd go with an amp head and speaker over the combo so you can turn the tweeter off.
Since I am probably trading in more more gear that I don't need I do have the option of going with either a LM-III head or a LM Tube and a NY121 cab and keep it in my price range. Or should I stick with my initial 'getting a combo'?? Any thoughts? I have until Saturday...

The very limit of my budget (since they are both 25% off and my extra unused gear to trade in) would be a Mini CMD 121P and a NY121 cab.

 

[Pedulla-Player]

Not much love for the 121H here. I'd really like to have the amp head front facing. Plus I hear people complain about the Piezo tweeter on the 121P. The tweeter looks pretty beefy on the 121H.

 

[Pedulla-Player]

I have told most of my MarkBass (MB) story in a few other forums, but this thread looks like the best place to do a full confession, plus I think it will contribute a lot to answering your question. First of all, I don't have the expertise of a lot of the people on this forum, but my starting point is a corporate professional with a decent budget to burn for a hobby. I also have a very good ear with relative pitch, so I am picky about my sounds.

I started my MB trip when I decided to get a bass about six years ago. I had a decent amount of money, so I bought a $750 used six string, and a new CMD 121H, at which time GC was touting as the best brand out there. Since joining TB, I now doubt that was the case, but I did drink the Kool aid, and I am still filling my glass cause it is at a quality level that I have not outgrown and realistically never will. To insert a bit of honesty, I like to give my son bass gifts for his birthday and set him up over the years with a Fender Rumble 100 and a BTB 505. I am many times jealous of the sounds he gets out of his rig. (No, I don't need to adopt any of you out there. I have limits to my funds.)

When taking it to gigs, I found myself getting lost in the mix, but not being able to turn it up too much before it would distort. I found myself at near-full volume on my guitar, with pre-amp at a third, and my volume 3/4s, but still being lost. My B string never felt rich enough either. (I would say anemic.) I decided to extend it with a used NY 151 due to the lesser weight, but still high quality. (1 wish they still made the 151 front port cab, but who knows why they discontinued it. I would have then had a frequency response of around 33Hz. I think the NY 151 is around 36+hz. (I am being lazy on the facts.))

So now I have a 15, 12 and horn. I now have the watts and frequency range to reproduce all my strings at every fret, but I was also bored with sounds I was getting, plus I wasn't getting that initial hard thump/attack in the chest I wanted for just about every note, even at lower volumes. I happened to have a generic "Art" $50ish tube pre-amp from (GC seems to be a common thread here), so I put that inline. That gave me that warm punch I was looking for. The last two items I purchased was a Boss ME-50B which gives me the effects to switch up with, plus some more pre-amp. One last note: I noticed that once I adjusted my chain of effects and pre-amps to not clip, then no matter what master volume, even up to 100%, the speakers could handle it very cleanly. That is because each speaker set is rated at 400 watts. With 500 watts being split, they never get more than 250 each. I was very impressed with this setup.
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I am honestly thinking about going with the CMD 121H for a couple of reasons. I don't like the amps in the back of the cab facing up (like the Mini 121P). I'm really intrigued with the AC Lite, but I really like playing through two cabs to get one closer to ear level (as I mentioned before).

You said that you use the NY115 with the 121H. I'd like to go that route, but that puts me over budget, so I think I'll have to go with the CMD 121H and either the traveler 121 or New York 121. Does anyone have any experience with either of these set ups? Tomorrows the day and I don't plan on any more return trips to take stuff back with an almost 2 hr one way trip to GC.
Thanks again to everyone for all of their input.

 

[Sid the Kid]

Well, I used this thread as inspiration to trade some stuff in to GC and snag myself a Markbass amp.

I was torn at first, but ended up with the Alain Caron 121 Lite. Holy crap is this thing amazing. The tone and volume I am getting is remarkable. I can’t imagine needing more stage volume, but if I do I will just get another. Another bonus is the Aux in. If I have a house party I’ll just use my Markbass as the PA for whoever wants to IPod DJ. It is loud, clear, and sounds so damn good.

I am a total bass whore, but I faithfully marry my amps when I find the one. I am probably done buying amps for a good long while.

 

[Pedulla-Player]

Well, I used this thread as inspiration to trade some stuff in to GC and snag myself a Markbass amp.

I was torn at first, but ended up with the Alain Caron 121 Lite. Holy crap is this thing amazing. The tone and volume I am getting is remarkable. I can’t imagine needing more stage volume, but if I do I will just get another. Another bonus is the Aux in. If I have a house party I’ll just use my Markbass as the PA for whoever wants to IPod DJ. It is loud, clear, and sounds so damn good.

I am a total bass whore, but I faithfully marry my amps when I find the one. I am probably done buying amps for a good long while.

Cool. Sounds like you are very pleased with the AC Lite. I wish they had one at the store so I could have played through one. Who knows - If I played through one I may have bought one. If I would have went with a combo that would have been the one I got.
I eventually decided to go with an amp head and cabs separate to give myself more flexibility - more control over the tweeters and so I could stack the cabs to get a speaker closer to ear level. I just went with a Little Mark-III and two New York 121 cabs. Should be arriving today, but I am at work and won't be able to mess around with it until tomorrow late morning / early afternoon.

 

[Sid the Kid]

Such sweet anticipation!

I knew what I wanted a bit more than you did, but I’m sure you will be pleased with the stack!

The tweeter is fairly controllable with the VLE, but it never sounds truly vintage. The Alain Caron Sound so much better than the CMD 112 I tried in all respects. Always big and clear, which is exactly what I love.

 

[ccfalkner]

I have ....

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Such sweet anticipation!

I knew what I wanted a bit more than you did, but I’m sure you will be pleased with the stack!

The tweeter is fairly controllable with the VLE, but it never sounds truly vintage. The Alain Caron Sound so much better than the CMD 112 I tried in all respects. Always big and clear, which is exactly what I love.

I would love to test my rig against just the Lite. I wonder if the lite would truly match, or excel over mine with all it's surface area. I wish it was around when I started my journey. The cost is less than my CMD 121H was at the time. I don't know about all of the CMDs, but mine has the XLR in, which I have a 1/4 aux to XLR adapter plugged into it. It works. It doesn't get much daily use cause now I use my pedal for aux in. I quoted my original post in case you wanted easy access to a visual. I just leave the adapter in there so I don't loose it. You know, I just realized it might be introducing some noise just open like that. I know if I plug an aux cable in loose, it definitely introduces noise. I will have to check that.

Also the New York 151 has a dial on it for high level control. I have that cranked to 0 to hopefully effectively turn off the tweeter in it. I figure I get enough high range from the horn that I don't need it.

 

[Sid the Kid]

I am sure the 121h and 115 together move more air, but the AC Lite will have a more flat sound. The extra headroom is apparent when running the amp hard. Even when the 12 is driven close to it’s mechanical limits the response is ultra quick, which I can not say for the LM3 based combos I was able to try. Yes, it can fart out at very high levels on the lowest frequencies, but good lord is it loud before it gets there. Backing the bass down to 9 o’clock cures this. The high end never gets shrill or too sizzly. Harmonics and overtones just explode from this little box, reinforcing and inspiring my need to practice.

It would be a fun test, but ultimately I think we have different expectations from our rigs. I am already saving pennies for a second AC Lite, ya know more is more after all!

 

[nickafonzu]

Does anyone have any experience with the new Ninja 102 combos?