Markbass Compressore Troubleshooting. Bad tube, or... ?

[Obese Chess]

Hi folks,

I've seen a few threads like this from the past few years, but none specific enough to my specific situation to bother bumping those.

I have a first-generation Markbass Compressore pedal. I bought it used on here and I do not know exactly when it was built (late 2000s would be my best guess from the internet).

I have not fiddled with the settings at all, but over the past few weeks, the compressor seems to be far less sensitive, ie it takes me digging in MUCH harder for me to trigger the "compression" LED regardless of where I set the threshold. It is still working - if I set the threshold to the highest sensitivity, it still compresses, the light flickers, but only barely, and there's minimal change to the sound coming out of my amp when it does. The pedal is plugged in to a power supply (I do not believe it is possible to operate it on a battery, in fact) so it is not a power/battery issue. The "power" LED lights up just fine, the compression just isn't working how it used to.

My first thought is that after nearly 20 years or so, the tube is probably on its way out and needs to be replaced, but I figured I'd double-check with the folks here before spending the time and money to replace the tube. Anything else I should look at first?

Thanks!

 

[Obese Chess]

anyone?

 

[UntitledProject]

Are you using the power supply that came with the pedal or a third party power source?

 

[laklandplayer]

Hi folks,

I've seen a few threads like this from the past few years, but none specific enough to my specific situation to bother bumping those.

I have a first-generation Markbass Compressore pedal. I bought it used on here and I do not know exactly when it was built (late 2000s would be my best guess from the internet).

I have not fiddled with the settings at all, but over the past few weeks, the compressor seems to be far less sensitive, ie it takes me digging in MUCH harder for me to trigger the "compression" LED regardless of where I set the threshold. It is still working - if I set the threshold to the highest sensitivity, it still compresses, the light flickers, but only barely, and there's minimal change to the sound coming out of my amp when it does. The pedal is plugged in to a power supply (I do not believe it is possible to operate it on a battery, in fact) so it is not a power/battery issue. The "power" LED lights up just fine, the compression just isn't working how it used to.

My first thought is that after nearly 20 years or so, the tube is probably on its way out and needs to be replaced, but I figured I'd double-check with the folks here before spending the time and money to replace the tube. Anything else I should look at first?

Thanks!

Chances are it's the tube, if you bought it used you don't know how it was (mis)treated or stored. It uses a 12AT7 / ECC81 which is commonly found, The Mullard 12AT7 is excellent and costs about $26 online.

 

[davelowell2]

I also owned and loved one of these and in my research I remember reading about footswitch problems. Maybe look there, wiggle?

 

[depalm]

My 1st gen Compressore went bad recently as well. Swapping tubes didn’t help.
Starting behaving erratic but now, it doesn’t work at all.

Spoke with a MB repair guy, he told me must be something on the circuit.
Still have to send him the pedal.

 

[Aloe]

I had a 1st gen Compressore. it notably 'swells' when compressing, very notably when you hit a note on a low B.

if it doesn't do it for you, try maximizing not only the threshold, but the gain. gain is pre-compressor, volume is post-compressor.

 

[Obese Chess]

Are you using the power supply that came with the pedal or a third party power source?

The problem persists with both. The "power" LED works fine and the unit otherwise operates properly (attack, ratio, volume, and gain knobs all work fine), the compression just isn't working how it used to.

Chances are it's the tube, if you bought it used you don't know how it was (mis)treated or stored. It uses a 12AT7 / ECC81 which is commonly found, The Mullard 12AT7 is excellent and costs about $26 online.

That was my plan for a replacement.

I also owned and loved one of these and in my research I remember reading about footswitch problems. Maybe look there, wiggle?

I don't have any reason to believe that the footswitch isn't working - the unit powers on and off just fine, it just doesn't have the same level of sensitivity as it used to, ie, I have to set the threshold much lower and dig in a lot harder or set the gain higher to get it to compress.

 

[UntitledProject]

The problem persists with both. The "power" LED works fine and the unit otherwise operates properly (attack, ratio, volume, and gain knobs all work fine), the compression just isn't working how it used to.

That was my plan for a replacement.

I don't have any reason to believe that the footswitch isn't working - the unit powers on and off just fine, it just doesn't have the same level of sensitivity as it used to, ie, I have to set the threshold much lower and dig in a lot harder or set the gain higher to get it to compress.

I was asking about the power because it's a 12v pedal and many power supplies do not offer 12v as an option. Some pedals requiring higher operation voltage can seem to power on fine with a typical 9v source, but not really operate correctly as some components are starved for power. But, if it's happening with the original 12v power supply, then that likely isn't the issue.

 

[Obese Chess]

I was asking about the power because it's a 12v pedal and many power supplies do not offer 12v as an option. Some pedals requiring higher operation voltage can seem to power on fine with a typical 9v source, but not really operate correctly as some components are starved for power. But, if it's happening with the original 12v power supply, then that likely isn't the issue.

Got it. I believe mine does have a 12V option - I've been running it with this power supply without any issue for years and I'm sure I would have done that research before I set everything up - but yeah, I did break out the OEM power supply just to make sure.

 

[UntitledProject]

Got it. I believe mine does have a 12V option - I've been running it with this power supply without any issue for years and I'm sure I would have done that research before I set everything up - but yeah, I did break out the OEM power supply just to make sure.

Coolio. Seemed like an easy first step in diagnostics.