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MarkBass LMII Clipping

K

Keegsdad

Aug 25, 2009
37
0
#1
I have a Mark bass 2 x10 combo with a 15 extension cab, I play a MM Sterling bass which is clipping even at low volume. Is there a way to stop this without cutting back my settings on my bass? It seems if I go neutral on my knobs and turn down my master volume it does not clip. Is my pre-amp too hot? Do I need to adjust that? Any feedback would be appreciated.
 
#4
to the OP...
Assuming you have the CMD 102P??
Did you adjust the input gain? It should be set so that the blue light barely comes on when you play hard. it is independent of the master volume.
If the gain is all the way down and the blue light is on, then you need some form of pad/buffer in front of the amp.
 
#6
s0c9 said:
to the OP...
Assuming you have the CMD 102P??
Did you adjust the input gain? It should be set so that the blue light barely comes on when you play hard. it is independent of the master volume.
If the gain is all the way down and the blue light is on, then you need some form of pad/buffer in front of the amp.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply, I did turn down the input all the way down and will now see about adjusting the knobs on my bass.
 
#8
Keegsdad said:
Thanks for the reply, I did turn down the input all the way down and will now see about adjusting the knobs on my bass.
Click to expand...
Wow.. that's some seriously hot input levels.. my active bass needs the input gain set to about 3 o'clock to the blue to flicker!
What are you feeding the amp with? Straight from your bass guitar or are you going thru a pre-amp first?
 
#12
No problems with a Stingray classic going direct into the LMII. Even at full volume on the bass and bass and treble (the Classic is a 2-band eq) on 12, I don't overload the input of the LMII. I have an old 70's Jazz Bass and if I set the input gain of the LMII nearly at full, the blue light barely lights.
But attention: the input is not independant from the EQ-settings and the Master-Volume!

The LMII has an inbuild limiter, so even if you really push the amp too hard it shouldn't clip at least not in a harsh way. Has the extension cab 8 Ohms?
 
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#13
DirkP said:
No problems with a Stingray classic going direct into the LMII. Even at full volume on the bass and bass and treble (the Classic is a 2-band eq) on 12, I don't overload the input of the LMII. I have an old 70's Jazz Bass and if I set the input gain of the LMII nearly at full, the blue light barely lights.
But attention: the input is not independant from the EQ-settings and the Master-Volume!

The LMII has an inbuild limiter, so even if you really push the amp too hard it shouldn't clip at least not in a harsh way. Has the extension cab 8 Ohms?
Click to expand...
Yes the extension Cab is an 8 ohm cab.
 
#14
Turn your gain & master volume off, hit your strings as hard as you are ever going to hit them while gradually turning the gain up. As soon as the clip light, lights up back it off a little bit. Now you can crank your volume as much as you want & you won't ever clip.

Note: Whenever you ad eq on your bass or your amp past your normal setting you might have to roll back a little of the gain again. Same goes with if you use pedals. You either have to adjust from the pedal itself or the gain on the amp. Some MM's have a really high output preamp like my Spector's, so you can just back off on the bass preamp & use more of the amps preamp.
 
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#15
Vinny Tomassetti said:
Turn your gain & master volume off, hit your strings as hard as you are ever going to hit them while gradually turning the gain up. As soon as the clip light, lights up back it off a little bit. Now you can crank your volume as much as you want & you won't ever clip.

Note: Whenever you ad eq on your bass or your amp past your normal setting you might have to roll back a little of the gain again. Same goes with if you use pedals. You either have to adjust from the pedal itself or the gain on the amp. Some MM's have a really high output preamp like my Spector's, so you can just back off on the bass preamp & use more of the amps preamp.
Click to expand...

This is a really good way, without knowing exactly how the power output of your amp relates to your cab's ability to handle it, to prevent any damage to your amp or cab.

The volume knob actually has a massive impact on your tone AND the signal your are sending to your amp (clipping, etc). The volume knob controls how much output you are feeding to your amp from your pickups. To put this in perspective, a lot of guitar and bass players that play rock, metal and heavy music put "hotter" pickups in their instruments so they can increase the output of their instrument to their amp. In other words, hotter pickups just have higher output and more output usually is not only louder, but has other sonic qualities such as more "boom" and being "heavier" because your pickups are jamming out more of their frequencies they are picking up from your strings. These signals also distort more easily and will clip your amp more easily at lower gain settings.

For example, if you turn the volume on your bass all the way up and put your amp volume at 3, it may very well be equally loud to you playing with the volume knob of your bass at halfway and the volume knob on your amp at 6. However, they will be drastically different tones. The former will tend to be more aggressive and powerful, while the latter will be more mellow and vintage. You can actually produce a wide range of tones by just messing around with the volume settings on your bass and on your amp. In general if you're playing rock, or loud music, you'll want your pickups all the way up, all the time, and adjust any volume on your amp. If you're playing R&B, Soul, Funk, Jazz or something of the sort, try experimenting you might be surprised at the different sounds you can get just playing with the volume settings on your instrument and your amp.

Long story short, if your amp is clipping really easily, try rolling back the volume on your bass to get more room to play with the gain and volume on your amp. Makes sense it's happening with a MM, as those pickups are pretty hot compared to say, a stock p-bass.
 
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