Markbass mini rigs

[JPMcGuire]

Hi having a hard time choosing between the little markbass rigs. I have a larger rig but want one of these for practice and small coffee house gigs.

Minimark
Micromark
Micromark 801

Anyone have experience with the differences?

 

[Jeff Scott]

My Minimark has been amazing in small bars/restaurants and with an extension cabinet, medium size hotel ballrooms.

 

[Big Brother]

Just got done singing the praises of these in another thread.

I've had both the micro and the mini, for practice and drumless gigs the Micro is plenty and the sound is really nice. It is still my only practice amp and I have good choices.

The mini is similar, it handles the low B better and has the extra features but the price was hard to justify when I found a nice MB 112 combo for less money and the Micro sounded great.

I haven't heard the 8 but if it is similar to the others I imagine it would be hard to beat for a small practice/drumless gig combo.

 

[waleross]

I have the Little Mark Tube 800 with a 212 cab. I didn't want to go much smaller in terms of watts.....This head can power the 810 cab I have and anything else in-between. Worth getting .......................

 

[countbassiedad]

Not sure why anyone would go smaller than the 1x12 combo. Versatile, small, light and more gutsy than the others noted in the poll (I would think).

 

[anton72]

I had Minimark but sold it a week after purhase because I couldn't stand that hi-frequensy hiss out of a piezo-twitter, its very annoying and its ratio is quite high to actual bass sound. This piezo is known for such noise and if it could be switched off, the Mini would be nice. Micro 801 should be ok since 8" is more substantional than 6" and Micro has all that pleasant options such as aux input for drum machine or player and phones output, nice package IMO. Though a bit $$$ for such size. I ended up with buying Little Mark 250W head plus their lightweight cab Club121 which has a switchable horn twitter, miles better than piezo and no hiss. So I can both gig in small venues and practice at home at low volume with it.

 

[countbassiedad]

I'm not a fan of the MB piezo tweeter either. Its my only complaint about the 1x12 combo (no switch). I end up running the VLE betewen 11 and 1 oclock most of the time. Not a major issue for me to kill it with VLE but I have toyed with the idea of disconnecting it. Only fear of the warranty police has kept me from carefully disconnecting the wires.

 

[lomo]

GB 3.0-8T

 

[LouieV2]

My minimark is fantastic for anything small without a drummer. I also have a Little Mark III which I run thru an ampeg svt410hlf and can honestly say that the minimark stays true to the louder markbass amps in terms of sound quality. With an extension cab (ive used it with a 1x15) its definitely got enough clean headroom for use with a drummer, and sounds absolutely fantastic. For those complaining about the tweeter, turning up the VLE knob solves the piezo tweeter issue by eliminating the high frequencies if you dont like it. I find it helpful for when I want to slap, but to each his own.

 

[JPMcGuire]

Thanks guys. I currently have a walkabout head I run with both an aggie db112 for small gigs and a berg hs410 for the bigger club venues. These two are the ultimate rigs for me. I've had the bigger markbass rigs (lm2,lm3, lm tube800) and heads like the db750, Ampeg svt, v4b, etc. love the walkabout.

However, really like the idea of something so portable like the Micromark to practice in living room, out of deck in summer, small campfire jam, tight coffee shop jazz gig I occasionally do.

I have a Roland microcube bass which is cool because it does batteries. But tone and quality just isnt comparable imo to markbass Wish the Micromark had battery option too at 50watts. Then it would be perfect! I like the fact the markbass has di outs the microcube does not.

 

[Jeff Scott]

..Micro has all that pleasant options such as aux input for drum machine or player and phones output, nice package IMO.

So does the Minimark, I guess you did not keep it long enough to notice that.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Thanks guys. I currently have a walkabout head I run with both an aggie db112 for small gigs and a berg hs410 for the bigger club venues. These two are the ultimate rigs for me. I've had the bigger markbass rigs (lm2,lm3, lm tube800) and heads like the db750, Ampeg svt, v4b, etc. love the walkabout.

However, really like the idea of something so portable like the Micromark to practice in living room, out of deck in summer, small campfire jam, tight coffee shop jazz gig I occasionally do.

I have a Roland microcube bass which is cool because it does batteries. But tone and quality just isnt comparable imo to markbass Wish the Micromark had battery option too at 50watts. Then it would be perfect! I like the fact the markbass has di outs the microcube does not.

I stand by my vote for the Minimark. The piezo tweeter is not over balanced to the other drivers, and as others have mentioned, adding some VLE will tame any excessive brightness of the bass used with the amp. I have found the amp to be very neutral sounding (especially, when raised up off the floor a bit) along with amazing depth for such as small amp. The DI out sounds excellent (I have used it for recording and to go out to a PA). The form factor is nice, too, with the two drivers aligned vertical.

The Micromark may be a bit too small for your needs (from what I have read, at least for your possible coffeehouse gigs, anyway). Same goes for the Micromark 801 as it doesn't have enough power (I think) for the gig needs, either.

 

[LouieV2]

I stand by my vote for the Minimark. The piezo tweeter is not over balanced to the other drivers, and as others have mentioned, adding some VLE will tame any excessive brightness of the bass used with the amp. I have found the amp to be very neutral sounding (especially, when raised up off the floor a bit) along with amazing depth for such as small amp. The DI out sounds excellent (I have used it for recording and to go out to a PA). The form factor is nice, too, with the two drivers aligned vertical.

The Micromark may be a bit too small for your needs (from what I have read, at least for your possible coffeehouse gigs, anyway). Same goes for the Micromark 801 as it doesn't have enough power (I think) for the gig needs, either.

+1

 

[anton72]

So does the Minimark, I guess you did not keep it long enough to notice that.

Sure I noticed that the package of Mini is the same and of course Mini is more powerfull package as it can blow 150 Watts, but the Micros have no twitters and that's what I personnaly like about them.

 

[Jeff Scott]

The tweeter in my Minimark is blown, so it sounds great now, too.

 

[anton72]

. For those complaining about the tweeter, turning up the VLE knob solves the piezo tweeter issue by eliminating the high frequencies if you dont like it. I find it helpful for when I want to slap, but to each his own.

VLE kills both highs and lows if we refer to specs...So playing with VLE to eliminate the hiss will effect the whole tone. If you want to keep highs on there's no chance to get rid of this noise. BTW when I returned it back to the shop I also tried their 121P combo and again all was perfect but this piezo...Then I tried a couple of Markbass light weight cabs with compression horns instead of piezos and man what's a difference! My combination weighs just 1,5 lb hevier than Mini and can blast with 250W. And no piezo)

 

[anton72]

The tweeter in my Minimark is blown, so it sounds great now, too.

So the problem is sorted, great!

 

[countbassiedad]

VLE kills both highs and lows if we refer to specs...So playing with VLE to eliminate the hiss will effect the whole tone. If you want to keep highs on there's no chance to get rid of this noise. BTW when I returned it back to the shop I also tried their 121P combo and again all was perfect but this piezo...Then I tried a couple of Markbass light weight cabs with compression horns instead of piezos and man what's a difference! My combination weighs just 1,5 lb hevier than Mini and can blast with 250W. And no piezo)

Regarding elimination of "lows", I guess it depends on what you mean. As I understand it, the VLE sharply reduces highs and the more the control is turned clockwise the lower the cutoff frequency. So if turned fully clockwise there is nothing left but deep lows. In a real life position between say 9 and 2 oclock it functions as a high (and some mids) reducer.

But, of course it does the same thing to both drivers so you can never make the standard 1x15 combo sound identical to the Jeff Berlin which has no tweeter (for example).

For me its close enough - combos are always a bit of a compromise. If you gotta have a tweeter it sounds like the horn probably is a lot better sounding, but its more expensive, bigger and heavier so I'm glad to only have a piezo if I have to have one.

 

[JPMcGuire]

You guys have me convinced to give one a shot. If anyone is interested to sell/trade let me know. I thing I like is the aux in and the ability to turn off the speaker. I practice using my ipad alot these days so this would work great (my walkabout doesn't have this aux in or headphone feature. Thanks!

 

[Jeff Scott]

You guys have me convinced to give one a shot. If anyone is interested to sell/trade let me know. I thing I like is the aux in and the ability to turn off the speaker. I practice using my ipad alot these days so this would work great (my walkabout doesn't have this aux in or headphone feature. Thanks!
__________________
Bergantino HS410
Aguilar DB112
Mesa Walkabout
Modulus, Rickenbacker, and Lakland US Basses

Yesterday, I got together with some friends and I brought my Minimark for them to use. We ran a few nice Rick basses through it, a modified 4004 Laredo (AGC preamp, blackened, strung BEAD), a slightly modified 4004C (stacked VT for each pickup), a few 4001V63s (one which has an early '60s magnetic horseshoe pickup in it, with the .0047µF cap in-line, of course ) a slightly modified 4004LK (VVVT controls), '69 4001 (no mods ), early '73 4001 (stock); they all sounded glorious, in their own special ways, through the amp.