Markbass nightmare

[Parrotlover]

Garey is correct, 2 ohm operation is no problem for the Subway amp but be sure you set the impedance switch on the back to 2 ohms.

You might want to check your math on the sensitivity calculation. You are beyond the theoretical average 1W/1M average sensitvity capability here. I think you will find that the results (using 50Hz - 1kHz bandwidth) will be a lot closer to 103dB (which is quite healthy) and this is for identical cabinets.

All 3 cabs have 103 sensitivity, though frankly the Richard Bona cab is going. It actually might be the best of the 3, but the EA's are very portable, sound great, & they aren't Yellow & lime green. My debit card was maxed as the SSA was supposed to deposit 3 grand back pay & they didn't. 3 cabs is overkill anyway. But isn't 103 & 103 106, plus another 103 107.5. doesn't matter much the EA's & WD800 should kick ass @ 3 ohms

 

[Parrotlover]

If just that one cabinet shuts the amp down, it's quite possible that the cabinet itself may be the cause. If there are significant areas of sub-nominal impedance (either due to a quirky design or possibly damage to the driver(s)), it's likely that the amp is shutting down to protect itself rather than becoming damaged. I would strongly encourage you to test the amp on a different 4 ohm cabinet to see if all is ok. I see this enough that I mention is as a possible or even likely cause.

Well, conversely I have a Peavy miniMax 500 that doesn't shut down coupled with the Wizzy 12.. I don't have another 4 ohm cabinet, but two other 8 ohm cabs (not for long) the Markbass hasn't shut down all day. With my past luck I'll get complacent, take it out on a gig, & it will die right there on stage--which has actually happened to me with a Hartke before.

 

[MotorCityMinion]

"I have no idea who to call & possibly sue in small claims court"

"The seller was a Texas Pawn shop."

Call your Mamma and get a diaper change. Used gear from a pawnshop, through Ebay. What could go wrong?

 

[Jazzish]

My experience with MarkBass (owned three of their amps) has been nothing but reliable and always receive compliments on my tone. Even on iPhone videos of our band the bass is articulate and full. Wanted to note that I have toppled them over on a couple of occasions during load in/out. No trouble.

Sorry you're having to deal with the situation. Reliability is crucial and it would be nice to get it fixed without having to pay since it is under warranty.

 

[DiabolusInMusic]

I got it from a pawn shop in Texas, so I strongly suspect that was purchased from a local Texas GC, or ordered by mail & sent to Texas.

My point is that if Markbass had a corporate office in the states like Mesa Boogie, & if they had Mesa Boogie 's integrity, the serial number could be traced, & date of manufacture would weigh in heavily in terms of their decision to fix it.

Let's face it, I've been hosed

I used to run an electronics warehouse and it would be pretty unlikely to for a lot of manufacturers to know what serial went where. Mind you, we didn't stock guitar gear so they might handle things differently.

 

[groooooove]

yikes. i'm glad i have a markbass head thats 10+ years old and still sounds awesome and works great and was only serviced once.

buying mesa would be a good idea. the company stands behind the product, but also the product kills a lot of the competition.

 

[JRA]

I could spend $300 fixing it, then it can break down again.

Let's face it, I've been hosed

I was an IDIOT not doing more research.

take it out on a gig, & it will die right there on stage

Never again will I have anything to do with Markbass, Musician's Friend or Guitar Center.

at least you have three more brands crossed off of your 'go-to' list! i'd say: you're making progress. good luck!

 

[jnuts1]

I would not say idiot. because if the research was asking or taking a average survey on a bass forum. there is plenty of guys on here to tell you they love the model have no problems.

probably accuse me of being a troll turd lol.
i dont know the history or models in great detail. I repaired a little Mark II which was a mosfet class A/B. pretty decent design except a/b is making alot more heat. and even with a fan things just looked dinky to me. Class D design alot less heat. youd definitely get away with such small heatsinks with a switching amplifier.

if yours is D class i have never seen the guts of one. but from many backlines, friends houses or jam nights. i will say ive definately shut down every single mark bass ive touched. my duty cycle is probably alot higher than most. so many would never shut one down.

if your fiddle farting around the house at med to low levels and its shutting down. then its a concern. likewise new info to the story if a new cab is causing problems. many would jump the cab is a problem. id say most likely not. but the impedance is higher and likewise some...some crossover design could be fine with some amps. others it will peeve them off. likewise if a manufacture has set the detection levels on the class D drivers to be a little sensitive. some cabs could probably false trigger fault protection. but the thing is the crossover is still causing problems regardless. but with good intention depending how quickly a amp is designed to detect this. just means shut down.

all speculation. all guessing. only thing i do know. and unfortunately a very negative biased opinion i would never buy or use a makbass. plenty to say likewise. i dont care. last casino job i had i told the promoter/ stage manager look im a nice guy . if that mark bass shuts down on me one more time. i will put my foot through it lol. keep in mind casino jobs are pitiful low level and will most likely never do that again either

I'm pretty sure this is a you problem only. you have had multiple markbass amps overheat? I find that super hard to believe you are not the reason. I've cranked my gain and volume to eleven to keep up with 2 drummers for 3 or more hour gigs with no problems ever. I have used her as the house rig for jams and multi band events with zero issue. this thing has seen 600 gigs min too.

as far as warranty if you do not have any paper work how do you expect to get repairs? I had one of the very first models and my drummer dropped it down a flight of stairs. it was about 2 months before the 2 year warranty was up and GC just straight up gave me a brand new one in a box no questions asked. and i never had a problem before the drop and the new one they gave me is just as reliable

 

[Double E]

You can't sue anybody successfully, and you did not get screwed. Markbass has zero fault in this scenario. You bought it used and took the risk. You obtained the thing at a big discount from new. You really have no idea how the thing may have been abused before you bought it. If you wanted to count on a transferable warranty you should've made sure you had the info with the amp that backed it up.

You are understandably upset but shifting blame to Markbass for following their policy is unreasonable.

I will also chime in that, while Mesa/Aguilar is my primary gear, I also currently own and have used and abused Markbass equipment regularly for many years with no failures.

 

[Matty Koff]

Have to agree with some others here, what you did, is learned yourself a lesson about buying musical equipment from pawnshops. Not to say you can't find a good deal here and there but, frankly, have both bought and sold some lemons at pawn shops when I was younger. IME pawn brokers don't really know what to look for when evaluating instruments and equipment. They just plug it in for like 5 seconds to see if it works, then as long as they can lowball you they hand over some cash.

I mean.. I'm not defending Markbass here but this could have been the case with any brand of amp when dealing with a pawn broker.

 

[MCS4]

I can't imagine the concept of buying used gear on eBay and expecting that any repairs to it will be covered by a manufacturer's warranty.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

This is a reason why I dislike selling any more. People want to pay used prices, but get all the advantages of a new item.

 

[Tom Magri]

Well - the scenario is unfortunate. However, Markbass did not get this successful building an unreliable product. Any brand can have the occasional nightmare issue. I've used a Markbass 112 combo for 7 or 8 years on hundreds of gigs and have had great reliability.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

This probably won't help - MF is currently selling them for $549.

 

[TNCreature]

"I have no idea who to call & possibly sue in small claims court"

"The seller was a Texas Pawn shop."

Call your Mamma and get a diaper change. Used gear from a pawnshop, through Ebay. What could go wrong?

I was waiting for this post to come along! Took longer than I expected

 

[TNCreature]

This probably won't help MF is currently selling them for $549.

 

[PDGood]

Never had a problem with my LMlll and it's been around a long time. Haven't heard anyone else mention this either.
The idea that the cabinet could be the source of the trouble was first suggested here by Aged Horse who designs Mesa amps and has no reason to defend a competitive brand. That's reliable advice.

 

[agedhorse]

All 3 cabs have 103 sensitivity, though frankly the Richard Bona cab is going. It actually might be the best of the 3, but the EA's are very portable, sound great, & they aren't Yellow & lime green. My debit card was maxed as the SSA was supposed to deposit 3 grand back pay & they didn't. 3 cabs is overkill anyway. But isn't 103 & 103 106, plus another 103 107.5. doesn't matter much the EA's & WD800 should kick ass @ 3 ohms

Ok, I knew that something was wrong and now I know why. The reason I am spending a little bit of time on this is because I have seen players go down this road with incorrect information, resulting in damaged cabinets and seeing that you already had a bad experience don't want to see you with another that in this case is avoidable. You are not alone in this, and others can learn from this exercise. To clarify, my comments are on the technology and has nothing to do with the brand.

1. Looking at the Wizzy cabinet data from their website, the 1W/1M sensitivity is not 103dB. The way the spec is written, it's 102dB at 2.83V/1M, and since it's a 4 ohm cabinet this equates to 2 watts not 1 watt. Applying the correction to 1 watt, this would be 102dB - 3dB = 99dB/1W/1M Presumably the other cabinets are of similar sensitivity because 103dB/1W/1M average sensitivity over the range of a bass guitar is almost impossible to attain is such a cabinet type by any manufacturer, especially in a compact cabinet.

2. The rated power of the Wizzy is 250 watts (presumably an "RMS" metric). Note that the Subway amps are 800 watts (RMS) at 4 ohms, and even in 2 ohm mode the 4 ohm cabinet will receive about 550 watts (RMS). This is enough power to completely destroy that cabinet unless you are very careful and have reasonable expectations. I emphasize this because I have had to deal with players who then blame the amp for damaging their speakers and don't want to see you go down this road.

3. Summing 3 identical sources of 99dB/1W/1M would result in ~3dB for the first doubling and another dB or so for the addition of the third cabinet for a net increase in sensitivity of about 103dB/1W/1M and the theory closely agrees with my experience.

4. Numbers matter, that's why engineers that design this stuff spend as much time in t he numbers as they do, this way what you get is what we intend to deliver.

Hope this helps.

 

[smurfco]

Add me to the list of Markbass players that have never had a single issue.

 

[Lava]

Bummer about the first MB, but you're gonna love your second MB, the WD800. I sure do dig mine.