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Markbass... Yes, they've started making basses too

#182
A new “Italian Lifestyle” created by a bass amp manufacturer with the release of a couple of unknown basses is a bit ludicrous. Not exactly a Heritage Brand. What in the world is a
“Lute manufacturing bass” anyway?
And not to pile on........ but, you know, TB and all.

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#185
I have a couple of Italian-made guitars, but nothing by MarkBass. But it must mean I buy into the Italian lifestyle. I do like pizza and latte and my wife is 1/4 Italian and cooks various Italian things her grandmother taught her, so I'm practically Italian I guess.
 
#188
CunniMingus said:
I agree, and I'm happy to hear that. But what does "italian lifestyle" means in that specific context?
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I have to tell you you don’t know your country history. Italy invented the (acoustic) bass guitar centuries ago. The so called Quattro cento does not refer to the renaissance century but rather the instrument that astonished everybody at the time. It is in fact little known that at this time cento also meant ´string’. So I think Italian lifestyle refers to this great history of ‘4 strings’ bass making that dates back to 1400 and beaconed all over europe and made jealous other kings’ courts. It is also said that later on Colombus took an Italian bass to the new world which was stolen by the natives, only to be recovered centuries later when digging for building a warehouse in Fullerton...
 
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#194
India_Sierra said:
I have to echo the criticism of calling this active tone control the 'G Spot'. It's not offensive, it's just cheesy and incredibly naff. Boutqiue basses are all about that high end, luxury experience - having the best of the best and feeling that refinement and quality in every aspect of the product. This rather tacky marketing stunt of making a deal of this 'G Spot' seems really at odds with what Markbass is trying to achieve here.

I am not going to dismiss this venture out of hand as Markbass know their onions when it comes to making good amps, but I rather feel that they will need a considerable push to break into the bass market in any meaningful way and the signs are that their initial offering is fraut with a few missteps. The most obvious one to me is the naff marketing on the 'G Spot', but there are other issues here too. I don't dislike the Kimandu/Kilimanjaro basses but they have always looked to my eye to look like a poor imitation of the Zon Legacy. The bottom horn looks to have been taken from Michael Manring's extended range Sonus fretless. It looks as though the designers just cobbled the body together after a brief look over the Zon website. I note that Bona played a Zon Legacy a few years ago (IIRC when he was playing with Joe Zawinul).

On the other hand, my brother has the Markbass Ninja 1000 head and cab and it's a really great sounding amp. I play through a Markbass CMD 151P Jeff Berlin combo and I love it. I love Markbass amps, they just have a great tone, but I am waiting to be convinced over their bass offering.
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I have to agree on the amps. After reading countless posts about how bad the newer ones are, I tried a CMD 121P at Guitar Center and found out that negative comments can be just as questionable as positive comments.
Bought it for $599 marked down from $899 and it's proven to be top notch in every way.
Knowing what I know now, I'm glad I chose it instead of the other dozen or so amps I was considering.
 
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#196
Lardass5000 said:
Yep. Im here for ya.

Considering what they currently make I don't have very high expectations for their bases
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The only thing I don't like about MB currently is their pricing.

Luckily , I got my 210 combo and extension cab back in 2008 for less than $1000.00 total. The combo has done at least 3 gigs a week for 10 years and hasn't hiccuped once.



I won't bash any product or brand unless I've tried it personally, and even then I'd just say " It's not for me". MB is the favorite bashbrand of TB. Go bash in an Ampeg thread and see what happens. :thumbsup:



The fact that they moved manufacturing to Indonesia and kept their pricing the same DOES make it unlikely that I will purchase from them again.
 
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