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

[Hevy T]

The biggest problem with the gold Franken P is the fact that it's GOLD!!!

 

[BioDriver]

I'm not going to say that I could do better, but Markbass continues to leave me unimpressed.

Took the words right out of my mouth. But this...

They've announced an on board preamp for namm 2019 too.
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... could be interesting.

 

[Watchootognbout]

Really pleased to see they don't have the standard Markbass colour scheme

That's what immediately came to mind when I read the OP's title.

 

[Nev375]

Needs tort.

 

[ThinCrappyTone]

i feel like the K’s want to be headless

 

[Daniel Piper]

My prediction - these will go down like Musicman amps - with no one here in TB land noticing.

 

[MtManiac]

There just aren’t enough active basses with two Jazz pickups around, we really needed another one.

 

[Luigir]

Took the words right out of my mouth. But this...



... could be interesting.

By the way, take a look at their page with all the news:

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[bwoodman]

TL;DR

Are these made in Indonesia?

....by Cort?

 

[Ostie]

I wonder if they’ll be overpriced like their amps are.

 

[jazzyvee]

I see the shape lower end of the bass from the waist downward seems to be a replica of the Spellbinder bass that Stanley Clarke and Thomas Lieber developed.
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[user362432]

Finally a new bragging toy.
I care for Mark stuff as much as I care for last year's snow.

 

[gjbassist]

A gold bass with a P style body and J pickups? Sounds familiar!

 

[alaskaleftybass]

A gold bass with a P style body and J pickups? Sounds familiar!

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Oh man! That is a beautiful bass!

 

[IronLung1986]

Seems like the community has substantially soured on Markbass in the last 5 or so years. I suppose it's no surprise given their exclusivity with Guitar Center and apparent switch to cheapo far east manufacturing. Two great ways to live long enough to see yourself become the bad guy. Admittedly these basses look ill-fated to me, but it's sad to see that Markbass are no longer thought of very highly. My old LM800 is still the best amp I've ever heard.

 

[smtp4me]

I'm sure I will take some heat for this comment, but will their basses follow the model as their amps, meaning... price tag significantly higher than other brands that provide the same thing?

 

[jd56hawk]

It's just cheesy. Earlier they were calling it the G-Point knob, according to Facebook.

Exactly!
So Darren Stevens comes up with this corny advertising pitch, Larry Tate gives him the thumbs up instead of telling him he's scraping the bottom of the barrel, and then the people at Markbass actually buy it?

dang, some of you guys are harsh. Some of you should design your own and see how difficult it is to design something original.

Everything is a copy of another and it all started from Leo, so keep that in mind.

Yet Reverend managed to do a pretty good job of making a classic design just a little bit different.

My prediction - these will go down like Musicman amps - with no one here in TB land noticing.

Well, I don't know about that. I mean, I've heard Orange just reached a milestone…sold their 100th bass.

 

[alaskaleftybass]

Seems like the community has substantially soured on Markbass in the last 5 or so years. I suppose it's no surprise given their exclusivity with Guitar Center and apparent switch to cheapo far east manufacturing. Two great ways to live long enough to see yourself become the bad guy. Admittedly these basses look ill-fated to me, but it's sad to see that Markbass are no longer thought of very highly. My old LM800 is still the best amp I've ever heard.

There is somewhat a mob mentality on TB sometimes. Other well known brands have moved overseas yet their names are still as revered as Elvis and there isn't even a need to 'forgive' them for having their legacy brand name amps made in Malaysia or wherever in SE Asia. I made a stop through Seattle and visited my favorite Guitar Center (another brand that receives much abuse in these parts) and the Markbass amps from overseas sounded great. The build quality was excellent and I couldn't differentiate the quality from the Italian counterpart.

I think the youngish owner of Markbass hasn't quite learned the lesson yet that he can't continue to charge premium prices for amps made in Asia. But even for that-- Apple, one of the most valuable companies on the planet, hasn't learned that it can't keep jacking up prices and now it's causing them to lose billions. So it's no surprise Mr. Markbass hasn't caught on yet.

As far as the basses go-- I am interested in whether they'll have a premium and economy line, and if there will be left handed versions available-- and not in black! LOL. Good luck to any music company trying to introduce innovation-- every step forward is a benefit for us as consumers.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

Hi all!

I've just found out with some surprise that Mark Bass is gonna present some basses at NAMM 2019. I'm pretty curious and I'll be on the fence. They make really good amps, lets see what they can do with basses.

One bass is the Richard Bona Kilimanjaro (kimandu).

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The other one is a 70s style jazz bass called Gold.

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They're so ugly

 

[eddododo]

Seems like the community has substantially soured on Markbass in the last 5 or so years. I suppose it's no surprise given their exclusivity with Guitar Center and apparent switch to cheapo far east manufacturing. Two great ways to live long enough to see yourself become the bad guy. Admittedly these basses look ill-fated to me, but it's sad to see that Markbass are no longer thought of very highly. My old LM800 is still the best amp I've ever heard.

I agree, their first wave of amps were great and their compressore pedal is one of my absolute favorites. They really raced to the bottom