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

[PeaveyPlayer]

 

[DirkP]

(...)

There's nothing inherently better about an Italian on an assembly line vs an Indonesian on an assembly line making these amps. In all reality, Italy is essentially a third world country. I think for the prices they charge, Markbass could afford to keep production in their home country, they chose not to and that's what bothers me. Many other manufacturers have done so also and I choose only to buy their products used.

(...)

The owner of Markbass wrote a long and in my opionion honest statement some years ago, where he stated the reasons that it wasn't possible for Markbass to longer produce their amps in Italy. The industrial infrastructure within Italy is simply gone. It was incredible hard for them to get parts in time they needed for production.
How many of the larger manufacturers still build their amps in the US? And those who do are much more expensive than Markbass ever was - like Mesa for example.
I take a very critical view of the evolution of Markbass and I am totally unimpressed by these Namm offerings. The latest cool product was the very tiny Nanomark. Otherwise they are just re-launching the very same amps and gadgets with one additional knob here and there.
I liked them much more when they were really innovative and didn't offer 103 mindless new gadgets every year.
But in all fairness, here is the statement from the owner Marco De Virgiliis:

This was posted on Facebook from Marco De Virgiliis to explain the move to Indonesia in 2014:
Hi Markbass fans, here Marco explains our way to work and our philosophy.

There are few things, which need to be discussed before we explain the reason why we decided to start manufacturing some of our Markbass products in Indonesia:

1. The economical crises, which Europe has been straggling with for the last five years, brought about a very different scenario for all small/medium size companies, especially in Italy, where manufacturing has become very expensive.

2. Many suppliers have closed down their businesses or they are no longer in the position to support their clients due to a lack of cash flow, putting monthly productions as well as delivery times at risk.

3. The supply time for all single components went from few weeks to several months, due the fact that the manufacturers (mainly of electronic components) have been focusing their attention primarily on Asian, American and European markets in general, leaving the Italian market at the very end.
Lots of suppliers dramatically reduced their presence inside the Italian market, forcing their clients to place orders sometimes 8 months ahead of time!!!

4. Raw materials like wood have become more and more expensive, and inside a niche market like the Musical Instruments Market, we couldn’t any longer compete with other manufacturers.

5. Almost entirely, manufacturers are now manufacturing in Asia.

6. Markbass never increased its price list since 2001. Offering the best products at fair prices is part of our core strategy.

7. Our product quality has been a stable datum and it hasn’t been compromised.

8. We didn’t want to lay off any of our workers.

Markbass brings INNOVATION to the Asian manufacturing system.

After taking under consideration all of the above, two years ago we started a cooperation with a well-known Indonesian company. We already had some sort of relationship with them because of our distribution in that part of the world, and we also knew them well because of their partnership with other companies very close to us.

At the beginning of these two years we started manufacturing only few components of our products. Once we were really sure of the product quality, we increased our production to all parts.
Our engineers and product specialists have been monitoring the manufacturing process since the very beginning, and they are always present during the assembling of all our products.

Our products are the same products as before: their quality hasn’t changed. We insisted that we kept using only components in line with our strategy and technical specifications.

We brought over our quality control/testing system, built a specialized unit and trained the workers one by one.
Our engineers have now daily exchanges of communication with the Indonesian technicians.

THE BIG NEWS: a cost for everyone else, an added value for Markbass.

Since the very beginning we decided to inspect all the products manufactured in Asia once they arrive in Italy. Despite the big cost of this operation, we felt it was a very important step to guarantee the quality of our products. No other companies do a secondary inspection of their products once in Italy!!!
Markbass not only opens and inspects every single product received from Indonesia. We also test every single one like it was manufactured in Italy. Our technicians do the testing, and we say with pride that they are the most reliable technicians in the world, with a knowledge that comes from passion and a lot of experience.

FINAL RESULT

Markbass has increased its quality. Not only did the Asian production evolve and become more and more specialized with the contribution of our technicians, we also noticed another significant increase in the overall quality of our products due to our “double testing system”. Each and every one of our products, which comes from Indonesia, is re-tested in Italy and labeled: Tested in Italy. Every product is tested 100% twice!

All the components stayed the same: from the speakers to the condensers, which we choose and test one by one; as well as from the transformers to all the other components.

When we started to manufacture in Asia we came to know that a lot of our competitors products were less expensive, not only because the labor was less expensive, the quality of their components were also cheaper and of a less quality.

With our Asian production, we were able to increase the quality of our products. We spent time and money explaining to our Indonesian partners that we didn’t want a cheaper product; we wanted to guarantee that our know-how and knowledge would stay the same and possibly become better.

Nobody at Markbass has been laid off. On the contrary: our staff has been increased with a couple of young engineers that now work with us full time!!! The human factor is very important to us and it will always come first!

CONCLUSIONS

It is no longer possible for us to label “made in Italy” on some of our products. But we guarantee you that our production system is UNIQUE and, statistics at hand, our quality is even better than before. I challenge anybody to find any difference between the two productions, starting from the felt we use… Our Indonesian partner told us that nobody uses that quality of felt!!!

Any difference that might exist between the two productions is due to internal decisions taken not because the products were going to be manufactured in Asia, but for technical reasons and for the improvement of the quality itself.

This needs to be stated one more time: no other company re-opens and re-checks their products manufactured in Asia!
At Markbass, every products delivered to the final customer, has been prior inspected by a specialized Markbass operator.

We continue to take responsibly in delivering to our customers only quality products, fully and utterly checked in Italy.
Thanks to our methods and our philosophy we are able to keep growing, keep sustaining our R&D in all the MarkWorld technology fields.
We have a state of the art laboratory able to keep the same price-quality standard we always had.

We say it loud: “re-tested in Italy”!!!

 

[BassAgent]

View attachment 3282321

 

[Axstar]

There's nothing inherently better about an Italian on an assembly line vs an Indonesian on an assembly line making these amps. In all reality, Italy is essentially a third world country.

Italy has the ninth biggest economy in the world, with Canada being the tenth, so what are you talking about?

Saying that, I would rather have an Indonesian-built bass than an Italian-built one. 'Made in Italy' doesn't exactly inspire the same confidence as 'Made in Germany' as it carries with it just the slightest whiff of corruption, corner-cutting and lax QC.

 

[cnltb]

View attachment 3282341

Funny, you are using Trump for this.

 

[knight of ni]

Things that are so obviously cheesy to the rest of us seem like a good ideas to them.

My English doesn’t cover very well the meaning of ‘cheesy’ but as a European I can assure this G spot stuff is really repulsive (if it was what you referred to).

 

[DirkP]

My English doesn’t cover very well the meaning of ‘cheesy’ but as a European I can assure this G spot stuff is really repulsive (if it was what you referred to).

A lot of the cheesy stuff in Europe is made in the USA. Even some of the US made bass gear - though not all of it - looks like David Hasselhoff has build it...

 

[BargeOn]

And WHO is actually making them FOR MB?

^^^ This.
It's a production model, not a luthier build.
It's sort of like a "craft" brew made by Budweiser.
That doesn't mean it's a bad product, but it does make me suspicious of the hype, the price and what future it has in a crowded market.

 

[Jeff Scott]

How many of the larger manufacturers still build their amps in the US? And those who do are much more expensive than Markbass ever was - like Mesa for example.

You're not right about this.

 

[cnltb]

I don't know why, but I find this bass REALLY insulting to those builders, whose work it looks soo similar to.
More often than not I don't care much.
Maybe it's partly the insta message posted above...

 

[matante]

My English doesn’t cover very well the meaning of ‘cheesy’ but as a European I can assure this G spot stuff is really repulsive (if it was what you referred to).

I was referring to the whole thing. The bad graphic design, the bad translation into English, the garrish colors of the basses, the G spot thing, the "Italian Lifestyle" logo, everything. I live in an area with a lot of European tourists and that advertising reminds me of some of them. The lime green shorts. Fluorescent yellow sneakers, cheesy trance music. You know what I mean.

 

[J Neck Peabody]

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).

View attachment 3281115

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

View attachment 3281114

They might play and sound great but they sure are fugly!

 

[Fun Size Nick]

I was referring to the whole thing. The bad graphic design, the bad translation into English, the garrish colors of the basses, the G spot thing, the "Italian Lifestyle" logo, everything. I live in an area with a lot of European tourists and that advertising reminds me of some of them. The lime green shorts. Fluorescent yellow sneakers, cheesy trance music. You know what I mean.

My office is close to a few 'sights' in HK, and I am pretty sure that this is most tourists no matter where they are from

 

[alaskaleftybass]

From what Markbass said:

Markbass has increased its quality. Not only did the Asian production evolve and become more and more specialized with the contribution of our technicians, we also noticed another significant increase in the overall quality of our products due to our “double testing system”. Each and every one of our products, which comes from Indonesia, is re-tested in Italy and labeled: Tested in Italy. Every product is tested 100% twice!

This has to be one of the most ridiculous statements about his philosophy from his statement. Why don't they send a team to Asia, make sure the QC is there, then ship them straight to market from Asia. It seems stupid to send the products to Italy just so they can "touch" them and approve them. How many thousands of bulk dollars does that add?

Secondly, I am very disappointed that Markbass thinks they could move to Asia and because they have a special sound and scheme, even though they are saving tons of money, they are still charging PREMIUM PRICES for amps made where the likes of Fender and Ampeg are made. Ridiculous!

I've always liked Markbass stuff, but I've never owned any. Don't see it in my future, but I don't see them going away either. As far as the basses go, they are fugly and look very clunky. I think this line of basses will be short-lived.

 

[Kijuer]

This has to be one of the most ridiculous statements about his philosophy from his statement. Why don't they send a team to Asia, make sure the QC is there, then ship them straight to market from Asia. It seems stupid to send the products to Italy just so they can "touch" them and approve them. How many thousands of bulk dollars does that add?

I could be wrong but I think Warwick does the same with Rockbass products.

 

[alaskaleftybass]

I would guess that it's cheaper to drop ship to warehouses than to have them make an extra trip to Italy for a "second inspection." The Asian factories are now making state of the art top of the line gear and are very capable of QC from the factory. If you want cheap they can provide cheap. If you want high-end, they can do that too.

It would be nice if Markbass had passed the savings onto the customers.

 

[Hypercaffium]

As an italian, I'd say I freakin' hate that "Italian lifestile" logo. It's just terrible and pathetic.
I respect the brand and liked some products but that thing irritates me.

 

[alaskaleftybass]

As an italian, I'd say I freakin' hate that "Italian lifestile" logo. It's just terrible and pathetic.
I respect the brand and liked some products but that thing irritates me.

I've always admired Italian products-- whether it be the bass guitars or the high end sports cars or a good pair of Italian shoes. You guys to it with style.

 

[Hypercaffium]

I've always admired Italian products-- whether it be the bass guitars or the high end sports cars or a good pair of Italian shoes. You guys to it with style.

I agree, and I'm happy to hear that. But what does "italian lifestyle" means in that specific context? Nothing. It's just marketing BS, and done wrong imho. Maybe he's trying to copy the Gibson "lifestyle" thing? That's just pathetic. Plus, a good amount of MB products aren't even made in Italy. Come on...

 

[India_Sierra]

I do find the focus on Markbass' old Italian builds rather amusing, as a nation with little reputation for building over recent years but with a Europe-wide reputation for dodgy electronics.

That said, I love Markbass amps. They just have a great tone.