I bought one of these a month ago and thought i'd provide my thoughts on it. For perspective, I'm a jazz/fusion/pop player. I play a skjold 5 string, carpuso 6 and ibanez willis fretless.
Markbass is using a composite material for the cabinet that makes it lighter than plywood and the "covering" is molded into the material instead of it being vinyl. I didn't have it long enough to know what happens when you scuff it up. It was very light (23lb) and very small 15.35”x18.50”x14.17”. They have engineered the combos so they can take any standard size MB head which is kind of cool. The configuration has changed on these several times. When I purchased it from MF, it was advertised and pictured with a 500w amp but the latest configuration has a 300w amp in it. It's got a piezo tweeter (no crossover) and a ceramic magnet speaker in it.
I found the piezo somewhat harsh sounding and due to the technology, there is no adjustment for the tweeter. In retrospect, I should probably have looked to see whether there was a pure or energy version available. I think what MB has done with the P, Pure and Energy versions of their cabs is confusing and there's no clear choice of which would be best for a given player based on the descriptions. Unfortunately, my guitar center has such a limited selection that there is no way to compare....
For the size, it sounds great. I compared the combo's 1x12 vs a standalone MB58R Energy 1x12 cab which is quite a bit bigger (15.35”x22.76”x18.5”), 26lbs. For my tastes (jazz, fusion, pop) i found that the combo cab had a tighter bottom end although obviously as you turn it up louder, the bigger cab produces a more solid bottom.
I feel like the engineering on the combo somewhat misses the mark. First of all, it's a miss to have a small combo without a 2nd speaker jack on the amp IMO. I know most extension speakers have multiple parallel inputs but still...But also, the speaker and other inputs face downward in their design and, as you can see in the picture, there is not sufficient clearance underneath the amp to get a standard cable plugged in without a lot of stress on the connector and the cable. I bought a right angle neutrik speaker cable but it has not arrived. I don't know if the geometry will be correct for this configuration.
Also missing the mark, is not putting a neutrik connector on the cabinet itself. Instead there is a small hole drilled into the cabinet (below the amp) and a single right-angle, 1/4 jack (directly connected to the speaker) protrudes with just enough length to plug into the bottom of the amp.
To use a 2nd cabinet, you just jury-rig some type of 1/4 to 1/4 adapter or modify the cab to add a pair of neutrik connectors. This aspect of the design just does not feel well engineered to me.
I'm not a huge fan of the VLE / VPF or the 10k center frequency on the amp either. I can play an open G and sweep the treble left and right with no noticeable effect. Quite a contrast to my genzler (6k treble) or the tonehammer (4k treble) - but that's pretty standard with MB - although I notice some of the artist models (like the marcus) have the treble control moved down to 6k....
Still, for duo or quiet trio gigs, this combo seems to be a decent solution.
Markbass is using a composite material for the cabinet that makes it lighter than plywood and the "covering" is molded into the material instead of it being vinyl. I didn't have it long enough to know what happens when you scuff it up. It was very light (23lb) and very small 15.35”x18.50”x14.17”. They have engineered the combos so they can take any standard size MB head which is kind of cool. The configuration has changed on these several times. When I purchased it from MF, it was advertised and pictured with a 500w amp but the latest configuration has a 300w amp in it. It's got a piezo tweeter (no crossover) and a ceramic magnet speaker in it.
I found the piezo somewhat harsh sounding and due to the technology, there is no adjustment for the tweeter. In retrospect, I should probably have looked to see whether there was a pure or energy version available. I think what MB has done with the P, Pure and Energy versions of their cabs is confusing and there's no clear choice of which would be best for a given player based on the descriptions. Unfortunately, my guitar center has such a limited selection that there is no way to compare....
For the size, it sounds great. I compared the combo's 1x12 vs a standalone MB58R Energy 1x12 cab which is quite a bit bigger (15.35”x22.76”x18.5”), 26lbs. For my tastes (jazz, fusion, pop) i found that the combo cab had a tighter bottom end although obviously as you turn it up louder, the bigger cab produces a more solid bottom.
I feel like the engineering on the combo somewhat misses the mark. First of all, it's a miss to have a small combo without a 2nd speaker jack on the amp IMO. I know most extension speakers have multiple parallel inputs but still...But also, the speaker and other inputs face downward in their design and, as you can see in the picture, there is not sufficient clearance underneath the amp to get a standard cable plugged in without a lot of stress on the connector and the cable. I bought a right angle neutrik speaker cable but it has not arrived. I don't know if the geometry will be correct for this configuration.
Also missing the mark, is not putting a neutrik connector on the cabinet itself. Instead there is a small hole drilled into the cabinet (below the amp) and a single right-angle, 1/4 jack (directly connected to the speaker) protrudes with just enough length to plug into the bottom of the amp.
To use a 2nd cabinet, you just jury-rig some type of 1/4 to 1/4 adapter or modify the cab to add a pair of neutrik connectors. This aspect of the design just does not feel well engineered to me.
I'm not a huge fan of the VLE / VPF or the 10k center frequency on the amp either. I can play an open G and sweep the treble left and right with no noticeable effect. Quite a contrast to my genzler (6k treble) or the tonehammer (4k treble) - but that's pretty standard with MB - although I notice some of the artist models (like the marcus) have the treble control moved down to 6k....
Still, for duo or quiet trio gigs, this combo seems to be a decent solution.
