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Double Bass More Questions About the GK MB150E.

A

Alan Vorse

Aug 20, 2005
1,665
34
#1
I searched through the older threads and didn't really find my answer.

I'd lke to get a MB150E because of the size and portability. My band is sax, Rhodes and a loud-ish drummer. Do you think this amp would be able to keep up? Would mic-ing it up or taking a line out in club settings work if its not loud enough? How about when there's no P.A.? Thanks in advance.
 
#2
The GK MB combos are great for DB, however I don't think it will do the job in your band. To keep up with Rhodes and "loudish" drummer you will need more power. For size and portability I would recommend the Markbass Mini CMD 121P combo. It's just slightly heavier and little bigger than the GK and has unbelievable amount of power and full and punchy sound, which cuts through the band.
 
#3
This is just my own personal experience with the amp. You'll only really know whether or not it works for you until you try one, so if you have the chance to play through one before buying, give it a shot...
For what it's worth...I use the MB150E with a pretty loud 12 piece "big band", playing a fairly large room, and have yet to have had a problem being heard. I've also played plenty of times with the same instrumentation as your group, and it works fine. The drummers I play with aren't usually loud-ish all the time, but they do go there with their use of dynamics.
 
#5
Kevin Hsieh said:
I just got an MB150S. Played a gig outside on my school campus with a 6 piece band and it was still loud enough. check out my Gig+Footage thread in the recording section to take a look. I love mine. It sounds so great direct from an underwood.
Click to expand...

Notice that Kevin is using a MBS not the MBE. IMHO it has a more DB friendly pre amp voicing. Since the MB's have a 1 megohm input it makes them more piezo friendly. My only suggestion would be to try one of F Decks buffer pre amps.

Ric
 
#6
I've played in extremely similar situations, including a Rhodes player that absolutely loves to crank up his amp. And this amp has gotten me through. It also helps to put it through another cab as well, but I've had luck with this amp in louder-than-ideal situations. But as Phil said, you won't know for sure until you have a chance to try it out.
 
#9
I've played my GKMB150 in clubs with drums, keys, guitar and vocals and it's had more than enough volume - and that's without going through a PA.

And for louder settings, like my 17-piece big band, I use the amp with an extension cabinet. This setup is mainly to reduce feedback, as I put the amp in front of me and the extension cabinet far away but aimed at me.

I think it's such a great amp, I actually have two! (The second one was used and offered so cheaply that I couldn't resist.)
 
#10
Rob Hunter said:
...I use the amp with an extension cabinet. This setup is mainly to reduce feedback, as I put the amp in front of me and the extension cabinet far away but aimed at me. ...
Click to expand...
That was going to be my suggestion, as I have a 15" extension cabinet that can make it a legit rig for some pretty good volume. I, too, like to get the little speaker nearest my ears and try not to let it interact with the bass. IME, the ext. speaker and/or P.A. from D.I. out should be far away AND pointing away from the bass as much as possible, though.

To be safe, the ext cab should be 8 ohms min. if both speakers are used, to keep the total load nominally 4 ohms.
 
#12
the GK MB150E has a couple more pots that give you some more flexibility in tone. IMO, there's a little too much flexibility, and i'm the kind of guy who's a complete doofus when it comes to fiddling with eq. I can't dial in tone for the life of me. In every setting i've played in with the MB150S, the 3 knobs set to somewhere around 12 o'clock have done just great for me, giving me that warmth and smoothness of tone that i've been looking for in my amps. the E just makes things a little too complicated for me.

as for extensions. I'm considering the Flite 112 which my previous teacher Roger Shew will probably unload to me if need be.

RShew has an E that he is never going to sell... you might want to PM him if you want to talk more E with him.
 
#13
Kevin Hsieh said:
as for extensions. I'm considering the Flite 112...
Click to expand...
I have the Flite 112 cabinet as well as the GK Microbass extension cabinet (I use the Flite with a different amp). I've tried them both as extra cabs for the GK amp and the GK cabinet seems to "work" better with the amp. Maybe it's because the speakers in the combo and cabinet are similar, if not the same.

Mind you, the Flite is still a very good cabinet.

If any of this helps...
 
#15
My 2 cents - I saw a friend playing with his ancient MB150 with his 14 piece big band, horns mic'd up etc and a nice big fat sound that I assumed was going through the FoH, but when I sat in on the last set, I realised that all that sound was coming out of the MB150.

However, close up, I thought it sounded dreadful - very middy and coloured - although it was good for intonation. Out front (where it counts with the punters) the big bass frequencies caught up with the mids and it sounded great. A very strange experience.

Also, when I played with the band a few weeks later, despite all the hype about down-firing woofers being omnidirectional, the band was complaining that they couldn't hear my series 2 contra, so I had to di it and bung a bit through the fold back.
 
#16
Kevin Hsieh said:
the GK MB150E has a couple more pots that give you some more flexibility in tone. IMO, there's a little too much flexibility, and i'm the kind of guy who's a complete doofus when it comes to fiddling with eq. I can't dial in tone for the life of me. In every setting i've played in with the MB150S, the 3 knobs set to somewhere around 12 o'clock have done just great for me, giving me that warmth and smoothness of tone that i've been looking for in my amps. the E just makes things a little too complicated for me.
Click to expand...

+1
Kevin,
I agree totally. Peronally, I like as few tone controls as possible. For some reason I've found that the more complicated midrange eq voicings with multiple bands don't work as well for double bass.

Ric
 

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