Opinion on Markbass

[descendent22]

My opinion: overrated and waaaaay over priced

 

[selowitch]

Perhaps.

 

[Axlotronix]

IMHO, their amps' sound is quite harsh and unforgiving, which can be very nice if you dug that kind of thing. Bright highs, not honky at all with very dry bass and solid low mid thump. Plug in some high quality bass and you get a high quality sound. Plug in a Chinese ripoff POS bass and I wish you good luck.
They are, in general, very good to cut through a mix.

thats exactly my point of view with Markbass. Playing throught my LMII (+ 1x12 Soundelirium cab 400W/8Ohm) making me better player, because as you say it is completely unforgiving.
Markbass amps are really good for fusion players, when you need a lot of dynamics.

 

[selowitch]

I like the VLE/VLF knobs on my MB CMD 121P, though I couldn’t really tell you what they do. The amp pairs well live with my EBMM SR 5H and the built-in DI is handy for connecting to the FOH and for recording. I find that if I don’t quite like the sound, I can either change the EQ settings or fiddle with my bass’ onboard controls. It’s a very good do-everything amplifier. It costs a bit more than average but the durability makes it wortwhile.

 

[Jeff Scott]

I like the VLE/VLF knobs on my MB CMD 121P, though I couldn’t really tell you what they do...

 

[TrevorG]

View attachment 3166502

Where are these graphs from, please?

 

[selowitch]

View attachment 3166502

Thanks, but I don’t know what any of that means.

 

[arbiterusa]

Interested in getting a 151p (Jeff Berlin?) model

About five years ago, I went to the Elks lodge right up the street from me, and there was your typical rock/blues act playing. Two guitars through two hot rod deluxes, not a quiet amp and they were not playing quiet. Drummer. And guy with a P playing through this little tiny amp (121H). He wasn’t in my face, but I could hear him all throughout the room. I assumed he was in the PA.

He wasn’t in the PA.

I was impressed. Not a combo guy but that’s all my local GC had. And after the first two I was pretty discouraged, but then I played the Berlin combo and thought “OK, that’s a tone I can work with”. Now, I am a tweeter guy, and like my heads and speakers separate, so I got the non-tube 800 and the SWR golight cabs and played them for a couple of years. Recently sold the head and went GK, the Markbass tone is not really mine - but it’s a damn good and very EFFECTIVE tone, as in my example above, it covers a room and you get heard no matter what.

So I’m not playing them anymore but I’ll never say a bad word about them. They are great amps. Also should mention the direct out is a joy to work with, soundguys love it and it records well too.

If somebody said “combo or your life” I’d get either the 121H or the Berlin. No hesitation. If you don’t want or can’t move a head/cab arrangement the Markbass stuff sits right in that frequency band that gets you heard.

 

[arbiterusa]

They became furious when MB switched it's manufacturing to China where all the other name brands were already being built.

Not China. Indonesia. And I could not tell the difference between my Indonesian Big Bang and my Italian made 800. Both sounded great and never gave me any trouble.

 

[Al Kraft]

Thanks, but I don’t know what any of that means.

To answer your specific question about the VLE and VPF: The VLE is a Vintage Loudspeaker Emulator and it basically starts dialing back your top frequencies which sort of dulls down the tone and makes it sound less hi-fi/more old school - think of putting a blanket over your cab so you just hear bass and less and less treble. The VPF is a Variable Pass Filter and essentially scoops out mid-range tones (centered around 350-400Hz) and adds a little boost to the treble and bass frequencies.

The other graphs simply tell you how much the EQ knobs can either boost (add) or attenuate (reduce) in their respective frequency ranges as you turn the knob right (to add) or left (to reduce). Without getting technical that is what you're looking at.

 

[selowitch]

One nice thing about my Markbass amp is that I don't find it necessary to fiddle much with the knobs during a performance or a recording session.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Where are these graphs from, please?

This one, in particular, was from a Google search, but they are in Markbass user manuals.

 

[Stranger Danger]

Interested in getting a 151p (Jeff Berlin?) model, I've played with some Markbass amps and have found them sound...different than other amps. I played around with a Stingray on a variety of amps, finding the Rumble and Peggy to sound good, but fairly similar, whereas the 121p had a much *stronger* bass and low-mid punch. I found a deal on Craigslist, for the aforementioned Jeff Berlin model, and prior to firing the gun, I wanna see what you guys think about the amps. I often see threads on Ampegs, Fenders, GK, Hartke...not often does anyone discuss MB.

Get the 121p

 

[Stranger Danger]

I have a Markbass 4X10 HR cab and TTE 800 head for larger venues.

For practice and smaller gigs I use a CMD 121P with a NY 1X12.

Last amplification gear I'll ever need; love 'em.

I used a 121p with an NY121 today. I can’t imagine needing more volume than that. Wow!

 

[Stranger Danger]

No question about reliability, Markbass makes good gear. I find them too sterile to my likings, too "polite".

Gotta get that gain up to about 2:00. That’s where the grunt and growl is at.

 

[Stranger Danger]

FWIW, I'm a long time Ampeg-Fender user and Markbass to me besides being hideous has a very sterile, dry sound.

You have to like the way your instrument sounds to like Markbass stuff. It gives you what you give it. It’s honest. I like that.

 

[Russell L]

I can vouch for the 121H combo. Mine is an '08 model with a LMII head in it. I think it sounds better than the 121P combo due to its compression driver instead of a piezo tweeter. I've stood back and listened to other guys play it at jams with no PA support, and it sounded great all over the room. I like the sound of it even better than my LMIII separate head through one of my Traveler 151P cabs.

I'd choose it any time over a Jeff Berlin, if for no other reason than that it's 300w at 8 ohms. I don't really see the usefulness of the JB.

 

[bobyoung53]

You have to like the way your instrument sounds to like Markbass stuff. It gives you what you give it. It’s honest. I like that.

Amps are part of my sound just like most guitar players, I love the way my instruments sound BTW both amplified and acoustically.

 

[Stranger Danger]

Amps are part of my sound just like most guitar players, I love the way my instruments sound BTW both amplified and acoustically.

Ok

 

[bobyoung53]

Ok

I also have to say I've only used them in one situation and didn't have a lot of time to fool with the controls, I did use it 5 or 6 times but I don't really consider that to be a true test, I'd have to live with one for a while so my mind is still (somewhat) open