Serious help needed! Aguilar TH350-500 or Little Mark III?

I have owned a LM II and a F1, both great amps, but the Tone Hammer 500 I have in place of them is louder cleaner, with a more useful (to me) tone control arrangement. I could never quite dial in what I needed from the two mid controls on the Markbass, the sweep mid control on the Aguilar is great and the frequency range of the sweep is in just the right spectrum to be truly useful to bassists. The Drive feature actually creates a whole different sounding amp, (when I need that kind of tone) overdriven to taste and more midrange complexity along with that, depending on the settings of both the Drive and Gain controls.

 

With the Markbass amps I have used Traynor YS-15s with DeltaPro drivers, three different variations (one custom designed/made for me) of Dr. Bass 2-12 cabinets (each of which had totally different brand/models of 12" drivers), LDS 286 and 2126 cabinets (both custom designed/made for me); the Aguilar has been used with an Aguilar DB112, and the two above mentioned LDS cabinets.

From what I have read here, I would go with the Aguilar cabinets you are considering.

 

Rock band and medium sized room? You asked if you'd be loud enough, which implies you WON'T have PA support for bass. Ok, to me that means a quad of very good 12s at the very least.

You said you also have a 15. If you mix that 15 with anything that isn't the same, you could wind up hurting yourself rather than helping. Or maybe not. Read the many threads here on mixing non-identical cabs.

You could use a building block approach: Just keep buying PF cabs as money permits, and you'll eventually get to qty=4, which should handle a medium room with a rock band and no PA support. With this strategy, you're guaranteed your cabs will be compatible with each other.

 

And get to a point where you drop below the amp's minimum impedence. This might not be the best advice.

 

There is more to speaker choice beside the size of the driver (12" vs. 15"); the sensitivity, frequency response, maximum SPLs, etc., need to be taken into consideration, as you may well find a 1-12 cabinet to outperform a 1-15 cabinet (for example) depending on all those (and other) variables.

 

I think the ToneHammers have a much better variety of tones than the Markbass heads. I have mine matched with a Aguilar DB 810, and it soudns equally amazing through a DB 210. I've also played it through a Schroeder 610, which has a harder to control mid-range tone. Regarding the SL112, I found it to be somewhat less articulate, with less a mid presence than the DB series of cabs.

 

The building block idea can apply to heads, too. Yeesh. :-\

 

I have tried the PF115 and found it to be a rather quiet sounding cabinet (in combination with the PF500 that was attached to it), so even four of them together may not be as loud as some other more modern design cabinets, say a popular (around here) 2-12 design, for example.

Just going by personal, real world experience, here.

 

A Stingray sounds great going through a TH500. I was never fond of the LM3 heads, but love my TH. I'd also suggest going for the 500 over the 350. It's not really that much of a price difference. Aguilar cabs are great too, but as others have said, don't go mixing cab, you never know how it'll turn out.

 

Congrats! Can the Rumble 2-8 cab handle the power of the amp?

 

I have played and owned the TH500 and different MB heads (SA450, F1, Momark) with different Aguilar 12" speakers.
I have always come back to Markbass heads as I have always had problems with the way the Aguilar head's low controls work.
Right now I am using a MB TA503 (as well as other heads). It has a 4 band semi paramteric eq .... but is dicontinued

 

...and in the end the P-Bass doesn't give a **** what it's played through... it always sounds nice...