Good late evening/early morning members. Seriously, this was the only posting for the entire Wednesday? No offense, M, and thanks for contributing, but not even one crazy combo entry...sheesh. Oh I know, I was AWOL too. But I had a good reason. I was doing...stuff. Offhand, I don't remember any of it, but I think there was some school junk mixed in with some musical junk, etc. Oh well, I'm here now and cranking out the first of what I hope will be dozens of great posts by the rank and file for this Thursday.
So Morrighan, are you heading to or departing from? I'm assuming you spent St. Patty's Day on the Emerald Island, correct? Or is this photo someone's fancy desktop wallpaper and you're really sitting in Schenectady, New York, waiting for the second coming of Charles Mingus? Proof you went or are there or we're calling it fishy.
As for me, a couple of days ago I hinted there was something combo-like coming to the abode and absolutely no one retorted with any interest or enthusiasm. Have you all become so jaded by my musical purchases that there's zero interest at all? Wow, what happened to me? I turned into a dud, that's what happened.
Regardless, the brown truck did pull up late in the afternoon on Wednesday and dropped off a box (see pic 1). To my surprise, it was a bass combo amp. One, three months ago, I would've never considered buying. But after one of our newer members, TheMickster, poignantly replied to an opinion I had about a certain brand, I realized he was right. The power is in the fingers and it shouldn't matter as much what you play through, though I still believe the right amp makes the player's skills shine through even more. So I thought to myself a week ago, maybe the third time is a charm (see pics 2-4).
I picked up a Markbass CMD 101, which is the smallest combo in the Marcus Miller lineup. It's one ten-inch speaker with 45 watts at 8 ohms. if paired up with another 8-ohm cabinet, then the power bumps up to a whopping 60 watts for both speakers. You also have the option of bypassing the internal speaker if you want. With XLR and headphone outs, an Aux-in, three-band EQ (big difference from my previous Micromark, which had only a VPF knob for tone), separate gain and volume controls, and a tweeter (which the 801 doesn't have either) (see pics 5-7).
How does it sound? Well, I admit I haven't had much time to really put it through its paces, but so far I love it. I know, honeymoon period and it may be, but there's way more bottom end to play with this time, the cab is larger but is still easy to schlep, the tone controls make an immediate impact upon turning left or right, and it sounds great with either the violin bass or the Precision, particularly all by their lonesome...no pedals involved. It's been so long since I plugged straight into an amp and liked what I heard. My short time with it was really fun. right now as you can see, it's sitting on top of the Rumbler 115 but I haven't tried the two together yet.
Finally, what do I plan on doing with it? Besides the PBJ, it's the only modern-sounding amp in the stable. I realized just how many combos I have that provide an old-school tone and I sought to balance the playing field a bit. I was also curious about this particular one because it's reviewed pretty decex1ntly and the MM line itself seems to be doing well. Also, GC used the power of the four-leaf clover and knocked a crisp Franklin off of the price. That didn't hurt any. I'll put some time in over the next few weeks and see how we get along, but at the outset, I'm thinking, for me, it's the best-sounding MB I've played yet and that's saying something.
Feel free to question or comment if you're around. I'll be checking in periodically over the weekend. M, hope you have safe travels wherever you're en-route to. Keep us posted if you find yourself in the middle of a gig!
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