Hello all...
I currently have a fairly crappy bass rig... I bought it piecemeal over the past couple years before I had financial headroom to afford anything decent... Because my budget was extremely modest, I picked up a Behringer BX4500 head and two SteelSound 8-ohm 2x10s. Soon after that I scored a used Traynor 4-ohm 1x18; it had issues with the speaker cutting in and out, so I picked up an 18-inch Peavey Black Widow @ 8-ohms to swap out the dodgy stock speaker, so that I could use it with one of the 2x10s for an overall richer tone (was hardly getting any real lows from the 2x10s). Well, I found out the reason why the Traynor speaker was intermittent was because of a loose connection, but that's neither here nor there, I swapped it out for the Peavey Black Widow speaker, and it solved some of my problems, but it was still sounding inconsistent. Some notes were sounding way louder than others, depending where on the fretboard I was playing. And the real low notes were just getting lost, super muffled and floppy. Eventually I scored another cheap 1x18 subwoofer cabinet, a Yamaha 8-ohm, so I started using that one instead of the Traynor/Peavey, and noticed a definite improvement in tone, but still was having many of the same problems. Mostly that the low notes were sounding like utter crap. I figured that the overall crappiness of my rig is partially to blame, but I tend to think that the Behringer head is the biggest culprit.
Well anyway, being that my cash flow has improved, I started to consider looking around for new options for amplification, not expecting to find anything in my immediate & current budget range that would really help me very much. Well to help cut this long-ass story short, here's my journal entry for July 24:
I went to Guitar Center on my lunch break today.... I had my bass with me... I've been really unhappy with the sound I've been getting out of my current amplifier set-up, so I wanted to try out some different options for amplification.
The first thing I tried out was a Line 6 combo... What a piece of $#!+... enough said...
Then for the hell of it, I tried out a Markbass stack. Wow... So smooth and full and warm, even down to the low notes that my present amp has trouble handling... Nice even tone no matter where I played on the fretboard.... But I'm not about to shell out a couple grand for that stack... So I see this little Markbass head (called "Little Mark II") next to it plugged into a 15-inch speaker below it, for only about $600 (I think)... I plug my bass in and I get virtually the same exact beautiful sound. Now I'm wondering if it's the amp head or the 15-inch cabinet (or a combination of the two) that's giving me this lovely tone.
So I got back to work and looked up Markbass online to see what people were saying about them. Apparently everyone absolutely loves them. The "Little Mark II" and other related combos are universally adored... So, I plan to sell my Behringer BX4500H head and purchase one of these little (about 3 x 10 x 11 inches, about 6 lbs) but big-sounding (500 watts) "Little Mark II" heads.... But first I want to bring my chorus and delay pedals and try out the amp through the crappiest speaker cabinet they have.
Well anyway, the next week I did just that, brought the two pedals I use for most of the stuff I do with my current band, and tried out the LMII through a cheap Hartke 2x10. It definitely didn't sound as deep as it did through the MB 15-inch cab, but the tone was still astounding and even, from top to bottom notes.
So anyway, come next payday (Aug 16) I plan to purchase a new LMII head. My Behringer is up for sale.
Here's my question: Being that, for now, I will just be using the LMII through the crappy SteelSound 2x10 (which actually sounds good as a guitar combo extension cabinet) and the Yamaha 18, what can I expect in immediate change of tone going from my Behringer to the Markbass head? I'm pretty confident that there will be an immediate improvement, but I was wondering what anyone else might know about what I should expect right off the bat....
Of course, the next step probably should be to invest in a good cabinet or two. But I'm wondering how urgent I'll be needing to do that. Considering I'll be coming from my current Behringer head, will the improvement in tone be enough to keep me thrilled for some time before I feel the need to replace the cabinets? Or will I immediately feel the need to replace them with more approriate cabinets?
Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated!
I currently have a fairly crappy bass rig... I bought it piecemeal over the past couple years before I had financial headroom to afford anything decent... Because my budget was extremely modest, I picked up a Behringer BX4500 head and two SteelSound 8-ohm 2x10s. Soon after that I scored a used Traynor 4-ohm 1x18; it had issues with the speaker cutting in and out, so I picked up an 18-inch Peavey Black Widow @ 8-ohms to swap out the dodgy stock speaker, so that I could use it with one of the 2x10s for an overall richer tone (was hardly getting any real lows from the 2x10s). Well, I found out the reason why the Traynor speaker was intermittent was because of a loose connection, but that's neither here nor there, I swapped it out for the Peavey Black Widow speaker, and it solved some of my problems, but it was still sounding inconsistent. Some notes were sounding way louder than others, depending where on the fretboard I was playing. And the real low notes were just getting lost, super muffled and floppy. Eventually I scored another cheap 1x18 subwoofer cabinet, a Yamaha 8-ohm, so I started using that one instead of the Traynor/Peavey, and noticed a definite improvement in tone, but still was having many of the same problems. Mostly that the low notes were sounding like utter crap. I figured that the overall crappiness of my rig is partially to blame, but I tend to think that the Behringer head is the biggest culprit.
Well anyway, being that my cash flow has improved, I started to consider looking around for new options for amplification, not expecting to find anything in my immediate & current budget range that would really help me very much. Well to help cut this long-ass story short, here's my journal entry for July 24:
I went to Guitar Center on my lunch break today.... I had my bass with me... I've been really unhappy with the sound I've been getting out of my current amplifier set-up, so I wanted to try out some different options for amplification.
The first thing I tried out was a Line 6 combo... What a piece of $#!+... enough said...
Then for the hell of it, I tried out a Markbass stack. Wow... So smooth and full and warm, even down to the low notes that my present amp has trouble handling... Nice even tone no matter where I played on the fretboard.... But I'm not about to shell out a couple grand for that stack... So I see this little Markbass head (called "Little Mark II") next to it plugged into a 15-inch speaker below it, for only about $600 (I think)... I plug my bass in and I get virtually the same exact beautiful sound. Now I'm wondering if it's the amp head or the 15-inch cabinet (or a combination of the two) that's giving me this lovely tone.
So I got back to work and looked up Markbass online to see what people were saying about them. Apparently everyone absolutely loves them. The "Little Mark II" and other related combos are universally adored... So, I plan to sell my Behringer BX4500H head and purchase one of these little (about 3 x 10 x 11 inches, about 6 lbs) but big-sounding (500 watts) "Little Mark II" heads.... But first I want to bring my chorus and delay pedals and try out the amp through the crappiest speaker cabinet they have.
Well anyway, the next week I did just that, brought the two pedals I use for most of the stuff I do with my current band, and tried out the LMII through a cheap Hartke 2x10. It definitely didn't sound as deep as it did through the MB 15-inch cab, but the tone was still astounding and even, from top to bottom notes.
So anyway, come next payday (Aug 16) I plan to purchase a new LMII head. My Behringer is up for sale.
Here's my question: Being that, for now, I will just be using the LMII through the crappy SteelSound 2x10 (which actually sounds good as a guitar combo extension cabinet) and the Yamaha 18, what can I expect in immediate change of tone going from my Behringer to the Markbass head? I'm pretty confident that there will be an immediate improvement, but I was wondering what anyone else might know about what I should expect right off the bat....
Of course, the next step probably should be to invest in a good cabinet or two. But I'm wondering how urgent I'll be needing to do that. Considering I'll be coming from my current Behringer head, will the improvement in tone be enough to keep me thrilled for some time before I feel the need to replace the cabinets? Or will I immediately feel the need to replace them with more approriate cabinets?
Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated!
, after practice, I found that my 112 was unplugged and the whole practice was played with the LMK11 at 300 watts into my Epi UL2 115 (I had been trying the cabs individually beforehand). We then played again with the 112/115 setup and I had to turn the master down to noon (from 1:30). I was playing with very light touch and the headroom and tone were intoxicating!! I feel like I'm home 
