MoJoKe

Like most manufacturers, Markbass have never stood still and are currently going through a significant evolution. Sadly the new cabs (5 very different ones. 2 Marcus Miller, 2 Michael League and the Stu Hamm 2 x 15, which is amazingly articulate, given the configuration), which were launched at NAMM, won't be in the UK until June, I suggest you reserve your critique until then, because I suspect you will be pleased with the result! Preview here: http://www.markbass.it/media/upload_area/2018/01/18/cat_news2018_web_light.pdf I am currently getting my head around the new Little Marcus 800, and it is a beast! A very different beast, and while it can easily be made to sound just like an LM3, it is far more old school and a darker, warmer tone at its "everything at 12 o'clock" setting. With five tone knobs and that the VLE now extends a further 50hz down to 200hz, makes a massive difference... The new Combo I think will be quite exciting too, as the head is offset, meaning that the cab is as small and light as it could possibly be, given the frequency range it'll be handling. Both the 500 and 800 heads will be at the London Bass Guitar Show, where I will be working alongside MSL again, so do say hi if you're coming!

Reliability of Markbass is well up there, and the Ninja is no different! The Ninja heads have masses more headroom so just feel bigger and more "open" sounding, but the same essential tone character of the Little Mark III. Regarding usability, many Markbass users leave all tone controls at virtually 12 O'clock and as M@23 said, do all they need with the filters. VLE - Vintage Loudspeaker Emulation (or James Jamerson knob as I like to call it!) and VPF - Variable Pre-shape Filter (which is a mid scoop), so yeah, pretty easy to find your tone really!

what do you need to know?

Ooh, I hope so! The Marcus 500/800 heads will be in the shops very soon, the rest will all follow by the summer hopefully!

you could also try... https://www.axioncustom.co.uk

There was a company called Jeannies in the US which made pickguards for Lakland 55-02 Skylines, but only Korean models, not Indonesian, and I think they've stopped trading... You could try these guys:- http://www.originalscratchplates.com/product/lakland-55-02/ I looked at them a while back but haven't done it yet. If you do, please report back!!

You'll have to be second in the queue for the combo, I'm afraid! haha! The Nano Mark is a cracking bit of kit...

Here is the official link! http://www.markbass.it/news-detail/namm-2018-new-products/

As @bubinga5 says, Lakland all the way. I have a 55-02 and a DJ5 with a J-retro preamp, and without spending considerably more have the best B string of anything by far, and huge tonal options. I'm also with @Sibob on the Nanomark 300/NY121, but for a small combo, Markbass Micromark 801 or Minimark 802, and if you can wait a month or two, there is a spanky new Marcus Miller CMD 101 Micro 60 on its way, which has similar output but more tone options. All have DI out, so ideal as a preamp if you do end up gigging. I'm definitely having one of these!

Your Little Mark 3 has two speaker connectors, one is a combination Speakon AND 1/4 jack (you can use a 1/4 cable OR Speakon), the other a 1/4 jack (below the Speakon) . You can connect one cab to each connection (the newer cabs also have combination Speakons, so you can use Speakon or Jack at each end) or, as I do, use two Speakon cables (Speakon are more solid/stable as they lock in), with the first cab connected to the amp, then the second linked from the first cab. Either way, they will be linked correctly in parallel to work at 4ohm (as long as each cab is 8ohm!).

If you are looking to have a bigger sound, then I would say your best option is definitely to sell the 4ohm cab first. Then you have quite a few options. If you want to stick with a single cab, the NY122 is a 2 x 12 cab which runs at 4ohm, and can handle up to 800w. Making full use of the amp power. If you want to use 2 cabs, then they don't need to be the same! They DO however both need to be 8ohms each. Traveler and New York cabs come in several different sizes. You could use: 2 x TRV102p 2 x TRV151p (or 2 x NY151, slightly more compact, tighter sound) 2 x TRV121h (or 2 x NY121, the NY is smaller, has a tweeter, with a tighter sound, the TRV has a horn, so has a more throaty sound, but in both cases you can attenuate the horn/tweeter to change the sound of the cabs) 1 x TRV102p and 1 x TRV151p (a very common configuration) 1 x TRV121h and 1 x TRV151p (this is what I most frequently use! Its warmer and punchier than the above! I feel it also gives me more useable options if I choose to use a single cab). Hope that helps!

Absolutely, and ditto when I do a gig in Europe. Most of the time you'll be absolutely fine, but if you get a power spike, in the UK this can be "acceptably" higher within the UK tolerances than those of the EU. As you say, the US is a different story.

"Declared" is not the same as "the same"! I researched all this when I recently bought a Samson Powerbrite Pro for my PA rack, and saw it showing 253 volts on the display!! Here's how it works: "For many years, mainland Western Europe has used a mains electricity supply rated at nominally 220VAC 50Hz. The UK used 240VAC 50Hz. Currently, ALL Western European supplies are classified 230VAC. In reality there is no 230VAC supply unless you create one locally. 230VAC was a “standard” created during European "harmonisation" to give a single voltage standard across Western Europe, including UK and Irish Republic. Although the ideal would have been to have a single voltage there were too many political, financial and technical obstacles to reduce UK voltage to European levels or to increase European voltage to UK levels, so a new standard was created to cover both. This was achieved by changing the tolerances of previously existing supply standards. UK voltage to 240VAC + 6% and - 10% and European to 220VAC +10% and -6% (thereby creating a manageable overlap) and we would call these two combined 230VAC, despite the fact that nobody was intentionally generating at 230VAC! Depending on the voltage sensitivity of the product and the variance from nominal of the actual supplied voltage, it may not be advisable to use a 220VAC specific device in the UK or a 240VAC specific device in Mainland Europe etc. For instance a 240VAC supply can rise to as high as 254.4VAC and still be within tolerance, but the maximum rated voltage for a 220VAC product is only 242VAC. A 220VAC supply can drop as low as 206.8 within tolerance but the minimum rated voltage for correct operation of a 240VAC product is 216VAC It may work perfectly well either way but it could be, technically, outside the specification of the equipment with obvious implications. A 230VAC product must be compatible with all voltages across this range." So, this is a potential problem way beyond Markbass, or any other bass amplifier. In summary this means: Equipment shipped within the EU is rated to manage 230VAC, but in reality this is 220VAC +10% which, at its highest acceptable level within the standard is 242 volts The UK power supply is rated at 240VAC +6%, which gives an acceptable maximum tolerance output of 254.40 volts (and as said above, I have recorded 253 myself!) In most cases you'll be absolutely fine buying electrical goods from Holland/Germany, but it’s therefore not surprising some of it occasionally gets fried - and it'll have to go back to the supplier/country for repair/replacement (your consumer rights are with the person you bought from). Full article here: https://www.schneider-electric.co.uk/en/faqs/FA144717/

The brand new 102-500 is a bit of a steal at the moment too if you can find one in the shops at the original launch price. Its cheaper than a 102p combo if you can find one, and considerably smaller stage footprint...

The NY151 Black and the yellow coned NY151 cab will both be the same footprint as your Combo and will both sound great. The latter will be a bigger investment, but if you're thinking of upgrading to either the MiniCMD151p or Jeff Berlin 151 combos sometime, you'd be more future proofed. I owned a 151p combo/NY151, loved it and used it as my main rig for about 4 years, until I bought my Multiamp and TRV cabs... The preamps are identical, the only difference between the JB school and the MiniCMD 151p is the output power (JB Player is150w at 8ohm/250w at 4ohm, where the yellow ones are 300w/500w) and the blackline drivers are slightly heavier than the yellow Neodymium ones, but not too much more the (black NY151 is about 3.7kg more)

If you look at the Markbass Facebook thread, Marco has been very vocal about the Italy/Indonesia (non)issue in the last few days... I've used both for years (since 2009), and couldn't tell you the difference in sound or quality. Completely moot, old and irrelevant point now. Their unquestionably high quality and low failure rate speaks for itself. There is always going to be someone with an unlucky story to add to this (and I've had issues myself), but UK support/service is strong (as long as you didn't buy from Germany/Holland; wrong power rating for the UK), and compared to many manufacturers, far, far less issues of pro use with Markbass in my 40 years of bass amps... Oh, and my back stopped complaining a while back too!!