Will markbass be appropriate for rock?

[bassickman]

Let me know your thoughts...

[franzbassist]

Depends what sort of rock sound you are after I guess. Markbass is know for clean, but they do make some heads that have tubes in them if you want (at least a bit of) grit.

[BigRedX]

What sort of rock? Lots of different bass tones in different sub-genres of rock.

TBH the only way you'll really find out is to try one and see with your bass. preferably in a band setting.

[EskimoBassist]

I guess the real question is: will it be good for metal?

[Teobass88]

In my humble opinion...absolutely no! MarkBass is appropriate only for pop....

[stinson]

In my opinion yes. I've used a LM2 with a Precision for years and get get a great rock sound.

[ratking]

Had the R500 - excellent amp for "wooly" old-school rock sounds For modern rock or metal, it might lack high end and "snappiness" (that's why I sold it) ... But or classic rock tones, it's great!

[AttitudeCastle]

I used a Mark Bass Little rocker, and a Tube 800 W one (not sure what model)

Although not entirely my thing, with my cabs I'd be happy to gig with one behind me!

[51m0n]

[quote name='Teobass88' timestamp='1337692597' post='1664036']
In my humble opinion...absolutely no! MarkBass is appropriate only for pop....
[/quote]

Errr no....

[doomed]

I took delivery of a Tube 800 a couple of weeks ago to replace my terminally ill Kilo, tried it out through both my cab set ups now @ 4ohms through an Orange SP212 & an old Carlsbro cab that I had Fane Collosus 15" 400w put in, it was pretty loud through that I can assure you and no problem getting a suitable sound. Tried it this week through my Matamp 6x10 @ 8ohm and was again very pleased with the sound, to my ear it sounded nicer through the Matamp than my OTB 500.

[bassickman]

Take for example Red Hot Chili Peppers or Maroon 5 style, alt/funk rock. I'm talking about the tube 500?

thoughts?

[xgsjx]

In my & my old band's opinion, most definitely! If you need dirt, add a pedal. I did & still do.
Best idea is to go & try some kit to see what you like.

Only suitable for pop?

[EdwardHimself]

Yes. Next thread please.

[chrismuzz]

Before I even started experimenting with pedals I was using Markbass for everything from classic rock to extreme metal. They really bring out the sound of your bass with a flat EQ, and you can get pretty much any tone (as long as its clean!) using the VLE and VPF filters sparingly. You can go from smooth warm and fat, to sharp and aggressive in a split second. If you want any real dirt you will need to add a pedal or similar to your setup, but that only adds more versatility!

With SOME styles of music and SOME basses you may not get the tone you want straight away, but not only will you be able to get it eventually... You'' be able do do it LOUDER, with LIGHTER gear, and you'll find being heard in a band setting is so much easier without necessarily stealing all the sonic space

In short, yes, you can use it for anything as long as you can deal with the colour scheme

[jezzaboy]

Rhino form "THE QUO!" uses Markbass and if that ain`t rock, then frankly, I don`t know what is.

Jez

[Musicman20]

Markbass and Genz Benz are probably the best bet for ANY style of music (as in of you want a very clean pure tone) because add a pedal in, like the VT Bass, and you have instant rock tone. Turn it off, and you have a very crisp pure bass tone.

[thodrik]

RHCP/Maroon 5 is hardly pushing the boundaries of dirty rock tone, so just about any amp should be able to deliver, with the possbile exception of a valve amp with no real headroom. The trick is finding an amp that helps to deliver the ideal bass sound that exists in your head. Markbass is a good place to start.

[fretmeister]

Definitely.

And TBH, the more distorted the guitars are, the more clarity you want from the bass.

[Teobass88]

Yep, I think tha it has a very plastic sound...even with really good cab MarkBass heads (I can talk about LM and SD) are still compressed and absolutely without dynamic.
I know that many great artists use MarkBass in many different kind of music (From Caròn til Orion) but these bad features make, in my opinion obviously, the sound of these amp's only suitable for Pop Music.

[51m0n]

I think you're wrong, not my experience of MB heads into great cabs at all.

Driving a suitable cab they are excelletn amps for all styles of music, IME and IMO.

[chrismuzz]

[quote name='Teobass88' timestamp='1337713529' post='1664458']
Yep, I think tha it has a very plastic sound...even with really good cab MarkBass heads (I can talk about LM and SD) are still compressed and absolutely without dynamic.
I know that many great artists use MarkBass in many different kind of music (From Caròn til Orion) but these bad features make, in my opinion obviously, the sound of these amp's only suitable for Pop Music.
[/quote]

I wouldn't say the sound of the heads is overall compressed, but they do have a built in peak limiter to protect the speaker cabs if thats what you mean? Apparently the Little Mark III heads have an updated limiter to combat this. I'll admit that without some EQing, the heads through certain cabs don't sound too great in some rock and metal contexts... However I ran my F1 head through an Ampeg SVT 6x10 cab and it kicked the pants off any all valve rig

[51m0n]

IIRC the updated limiter did not find its way into the LMIII in the end.

However that issue only arose when driving an 8 Ohm cab hard, with a reasonably sensitive quality 4Ohm cab there is no problem generating very large amounts of volume from that range of MB heads (the LMII-alikes, digital power supply, analogue power amp).

[51m0n]

I will say they that those particular MB heads tend to produce a slightly warm very clean tone, they arent' uber clean (the F1 F500 and other digital power amp section amps are far cleaner) in fact, buit stay very very true to the bass that is plugged into them all the same

The eq and filters are really nice, although the sa450 sweepable mids make the eq section far more useful for me.

They arent very genre specific at all - if you need grit stick an appropriate pedal in front of them....

[chrismuzz]

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1337714385' post='1664480']
IIRC the updated limiter did not find its way into the LMIII in the end.

However that issue only arose when driving an 8 Ohm cab hard, with a reasonably sensitive quality 4Ohm cab there is no problem generating very large amounts of volume from that range of MB heads (the LMII-alikes, digital power supply, analogue power amp).
[/quote]

I never knew that!

And yeah even with my 8 ohm cab I only get the compressing effect if I turn up past 2 o'clock

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1337714615' post='1664488']
I will say they that those particular MB heads tend to produce a slightly warm very clean tone, they arent' uber clean (the F1 F500 and other digital power amp section amps are far cleaner) in fact, buit stay very very true to the bass that is plugged into them all the same

The eq and filters are really nice, although the sa450 sweepable mids make the eq section far more useful for me.

They arent very genre specific at all - if you need grit stick an appropriate pedal in front of them....
[/quote]

There's definitely a noticeable difference in the LM series and the F series! The F series are a lot more aggressive but can be warmed up close to a LM sound if you take a little high mid out. I used to get a great clanky metal tone from it while running it clean. It's VERY unforgiving of technique inconsistencies though!

Edited May 22, 2012 by chrismuzz

[Lozz196]

A bassist in a local punk covers band uses a Markbass 310 combo, and it sounds great for that style of music, so can`t see why it wouldn`t be ok for rock.