Will markbass be appropriate for rock?

[gary mac]

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1337702441' post='1664249']
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.
[/quote]

Which is one of the reasons that I settled on the Genz Shuttle 6 and two Mark Bass 2 x 10"s. I have used this set up with a Classic Rock band, an Indie Rock band, Function band, doing country stuff and a Pub Pop/Funk/Rock band. With a bit of eq tweeking it has worked very well in each setting.

[Ed_S]

[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]

That's certainly not my experience of playing metal (Iced Earth / Arch Enemy type stuff) through my LMII and 104HR. Out of interest, is there a particular amp you favour? Might help those of us who like our Markbass rigs for heavier music to put your opinion on their gear into context.

Oh, and totally OT, as a metal fan from Italy, I don't suppose you know what happened to a band called Warchild?

[Teobass88]

I don't know Warchild, I'm sorry!

I think that the MarkBass sound is plug&play, and this is a good thing but, to my ears, with 4Ohm cabs, my LM 800 (A III with a more powerful power amp) was too compressed with a gain setted on 11o'clock, at the limit of peaking as the instructions say.
New MarkBass head with 4x10" 104HF before and A.T.S. BB410EG after...

I'm not stating MarkBass's only s**t, of course! And I'm a great supporter of Italian brands indeed I think that with a little extra money it's possible to buy an A.T.S. (Italian brand) or a GenzBenz (Streamliner is a fantastic amp, which I use with much satisfaction) or an Aguilar ToneHammer....and those amp (A.T.S. particulary) are so much more dynamic and warm..they sound "real"..

And if you want to hear something REALLY neutral you've to try TecAmp Puma! When you can try this two amps in a A/B test...no way..LM loses immediatly.....

MarkBass stay were you put it but, in my humble opinion and in my experience, there's so much better with the same budget and, for Rock or other genres were bass have to be rich and warm MarkBass is very limited.

[chrismuzz]

[quote name='Teobass88' timestamp='1337760933' post='1664909']
I don't know Warchild, I'm sorry!

I think that the MarkBass sound is plug&play, and this is a good thing but, to my ears, with 4Ohm cabs, my LM 800 (A III with a more powerful power amp) was too compressed with a gain setted on 11o'clock, at the limit of peaking as the instructions say.
New MarkBass head with 4x10" 104HF before and A.T.S. BB410EG after...

I'm not stating MarkBass's only s**t, of course! And I'm a great supporter of Italian brands indeed I think that with a little extra money it's possible to buy an A.T.S. (Italian brand) or a GenzBenz (Streamliner is a fantastic amp, which I use with much satisfaction) or an Aguilar ToneHammer....and those amp (A.T.S. particulary) are so much more dynamic and warm..they sound "real"..

And if you want to hear something REALLY neutral you've to try TecAmp Puma! When you can try this two amps in a A/B test...no way..LM loses immediatly.....

MarkBass stay were you put it but, in my humble opinion and in my experience, there's so much better with the same budget and, for Rock or other genres were bass have to be rich and warm MarkBass is very limited.
[/quote]

Aguilar and Genz are definitely more of a straight out of the box rock sound. You do have to fiddle with the Makbass stuff to give it the right sound... Or use pedals in front of it like I do! If I knew everything I did about gear 3 years ago I probably wouldn't have bought Markbass, but I'm glad I did as it works perfectly for me now Ive never tried their tube heads so I can't comment on the compression aspect of those, but it's never bothered me with mine!

The reason you dislike Markbass could simply be that it doesn't match with the rest of your gear or your playing style. Of course I'm not saying you need to throw away your beloved equipment just so you can have a box with yellow speakers in it! there's a lot of gear I really would love to own but a soon as I get hold of it I can't make it do what I thought I would!

I've never heard of this brand ATS though, is that what youre using now? They must be damn good if you're mentioning them alongside the other makes in your post!

Edited May 23, 2012 by chrismuzz

[Teobass88]

ATS changed my musical life. Only with a cab I've totally improved my sound under every aspect. It's a small brand in the south Italy which is little known. Actually I can't afford to buy their hybrid valve/transistor amp head (The BP1000) 'cause it costs too much for me but one day I want it! Sounds better than an Aguilar DB751 (Which is a very good amp!).

Their "little" mosfet amp, called LBA-5, is a mosfet head wich is the same category of LM and it's so much better, obviously in my opinion, as the same! I'd like that you can try their products....and you would ear by yourselves what I mean!

Well, if GenzBenz doesn't fit for Rock sound I don't kown what sound you mean for Rock (I'm not aggressive or ironic!!!) maybe we've different ideas about it. There’s nowt so queer as folk.
If you nerver tried valve pre, if I can make a suggestion, try it!!

I did love my LittleMark, true story, and I've loved it so much...when I've tried Streamliner... but I've realized the limits of the LittleMark only after playing with the same conditions (Bass, strings, cab, cables, band, room...etc..etc..) with an A/B test with the two head. It's not plug&play as MarkBass but, at the cost of resulting boring, in my opinion, it's SO MUCH better!

[51m0n]

I'm not super keen on the Markbass cabs, but an LMII or sa450 with the Berg ae410 and the sound is utterly superb

However the LM800 is not the same beast as the LMII, LMIII, sa450, at all, it is far closer to the SD800 or SD1200 since it use a digital power amp (the same unit as the sd800 I believe), and all the 'real' LMII family use an analogue power amp. It just has the cut down features of an LMII in terms of eq.

That digital power amp may seem like a tiny difference to some but tonally and response (ie the 'feel' of the amp while playing) its a completely different animal.

The SD range and the digital power section LM range are supposed to go a bit deeper than the analogue power amp LMII, they are supposed to give you a sense of the extra power and all that. The transients off these very high power amps are huge for one thing. Another point to note is the limiter issue only exists in the analogue power section variants (so not the LM800) as far as I have heard.

However that power is also quite capable of being detrimental to the final sound if the cab you plug the amp into really cant cope with it, and IME of trying out MB cabs a 5 stringer can exceed the capabilites of the cabs to deal with the power of the more powerful amps, and things can defintely start to suffer as a result, I would however, love to have a go with one of the really big MB heads through a Barefaced BigTwin. That may well cause damage to internal organs!

Edited May 23, 2012 by 51m0n

[HADGE]

i play in a rock band with a guitarist using double stack marshall drummer thinks hes building a shed using masive drum kit and iv got a ampeg stack ashdown peavey and markbass and with my markbass 2x10 combo get no problems at all if i feel i need that bit extra i use my markbass 151hf cab with the combo i love my ampeg but my markbass does everything my other amps do .If you cant get the sound you want with the markbass it could just be your bass thats the trouble i use a fender presicion a warwick streamer and a musicman and all sound great with markbass gear . Hope this helps.

[EssentialTension]

I used a LMII with a 4ohm Ampeg 4x10 very successfully in a loud rock blues band.

[chrismuzz]

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1337770872' post='1665097']
However that power is also quite capable of being detrimental to the final sound if the cab you plug the amp into really cant cope with it, and IME of trying out MB cabs a 5 stringer can exceed the capabilites of the cabs to deal with the power of the more powerful amps, and things can defintely start to suffer as a result, I would however, love to have a go with one of the really big MB heads through a Barefaced BigTwin. That may well cause damage to internal organs!
[/quote]

That would explain why every time I used an Ashdown 4x10 my amp went into thermal protection mode and switched itself off

[hamfist]

THe question has certainly generated a healthy discussion. It seems that what is obvious is that the tones people want for "rock" vary hugely.
I don't play metal, for example, but I'm aware that a lot of metal bassists really like a nice clean sound. However for other genres, like more in the indie rock direction, bassists tend to want rather more hair in their tone. The "clean" markbass amps like the LM series will obviously work really nicely, if paired well with a cab, for any clean tone, but individual bassists may well find them rather lacking in organic, rich, fuzzy, gooeyness if that's what they're after. Pedals may help, but can't really overcome the ultimate base tone of an amp.
For me, the LMIII didn't work at all. I found it too clean and too "flat" (whatever that means). I like a very organic, tubey, slight underlying fuzzyness to my tone. Even trying a shedload of pedals I could never get what I wanted from the LMIII.
I don't think anyone else has talked yet about EQ frequency centres, which are also an issue. I have discovered that I like to boost the mids at around 500-600 KHz to get "my" tone. Markbass simply don't allow you to access this, without external EQ's, which I'd prefer not to have to use.
So, great for some "rock" tones, bad for others. All comes down to taste.

[51m0n]

Yeah the LMII -alike fixed frequencies bugs the s**t out of me too, hence the sa450.

I couldnt care less about the size difference, either would be rackmounted for protection anyway, and they both weigh less than fart in a can.

[51m0n]

[quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1337799947' post='1665733']
That would explain why every time I used an Ashdown 4x10 my amp went into thermal protection mode and switched itself off
[/quote]

Could also be if the cabs impedance was a little shy of what the manufacturer claimed, I know this caused issues with some other cabs and Markbass (I think its was EA kit, but I may well be wrong) that was supposed to be *ohm, but in reality was closer to 6Ohm and if you plugged 2 into an LMII it did the full on thermal protection cut out thing.

Maybe a dodgy driver in the cab was causing havoc with the impedance (purest conjecture)???

[chrismuzz]

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1337850508' post='1666263']


Could also be if the cabs impedance was a little shy of what the manufacturer claimed, I know this caused issues with some other cabs and Markbass (I think its was EA kit, but I may well be wrong) that was supposed to be *ohm, but in reality was closer to 6Ohm and if you plugged 2 into an LMII it did the full on thermal protection cut out thing.

Maybe a dodgy driver in the cab was causing havoc with the impedance (purest conjecture)???
[/quote]

Not sure! Each time I used them they were (practically brand new) rehearsal room cabs, rated at 4 ohms, and I was only turned up to about 10 o clock!. They sounded fine, like nothing sounded broken... Maybe they had blown tweeters in them which caused an impedance issue like you mentioned? Maybe a combination of a few things, who knows! In any case it unfortunately put me off them so I never did swap my Markbass cab for something a little cheaper

[thumbo]

I've owned an LMK and a TA503. I didn't really like either of them for rock, but that's my personal preference. I wanted a more aggressive sound so I ended up switching to an Orange AD200B, which was perfect for what I was after at the time. I tried all kinds of drive pedals with both Markbass heads but ultimately it was valve-driven grit that I was after. I miss both of those Markbass amps, they really bought out all the nuances in the various basses I had at the time, but as gigging amps they were not aggressive enough for me.

[Prime_BASS]

They are very high quality heads that are the best 'compromise' for sounding liek everything. It lets me and my bass playing an dthe bass get through to the cab and to my ears, so one of those amps that actually responds to your playing. If play at the bridge I'm jaco, if I scoop the mids and slap I'm Marcus miller.
if you play up at the neck and soft you in reggea town, you play over the pick up and dig in, you gonna be in rock town.

With markbass how you play and what you play makes more of a difference than how the amp sounds....

But really, you should go out and try some, Fuzz in West bridgeford Notts has some MB stuff, and shouldn't be too far to travel fo ryou.