Public Service Announcement-MarkBass Tweeter Box for Micromark 801

[yorks5stringer]

After my experiences with the above, I thought I'd retell them for anybody else who might be thinking of buying one.

I got my MarkBass Micromark 801 back in January this year and it's a great albeit expensive little combo which I use for home practice. It sits on the window ledge and allows me to practice sat at the Laptop as I store most rehearsal stuff digitally.

It's only 45 watts but all the info on the MB site talks about if you plug it into a 8 ohm speaker you can get 60 watts from it. I tried it into my 15" MB NY RJ cab and it sounds good.

So I thought I could use the Micromark for rehearsals on its own ( paired with the 15" cab would have been silly as I may as well have taken the TTE head as well) but found it struggled against drums but thought maybe with the Tweeter Box connected I'd get the full 60 watts and it would be a neat one almost one box solution.

I asked the question of MarkBass, Marco by PM and importer Simon at MSL if the Tweeter was viable and no-one in the case of the first two answered, and Simon did not really give me any new knowledge in his reply or seem willing to let me try one. (Could not find one in any local shops to try). I was aware the Tweeter was the same one many disable in their combos, just housed in a separate Velcro box.

So after wondering for months about the Tweeter Box I ordered it from Woodbrass at £60 delivered and it arrived last Thursday. It was clear from the first use it just added loads of toppiness and hiss and not being attenuable made it unviable, given there was no discernible power increase either.

So it's going back today and it's cost me the postage to find out it does not really work.

Hopefully anyone else who thinks about getting one will read this as there does not seem to be any reviews out there about it.

Edited July 29, 2015 by yorks5stringer

[stevie]

That's a useful review. A little add-on tweeter box is a nice idea but it really does have to be designed specifically for the cab it will be used with.

[MoonBassAlpha]

I wouldn't necessarily agree with that - I have just this, an El Son piezo tweeter (apparently as used in some Trace p.a. cabs) and it works fine for me, just filling a bit of top end where the Barefaced Midget runs out. It isn't overly hissy either, it adds a nice click to string on fret if you like that sort of thing, but for me it just makes the fretless sound a little more acoustic, or natural-sounding, for want of a better expression.
It has some built-in crossover (no idea what frequency, but probably quite high) and no attenuator,but the treble control on the amp controls it's range fine.
Maybe I just got lucky!

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1438152174' post='2832015']thought maybe with the Tweeter Box connected I'd get the full 60 watts
[/quote]Adding a tweeter will give more output, but only in the highs, where the tweeter operates. As for the effect of going from 45 to 60 watts, it would be inaudible anyway.

[yorks5stringer]

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' timestamp='1438278745' post='2833222']
I wouldn't necessarily agree with that - I have just this, an El Son piezo tweeter (apparently as used in some Trace p.a. cabs) and it works fine for me, just filling a bit of top end where the Barefaced Midget runs out. It isn't overly hissy either, it adds a nice click to string on fret if you like that sort of thing, but for me it just makes the fretless sound a little more acoustic, or natural-sounding, for want of a better expression.
It has some built-in crossover (no idea what frequency, but probably quite high) and no attenuator,but the treble control on the amp controls it's range fine.
Maybe I just got lucky!
[/quote]

The El Son Piezo tweeter is the same one MarkBass use too.

[Ed_S]

To my mind, the satellite tweeter box for the 801 would only make sense if the amp section had both filters. As it is, it only has the VPF, and it's the VLE that can be used to somewhat tame the tweeter in the combos that have them fitted but don't have an attenuator. What I'd really like is a matching 1x8 cabinet to turn the 801 into a modular 802 :-)

[yorks5stringer]

On a similar but slightly off topic direction..last w/e there were 2 sellers (one in UK) doing the CMD121P combo for £460 new (Thomann were £560).

A new 121 New York cab is £330 so that was a LMIII head effectively for £130!. I prevaricated and did not buy and they have gone up to £560 now , the Euro weakness must have affected the prices.