Markbass CMD 121 Clipping

[Hobbayne]

Took my Sterling SUB Ray to rehearsal tonight and I noticed that whenever I boosted the tone controls on the bass, the input gain blue light was constantly flashing with a nasty distorted digital sound.
When they were moved back to the centre flat position it was not as bad.
I never had this my passive Fender P.
I suppose my Markbass is not active friendly.

[Twincam]

Yes well the pre amp is way more powerful than a passive circuit. When you turn up then it will overload any pre if the gain is set wrong. So you must turn the gain on the amp down.

Find the setting on your bass you like. Then set the gain with the master volume on zero, by playing as hard as possible turn up the gain till the clipping light starts to flash then back it off a small amount till the flashing is minimal or non at all.

This gives the best noise to signal ratio and gives you the best volume before clipping.

Edited May 10, 2016 by Twincam

[Hobbayne]

Thats the problem. Even with the gain really low, hardly even moved above the off position, it still clips.

[Painy]

Isn't it the Stirling SUB that's infamous for its excessively hot output? Pretty sure the standard solution is to swap out the pre-amp for a replacement Stinger pre-amp.

[Twincam]

[quote name='Painy' timestamp='1462921532' post='3047058']
Isn't it the Stirling SUB that's infamous for its excessively hot output? Pretty sure the standard solution is to swap out the pre-amp for a replacement Stinger pre-amp.
[/quote]

Yeah I was going to mention that too.

[project_c]

It's not so much the heat as the unnecessarily low frequencies. Sub bass frequencies below 50hz usually clip everything, even at low gain settings. Those frequencies are not necessary for you to get a decent tone, snd you can't hear anything below 30 anyway so either eq them out with a pedal or turn down the lows on your bass.

One of the first rules of music production is to cut all those frequencies in everything you're recording / mixing because they add nothing but eat up headroom and clip everything.

[obi 2 kenobi]

Try changing the battery.

[Moos3h]

The SUB has a stupidly powerful preamp on board. There are some mods that are well documented - or rip it out and fit a stinger from Retrovibe!

[mcnach]

[quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1462919444' post='3047042']
Took my Sterling SUB Ray to rehearsal tonight and I noticed that whenever I boosted the tone controls on the bass, the input gain blue light was constantly flashing with a nasty distorted digital sound.
When they were moved back to the centre flat position it was not as bad.
I never had this my passive Fender P.
I suppose my Markbass is not active friendly.
[/quote]

Nothing like that. But the preamp in your bass is notoriously hot (lots of threads about it) and you're just pushing it further by boosting the lows. You may need to turn the gain input control down a bit, that's what it is for.

A passive Precision cannot boost anything so it's fine regardless.

I used that combo for years with various active basses, and it's a very capable combo. Just set the input gain appropriately for each bass: your SUB gives a very hot signal. A Stingray is a lot closer in signal output to a Precision... but even then you can still give a high output if you start boosting everything. Your bass is already very high output so... turn the input gain down. Just play some slap to give strong peaks, and set the input gain so that it barely lights up blue when you slap. Then it'll sound ok.

[mcnach]

[quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1462920296' post='3047051']
Thats the problem. Even with the gain really low, hardly even moved above the off position, it still clips.
[/quote]

really? that's some hot bass you've got! Or you're boosting the signal a LOt. Or both. I typically had mine at around 12 o'clock to 2 o'clock, depending on the bass.

There's so much talk about the preamps on those new SUB basses... I'd really consider replacing it. The Stinger from Retrovibe is probably a good solution. I'd prefer the John East, but it's about 3x more expensive (totally worth it, in my opinion, 'though). If you do that, you'll have no more trouble of that kind.

[Hobbayne]

Hmm. I was always under the impression that the classic Stingray sound was everything turned up to max.
I must have dreamt it.
The pre amp must be pretty hot though, with even a little tiny bit of bass boost it sends my little speaker flapping like a wizards sleeve.
Still, this is my first delve into active basses. Maybe I'm just a passive guy at heart.

[discreet]

[quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1463001008' post='3047789']
...flapping like a wizard's sleeve.
[/quote]

Um.. are you [i]sure[/i] that's what you mean??

[RhysP]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1463002270' post='3047813']
Um.. are you [i]sure[/i] that's what you mean??
[/quote]

[Dandelion]

Thank God the speaker did not gape like a horse's collar.

[Graham Milton]

I have exactly the same issue with mine, and I'm using a Stingray. The gain has to be adjusted to virtually nothing to eliminate clipping

 

[BassmanPaul]

That's what the gain control is for.

 

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

You need to use a combination of lowered gain on the amp and lowered volume on the bass. Amps with passive and active inputs get around this by padding the level of the active input, but it you only have a passive input you have to do the padding yourself.