(affordable) Full Range Combo

[NickD]

Probably the same.

It's a Series 6, 7 Band 1x15. The narrower one with the ports under the speaker, rather than down one side. I've had it forever and have always loved it, but getting it downstairs from the flat to the car was a pain.

It's probably not a fair comparison as the MB has more power, but all of the class D/lightweight vs old school things I read aren't apparent to my ears, so it's a done deal... Just need to bring myself to sell something that's given me years of sterling service... sentimental old fool!

[eude]

[quote name='NickD' timestamp='1496408043' post='3311183']
Probably the same.

It's a Series 6, 7 Band 1x15. The narrower one with the ports under the speaker, rather than down one side. I've had it forever and have always loved it, but getting it downstairs from the flat to the car was a pain.

It's probably not a fair comparison as the MB has more power, but all of the class D/lightweight vs old school things I read aren't apparent to my ears, so it's a done deal... Just need to bring myself to sell something that's given me years of sterling service... sentimental old fool!
[/quote]

Ah, mine must've been the Series 5 then, as the ports where to the right of the speaker.
And yes, getting those bloody things up and down flights of stairs on your own is awful, it's doable, but it's not fun and will likely end badly at some point. I miss the tone, clarity and power though.

As far as the old school power section of a Trace vs anything digital, I think that Trace only put out 130W officially, but I had it up against some of the early 500W Class D amps and it absolutely blew them out of the water!
Lets not let this turn into a old school vs new school power section debate though

Eude

[eude]

[quote name='walbassist' timestamp='1496407603' post='3311175']
[url="https://www.soundunlimited.co.uk/categories/amplifiers/carvin"]Sound Unlimited[/url] are their UK dealer now.
[/quote]

Thank you!
They're going to email me costs on the MB12, MB210 and MB15.
They have the MB15 in stock, although that's the one that least appeals to me for some reason even though it's the toast of Talkbass...

Eude

[Al Krow]

[quote name='walbassist' timestamp='1496320685' post='3310474']
How about [url="http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Mark_Bass_121_Alain_Caron_Lite_combo.html"]this[/url]?
[/quote]

[quote name='eude' timestamp='1496320935' post='3310476']
Oh, that's pretty much bang on!

Eude
[/quote]

[quote name='Muppet' timestamp='1496324061' post='3310509']
That's better! They've added a mute switch and a headphone out. That looks like a cracking combo - wish I had that instead of my CMD121...
[/quote]

+1 to the comments on the MB 121 AC Lite (and the 121 H which is pretty similar - except the AC 121 delivers 500W alone without an extension cab). I've been gigging with the 121 AC Lite for last 3 years and it's never let me down or failed to cut through the mix. At 36lbs it doesn't require a fork lift truck. Really nice easy to use VPF and VLE EQs for tone sculpting. I have a couple of passionate "separates" buddies on BC who have been trying to persuade me to forgo the convenience, carefully matched head and cab and aesthetic appeal of a combo, but failing abysmally to come up with something under £1k that can sensibly better this as a quality piece of gear.

My MB 121 AC Lite is generally transparent but with warmth and doesn't mask the tone of the bass with too much of its own colour in the way that some other amps are prone to do.

[font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]In terms of the wise saying - "Compact/light, inexpensive, good sounding. Pick two". Well if £600 second hand is your budget then this hits all three [/font]

Edited June 2, 2017 by Al Krow

[molan]

[quote name='eude' timestamp='1496410014' post='3311215']


Thank you!
They're going to email me costs on the MB12, MB210 and MB15.
They have the MB15 in stock, although that's the one that least appeals to me for some reason even though it's the toast of Talkbass...

Eude
[/quote]

The Carvin combos deliver a lot of bang for the buck (as our American friends would say).

However, build quality can be a bit patchy. Combos tend to be better than the heads but they aren't without issues. It's all a bit random as to what might go wrong with them. Some are great and never miss a beat, others get niggling faults that sometimes come back.

In the end we discontinued them because we didn't feel we could reliably offer them for sale to regular gigging players.

Shame really because the ones without faults were great value for money

[molan]

[quote name='walbassist' timestamp='1496320685' post='3310474']
How about [url="http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Mark_Bass_121_Alain_Caron_Lite_combo.html"]this[/url]?
[/quote]

I love mine - and I've tried a LOT of supposedly gig-worthy combos

I can lift it easily with one hand (and I'm a weakling, lol) and have my bass on the other shoulder and pedal board in the other hand. This means I can always do the trip from my car to a gig in one go.

It's easily loud enough with either passive or active basses, plenty of tone options (that I hardly touch), sounds good as a stage monitor and seems to punch out pretty well into the audience.

It's a fairly dull addition but the mute switch is really handy - many MB amps don't have these.

The separate power amps for the main driver and the horn do seem to help with overall volume and projection. It goes a fair bit louder than the 121H which in itself is a decent jump in quality from the 121P because of the horn vs cheap piezo in P.

I don't always gig my AC combo but it gets a fair bit of use and always goes to rehearsals. In fact it pretty much lives in the boot of my car because it fits so neatly

My favourite single piece of kit that MB have ever made!

[Elfrasho]

I've got the carvin mb10. I'm frankly astonished at it against a full on drummer. Plus it sounds tremendous. So far I've only used it with pa support though but the amp certainly didn't get swamped over.

The reason i went for this amp over other options is that you can connect an ext cab to get more power, so my plan is to build a matching 1x10 for those gigs i need more air pushed.

From the short time I've owned it I'd definitely recommend it. Talkbass do have bigger love for the other models in the range though.

[Mykesbass]

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1496425836' post='3311386']
The Carvin combos deliver a lot of bang for the buck (as our American friends would say).

However, build quality can be a bit patchy. Combos tend to be better than the heads but they aren't without issues. It's all a bit random as to what might go wrong with them. Some are great and never miss a beat, others get niggling faults that sometimes come back.

In the end we discontinued them because we didn't feel we could reliably offer them for sale to regular gigging players.

Shame really because the ones without faults were great value for money
[/quote]

Wow, that surprises me. The head I bought from you guys hasn't missed a beat. Must be 4 years by now, and although not massive amounts of use, it has been gigged at least once a month and rehearsed every week since then. Absolutely love it, so such a shame they aren't all as good

[molan]

[quote name='Mykesbass' timestamp='1496428986' post='3311426']


Wow, that surprises me. The head I bought from you guys hasn't missed a beat. Must be 4 years by now, and although not massive amounts of use, it has been gigged at least once a month and rehearsed every week since then. Absolutely love it, so such a shame they aren't all as good
[/quote]

That's exactly what I mean - the good ones are great and go on for years. The dodgy ones generally go wrong within a few weeks of use (and we had a few of the newer 'red' BX heads that turned up with faults from new).

Carvin are generally a 'no quibble' warranty company and send replacement parts quickly but for a postal UK return we'd have to cover some additional costs and always had to pay our local repair guy to fit the new parts. Some costs were recoverable but it was a bit of a headache.

As a retailer we became paranoid that some poor customer would be out on a gig when the failure happened and we just didn't feel it was right for us to be subjecting customers to that sort of risk.

To the best of my recollection we only ever heard about one failure at a gig and that was 'only' the DI out but that was enough for me

[Elfrasho]

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1496431549' post='3311463']

To the best of my recollection we only ever heard about one failure at a gig and that was 'only' the DI out but that was enough for me
[/quote]

I don't think I'd write off a full company due to this.

From memory, I've had Hartke, ashdown, ampeg and behringer amps all fail on me so I think amps in general can be a bit temperamental.

[molan]

[quote name='Elfrasho' timestamp='1496471110' post='3311650']


I don't think I'd write off a full company due to this.

From memory, I've had Hartke, ashdown, ampeg and behringer amps all fail on me so I think amps in general can be a bit temperamental.
[/quote]

That was the only failure at a gig. We had numerous problems from them that people discovered whilst playinnat home or at rehearsals.

We dropped Hartke very quickly for exactly the same reason. Even less reliable with several amps showing problems from new.

We had a policy of testing every single amp before shipping to a customer so a lot of things were spotted early but Carvin & Hartke tended to fail within the first few weeks of being used rather than straight from the box.

Hartke in particular were very sensitive to location and power supplies. Often worked fine in the store but had problems at rehearsal rooms or customers' houses

[eude]

[size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Hey guys, I've got UK list prices for the Carvin combos now >>[/font][/size]

[size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]MB15 - £440.98
MB12 - £642.90
MB210 - £571.90[/font][/size]

[size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]I have to say though, having read the concerns about reliability, the prospect of buying something that might well require sending back to the US in the event of a likely failure, I'm going to give it a miss.[/font][/size]
[size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Give that you can pick up a new [/font][/size]Markbass CMD 121H for only £50 more than the MB12, I think that's most likely the best option, unless one of those Alain Caron signature combos appears fora good price second hand...

Thanks for all your input folks!
Eude