Mark Bass Repairs

[Hobbayne]

While at rehearsal last night, my trusty old CMD 121 started smoking quite badly. It was coming from the vent at the rear of the unit.

I turned it off and unplugged it and had to use an old Peavy that the studio owned.

This morning I rang the amp repair guy that the guitarist uses.

He told me that he cant touch it because Mark Bass don't release their schematics to outside repairers, and can only be fixed my a Mark bass professional. 

Is that true?? 🤨

[mybass]

https://www.realelectronics.co.uk/manufacturers.html
 

I think this company is the official repairer one for MarkBass in the U.K.

[Sibob]

Yeah it's unlikely you'll get anyone else to do it as Real Electronics will have exclusive access to the schematics.

 

Si

[Jakester]

Sadly, yes. And, IME that means they can charge what they like. 
 

I sent my CMD121 head away for intermittent volume problems, got charged £170 with no real resolution, only for the problem to recur. 
 

I ended up sacking that head off and buying a second hand LM3 to put in instead. 
 

The economics of MB repairs mean it works about practically the same.

[BassBunny]

3 minutes ago, Jakester said:

Sadly, yes. And, IME that means they can charge what they like. 
 

I sent my CMD121 head away for intermittent volume problems, got charged £170 with no real resolution, only for the problem to recur. 
 

I ended up sacking that head off and buying a second hand LM3 to put in instead. 
 

The economics of MB repairs mean it works about practically the same.

Bang on. 

[TheGreek]

I've just come back from my electronics guy.  I know that in the past he has repaired Markbass Amps but getting parts is a bit of a nightmare. 

 

Modern Class D heads aren't designed to be repaired.  Built in obscelescence  - they want you to throw it away and buy a new one. 

[Sparky Mark]

Unfortunately it's about as expensive to fault find down to component level and replace that component as it is just to swap out the whole circuit board the faulty component is on. So you're going to pay approx. £200 either way.

The real problem comes when the authorised repairer cannot obtain the circuit board assemblies from Markbass because of the current worldwide shortage of some electronic components. The faulty component may be readily available but for the want of an IC perhaps, the circuit board assembly can't be produced.

Pre covid that repair strategy seemed reasonable but now a component level repair would be a decent option.

 

[Lozz196]

I read threads such as these and thank my lucky stars that I use Ashdown amps

[martthebass]

I used Real in Sheffield to check out my LM3 about 3 years back.  Intermittent volume loss, they bench tested and ran for a few days and found no issue.  Think the charge was about £40 so no biggy.  To give some security I picked up a little Marcus 500 and now run the LM3 as a back up.

 

For interest, I eventually tracked down the problem to wifi interference on my wireless set up - nowt up with the amp. Lesson learnt. 

[Sparky Mark]

3 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

I read threads such as these and thank my lucky stars that I use Ashdown amps

Agreed that Ashdown customer service goes well above and beyond what they are required to offer. Ashdown is a small team with an exceptional attitude. However, for every Markbass user with a problem there are probably a hundred or more that don't. 

[Ralf1e]

It does appear to be a buyers market right now so maybe finding a bargain something else will do the trick.

[Lozz196]

Definitely Mark, I’ve had a lot of Markbass gear, no problems with any of it.

[martthebass]

53 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

Definitely Mark, I’ve had a lot of Markbass gear, no problems with any of it.

Ditto, apart from the previously noted problem that ended up being a smoothhound problem mine's been fairly bomb proof.

I did hear that the CMD combos could suffer from overheating problems (due to insufficient ventilation in the design) which is why I went down the separates route with an LM top and 2 x NY121 but I don't know how much truth there is in this.

[Hobbayne]

13 minutes ago, martthebass said:

Ditto, apart from the previously noted problem that ended up being a smoothhound problem mine's been fairly bomb proof.

I did hear that the CMD combos could suffer from overheating problems (due to insufficient ventilation in the design) which is why I went down the separates route with an LM top and 2 x NY121 but I don't know how much truth there is in this.

Yes. I had the combo for 7 years and it has never let me down until now. 

[martthebass]

4 minutes ago, Hobbayne said:

Yes. I had the combo for 7 years and it has never let me down until now. 

That's not bad.  To be honest, unlike my previous old school Trace stuff I tend to look at the ICE based amps as 'consumable'.  My LM3 is a 2012 Italian class AB job which I put over to back up about 3 years back.  My current main is the Little Marcus which has about 3 years old and done about 130 gigs.  It will get retired to back up in another couple of years if I'm still doing 50 gigs (or so) per year.

[casapete]

52 minutes ago, martthebass said:

That's not bad.  To be honest, unlike my previous old school Trace stuff I tend to look at the ICE based amps as 'consumable'.  My LM3 is a 2012 Italian class AB job which I put over to back up about 3 years back.  My current main is the Little Marcus which has about 3 years old and done about 130 gigs.  It will get retired to back up in another couple of years if I'm still doing 50 gigs (or so) per year.

I agree Mart - I’ve always regarded class D stuff has having a shorter lifespan than older designs,

probably fuelled by my tech’s comments. It’s just the way things are going generally I think, with

fewer items appearing to be worth repairing. 

[martthebass]

8 minutes ago, casapete said:

I agree Mart - I’ve always regarded class D stuff has having a shorter lifespan than older designs,

probably fuelled by my tech’s comments. It’s just the way things are going generally I think, with

fewer items appearing to be worth repairing. 

 

I think when I put my LM3 in to Real a few years back they said if it was the power board it'd be about £160.  I guess that would be more like £200+ now.  On that basis, at 50 gigs a year I tend to look at the cost of the amp at about £2/gig which seems more than reasonable - and that's a worse case if the amp is U/S at replacement.  My back up Italian LM3 is still as good as when I first got it so probably still worth a few quid. 

[msb]

22 hours ago, TheGreek said:

I've just come back from my electronics guy.  I know that in the past he has repaired Markbass Amps but getting parts is a bit of a nightmare. 

 

Modern Class D heads aren't designed to be repaired.  Built in obscelescence  - they want you to throw it away and buy a new one. 

 

Modern Class D heads can easily be repaired by qualified repair people. I’ve had several serviced and repaired. Now some older SWR amps , for example, that are no longer made , may contain parts that might no longer be available. But most Class D amps built today are not built to be discarded at the first problem.

 

[Jakester]

3 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

Definitely Mark, I’ve had a lot of Markbass gear, no problems with any of it.

 

It's not that it suffers problems - I daresay it's probably no more or less than any other brand. 

 

It's that it's impossible to get MB stuff repaired by anyone other than their approved repairer - who, in my own experience, were not very good. 

 

Obviously I can't generalise based solely on my own experience, but it does make it incredibly frustrating as an owner and certainly disinclines me to buying any more of their stuff. 

 

Indeed, when I had other issues recently (subsequently attributable to the venue, not the amp) I was entirely prepared to flog all my MB stuff off at a loss as I'd lost faith in it all. Similarly if I do have any other problems in future I'm not going to bother to try and get it repaired, I'll just go for a different brand entirely. 

[msb]

I have an older GenzBenz Streamliner 900 , a gorgeous older 900 watt Class D amp with a three tube preamp. Everything worked fine , however the front LEDs were out. When I heard the designer of the GenzBenz amps was still servicing them I immediately got in touch. He stressed that if an unauthorized repair hack had been messing things up it could become expensive to undo unqualified repairs … but if the amp was unmolested it was a straight fee. 
Thankfully my amp was unmolested and returned like a brand new amp with some factory upgrades. 24 hour turnaround. It was easily the smartest money I spent on gear that year. Andy Field designed those amps , and is still designing amps today. He’s created the Subway line for Mesa , and his creations are built to last. He’s known as agedhorse on this forum. 
 

I‘ve recently had a GK Class D head develop the “pink ring of doom” however , a little time with a qualified repair person brought it back , it’s been completely reliable since. (the cooling fan became jammed up and things overheated) 

 

Now I am aware that some people have had issues having MB amps repaired. The catch is finding qualified repair people.

[Sparky Mark]

2 hours ago, msb said:

I have an older GenzBenz Streamliner 900 , a gorgeous older 900 watt Class D amp with a three tube preamp. Everything worked fine , however the front LEDs were out. When I heard the designer of the GenzBenz amps was still servicing them I immediately got in touch. He stressed that if an unauthorized repair hack had been messing things up it could become expensive to undo unqualified repairs … but if the amp was unmolested it was a straight fee. 
Thankfully my amp was unmolested and returned like a brand new amp with some factory upgrades. 24 hour turnaround. It was easily the smartest money I spent on gear that year. Andy Field designed those amps , and is still designing amps today. He’s created the Subway line for Mesa , and his creations are built to last. He’s known as agedhorse on this forum. 
 

I‘ve recently had a GK Class D head develop the “pink ring of doom” however , a little time with a qualified repair person brought it back , it’s been completely reliable since. (the cooling fan became jammed up and things overheated) 

 

Now I am aware that some people have had issues having MB amps repaired. The catch is finding qualified repair people.

Yes, as you live in Canada, getting Andy to help should be straightforward enough. Unfortunately it's not so simple from the other side of the Atlantic. Ashdown very often help free of charge which really is remarkable nowadays.

Edited February 16, 2023 by Sparky Mark

[bassbiscuits]

I gig regularly with a 2006 Little Mark II and a 2011 Little Mark III. Touch wood they’ve both been flawless throughout. 

[Hobbayne]

Would it be possible to use the speaker on its own? Maybe use it as an extension cab? 

I believe a Fender Rumble 200 is 100w at 8 ohms.

[Sparky Mark]

1 hour ago, Hobbayne said:

Would it be possible to use the speaker on its own? Maybe use it as an extension cab? 

I believe a Fender Rumble 200 is 100w at 8 ohms.

Yes, some others have used this combo like that. The only issue may be that the short speaker cable won't reach an amp placed on top of the combo. You can either open the combo up and replace it with a longer one (may require soldering skills) or buy/make a female to male jack speaker extension cable (may require soldering skills).

Edited March 7, 2023 by Sparky Mark

[BassBunny]

1 hour ago, Hobbayne said:

Would it be possible to use the speaker on its own? Maybe use it as an extension cab? 

I believe a Fender Rumble 200 is 100w at 8 ohms.

Do you mean the speaker from your CMD121?

Absolutely, it becomes a NY121 I guess.

If you remove the head there's room to strap a micro amp in the area where the MB head was.