Anyone here used a pair of Markbass 1x12 cabs?

[bassbiscuits]

I'm a bit of a Markbass fan I must say, having reached the age where weight/size/portability are a consideration.

 

I've been pairing a couple of their little Traveller cabs into a compact rig - a TRV102P and a TRV121 - which sounds good.

 

Been thinking now of trying a pair of TRV121 cabs for a modular 2x12 set up.

 

A quick Google gave precisely no results for that set up - so just wondering if anyone has used a pair and how they found it.

 

I play loud and am a bit of a heavy-handed baboon of a player, but so far the MB stuff has stood up well to my less-than-refined approach.

 

 

Edited November 17, 2023 by bassbiscuits
edited for typos

[Lozz196]

Yes, I had the CMD121P combo with an NY121 cab, then a Little Mark 3 with two NY121s. At the time I too was rather heavy handed but they didn’t care, handled everything sent their way.

[fretmeister]

Long time ago I had a pair of Club 121 cabs. They could be stacked or used as wedges.

They were very good.

[neepheid]

Like @Lozz196 did, I too am using a CMD121P (IV) with an NY121 cab.  It's not technically two 1x12 cabs because one's a combo, but to all intents and purposes...

 

 

I also have a Tecamp Puma 900 head, so I think I'll be looking for another Markbass cab (not another NY121, maybe a different 1x12" for variety) to have that as a rig option also.

 

I must admit, it is taking me a little bit of time to get used to the Markbass sound, having used my old amp and cab for nearly 12 years.  I think I'm getting there - once I figured out that I didn't need to push the mids any more, they're there when the amp is flat and it only needs small adjustments to taste.  Dial in some Old School (I think this used to be called VLE) to lose some of that modernity/help disguise my sloppy technique...

Edited November 22, 2023 by neepheid

[spongebob]

Also used to run a MB 121 combo with a 12" cab. Very nice.

 

I now run a 2x12 MB cab. Seperate amp (Little Marcus 58R).

 

Either way, a MB 2x12 works brilliantly, whichever way you achieve it.

[M@23]

Not separates, but I had a Ninja 122 and loved. Probably my favourite cab owned. 

[mxm]

All good when giving this a thrashing…

[bassbiscuits]

Yeah cheers folks. I bit the bullet and bought the second 1x12 cab that was up for sale to make a 2x12 rig. And so far so good. 
 

I’ve got a blues trio gig on the weekend at which Im intended to give the rig its first outing - some of it is straight P bass with flats territory, but some is flailing on a Mustang with distortion etc, so I’m interested to see how this sounds. 
 

At moderate levels in my back room it sounds slightly smoother, warmer and a tad quieter than my usual 4x10 or 1x12 + 2x10 arrangement, just in terms of how much air it’s pushing. 
 

But I’m confident it will sound good. 

[lemmywinks]

I used a pair of Club121 cabs with excellent results, only sold them as I stopped using amps otherwise I'd stil have them now. Still kinda miss that rig, very versatile little modular setup.

[Greg Edwards69]

17 hours ago, bassbiscuits said:

Yeah cheers folks. I bit the bullet and bought the second 1x12 cab that was up for sale to make a 2x12 rig. And so far so good. 
 

I’ve got a blues trio gig on the weekend at which Im intended to give the rig its first outing - some of it is straight P bass with flats territory, but some is flailing on a Mustang with distortion etc, so I’m interested to see how this sounds. 
 

At moderate levels in my back room it sounds slightly smoother, warmer and a tad quieter than my usual 4x10 or 1x12 + 2x10 arrangement, just in terms of how much air it’s pushing. 
 

But I’m confident it will sound good. 

Nice. I'd be tempted to wedge a Mark Stand, or maybe something a little less extreme in between them to tilt the top one to point to my ears.

Edited November 22, 2023 by Greg Edwards69

[Sandypjb]

Someone say Blues Trio and Markbass gear??

[Chienmortbb]

On 22/11/2023 at 15:30, Greg Edwards69 said:

Nice. I'd be tempted to wedge a Mark Stand, or maybe something a little less extreme in between them to tilt the top one to point to my ears.

If you have to point is at yours ears, the dispersion is wrong, stinky poo, not very good. That means, as you tilt it, you hear better and everyone else hears worse. To get the mid-dispersion you need a cab with a high quality horn coupled to a high quality compression driver similar to those @stevie uses in his LFSys cabs.

[neepheid]

I don't tilt mine, and I've got no bother hearing myself.

[lemmywinks]

I had to tilt my cabs some of the time (well just the top one usually), some gigs I was playing right on top of my rig behind the keys player and being tall I wouldn't have heard myself without turning the volume up to a point that would cause issues elsewhere on stage as my amp was mainly for monitoring. It was one of the reasons I liked my Schroeder 1212r so much.

 

Depends on your stage setup and height really.

[neepheid]

Yay, I'm a shortarse!

[Chienmortbb]

I stood behind my cab at a recent gig and heard it quite well. Of course, dispersion is as much about the audience as ourselves. We bassists are not so cavalier with our fans as the guitards.

[Chienmortbb]

24 minutes ago, neepheid said:

Yay, I'm a shortarse!

I am about nine foot tall (well 6ft2) The biggest problem is bending down to tweak a knob.

[bassbiscuits]

I've never felt the need to tilt a bass cab.

 

Whether its quasi science or backed up by fact, I prefer mine to be sitting flat on the floor as there seems to be more low end. Not sure if that's due to the amount of contact with the ground/stage/floorboards etc, or if it just sounds less trebly because it's not pointing at my ears.

 

Either way, un-tilted is where they will stay for now. 

[Downunderwonder]

16 hours ago, bassbiscuits said:

it just sounds less trebly because it's not pointing at my ears.

Undoubtably this.

[Downunderwonder]

@bassbiscuits I presume your cab is for monitoring. Have the courage to point it at your ears, because ideally that will better inform you what FOH is putting out front.

 

If it it's playing to the house then best stand right in front of it so your treble doesn't make it out there.

[bassbiscuits]

I’ve gone full circle with this and currently have one of the 1x12s up for sale. 
 

The two together sound awesome but I find a 1x12 paired with a 2x10 is my perfect combination. 
 

[Greg Edwards69]

Other more informed experts will be able to explain it better than I can. But my understanding is that ground reinforcement/coupling is only effective within a certain radius of the speaker. i.e. if you're relying on a couple of small cabs to fill the room, the excited low end you hear by having the cab on the floor probably won't be heard out in the audience.

 

Also, treble frequencies are directional (meaning the speaker has to be pointing directly at your head to hear them clearly) and bass frequencies are omni-directional (meaning they can be heard from anywhere). Hence why you can always heard muffled, bass from outside a nightclub.

 

Raising the cab off the floor and tilting the cab to point at your head will give you a much better idea of what the audience is hearing.

 

Likewise, guitarists would also do well to do the same thing. For one, it stops the stage being swamped with low end, and two, they'll hear their treble better. Too many guitarists don't realise how piercing their treble is - and painful for the audience - because it's firing at their own knees.

Edited December 13, 2023 by Greg Edwards69

[Baloney Balderdash]

6 hours ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

Too many guitarists don't realise how piercing their treble is - and painful for the audience - because it's firing at their own knees.

I hate when treble pierce my knees like tiny knifes and bring me crying to the ground.

 

So painful.

 

Edited December 13, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Downunderwonder]

Boundary effects of walls and ceiling in the vicinity of any cab can play hell with your low end but otherwise a well placed cab is a well placed cab and will always be more lows up close to it than across the room.