Mark Bass Amps

markbass99 · Post by **markbass99** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 12:51 am

Just got my Little Mark 2 yesterday and spent several hours trying it out at the house. I can see what all the commotion is about now, this thing gets crazy loud for a six pound amp and doesn't even break a sweat, it still had cool air being pumped out the back after two hours of flogging. I had it hooked up to my Eden Nemesis 2x12 cabinet and had it up to a decent volume with the gain just below half and the main just over one. The tone coming out of this is real ballsy with some nice detailed growl coming from the hb1's on my Laredo. The 500 watts in conjunction with the 4ohm 2x12 is almost too much for playing in the house although the tone stays good at low volume levels. I'm thinking about looking into a nice 1x12 8ohm cab so I can run this at 300 watts for environments that don't need as much volume. With a 2x12 you would be covered for a lot of situations. I'll try to get some pics of the rig up later.

markbass99 · Post by **markbass99** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 3:11 am

Some people are reporting good results with one or two of these at around thirty pounds a piece.
With one you have 300 watts, with two you have 500 watts.(With the LM2 attached)

highway_star · Post by **highway_star** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 3:49 am

I second the Epifani cabs. I'm using the UL210 (38 lbs.) and UL115 (42 lbs.). They sound articulate yet warm and don't have that dreaded honking mid normally associated with NEO cabs.

henry5 · Post by **henry5** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 8:05 am

I once tried my 4003s8 through an Epifani 3x10 and didn't like it, although that could've been the Eden head I was using. My old Trace gear sounded way better. I'd love to try some Epifani cabs with different heads though.

I use 2 x Aguilar GS112s, but tried an Accugroove Tri 110 on Saturday with an Ashdown Superfly (all 9lbs and 500w of it). Everything I played through it sounded unbelievable. I thought it was quite a bit better than my rig is when using just one of the Aguilars. The articulation and presence was fantastic. As someone on the net said, it was like getting a new pair of ears. The only Ric I tried was the 4000, and that doesn't generally like "hifi" amps, but it was an astounding Ric tone, the best I've ever had from that bass (one of the best I've ever had, period). Accugroove are very, very expensive over here though. The retail on the Tri 110 (1x10 and 1x6 with 2 tweeters) is £655 (double that for dollars). I think you'd probably need at least 2 for rock gigs....

Also tried the Markbass Jeff Berlin combo which I didn't like at all, and as an A/B used an Ashdown ABM 300 1x15 combo. The ABM was pretty good, but the Superfly/Accugroove was way, way better. How it'd be at volume though (even with 2 cabs) I don't know.

grayk · Post by **grayk** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 12:16 pm

Another update. After weeks of deliberation and thought on the matter I have now purchased the Markbass 121H. I was originally going for the 102HF cab which is the 2x10. However I have been very impressed with my Ashdown ABM 2x10 hooked up to the Little Mark 2 on a good number of gigs now so felt no real need to buy the Markbass 2x10. I am ultimately after a powerful portable set up so I purchased the 121H Traveler 1x12 cab.It also has the benefit of being cheaper, lighter, and smaller so easier to store and carry. I am knocked out......again. It has rehearsed with a loud 7 piece band today and it wasnt even ticking over. This is a great portable (so light!!) rig, that makes me doubt whether I would ever need to bring the 2x10 out on gigs again. I will just go into the PA if need be. The best thing of all is that my 4003 sounds the best it has ever sounded through any rig I have used. This is one happy Ric player.

markbass99 · Post by **markbass99** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 1:32 pm

Yea, I'm still very impressed with my Little Mark II/sansamp rack setup(17lbs) and my Epifani UL112 cab(29lbs). Very portable, gets very loud and the tone combinations are amazing.

grayk · Post by **grayk** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 9:57 am

Mark, Nice little rig, how much do you use the Sansamp? What does it bring to your sound ? I am extremely happy with my bass plugged straight into the LM2. I am always open to suggestions though.

markbass99 · Post by **markbass99** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 2:27 pm

I'm using the sansamp as a preamp before the LM2. By using the blend knob you control the amount of sansamp in your signal path, I usually run the blend at a 60/40 percent LM2/sansamp ratio for some tube-like tones, usually with the EQ on both fairly flat. I keep the drive and presence at low settings but if you take both of them up past 12:00 you can get that brittle snappy tone from Cygnus X1. I also like the LM2 sound on it's own, all I have to do is take a hard left with the blend knob and there it is.

That's why I had another thread going called "Modern Day SVT" to tweak the Ampeg guys. When you get the drive and presence set right for your blend ratio, it comes pretty close to the sound I used to get out of the SVT I had in the late 70's.

markbass99 · Post by **markbass99** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 5:13 pm

I was going through some old pictures and found this one of my old SVT head from the late 70's(please excuse the fender, I also had a rick)

jps · Post by **jps** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 5:28 pm

Hmm, Yamaha cabinet.

A lot of Fender guys would kill for that pickguard.

xsubs · Post by **xsubs** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 6:53 pm

I have noticed here that many Rickenbacker players tend to gravitate towards cabinets with twelves. I do too. I have always played with 12" speakers... Hiwatt for many years, and now I use Eden 212s (XLT I think) through an Ashdown EVO RC head. Tried many an 18", 15" and those little 10s; but don't care to hear a Ric through anything but 12s.
Many of you like the Aquilar 112 cabs. I might have to check those out, as the Eden 212s are getting pretty heavy (or I'm getting older!)

thx1955 · Post by **thx1955** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 8:23 pm

Hi Sean,
Like you I'm also a huge fan of 12's, grew up on Marshall's, Sound City, HiWatt and Orange, usually fitted with Cellestion, JBL, or Altec's. At one point I used 4x12's and 4x15's together !, which sounded fantastic, however they were a real pain to move around.

My current cabinet is an Avatar 4x12 fitted with Eminence Kappa Pro's. The cabinet was originally sealed, I've since ported it, driven by my Amber B25 delivers great results with my Rics.

The only other rig I'd seriously consider is one of the new Ampeg B-15r's.