Re: belated Markbass comments

On Aug 10, 1:38 am, JimmyM <m...@xxxxxxx> wrote:

My observations are that Markbass is, indeed, great, but not without
some caveats.  

First one is their shitty tweeters.  The compression drivers in their
good cabs are OK but not great, and their little 1" piezos suck.  Very
shrill and annoying.

I agree. Though tweeters can be replaced without much trouble.

Second is that they make their cabs too small.  I'd rather have a cab
be a little bigger and have a fuller sound.  They stuff too many
speakers into a small box in most of their cabs, and even the bigger
cabs are a little light in the loafers.  They seem more about upper
mids than anything.

I agree with this as well., And personally I DON'T like the sound. In
direct comparison with a G-K class D amp (using the Markbass 2x10),
the G-K won hands down. The Mark Bass had a middy, sort of dark and
rolled off highs kind of voicing that didn't sound to me nearly as
good as the bright, clean, extreme definition of the G-K. (and
remember i was using both amps into a Mark Bass cab) After that test I
was sold on the G-K.

 Do they sound good?  If small size is totally
imperative, they're great.  Markbass knows how to voice cabs to sound
good in a mix.  But the upper mid hump makes some people think they
sound ugly.  I actually do like the sound of them, but I ended up
missing that fat Cliff Williams 125hz I wasn't getting enough of, so I
went back to Ampeg.

And it seems you agree with my assessment. I personally wouldn't go
back to Ampeg, but that's just my taste. My personal plan at the
moment when I get some cash ahead again is to buy the G-K head and
build an ultralight 2 x 10 with Neo drivers and a decent horn tweeter.
The plan is to enlarge the cab to just fit the rear seat of my Geo
Metro which
will improve low bass response plus also make high mileage
transportation easy.

I don't use my Markbass head except for backup anymore, and I sold my
112 combo, but if the smallest sized cabs are important to you, then
Markbass is a good way to go but Genz Benz is better IMHO.  They
actually build a line of light cabs that actually have some ass on
them.  

I really don't like the Mark-Bass tone. And for me weight rather than
size is important. So long as a cab fits the car, size doesn't matter
much. But schlepping a dead elephant heavy cab up some long flight of
stairs is not my idea of fun. I think there are some things that can
still be done to cut cab weight without losing tone. I guess I'll have
to build one myself to see if I'm right. I will check out the Genz
Benz light lines though.


.

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