Greg Edwards69

In order to diagnose you need to run it at gig volume in a different venue or at rehearsal space, with your cab and another one, and different cables. This will help determine is its power, cables or something in your cab. I had a similar issue with my LMII which unfortunately proved expensive. My head fell out of the car boot during unload. Only a couple of feet in its padded gig bag. I was a little perturbed but all seems ok and damage free so I though no more of it. During gig my nap cut out a couple of times, came back on then went off for good. So had to play rest through the PA. Tried it out at home next day for a few hours and it was fine so I put it down to dodgy power and that the protection circuits kicked in. Next rehearsal after about 20mins it cut out again, came back after leaving off for 5mins then cut out again. So I knew something was seriously wring with the head - then I remembered the drop! Took it in for servicing and had it diagnosed. Due to the nature of the amp with micro, surface mounted components the only course of action was a whole new main board, which wasn't made any more (being a discontinued model) and they had to source a refurb board. Cost me about £200 to get fixed! I hope this isn't your problem, but just heed these words as a warning and be prepared for the worst. PS as an aside - During this time I had to use my backup combo, an ageing, bulky and heavy Warwick CCL250 to get me through a couple of gigs. Good job I kept hold of it. But since this incident it's been in the back of my mind that the markbass could go wrong again, and I need a decent backup, or use a new amp and relegate the MB to backup duty. As useful as the combo was, it takes up too much space in my small flat, so I'm looking at getting another small head and selling the combo.

I've decided after much time that my diminutive Markbass LMII just isn't right for me anymore. I'm using mine with a MB 1x12 traveller. Honestly, up against 2 guitarists using 1x12's and a drummer, it's plenty loud enough, so no worries there (I don't think I've gone past 12 o'clock on the master volume since I bought it about 6 years ago). When I bought it, I was using my warwick thumb BO as my main bass, the amp was a match made in heaven. Since then, my tastes have changed and I'm now using a Yamaha Attitude, both outputs, through a small but relatively complex pedal board, mixed together into the amp. Whilst the power, general tone and VLE/VPF filters are great, for the past year or so I've been really struggling with the eq. The more I tweak my sound through my pedal board to get that elusive 'tone', the more I realise the amp's tone stack isn't quite right. The bass is fixed at 40hz - too low IMO, and the low mid is 360hz, too high IMO. Generally I try to keep the amps eq neutral, and get my basic tone from the pedal board, however, sometimes I want to dial in a little low end punch around 80-120hz, or dial out 200hz and just can't do it. I don't really want to add more eq to my pedal board (I have two eq pedals on there for other tone shaping reasons, and eq in my two zooms for shaping), or any more pedals for that matter. Whilst I like the general tone too, I'm also wanting something a little more gooey and valvey. Just a little hair on the overall tone - not light overdrive, I have that already, but tubey warmth. I also want to buy a new head as my LMII met with slight damage last year and it cost quite a lot to repair as the board isn't made anymore and the repairer had to source a refurbed board. I dread to the think the cost should it go wrong again. So I would retain the LMII as a backup whilst using the new amp full time. Lastly, I don't drive, so needs to be little and light, like the LMII, and I would still use the MB 1x12 cab. So far, I've narrowed it down to two main contenders. Carvin BX500/700 - The tone/eq controls are a knob twiddlers dream and offer a huge bang for buck. I could envision using one eq section for tone shaping and the other for tweaking for the room. However, I'm not sure the tube preamp will give the desired tone, and I understand there's been reliability issues in the bass. Also, it's quite difficult to try Carvin before you buy in the UK. TC Electronics RH450. Yeah, I know about the false wattage, but the question is, is it loud enough? Will it stand up against my LMII in terms of volume and headroom? On the plus side, the eq seems wonderful - 4 bands of parametric, the tube tone sounds great, and built in compression and tuner means I could even do the odd short gig without pedal board, just bass and amp. There is a third contender, but it's not out yet. The forthcoming peavey minimega. This caught my eye recently, small, extremely powerful, parametric mids, compression and Kosmos/psycho-acoustic enhancement - could be handy for my single 1x12 in certain environments. But I'm not sure the 'crunch' will deliver 'that tone' I'm looking for. The other thought was a DHA VT-1 eq preamp. But again, I don't really want to add pedals, and I really want to move the LMII to backup duty for fear of failure. So - thoughts anyone? Sorry for rambling, but just wanted to make everything clear!

I use two, one for each channel from my attitude bass. I had a number of always on pedals that I wanted to reduce, the zooms seemed perfect, and they are. However, I still seem to have a full pedal-board! 😕 One is set with a fat sansamp model, with compression and parametric eq for the low end from the attitude's 'woofer' pickup and is pretty much left alone. The other it set with heavy compression, with another sansamp model, to reduce low end and inject a little grit, into a parametric to boost around 1k for strong mids. I have another couple of patches based on this with a chorus, distortion, phaser etc, and another couple of 'speciality' patches for certain songs. Pretty pleased with my sound now. The two signals gel really well and it just verging on the edge of being dirty whilst still sounding clean. Somewhere between Billy Sheehan and Duff Mckagan. My only gripes are that it's a PITA to switch between patch cycling mode and stomp box mode with out having to bend down and press buttons. Secondly, zoom are reluctant to release any updates to bring the unit into line with the B3 or even in line with the new cheaper (and seemingly superior, albeit plastic) B1on. These too models have effects that the MS-60b could really do with having. I may even flip one of June for the B1on, just for the extra effects, 5 at once and ease of patch changing.

My first post here - hoping this UK forum is a nicer place to be than that other one where people talk bass Here's my solution and thoughts on the boom problem. I carry a gramma to every gig. I do t always need it, but if playing on an hollow wooden stage, it's totally worth it, as I've found sometimes the boom isn't necessarily coming out of the bass cab, but sometimes the bass vibrations affects the vocal mics and causes a boom through the PA. However, it still does help with low end rumble. First solution is acoustically. I try to place my cab In a place that reduces resonances, but often due to logistics, one can only do so much here. Of course, the gramma cannot solve room nodes. This is where my zoom ms-60b comes in. It has a 2 band parametric eq effect that usefully displays the frequency it's affecting. What I'll do it find the notes that's booming the most, look up that note's frequency on a chart I keep on my ipad and dial it (or it's octave) out a few db's till it sound even. I'll sometimes resort to the RTA analyser app it it's an indistinct boom to try and nail it down (PS this is a useful tool for the PA too if you get a low end feedback node. Easy to hone in ams fix with eq. The zoom also has a preamp modelled on the fishman platinum bass eq, which has a hpf - very useful! As others have alluded, the markbass eq is quite handy for taming the low end with its 40hz bass knob. Unfortunate for me, I'm finding the low mid it centred to high to compensate (around 360hz I believe). Time for a new amp methinks, with proper parametric eq. Lastly, as roger states above, I sometimes play in a certain venue that is an acoustic nightmare. Large pub with about 12-14fr ceiling, with the stage on one side is what it essentially a a large bay window, with lower ceiling (about 7ft) and on a 1ft high hollow wooden stage. It vibrates and resonates like crazy. With these tools at my disposal I've been able to tame the boom and resonances much better these days, even though it always causes problems every time we play there.