Markbass CMD121P ----- Dead ??!!??

[Phil Starr]

Dare I say it again?

 

Welcome to the club. Mark Bass have outsourced their after sales support to Real Electronics who don't really repair amps but will do board swaps. They are granted a monopoly by MB who don't support UK repairers with parts supplies or circuit diagrams. As a result Real offer a take it of leave it service. Their treatment of you by pointlessly replacing the pots and charging a substantial fee for a couple of hours work and a couple of quid in parts falls well below what you should expect of a competent repairer. As you agreed to the 'repair' it's hard for you to go to the small claims court, which of course they will be aware of.

 

The answer is simple, don't buy Mark Bass until they fix this.

[synthaside]

This is pretty much what I'm worried about , I've experience dealing with this sort of outsourcing in other industries …  , I'm going to try a local guy
( who's band is the guitarist on after us at our festival gig Sunday )   , thursday im also going to try the amp with its expansion cab to see if that helps it not cut out , in all my home testing im at a loss to the issue.

The provided Amp is a an SVT with a 4 X10  I'm hoping i can find its cleanest tone , If he cant I'm going to try and find a used head .... but whats to say this isnt going to just implode as well ...

[Phil Starr]

On 05/07/2022 at 23:27, synthaside said:

I've connected it up and annoyingly its now happy as larry ... its too late to play with any form of volume or length I will have to stress test it thursday  ....

That's encouraging that it could be something simple. The trouble is that you need to have confidence in it, do you have a backup plan for the gig? A DI box or multi fx pedal or anything else that could feed to the PA. If it's a hired PA they should be able to give you bass into your monitors.

[Chienmortbb]

To be fair outsourcing repairs is not new and need not be a bad thing as long as the company are well trained. My old company, Panasonic, outsourced some product ranges to a company started by two ex-Panasonic Service Engineers, Multicare. They are now doing repairs for many companies including JBL, and also take in consumer repairs.

[synthaside]

Guildfest  are providing an Ampeg SVT  and 4 X10 , So I'm not worried about " getting sound out there " , just that its unlikely to resemble my tone in any shape or form. 

I don't think there's going to be much time for a soundcheck ... changeovers between acts are so tight there on a spreadsheet

I've no problem with outsourcing in principle I work for an MSP , I just feel that they arent likely to spend the time diagnosing an intermittent issue and are just  like Phil above suggests dont do amp repairs they replace boards ...

[2pods]

I've been following this nervously, having ordered a MARKBASS MINI CMD121P IV from Promenade Music.

haven't received it yet.

 

Wondering now if I should cancel ?

[synthaside]

The fact that im still considering buying a new markbass product to replace my suspect one ... speaks volumes for the quality of the sound and portability of it .

That being said want to buy mine 😉 ...... big discount ..... 

Edited July 12, 2022 by synthaside

[Jakester]

5 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

The trouble is that you need to have confidence in it, do you have a backup plan for the gig?

 

This was my issue. I couldn't have any confidence in it, and with it dropping out completely at a couple of gigs, I ended up getting the replacement working head instead. I also bought a 'micro' head from a different manufacturer as a portable backup too. 

[agedhorse]

As a reminder, this is similar enough symptoms of an intermittent SpeakOn plug.

 

I have seen intermittent plugs for two main reasons:

 

1. Counterfeit or knock-off, non-Neutrik branded plugs (major issue, and a cause of a fair amount of warrant claims unrelated to the amp)

 

2. Improperly assembled SpeakOn plugs where the assembler trimmed the wire, which then cold flowed under the pressure of the binding screw and loosened.

 

Both of these are well known issues that I deal with way too often in customer support.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

On 11/07/2022 at 21:46, Phil Starr said:

The answer is simple, don't buy Mark Bass until they fix this.

I'm happy with my Italy-built LMII which I have owned from new, but if it does go toes up in the future I am unlikely to replace it wth another MarkBass product and will probably to go back to using Ashdown.

[Phil Starr]

9 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

I'm happy with my Italy-built LMII which I have owned from new, but if it does go toes up in the future I am unlikely to replace it wth another MarkBass product and will probably to go back to using Ashdown.

I think that is a sensible approach. Just to be completely fair I liked my MB Tube a lot and it was reliable until someone knocked it of the stack at an open mic. I've no evidence that their gear is any less reliable than most or than you would expect of any product sold in the thousands. My only issue is with their support.