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MGR/Golem « Markbass MiniMark 250W 2x6 Combo »
Published on 06/01/10 at 15:00OK. It's black, about the size of a portable sewing machine, carpet fuzz finish, and has no strings. I have no history as a musician. History is written by the winners ... and I am merely a pawn. I play bass, for as long as I can, or as long as someone, anyone, will have me. I play in a duo and in a string band. No drumbers, no geetard gawds, IOW I am spoilt rottin. I want music where stuff happens, musically speaking ... IOW I don't dig folkies, hippity hopsters, or other boringly monotonously unchanging material.
I buy stuff used or on clearance, and then do my best to forget what I really paid. Sometimes I trade stuff in. I have two of these, so I assume I musta gotta really great deal, at least once, maybe twice. I think they were about $500 each. I prefer to buy stuff that is either $500 or $1000. Stuff thazin between, or higher, or lower, is usually not so appealing.
It sounds cool, is very light and small, and very simple to operate. The simple controls are verrrrry effective. It is competitively priced vs other smallish premium grade combos like the GK MB or Phil Woods lines.
This is a real gig amp the size of a practice amp. It can play pubs, taverns, etc with crowd noise, or restaurants, even large ones cuz they tend to be less noisy crowd-wise than pubs.
There are limits to what you can get from such a small package, and whilst I don't love living within those limits, they are no so terribly limiting that I will carry a heavier rig unless I absolutely positively hafta do it.
This rig will 'fart out' if pushed really hard, but carrying an extension cab is not too great a burden, and that will cure the farting [if you plug it in].
It's very small and seems well built. It has a fan that runs all the time but is not noisy [yet!]. Controls are limited to volume, contour, and low-pass ... all adjustable. There's a recess in the cab that kinda protects the knobs during transport. The grill is thick plastic.
It runs 150W into a pair of amazing 6' drivers [plus a tweetie], and has a jack to add an 8ohm extension. With an extension you get 250W into 4ohms. You can also switch off the onboard speakers and play a 4ohm external cab at 250W. Obviously, you wanna make extremely verrry sure to switch off the onboard drivers when using a 4ohm external cab [or the load would drop to around 2.5ohms ... baaaaaad news !]
You could almost say it's in a class of its own. There's the GK MicroBass series and the Phil Woods Briefcase combo, and maybe some booteakie things I'm unaware of ... but this one is also extra simplified, no EQ, no FX loop, etc. It's more a matter of personal taste whether you need lotsa controls or not. THe few on this one are really very effective. I use it for EUB and fingerstyle bass guitar, usually FL. Maybe it wouldn't do well for a spanky frettted style, but that style usually also means a loud band, and this is a small amp, so who cares ?
I don't see it as directly competing with those other lines, which have more elaborate features. That puts it in class of its own, where it does a great job, and so it rates a '5'. Plus, it has actually put my own GK MB combo in the closet ! Who needs all those twiddley knobs on the GK, when you can just switch this on and it always sounds great.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
I buy stuff used or on clearance, and then do my best to forget what I really paid. Sometimes I trade stuff in. I have two of these, so I assume I musta gotta really great deal, at least once, maybe twice. I think they were about $500 each. I prefer to buy stuff that is either $500 or $1000. Stuff thazin between, or higher, or lower, is usually not so appealing.
It sounds cool, is very light and small, and very simple to operate. The simple controls are verrrrry effective. It is competitively priced vs other smallish premium grade combos like the GK MB or Phil Woods lines.
This is a real gig amp the size of a practice amp. It can play pubs, taverns, etc with crowd noise, or restaurants, even large ones cuz they tend to be less noisy crowd-wise than pubs.
There are limits to what you can get from such a small package, and whilst I don't love living within those limits, they are no so terribly limiting that I will carry a heavier rig unless I absolutely positively hafta do it.
This rig will 'fart out' if pushed really hard, but carrying an extension cab is not too great a burden, and that will cure the farting [if you plug it in].
It's very small and seems well built. It has a fan that runs all the time but is not noisy [yet!]. Controls are limited to volume, contour, and low-pass ... all adjustable. There's a recess in the cab that kinda protects the knobs during transport. The grill is thick plastic.
It runs 150W into a pair of amazing 6' drivers [plus a tweetie], and has a jack to add an 8ohm extension. With an extension you get 250W into 4ohms. You can also switch off the onboard speakers and play a 4ohm external cab at 250W. Obviously, you wanna make extremely verrry sure to switch off the onboard drivers when using a 4ohm external cab [or the load would drop to around 2.5ohms ... baaaaaad news !]
You could almost say it's in a class of its own. There's the GK MicroBass series and the Phil Woods Briefcase combo, and maybe some booteakie things I'm unaware of ... but this one is also extra simplified, no EQ, no FX loop, etc. It's more a matter of personal taste whether you need lotsa controls or not. THe few on this one are really very effective. I use it for EUB and fingerstyle bass guitar, usually FL. Maybe it wouldn't do well for a spanky frettted style, but that style usually also means a loud band, and this is a small amp, so who cares ?
I don't see it as directly competing with those other lines, which have more elaborate features. That puts it in class of its own, where it does a great job, and so it rates a '5'. Plus, it has actually put my own GK MB combo in the closet ! Who needs all those twiddley knobs on the GK, when you can just switch this on and it always sounds great.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com