looks like im in a band again 😎

[BeenDown139]

Shop around for a well-loved Essence 5 or..

well i already got one of those - played it thru the new rig this morning.  that new rig is nice and light but sure doesn't have the b@lls and definition my home rig does.  but that essence is as precious to me as the SII (or the MK for that matter) even though it's the "cheap" bass.  we'll see where this goes.  i really don't need another bass at the moment so i'll make do with what i got.

Lots of light weight gear choices these days but the best stuff tends to be expensive so worth doing some homework before plunking down any cash.

no doubt but i was in a hurry so i shot first and asked questions later if at all. i'm not moving my home setup.  got 5-8 songs to learn this week and first full rehersal next saturday.  they wanna be gigging by spring.  gonna leave the road rig at rehersal.  sounds like i got pulled into something pretty serious so i'm not jacking around with gear.

Tim, the SII can be mono by using the “bass” out on the DS-5

well sure it can but it would be sacrilegious to run that bass in mono dontcha know, laddie?  if i'm gonna drag that blunderbus on stage with me then it's gonna sound the way it was intended to.  i've already got a plan for that btw.  gonna need a roadie, though.  ya coming thru denver antime soon? :-)

[keith_h]

Curious as to why, if you are playing out, you wouldn’t use the finest hand crafted and best sounding bass you could use?

having seen what happens to band equipment when i played the bar and festival circuit around here years ago i'm not really in the mood to see my bass case (with bass still in it) used for a ramp to wheel speaker cabinets up to a truck bed, get one of my few prized possessions spirited away if i take my eyes off it for a microsecond or getting to see how far a .22 round will penetrate into a bass body (true story).  might make an interesting effect on a buckeye burl top.

on the other hand i just gotta show these babies off. so i'll play it by ear.  if we're doing a gig with sufficient security presence, then hell yeah i'm taking the alembics!  just try and stop me!

as a side note - my ebony SII is stereo only.  wonder how two of these rigs would sound side-by-side with a DS-5 on top an me pickin and grinin until my back gives out.   hmmmmmm.

I bring my own security, my wife. She watches over the basses while everything else is being loaded in or out.

I can say I have never been part of an experiment to determine the penetration of a .22 into a bass body but in my younger years I use to occasionally play a place called the Rustic Inn. Fortunately the good old boys who frequented the place had the good manners to confine the shooting and most of the fighting to the parking lot out front.

[BeenDown139]

so this is what i'm gonna prowl the dark underbelly of the denver music scene with. Been spending time getting this rig dialed in using the MK deluxe and the fretless essence which will be my gigging instuments unless circumstances dictate otherwise.

this has gotta be about the harshest sounding cabinet i've ever played thru.  the exception being a 15" h@rtke wedge combo with aluminum cone.  it was like a kazoo, i'm telling ya!  it was!  a big bass kazoo!  but i digress...

one of my beloved tye-dyes was nearing retirement, kinda hated to turn it into a shop cloth, so it makes a dandy grille cloth.  it's like karma, dude!  stuck it on with carpet tape so if this whole thing crashes and burns, i can just peel it off and send the amp back to its origins.  probably not the most sonically transparent material i could use, but it helps filter out some of the squank.

as much as i hate to say it, sound quality was not the driving force behind this setup.  weight, size and BOOM were.  not too surprisingly, this rig sounds really good when i slap and pop.  but i'm not that kinda player, strictly fingerstyle so it's really not the best fit for how i envision my sound.

 i can get myself, my rig and maybe my sweetie into my dinky car and not have our cheeks pressed up against the window to squeeze in.  this rig has plenty of oomph, looks to be FOH friendly and so unless this turns into something big enough where i gotta recruit roadies, i think this is it.

whoooOOOOooo!

[cozmik_cowboy]

....probably not the most sonically transparent material i could use, but it helps filter out some of the squank.

I used to have a Gibson BR-1; late 1940s, 18 really loud watts, 1X12 (field coil), $25 at a pawnshop.  It was covered - badly -in naugahyde, and the original grill cover had walnut-grain contact paper on it.  Notice I said grill cover, not grill cloth; it was a sheet of perforated aluminum. Really!  That was factory equipment.
I'm pretty sure your tie-die is better than that.......



It looked like this: [size=78%]https://reverb.com/p/gibson-br-1-18-watt-1x12-guitar-combo-1946-1949[/size]  Alas, I lost it in a flood in '96.


Peter (who didn't even try to peel the stuff off; just bought some actual grill cloth)

[lbpesq]

LOVE the tie-dye!   


Bill, tgo

[gtrguy]

We have bass amps like yours in our practice area and I do not care for the sound of them at all...

[StephenR]

Tie Dye is a huge improvement over the Markbass look.

[BeenDown139]

We have bass amps like yours in our practice area and I do not care for the sound of them at all...

pretty sure these are voiced for a certian type of playing.  not that there's anything wrong with that, but it doesn't work in all settings.  turning off the HF horn helped.  so did covering the grille (more on that later).  this cab's rear ported, gotta wonder if blocking the ports will tighten the sound and get a little more thump out of it.  it's got power to spare and it's easy enough to try out.  the  front ported version sounded a lot better imho but it's sold in combo only i was led to understand.  not a big fan of ported cabs.

Tie Dye is a huge improvement over the Markbass look.

there's only one brand of equipment that i'm gonna give a free endorsement to on stage and i'm pretty sure you can guess where my loyality lies.  i love MM and i strive to be even 1/1000th the musician he is.  but these are some of the most ostenatious looking amps i've ever seen.  i've got job site safety vests that aren't as eye-catching.  i'm pretty narcissistic and i don't like being upstaged by my own equipment.

got the set list yesterday, first full rehersal saturday, getting ready to start a full-immersion deep-dive woodshedding slog.  evidently, we're gonna be doing the west side denver latino party circuit with lots of beer drinking audiences thrown in so it's a mix of texicano, oldies and new country.  all dance music.  pretty sure the fretless with flats is gonna be sonically a better fit than the MK with roto rounds on it for this gig.  these guys like my playing but i'm not sure what'll happen if i channel the ox in front of them.
i've been playing fretless for about 25 years but never really gigged with one for various reasons.  i'm pretty confident in my playing and so i'm not scared.   i'll be interesting to see the reaction i get when i show up for practice with this rig.

[jacko]

I have to say I really love the look of the yellow drivers in Markbass cabs.  I also can't agree that they're voiced a certain way. I have a 121h traveller and 123 traveller (the alain caron one)  that I use with my 800watt LM800 for small gigs and find I can get just about any tone I want - the band mostly plays rock covers with a few 'pop' tunes and a couple of ballads thrown in.  I used to think they could only be used by jazz bassists after having seen them in use at a few UK Bass Days where thay all sounded over compressed but I came to realise that was the bass player and not the gear (hadrien Feraud and jeff berlin to name a couple). With some judicious drive from a soul food pedal my small venue rig can sound just as meaty as my full Mesa boogie rig. MK sig deluxe and Rogue fretless - both 5 strings - the MB 12 inch drivers have no trouble handling that low B.

Graeme

[keith_h]

I'm in the process of putting my Eden Navigator/QSC/Bag End stage rig up for sale. As I only play at home now or occasionally with a couple of acoustic guitars I picked up a Markbass CMD 101 Micro 60 and have been happy with the sound. If I need a larger rig in the future I will likely go with Markbass for that too. I agree that they are voiced for a certain sound but so are most of the other brands. Without much thought Eden, Ashdown and Ampeg come to mind as all having their own voicing. I have never found that to be a show stopper to setting the tone I am looking for though it can take longer to learn how to set things. As to the bumble bee color scheme I don't hate it and it is pretty near impossible to lose sight of it.

[BeenDown139]

i auditioned the MB 12" cabs and they're much b@llsier than the 2x10 (which i have) and sound way better imho.  that would've been my preferred route but my primary requirements were size and weight.  bear in mind i bought this rig on the way from the first rehersal at the closest GC i could find.   i had to get something that was gonna work right now so i was kinda stuck with what they had on hand.

i guess it pretty much depends upon your ears and taste.  my home rig is a 15" ampeg wedge bottom and 2x4 PJB amp top  switchable to mono bi-amp mode for the mono basses and stereo mode for the ebony amazon.  don't have the measurements to back it up, but it seems like a pretty full-range balanced sound (at least to my ears).  tons of overhead, it effortlessly vibrates the room without being loud.  unreal sonic clarity without being harsh, especially with the SII.  i can hear every detail of my fingers on wood.  i don't get that outta the road rig.  but that wasn't my expectation.

i have both rigs side by side in my living room until saturday when the road rig goes off to live at the rehersal room and band van, perhaps never to darken my door again, maybe.  the sonic difference is night and day.

pretty sure if i play a big show where i can have roadies or helpers, then i'd probably put the MB 2x10 on top of the ampeg wedge, drive them in full stereo from the ebony amazon and the sound would just about blow your doors off.  pretty sure, anyway, dontcha know.

[BeenDown139]

first rehersal with the full crew last nigh t: 2 guitars, keyboards, vocals, an occasional trumpet and myself.
despite my misgivings with this amp, it knocked it outta the park.  took a little while to get it dialed in.
this is the first time i've showed up at a practice with only a fretless.  perfect bass for this music.  also the first time the tone knob has been moved from all the way open on that  bass (or any of my basses, for that matter) since i bought it, i think.  wound up turning it all the way down to get the deep, subsonic thump that you feel more than hear. BOOM, baby!
looks the drummer and i both survived a 3-hour practice, so that's a good first step.

[edwin]

showed up at teh audition with the PJB 2x4 ( A.K.A. the mouse that roars) and the mighty MK Deluxe.  tried out with my old bandmate steve on the drums. we got the gig. there's 139 years between the two of us. hadda run out and pick up a markbass setup so i won't break my back getting my amp outta the car.  might have to pick up a beater to play at the dives.
ya'd think id know better by now
looks like we'll be prowling the mean streets of denver around march.

whooOO00Oooo 😎🕳️🏴‍☠️☠️😵😸

Keep me posted!

Edwin
Who plays his Starfire with Alembic guts at every gig, from the dive bars to the Levitt Pavilion. At this point, the bass is more well known than me.