I dug this amp.

[DistillaMatto]

This amp was in the rental studio last night and I really liked the sound. Anybody else ever use one of these?

[edwardofhuncote]

What does 'old school' do? (I'm imagining a number of ways this could be applied...)

[cozmik_cowboy]

Having been paying close attention to bass players and their tone since the world was young, my first guess would be distortion.  Or maybe it makes everything sound like using felt pick on a Precision strung with flats......

Peter

[BeenDown139]

i have two of those in my stage rig (the bottom cab is separately powered).  on the plus side the whole stack weighs about 50 Lbs (US).  it's got plenty o'grunt thru that 15" botton which is also MB. the FOH gets a setereo mixdown from the DI box.  i got stereo when i can and so hte PJB cab handles the brigde pickups when applicible.i assembled this rig primarily for its weight and size since i'm 70 years old and gotta tote my own bale to gigs these days. imho the sound is....meh.  could be alot better, especially give what i'm playing thru them.  but, it was relatively cheep, i don't  worry too much about beer or suchlike getting spilled on it, if it craps out it's off to GC for another and once the party gets going i'm the only one who critiques my bass sound anyway.

so yeah, i'd like a higher end stage rig, but reality forced my hand.  YMMV.  HTH.

[keith_h]

What does 'old school' do? (I'm imagining a number of ways this could be applied...)

The Old School control is a filter to cut the highs. I think they use to call it the VLE filter.

[DistillaMatto]

Having been paying close attention to bass players and their tone since the world was young, my first guess would be distortion.  Or maybe it makes everything sound like using felt pick on a Precision strung with flats......

Peter

That's why I only added less than half. Ha ha.

[edwardofhuncote]

What does 'old school' do? (I'm imagining a number of ways this could be applied...)

The Old School control is a filter to cut the highs. I think they use to call it the VLE filter.

Interesting. Kinda' like a rotary 'bright' switch. There's some really cool stuff out there anymore. I had a Mesa Subway D-800 until recently. It had a 'Voicing' pot. I just left it all the way to the "flat" setting. My supposition was that it emulated 'tube-y' warmth when attenuated.

[keith_h]

What does 'old school' do? (I'm imagining a number of ways this could be applied...)

The Old School control is a filter to cut the highs. I think they use to call it the VLE filter.

Interesting. Kinda' like a rotary 'bright' switch. There's some really cool stuff out there anymore. I had a Mesa Subway D-800 until recently. It had a 'Voicing' pot. I just left it all the way to the "flat" setting. My supposition was that it emulated 'tube-y' warmth when attenuated.

I don't know much about Markbass amps other than the practice combo I own and that uses traditional bass, mid and treble tone controls so take this with a grain of salt. From my understanding the VLE/Old School control is a shelf EQ for the highs. Some Markbass amps also have a control called Scoop (old name VPF?) which is also a filter to attenuate the mids while boosting the lows and highs. I think this was one of their main selling points early on in that you could set your tone controls for the room and use the VLE/VPF controls to shape your sound.

[BeenDown139]

hink this was one of their main selling points early on in that you could set your tone controls for the room and use the VLE/VPF controls to shape your sound.

i dunno about all that.  i finally quit trying to make sense out of what they do and just kept twiddling the knobs till the sound i wanted (or some reasonable facimile thereof) started coming out.  since i run split pickups most of the time (i.e. stereo mode) those settings are radically different for both amps in the stack.  took a lotta twiddiling to dial them in.  obviously both signal paths are different, with different speaker cabs so it'a less science than it is art (or some reasonable facimile thereof).  really questionalbe utility to me, simple tone controls would probably suffice but i didn't buy these amps for thier tonal clairity, and niether should you.  imho  ymmv.  they do pack a lotta punch in a little package and are relatively affordable, which is probably why i see alot of them in rental studios and open mic nights.

[David Houck]

Having been paying close attention .. since the world was young ...

I'm stealing that.  (Or if you're ever down this way, I'll buy you a coffee.)