Gear Reviews
Gear Impressions and Luthier Spotlight With Jake Wolf: Markbass LMtube800 Head and NY604 Cabs
Review by Jake Wolf –
LMtube800
To say that the folks at Markbass are on a roll might be putting it mildly. They’ve been busy churning out a dizzying array of new innovative products for bassists, as well as thoughtful revisions and updates for their most popular models. Recently, they sent me their new LMtube800 head along with a pair of NY604 cabs to check out, and I was as impressed by its dwarfish footprint as I was by the glorious tone emanating from this small wonder.
The LMtube800 is a descendant of the Little Mark II, one of the most popular bass heads of recent years, due to its attractive combination of low weight, modest price, and great tone. The 6.5 lb, 500 watt, $600 LMII swept through the US market selling like hot cakes, and Markbass has responded by giving birth to a handful of LM inspired heads, like the LMtube800, the flagship of the Little Mark product line.
When I unpacked the tube800, I noted the differences between the LMtube800 and the LMII. For starters, the tube800 has two input channels with independent gain controls. Channel 1 features a combo ¼ and XLR input jack for increased connectivity- very handy for anyone who brings two different basses to their gigs (or upright players looking to blend a mic with a pickup). The 2 channels do however share eq, tone filters, and master volume controls. Other notable front panel differences from the LMII include a dedicated DI line out volume control (the LMII DI send was controlled by the amp’s input gain: Effective, but limited), a master volume “pull-to-mute” function, and of course, the tube blend control. Run the knob at 0 and its pure solid state, but as you turn it clockwise you introduce the 12ax7 based tube circuit. When the knob is at noon, theoretically the two circuits are blended equally. More on that in a bit. Moving right along on the front panel, it seems Markbass has responded to customer feedback in the aesthetics department, by switching up the color scheme. Markbass softened the bumble bee look by using a dark metallic green for the faceplate, and color coded some of the knobs, which helps differentiate controls on a dark stage and looks pretty sweet. The back panel is more similar to the LMII, but noteworthy features include pre/post and ground lift switches for its DI; very handy for working pro’s who encounter weird/bad sound systems or “less than gifted” soundguys.
Under the hood is where we see most of the distinction between the LMtube800 and LMII. Whereas the LMII utilized class A/B amplifier technology to achieve its signature tone, feather weight, and power, the 800 utilizes class D technology to achieve even higher wattage and clarity from the head. The tube channel adds versatility and increases options for tone shaping. This would be a good time to bring up the functionality of this control. I have been keeping up with people’s assessment of the LMtube800, and many have said that they don’t hear a real difference between the tube and solid state settings. I will say that in my testing, I was able to discern a difference, but it was by no means night and day. If I had to classify one vs. the other, I would say that the tube setting felt a tad fuller in the low mids, and had a stronger leading edge note attack. In comparison, the solid state setting performed more evenly, had a more refined and level tonal and dynamic response. In truth they both sounded great, and without the A/B comparison, I never would have felt it lacking in either setting. I did find it a bit frustrating that the overall volume increased dramatically when the knob was set at noon (blending the two evenly). It made master volume adjustments necessary when the tube settings were changed.
Sound wise, I have to admit that I was a little surprised by the tone from the LMtube800 out of the box. I have become accustomed to the syrupy sweet midrange, and round bottom on my LMII. By contrast (in SS mode), the 800 sounded quicker, had more upper midrange articulation, and had a tighter low end. My sense is that this difference is courtesy of the class D power section. I was quickly able to adjust and find my tone with the ever intuitive eq/filter section, and the amp performed beautifully with a number of different cabs and basses. To my ears, the 800 didn’t sound that much louder than the 500, but where I did notice the extra power was with cabs that felt underpowered by the LMII. Again, this may be due to the voicing of the head, but a couple of my large cabs seemed to “open up” a bit more with the 800 than with the LMII.
Overall the tube800 is a wonderful amp. It addresses some of the improvements I felt the LMII needed, and in typical Markbass fashion, everything is intuitively packaged in a great form factor. Price-wise, the LMtube800 comes in at $799, the tubeless LM800 is 50 bucks less, and the new LMIII (replacing the LMII) stays put at $599. In my opinion, the 800 is a great deal for what you get. Power packed, feature laden, and of course, great tone!
Markbass NY 604 cabs
Marketed primarily to big city bassists who use public transit, the little cube shaped NY 604 cabs feature four custom B&C 6″ drivers and a 1″ compression horn in a rear ported cabinet. A top mounted tweeter attenuator puts the control in a more player friendly position. Like all of the Markbass cabs I’ve checked out, the 604 seemed very solid and well built, with high quality hardware and carpeting. Both cabs were rattle free. One snag: The 604 only has one handle which is top mounted (a nice one at that, but still, I would like to see another option for loading or carrying it). When you put an amp on top, it obscures the sole handle, and it’s hard to maneuver or reposition it.
The cabs sounded impressive, especially given their size and weight. It’s hard not to be impressed by a 33 pound 17″ cube that doles out a substantial amount of volume and low end. I wasn’t expecting arena rattling sub-bass from these guys, but I was pleasantly surprised by how they did perform. Buttery and smooth sounding, they produced a sweet full range tone that extended quite nicely down low, although it was easy to push them to their limits. The rear ported design helped to fill the stage with juicy thickness, but as purely a matter of personal taste, I’m not a huge fan of rear ported designs. They send a lot of the energy to the back wall increasing boom on stage, but not projecting as well out front. Not a big deal if you regularly use front of house sound, but for those gigs where the bass cab needs to carry the room, it’s less than ideal. I didn’t get a chance to audition the 604 with an upright, but given my impressions with electric basses, I would really like to try it out with a doghouse. I think it would sound pretty stellar. The 604 excelled the most in smaller, more intimate settings. The natural tone and warm bottom blended perfectly with a handful of acoustic instruments, as it did in rehearsal settings at lower volumes with electric instruments.
The 604 cabs absolutely achieve their goal of providing great solid tone and reasonable volume for their size. I could definitely see picking one or two up if size was a real issue for me. In the tone dept, it’s not necessarily the cab I would pick for a rock gig, although I did bring it to a blues jam and it held its own quite nicely. The 604’s run about $799 a piece, which seems a bit on the high side given the price points of their other cabinets, but then again, there’s a lot packed into these guys, and they sound great. If space is an issue and you’re after a warm, natural tone, I highly recommend putting a 604 on your list of cabs to audition.
For more info, check out www.markbass.it
Jake Wolf welcomes your comments and questions… drop him a line
Gear
New Joe Dart Bass From Sterling By Music Man
Sterling by Music Man introduces the Joe Dart Artist Series Bass (“Joe Dart”), named after and designed in collaboration with the celebrated Vulfpeck bassist.
Above photo credit: JORDAN THIBEAUX
This highly-anticipated model marks the debut of the Dart bass in the Sterling by Music Man lineup, paying homage to the Ernie Ball Music Man original that all funk players know and love. The bass embodies many of the original model’s distinctive features, from its iconic minimalist design to the passive electronics.
The design process prioritized reliability, playability, and accessibility at the forefront. Constructed from the timeless Sterling body, the Dart features a slightly smaller neck profile, offering a clean tone within a comfortable package. The body is crafted from soft maple wood for clarity and warmth while the natural finish emphasizes the simple yet unique look.
Engineered for straightforward performance, this passive bass features a ceramic humbucking bridge pickup and a single ‘toaster’ knob for volume control. Reliable with a classic tone, it’s perfect for playing in the pocket. The Dart is strung with the all-new Ernie Ball Stainless Steel Flatwound Electric Bass Strings for the smoothest feel and a mellow sound.
The Sterling by Music Man Joe Dart Bass is a special “Timed Edition” release, exclusively available for order on the Sterling by Music Man website for just one month. Each bass is made to order, with the window closing on May 31st and shipping starting in November. A dedicated countdown timer will indicate the remaining time for purchase on the product page. Additionally, the back of the headstock will be marked with a “2024 Crop” stamp to commemorate the harvest year for this special, one-of-a-kind release.
The Joe Dart Bass is priced at $399.99 (MAP) and can be ordered globally at https://sterlingbymusicman.com/products/joe-dart.
To learn more about Joe Dart, visit the official Vulfpeck artist site here https://www.vulfpeck.com/.
Gear Reviews
The Frank Brocklehurst 6-String Fretless Bass Build
A few months ago, my Ken Bebensee 6-string fretted bass needed some TLC. You know, the one rocking those Pink Neon strings! I scoured my Connecticut neighborhood for a top-notch luthier and got pointed to Frank Brocklehurst, F Brock Music. He swung by my place, scooped up the bass, and boom, returned it the next day, good as new. Not only that, he showed up with a custom 5-string fretted bass that blew me away. I couldn’t resist asking if he could whip up a 6-string fretless for me.
Alright, let’s break down the process here. We’ve got our raw materials: Mahogany, Maple, and Holly. Fun fact – the Mahogany and Maple have been chilling in the wood vault for a solid 13 years. Frank is serious about his wood; they buy it, stash it away, and keep an eye on it to make sure it’s stable.
First up, they’re tackling the Mahogany. Frank glues it together, then lets it sit for a few days to let everything settle and the glue to fully dry. After that, it’s onto the thickness planer and sander to get it nice and flat for the CNC machine. The CNC machine’s the real star here – it’s gonna carve out the body chambers and volume control cavity like a pro.
While the Mahogany’s doing its thing, Frank goes onto the neck core. Three pieces of quartersawn maple are coming together for this bad boy. Quartersawn means the grain’s going vertical. He is also sneaking in some graphite rods under the fingerboard for stability and to avoid any dead spots. The truss rod is going to be two-way adjustable, and the CNC machine’s doing its magic to make sure everything’s just right.
Now, onto the design phase. Frank uses CAD software to plan out the body shape, neck pocket, chambering, and those cool f-holes. I had this idea for trapezoid F-holes, just to do something different. The CAD software also helps us map out the neck shape, graphite channels, and truss-rod channel with pinpoint accuracy.
Once everything’s planned out, it’s CNC time again. Frank cuts out the body outline, neck pocket, and the trapezoid F-holes. Then it’s a mix of hand sanding and power tools to get that neck just how we like it. Oh, and those f holes? We’re going for trapezoids of different sizes – gotta keep things interesting.
Next step: gluing that neck into the pocket with some old-school hide glue. It’s got great tonal transfer and can be taken apart later if needed. Then it’s onto hand-carving that neck-body transition.
For the custom-made bridge, Frank uses brass for definition and Ebony for tonal transfer and that warm, woody sound.
BTW, for tunes, Frank went with Hipshot Ultralights with a D Tuner on the low B. This way I can drop to a low A which is a wonderful tone particularly if you are doing any demolition around your house!
Now it’s time for the side dots. Typically, on most basses, these dots sit right in the middle of the frets. But with this bass, they’re placed around the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, and 12th frets.
Frank’s got his pickup hookup. Since the pickup he was building wasn’t ready, he popped in a Nordstrand blade to give it a whirl.
It sounded good, but I was itching for that single-coil vibe! And speaking of pickups, Frank showed me the Holly cover he was cutting to match, along with all the pink wire – talk about attention to detail!
A couple of things, while it is important for me to go passive, it is equally important for me to just go with a volume knob. Tone knobs are really just low-pass filters and the less in the way of a pure sound for me, the better.
Finally, it’s string time! As usual, I went for the DR Pink Neon strings. Hey, I even have matching pink Cons…Both low tops and high!
Once we’ve got everything tuned up and settled, we’ll give it a day or two and then tweak that truss rod as needed. And voila, we’ve got ourselves a custom-made bass ready to rock and roll.
I want to thank Frank Brocklehurst for creating this 6 string beast for me.
Gear Reviews
Review Transcript: BITE Custom Bass – The Black Knight PP Bass
This is a written transcript of our video review of the BITE Custom Bass Black Knight PP Bass originally published on March 4, 2024
BITE Custom Bass – The Black Knight PP Bass Review…
Bass Musician Magazine did a review on a Steampunk bass from BITE Guitars about three years ago, it was an amazing instrument, and we were very impressed. Now we’re happy to bring you another BITE bass, the Black Knight PP.
Everybody needs a P-type bass, it’s the standard of bass. If you’re recording, they want you to have a P bass. So why not have something that gives you a little more by having two instead of one P pickup. That’s the idea of this bass, it’s the first thing that leaps out: the double P pickup configuration.
Installing two of their 1000 millivolt split-coil pickups, BITE then went one step further and wired them up in a 4-way parallel/series circuit, a look at the controls reveal a 4-way rotary selector:
The first position, marked “B”, gives you the bridge pickup by itself.
The second position, marked “P”, gives you the bridge and neck pickups in parallel mode, that’s the traditional J-type circuit, it reduces output due to the physical law of parallel circuits.
Position number 3 is marked “N”, it gives you the neck pickup by itself.
And finally, number 4, marked “S”, gives your bridge and neck in a series (humbucking) mode which adds up resistances and thus boosts output. The other two controls are master volume and master tone.
What’s more, like every BITE bass, this one also has a reinforced headstock heel designed to give it extra output and sustain. The BITE website features a graph and explanation of what they have done to the heel, as compared to traditional headstocks.
A look at the body reveals a beautiful Black Blast body finish and underneath that we have alder wood. The bass has a matching headstock with a 4-in-line tuner setup and the traditional bite out of it, so everybody will know what kind of bass you’re playing. The pickguard is 3-ply black, the neck is vintage tinted hard maple and it has a satin speed finish at the back which keeps your thumb from sticking.
On top of that, there’s a clear-coated roasted black locust fretboard with black blocks marking the frets. The nut is a black Graph Tec nut, we’ve got diamond dome control knobs, and the tuners are lightweight compacts with cloverleaf buttons and a 1:17 ratio precision gear. The bridge is a Gotoh brass bridge with 19-millimeter string spacing.
Overall measurements: we’ve got a standard 34″ scale, a 1.65″ width nut and a C neck profile. This bass weighs 8.2 pounds, or 3,7 kilograms for our metric friends, and it uses standard 18% nickel silver frets.
Taking a closer look at the sound, this bass is a joy to play. The BITE proprietary 1000 millivolt pickups deliver an extraordinary amount of output which is surprising considering this is a passive instrument. You may even want to set your amp to active mode because of all of the juice you’re getting out of this guy.
The tonal possibilities are very versatile, it’s a straight P if you want but also much more with those different arrangements of the circuitry. So why have multiple basses when you’ve got one that can give you your basic P plus a lot more?
To sum it up, the Black Knight PP is an amazing instrument. The attention to detail that BITE puts into their basses is second to none. This bass is also amazingly balanced and gorgeous to hold and feel with the satin neck finish.
For more information, visit online at bite.guitars/product/black-knight-pp
Bass Videos
Reviews: Phil Jones Bass Compact Plus 450 and Bass Engine 17
Phil Jones Bass Compact Plus 450 and Bass Engine 17 Reviews…
In this issue, we take an in-depth look at two new amps from Phil Jones Bass, the Compact Plus 450 and Bass Engine 17.
For more information, visit online at pjbworld.com
Bass Videos
Video Review: BITE Custom Bass – The Black Knight PP Bass
BITE Custom Bass – The Black Knight PP Bass Review…
I am sure many of you saw my review of the Snobby Steampunk Bass from BITE Guitars back in February of 2021 and will remember what a remarkable bass it was. BITE has been building custom basses since 2019 and has a unique custom approach where you can configure your bass to your specs.
I am very excited to have another Bass From BITE Guitars in my hands, The Black Knight PP Bass!
The need for a P-Bass in one’s armamentarium is pretty standard for bass players and I recall chatting about this with Marty O’Brien about a year ago. It turns out that Marty and BITE Guitars got together and came up with this excellent configuration that gives you a P-Bass with a whole lot more. Marty even played his own Black Knight PP bass at the 2024 NAMM show. You can see his review here.
Join me as I take an in-depth look at this very cool instrument and share all the details.
Here is The Black Knight Bass from BITE Guitars!
For more information, visit online at bite.guitars/product/black-knight-pp
Preparing for Performance with Dr. Randy Kertz
Interview With Bassist Erick “Jesus” Coomes
Working-Class Zeros: Episode #2 – Financial Elements of Working Musicians
Tour Touch Base (Bass) with Ian Allison
New Gear: Spector Woodstock Custom Collection Volume II
Preparing for Performance with Dr. Randy Kertz
This Week’s Top 10 Basses on Instagram
Guy Pratt, Not Your Average Guy – May 2024 Issue
New Joe Dart Bass From Sterling By Music Man
