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Markbass classic 300 - with little glass bottles

i_wanna_les_paul

By i_wanna_les_paul
in Bass Guitar

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i_wanna_les_paul Newbie

i_wanna_les_paul

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http://www.markbass.it/products.php?lingua=en&cat=1&vedi=80

 

Has anyone heard anything about this? It looks rather interesting. For non-clickers, the site says:

 

"The Classic's futuristic onboard microprocessor re-biases your tubes every time you start up the amp, allows you to customize your bias adjustments, and tells you if and when any tubes need to be replaced! Tube amps used to be finicky and unreliable. Now you won’t have any nasty surprises on the gig, and you'll know exactly when and how your tubes need to be serviced. This handsome head puts out a loud 300 watts of power."

 

It's got ECC83 preamp tubes, two ECC99 tubes, and six KT88 power tubes. 48 lbs.

 

Looks like it could be interesting. Looks like it will be expensive. :eek:

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rummy Newbie

rummy

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I don't know if rebiasing every start is really necessary. I retubed and biased my amp 2 years ago. Last I checked, they were biased the same. And come on. You really don't need anyone to tell you that the tubes are going bad. You would know.

 

But, I agree. Mark Bass makes some cool {censored}, and I'd get one. :D

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misterhinkydink Newbie

misterhinkydink

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Has anyone heard anything about this? It looks rather interesting. For non-clickers, the site says:

 

"The Classic's futuristic onboard microprocessor re-biases your tubes every time you start up the amp, allows you to customize your bias adjustments, and tells you if and when any tubes need to be replaced! Tube amps used to be finicky and unreliable. Now you won

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i_wanna_les_paul Newbie

i_wanna_les_paul

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They're offering a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. A bias circuit is simple and doesn't need to be complicated by adding a microprocessor to it.

 

The question is, could I put something other than KT88's in the amp and not have to take it to the tech to bias? Not sure that you'd want to put something else in a bass amp, but who says features are ever genuinely useful? Or if for some reason you wanted to bias it hot, perhaps it would allow that since it says you can "customize your bias adjustments."

 

However, if you could swap tubes, I'm sure they'd be bragging about it. And yes, it does seem like a solution looking for a problem. I can see where this feature would be appealing to first-time tube amp purchasers who don't know much about them.

 

$.02

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Onkel Bob Newbie

Onkel Bob

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I can see where this feature would be appealing to first-time tube amp purchasers who don't know much about them.


$.02

 

 

First time tupe amp purchasers rarely spend that much money I think. If you're interested in knowing, and didn't do the math yourself let me tell you: When I look it up at thomann I get the price 3300 euros. Converted to dollars that's more than $4500. But of course it'll be cheaper in America...

 

Just for comparison:

Ampeg SVT-2 Pro: $2600

Mesa 400+: $3450

Orange AD200B: $2660

Prices are all from Thomann.

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bikehorn Newbie

bikehorn

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The question is, could I put something other than KT88's in the amp and not have to take it to the tech to bias? Not sure that you'd want to put something else in a bass amp, but who says features are ever genuinely useful? Or if for some reason you wanted to bias it hot, perhaps it would allow that since it says you can "customize your bias adjustments."

 

 

Nope, the self-biasing feature is not designed for tube substitution. As a generalisation, there are no tubes that really substitute for the KT88 except the 6550. They are electrically similar(i.e. safely interchangeable) so people consider them the same these days, although a 'real' KT88 and a 'real' 6550 won't sound the same. I try to avoid subjective terms so I couldn't tell you in what ways the sound would be different. The reason it's built into that amp is to ensure proper bias in the long term due to drifts over time in component values which affect the bias current, as well as the change that the tubes themselves exhibit in bias current draw. Not strictly necessary, but a neat feature and it might extend the life of the tubes to some degree. It also means(or might mean, i'm conjecturing here...) you'll be able to replace the output tubes without having to have a tech look at it. As for 'customising' bias, this something I would not recommend to anyone not familiar with tube biasing.

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Zeromus-X Newbie

Zeromus-X

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Now all we need is
guitars that tune themselves......

 

I've actually got a schematic I did up for a wave propagation / "Physics of Sound" course I took in college that was exactly this thing that Gibson has patented. I never finished a working prototype or had it patented, but I've got all the paperwork and even did a presentation on it. Couldn't tell you if they're using the same method, but it's an easy enough concept -- an onboard piezo speaker connects to a microprocessor that reads in the note being played, compares it to a pre-recorded note of that tuning, and adjusts the string tension until they match. Mine didn't add support for different tunings/etc, but that's simply a matter of a knob that selects what frequency you're comparing to. An attenuator was used to slow it down so that it would be a gradual increase/decrease in tension instead of an immediate jerk.

 

My biggest immediate problem was dealing with octaves. If you were more than an octave off, it'd throw my method of checking the notes completely off. I'm sure there was a more elegant way, but I wasn't that concerned, because if you're more than an octave off, you've done something seriously wrong.

 

Anyway, nice to see that I should have patented that {censored} when I made it. Wonder if I can have my professor vouch for anything. ;)

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Jugghaid Newbie

Jugghaid

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The question is, could I put something other than KT88's in the amp and not have to take it to the tech to bias? Not sure that you'd want to put something else in a bass amp, but who says features are ever genuinely useful? Or if for some reason you wanted to bias it hot, perhaps it would allow that since it says you can "customize your bias adjustments."


However, if you could swap tubes, I'm sure they'd be bragging about it. And yes, it does seem like a solution looking for a problem. I can see where this feature would be appealing to first-time tube amp purchasers who don't know much about them.


$.02

 

If you own tube amps you should own one of these:

 

biasking.jpg

 

never have to worry about gimmicky gadgets.

 

I would like to try one though and see how good it sounds. But for that price though I could probably scratch up an old Trace V8 that would knock that Markbass's dick in the dirt. ;)

 

not that Markbass doesn't make a terrific amp, but if 'm dropping over $3k - I'm getting the Grail.

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